This is a ridiculously good good with insane amounts to do, character development, and story. It's wild to me how much the original game had and wasn't DLC or a separate game.
Its odd, because I played the crap out of VIII, but hardly got into Monstrum Nox and am not even sure if I'm getting Nordics when it comes out on Switch. I probably will, but I feel like the series peaked with Dana.
IX wasn't nearly as good as VIII, IMO. The movement and combat felt good but the pacing was awful (too Trails-like) and the story and characters were nothing special.
I think most Ys games are slow to start and easy to let go of, but if you hang in there, the stories eventually reach a point at least for me that I can't stop.