KC Nwosu reviews Nine Sols, developed by Red Candle Games. Nine Sols on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/18... Support us on Patreon: / secondwindgroup Second Wind Merch Store: sharkrobot.com/collections/se...
Finished this game in a furious 50 hours and this scratched an itch I've had since Hollow Knight. Absolutely worth the money, what a gem. Also the sound cue for the perfect parry is *addicting*.
BRO EXACTLY the perfect parry is SO SATISFYING. No joke, that is a large part of what made me interested in this game originally, is just how SATISFYING the parry is.
I am really looking forward to whatever Red Candle Games does next. They've had a rough time: their previous game, Devotion, had some placeholder assets that offended the Chinese market (associating a certain leader with a certain cartoon bear), and the resulting backlash from Chinese players led to a major boycott. Their publisher then pulled the game off of Steam to avoid retaliation, and it's still not on Steam to this day. To see them not only bounce back from that but make this masterpiece of a game is such a joy, and I really hope this game and any games they make in the future are successful.
Nine Sols does one of my favourite things in storytelling, where the setting (New Kunlun) is a physical manifestation of its theme of spirituality/tradition vs progression/science. Nice to also see a game that it's confident in its story, where it doesn't have to be vague to compensate for the lack of storytelling ability
I was pleasantly shocked to see just how much dialogue there is in this game for a nonlinear fromsoft-inspired metroidvania, and how consistently good that dialogue is. The story isn't just "lore" and set dressing backstory, it's actively happening onscreen as you play the game. You actually meet and interact with the major bosses multiple times, not just shells of their former selves that only mumble at you cryptically right before their fight. And those characters are all memorable and interesting, with their own personalities, worldviews, motivations, and quirks that shine through. Then there's Yi himself, who, far from being a silent protagonist or a cryptic blank slate, is heavily involved in the story being told and always lets his opinion be known, but never in a way that feels jarring or tone-deaf. It's such a joy to see such a well-realized and well-written _protagonist_ in... well, basically any video game, let alone a "souls-like". And that's not even getting into the wonderfully charming interactions with Shuanshuan and Kuafu and Abacus and all the other home base characters. The storytelling is so on point for this game and it really makes the world feel alive and gripping in the moment, not just vaguely mysterious and out of reach.
@@MarshmallowRadiation Great comment! To add to this, the home base also doesn't just feel like a place for your upgrades, but constantly changes specially because of Shuanshuan and the things you bring to him. Initially even Yi hesitates to call that place his home at first, but def ends up feeling like a home with a family inside it
I think what a lot of people don't grasp is that 9-Sols isn't just what you should play while you wait for Silksong, it's without a doubt the new high water mark for this genre, it hit a home run so hard that it's kind of unbelievable it's the team's first try for a game like this. It's debatably one of the best games I have ever played, it's a fairly outstanding GOTY contender and it is hands down the current sitting king of the genre. The fact that so few people even played it or know about it is borderline criminal.
Hey! Wanted to add one quick thing. I've loved this game and I'm on the last boss (hopefully tonight). The combat is very tight. Almost every single death I've had I instantly recognized as my error. Not using the right parry, dashing the wrong way, attacking at the wrong time, etc. if you like fast paced, tight combat, give this a shot!
@@SeriousPeaches Okay then what, in your opinion, is that something so special that Sekiro has and Nine Sols doesn't. And I'm asking that genuinely because I can think of one key feature lacking.
@@ethanhayes7038 I loved nine sols for many reasons, but it's combat didn't hit right like Sekiro's or hollow knights did. To me it's because it's too defense focused. Sekrio gets you into a rhythm of parrying *and* attacking back and forth, while nine sols is more parry a bunch then seal or attack. The fact that enemies don't react to your attacks is the culprit, there's no way to take agency over the fight like in sekrio where you can force the enemies to defend your attacks. Instead you just wait out their attack combo and then retaliate. Hollow knight's enemies don't react to your attacks buy they also don't attack 5 times in a row so you can weave hits in between their moves. In nine sols it feels more like a zelda or mario boss where you have to wait until the boss exposes themselves to attack. Plus having no s when enemies will attack multiple times in succession leads to one parry mistake being death or your entire healthbar. Love the game for the story, charactets, art, and exploration, but the combat was just ok.
