Nine Sols Review

Tao Punk Indie Souls-like

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Title: Nine Sols

Platform: PC

Reviewed on: PC

Developer: Red Candle Games

Publisher: Red Candle Games

Release: May 29, 2024

Time Played: 18 Hours

Genre: 2d Action Platformer

ESRB: Pegi 12

Intro:

Nine Sols begins with a mysterious character falling over a cliffside after supposedly losing a fight. On the ground their pulled away and maintained for a hundred years before being discovered by a young boy from a nearby village. Jump forward a year and our protagonist has been living near the village waiting for his chance to break into the temple of the local deities, or Sols. Once inside the true adventure begins!

Yi is the protagonist and character you will play as throughout your journey in this beautifully hand drawn metroidvania with some souls-like mechanics. You’ll have to master the various fighting styles and abilities, all while trying not to get lost in a large two-dimensional construct. Stick around and let me answer a few questions you may have about the mechanics or difficulty of this game, followed by how I would rate this experience.

Can the kids watch

Although the environments and characters are hand drawn and very well done, there are quite a few graphic sections throughout the game with dismemberment or splashes of gore. I wouldn’t say it got too extreme, but it’s there. And most of the game was spent fighting any number of enemies scattered around. You won’t find any voice acting either, the story was quite big with a lot of text flying around the screen.

Traversal

Moving around at the start was very basic, only giving you the ability to sprint and jump. In the typical metroidvanian style you unlock new abilities like double jump as you move forward, gaining access to new areas with said abilities. Not all the skills are used to traverse the environment however, quite a few of them can be used in combat, giving you a fiercer edge when the time arises.

Combat

The enemies in this game had quite a repertoire of skills and weapons to throw at you while fighting, making for some very tough fights. You have a sword you can swing around for some damage and the ability to dodge incoming attacks. You will also be able to unlock some ranged weapons as you play, however you only get so many shots before having to rest and resupply. After all that, however, the game emphasizes perfectly blocking different types of attacks with the correct block, building up Qi so you can unleash a powerful attack with your talisman.

Talisman/Qi

Your talisman attack was the biggest damage dealer in the game, only available after you managed to fill up some of the qi charges. As you level up and put points in the skill tree you could allocate points to gain more charges or even increase the overall damage output. As you progress you will unlock different methods of setting off the talisman, some are much easier to handle than others, depending on your play style.

Jade sockets

As you explore you would get your hands on special jade sockets. Those could be equipped onto Yi adding beneficial effects. Only so many could be attached at a time with the possible slots increasing after you found special items. You could only adjust these at Root Nodes, the safe havens you would use as a resting spot, so you would need to make sure you were properly prepared for the journey ahead before leaving.

Special Items(collectibles)

Nine Sols was full of unique characters throughout the story with a few available to help in one way or another, some selling items or upgrading your gear, with others just being there for story reasons. By breaking every box you find or exploring every nook and cranny you would come across some special items needed for specific characters for their offered benefits. Thankfully the description of the items will let you know who you should bring them too.

Difficulty settings

The normal difficulty of the game was quite tough. If you could manage to be spot on with your blocks and attacks, you should be alright. I was not so lucky. I had a very hard time keeping up with attacks and the animations I had to turn the settings down to get through the game. On the lower settings the game gave the ability to adjust damage done and taken while in combat, taking a lot of the stress out of combat. Even on the defaults I still had to work for a victory, I could do a lot of damage but I still had to go through the motions of dodging and blocking.

Outro:

If you’ve had a chance to check out Nine Sols please let me know your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to hear from you. And now without further ado, let’s get these ratings under way.

The visuals were phenomenal, the hand drawn environments and actions were very pleasing to the eyes. There were a lot of different areas to explore in the game and each had fitting enemies and colors used to know you were somewhere different. The animations in combat were clear and awesome to watch, it could be hard to notice while having to focus on surviving, but some of those scenes certainly stood out. Nine Sols has earned itself a five.

The story was great too. It was large and built up at an excellent pace as the game progressed. Starting out with so many questions that were a blast to get answered. The developers coined the term “Taopunk” missing cyberpunk and Taoism to craft a unique world and story to be told inside. I loved every minute of it, giving this game another five.

The gameplay, although difficult for me, was very well done. While in combat the timing to deal with attacks was very consistent fun to figure out. Exploring everywhere to find items necessary to increase survivability and fighting prowess didn’t feel like a chore to achieve. The only thing I had a big problem with was how much damage enemies could do, even with a lot of health it felt like I would lose a lot if I was hit, even from the weakest enemies. Still overall very good, I’m giving gameplay a four.

There is some replayability to the game, depending on what you can accomplish in one playthrough could change the outcome of the game. It is however quite large, I wouldn’t feel like going through the entire game again just to try for a different ending, but it’s an option. Starting over from scratch just sounds like to much work for me, I’m handing out a two.

There is a lot of fun to be had in this game, if you’re into metroidvania and souls-like mechanics. Like I said before, I did have a hard time figuring out the combat, but after turning down the difficulty I was able to enjoy the game a lot more. Still having to figure out the mechanics to get through a boss fight was awesome, while taking less damage I was able to stay alive long enough to learn. I enjoyed the experience and would recommend checking this game out, it’s getting a four.

Giving Nine Sols an average score of four out of five. Placing it at the best end of the Top Shelf. If you enjoyed games like Hollow Knight you don’t want to miss out on this. It offers an excellent story and fun gameplay for the price. I don’t usually play metroidvania games, due to the back and forth exploration needed with new skills, but this was an awesome game