Also, the lack of s on hit lends a lot to the skill and lethality of combat. It is not difficult to avoid being combod to death after taking a hit, but the possibility of it means you are always fighting on the edge, never quite completely safe. I like it a lot
I will continue to say as an FYI, and only because people keep comparing the game to Hollow Knight - Nine Sols is more of a metroidvania-lite! HK players shouldn't expect a huge nonlinear maze to explore. It's got many similar gameplay features to HK, but it is structured differently: more straightforward and a bit more compact. I like it especially because I didn't come in with those expectations.
Thanks for telling us. I love Hollow Knight but I'm not in the mood for a MV as large as HK at the moment. A more focused, less expansive experience is what I hoped Nine Sols would be. On Steam, it's tagged as a MV, which worried me.
@@xiii.5331 yeah, it’s got the design keys of metroidvanias for sure, but there’s not a huge amount of backtracking and most of it is pretty linear, even if you pass through areas you’re not expected to finish that early in the game
It’s fascinating, it seems to have a lot of the same vibes as the moon-tech from Ōkami. I wonder if that game deserves a retroactive Tao-punk classification 🤔
@tomohawkingenius Yeah, it irked me a bit when Yahtzee dismissed the term and said the game lacked identity. Dude, this is the first time I've seen such a blend of traditional eastern fantasy with sci-fi in a game, the hell are you talking about.
From what I read somewhere, the story has strong inspirations from an old myth about a time when there were ten suns that took turns to shine upon the earth. At one point all of the suns wanted to shine together, and thus an archer shot down nine of them before they scorched all life from the earth. Likewise, I haven't really ever seen this particular brand of cyberpunk/sciencefiction with Asian stylings and culture interwoven. I didn't really care for it at first, but it grew on me.
@@Sch0lar4h1re That would be Hou Yi, a Chinese mythological figure that was a legendary archer that ended up shooting down 9 out of the 10 existing suns. Not unlike how Yi in the game seeks to defeat the Nine Sols.
The best bit of this review is KC's coda over the Patreons list - and I am totally with him on the need for different settings other than European fantasy.
I picked it up on a whim, because I like metroidvanias and the art-style looked really nice. I ended up being absolutely blown away by the sheer quality of every single aspect of the game. This will surely be a title to remember.
The way this game gradually teach you how to master parry skill should be studied. After beating this game I went back to Sekiro which I previously struggled with, found myself doing perfect parry after another it's insane.
Dude, this so much! I feel like after playing the demo of Nine Sols a couple years back, it definitely gave me a better understanding and was able to go back to Sekiro with fresh eyes. I think the same can be applied to souls-likes in general, like when my girlfriend wanted to get into playing From games I recommended she start with something 2d, like Blasphemous, and that ended up giving her a lot of understanding of the genre when it came time to play DS1 (previously she was only really a 2d platformer/puzzler player).
@@akki3535 Honestly, for me it took up to the third boss for the bosses to pick up. The 2nd and 3rd areas were good though. I mean not that the centaur was bad, it just felt a bit like the false knight in Hollow Knight if yk what I mean, clearly an easy tutorial boss. And the 2nd boss is a duo fight and I hate duo fights
Just finished the game myself. The last boss took me so long to finally beat, but I rarely felt frustrated. The boss fights are gigantic highlights, as they demand new strategies and force you to find creative ways to use the rather simple move set effectively and without mercy. Couple that with an emotional story, memorable cast, terrific world, beautiful art, outstanding music (and an AMAZING parry SFX) - you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you are a Hollow Knight, Ori, or Sekiro/Souls fan.
9 sols is the best Metrodvania I've ever played after Hollow Knight. And trust me, i played a lot of Metrodvania games, from the well known ones like Lilie, Salt and Sanctuary, Hollow Knight, and Blasphemous, to the smaller ones too.
Maybe it's time for me to play Salt and Sanctuary. I enjoyed the other works by Ska Studios (The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile and Charlie Murder) as well as an imaginative 2D action platformer that's almost like a metroidvania by name of Cookie Cutter, and thusly a 2D venture with a cool world, sick monsters and weapons and simply solid gameplay would be up my alley.
Thank you for covering this game! One of the best total Metroidvania packages out there, and one of my new favorites in any genre. That final boss is perfection. It also inspired me to learn more about the Dao!
Nice to hear this after feeling like Yahtzee didn't give it much of a chance in his "tries" video. I was immediately enticed by the demo it had during a steam next fest a few years ago and have not regretted buying it on release.
The game frontloads its story a bit too much. If you are a "gameplay, now please" type of person the game will try your patience the first couple of hours. It does get incredibly good gameplay wise pretty soon after, though.
@@kyactus2046 it was part of the crowd funding they did, their online store has switch as one of the possible code redemption options. So I believe they're working on a switch port yeah.
As usual for any Metroidvania or games in that general area, my top gameplay question is what the challenge balance is between enemies you can fight and environmental/platforming hazards you simply need to get past. Never having been a fan of environmental hazard-based gameplay in... any games really, I very, very much prefer the challenge to come from enemy combat rather than spikes and death pits. Which isn't to say I don't want platforming or map variation at all, just that the platforming and such should be there to spice up the map design/traversal and combat, rather than to provide the actual challenge. Like in Symphony of the Night, or how most of Hollow Knight is. But absolutely not like the Path of Pain part specifically. The parts of the Deep Nest with the indestructible centipedes sucked too. And with that said, it's hard to tell where that combat/platforming challenge balance comes down from trailers or reviews of games alone, and this review was no exception. It showed some environmental hazard platforming, but I still have no idea how much of the overall game is that sort of stuff. So yeah, most everything else looked fairly good, but I'm gonna need to know how much this game is about platforming challenges before I'm sold.
I can tell you that it does lean more so towards combat challenge than environmental challenge. But similar to Hollow Knight there are some sections that focus on environment challenge. Hope that helps.
@@KC_Nwosu It kind of helps? Like, it you compared its platforming versus enemy combat challenge balance to Hollow Knight's, where would it come down? More or less total environmental hazard /platforming challenges overall? And more or less average difficulty in the environmental hazard/platforming parts where such difficulties are present at all?
I'm really hoping team Cherry do not see this game because I am 100% cert they will be like great time to rework the entire combat system of silt song to be more like this game because that is awesome. I cannot stress to you enough how I the quality is of this game the animations the music the enemy designs the writing everything close together in a perfect 10 out of 10 for me. Some people might think the end game is a little bit too hard but it gives it that perfectly that I love it says hey every boss that came before you managed to get away with meeting by having a decent amount of adequacy in all your skills and the last couple of bosses required you to hone those skills to near Perfection on individual basis, now it's time to show me you can do everything right and it means it like it requires you to understand how the Perry system works and how to do a charge Mary at a lot of different stuff it's wonderful and when you nail it the game is Just so satisfying you hit this flow state that is beautiful
I'm really enjoying this game I'm expecting to see it through and beat it. It just feels great. And looks great. Great style that's like a manga come to life. Good combat mechanics and traversal. Interesting world and story that feels a bit different from what we're used to. Excellent game
If you're interested in some other quite different settings from what one is used to, mayhaps the works by ACE Team (Clash: Artifacts of Chaos, The Eternal Cylinder) and the game Cookie Cutter can prove interesting for you.
"nine sols is a 2d soulslike platformer" 💤💤💤 "Nine Sols has different situational parry moves" REAL SHIT? i was sold the moment i heard different parry moves, brb buying it
Soulsvanias are quite a crapshoot. The smaller scale does let them have more focused design, buuuuut they are always on the risk of taking the wrong lessons from the FromSoft games.
If you want to get into technicalities, it's not pronounced like either. Dào is the modern romanization, but the d isn't voiced like English d. It's pronounced more like the t in stop instead of the t in top (the latter has a puff of air that the former doesn't).
I want to like the game with the great art and style... But I can't deal with the combat system with the seemingly disjointed level design. The combat is clearly designed for 1v1, but the level design is often designed for 1v many.
I'm honestly getting really tired of Parry focused games I feel like it's the only thing action games want to do these days. I don't want to have to sit there for who knows how long trying to memorize an entire move set by the frame just to make a little progress.
I'm sorry to bring this up, but every time you say "Tao" is like two billion rocks pummeling my eardrums. The word is sometimes written "Dao" and is actually said with a leading consonant that smashes the hollow ping of a 't' with the carry through of a 'd. It is very difficult for English language speakers, but any effort is appreciated for one of the world's largest communal philosophies. ❤
I played on story mode cuz I cba to learn the mechanics that well. Safe to say some of the bosses have frustratingly clunky boss arenas (minibosses are the worst offenders of it), there are numerous small things that make me infuriated, but it's nitpicking. I swear to god, the game is competently made, but it lacks something that would make me replay it normally. The challenge felt like they made it in spikes rather than a curve, and I think that's what bugged me.
You lost me when you mentioned four different kinds of parrying. I'm getting really tired of that style of gameplay, especially since I just don't have the reflexes to beat games like that without frustration. Sekiro drove me insane in a way that no other FromSoftware game did just because of how important parrying was.
It was a technically good game in every aspect, and I love the setting and art style, but the story didn't really grip me. The only time I was moved or even excited was the beginning and then with Lade Ethereal. Its not a very exploration focused metroidvania, which is one of the most important parts for me, and the world didn't have the alure or appeal of my favourite games in the genre. The platforming isn't very good either which I find important. I just didn't care about the characters except for literally one single boss. I think the sekiro like gameplay just doesn't mesh with me either, it feels too binary. The final boss is difficult but not really that exciting or engaging compared to previous bosses, which had better spectacle honestly. I'd say its a good 6/10 game but its nothing special.
Well... ending is disappointing. And although the game is good, I can't really call this a metroidvania as it is incredibly linear. Well-designed, yes, but order in which you do the areas is very predetermined.
am i the only one that thought this had waaaaay too much dialogue? I literally take 2 steps and end up in a conversation. this is not like hollow knight or gris where you glide through the game and enjoy the graphics. sorry but i must be the only one that noticed this.
Don't worry, that info is communicated in literally the game's opening cutscene. KC probably said "seemingly" because it's a wordless cutscene, meaning it's not 100% clear if it should be taken at face value.
This game's boring dialoge and long boring lore dumps really made me appreciate hollow knight so much more. I wish the game was more like the demo. Games should stick to gameplay.
The word you're consistently mispronouncing throughout this review is "Dào" (anglicised phonetically as "dow" from "Taoism" /ˈdaʊɪz(ə)m/). Also, why has the word "punk" become a de facto suffix simply meaning "aesthetic" when the etymology of the word is "prostitute" which became slang during the 1970s and a neologism for "a worthless or weak person" used to describe an anti-establishment youth movement? It reeks of a decline in long-form reading, and every time I hear or see it used in that context it makes me want to hurt something - especially when a certain brown leather jacket wearing, goblin with a planet-sized cranium started chucking around the oxymoron "NASA-punk" as shorthand for the watered-down 'Star Trek' aesthetic of his latest 200 hours of, ahem, "entertainment". Ahhhhhhh, there's nothing like a bit of pedantry to start the day (or end the night) with . . . 🫠
