Fight to bring beautiful colors back to a hand-crafted world of darkness and discover the story of Europa, a young warrior, and her ghostly childhood companion, Apino.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
Prices
Each in the currency that store quoted — not converted: the gap between two rows is the publisher's pricing, not an exchange rate.
Discounts
Every price cut of more than 20% we have observed, in each market that quoted one, with this game's chart position on either side of it. These are episodes, not a model: a sale is one event, and one event cannot tell you what the next one will do.
Reviews, worldwide (the counter carries no country): 2/day in the week to Aug 23 → 2.14/day in the week after.
For scale, across Steam · Top Sellers · Brazil over the last 30 days: the 25 chart moves that followed a price cut of more than 20% went a median of 10 places towards #1, and the 2,413 moves with no price cut behind them went 2 away. One store, one chart, one country — it is the only place we have enough observations to say even that.
Prices outside the United States have been collected since 6 August 2026 and chart positions since 19 July 2026, so a cut older than that has no market to compare and a market that joined later has no history yet. Nothing here is converted between currencies.
About
9 Years of Shadows is a side-scrolling Metroidvania by Halberd Studios. Travel alongside Europa, a brave warrior determined to enter the mechanical giant Talos and stop the corruption within before it swallows the world in darkness. Battle through tainted creatures, meet charismatic musicians and uncover the truth behind the curse that robbed the land of all color.
Many have tried to venture inside the twisted depths of Talos, a dormant fortress where several civilizations have settle over centuries. And, after losing everything she held dear, Europa has nothing holding her back from attempting what others could not achieve. As a noble fighter who refuses to be bound by the curse, she must enter the castle, find the source of corruption, and return the color once and for all.
This adventure is not for Europa to face alone. Inside the giant, she befriends Apino, a cute floating bear who seems to possess magical abilities that can restore color and replenish the health of his allies. He is also able to shield his companions from the multiple dangers that roam Talos’ hallways.
While exploring the castle, Apino can cleanse the corruption around Talos and shoot a variety of projectiles that can destroy dark crystals and inflict damage:
A fist that punches upwards when conjured.
A blast that travels along a surface until collision
A cyclone that returns to Apino like a boomerang.
Use the elements to your advantage to travel the map dynamically. Acquire the elemental armors that were once treasures to ancient civilizations and change on the fly and unlock special abilities to traverse your way: from swimming against waterfalls to traveling underground tunnels or gliding through warm air currents.
Harness the power of lightning, water, earth, and fire. Surprise bosses while you switch armors, perform strong halberd combos, and exploit your foes’ weaknesses to pave your way through the heart of the shadows.
Music is all but the soul of the game. Revitalize the world while you listen to a moving soundtrack composed by Miguel Hasson, as well as soothing pieces scored in 432hz by celebrated composers Michiru Yamane (Castlevania series) and Norihiko Hibino (Metal Gear Solid series). Meet these guest composers as in-game NPCs who aid in Europa’s quest throughout the game.
Music is the binding thread that combines gameplay and storytelling: collect musical notes and perform a healing lullaby to restore your health.
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"Literally stunning"
Keen Gamer
"A stunning Metroidvania"
GamesRadar+
"Excellent & responsive combat"
Game Rant
"Delights all the senses"
GameLuster
"Two thumbs up"
LadiesGamers
Sums Steam only; GOG, PlayStation, Xbox, Epic, Nintendo publish no volume signal, so the true total is higher by an unknown amount.
| Store | Price | Audience | Score | Chart | Est. revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SteamYou are here | $19.99 | 3.4Kreviews | 77% | — | $1M |
| $7.99−60% | 577ratings | 84% | — | not modelled | |
Engagement
Reviews
Themes across 152 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
Very hard to navigate, The devs did not care about directions whatsoever. They just expect you to know where to go. It felt like a maze, I had to stop playing because I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out where im supposed to go.
i forget i have the game i but it because hollow knight and not even 1% from the game
The Pixel Art is beautiful and the story is simple but meaningful. I love the sense of progression in this game where it makes you feel like you're unlocking new powers every 15 mins. It's one of those little compelling games you're glad you completed.
Media
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Price dynamics, follower growth, revenue and sales trajectories with interactive tooltips
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Every market we collect.
Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English*, Spanish - Latin America, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese*languages with full audio support
| $19.99 |
| 184ratings |
| 79% |
| — |
| not modelled |
| $19.99 | 50ratings | 86% | — | not modelled |
| $19.99 | — | — | — | $0 |
| $19.99 | — | — | — | not modelled |
Matched by title — a reused name can pair the wrong games. * is a critic aggregate. Prices and positions are each store's United States storefront; Epic charts worldwide. Audience and Score too, except Steam's, which is worldwide.
Hours played at review time, across 153 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
A visually beautiful game with questionable gameplay design decisions that make it feel like an unfinished buggy mess. There's no doubt that 9 Years of Shadows is very pretty. It does not shy away from using vibrant colors and designs. Clearly a lot of work and thought was put into the backgrounds and textures. However, the eye candy hides some issues that are constantly nitpicking at you. - First and foremost: the shield system. The recharge minigame aspect constantly draws your focus and attention away from the combat. This is conflicting because you have to pay attention to two things now: the enemy AND yourself. I don't want to take my eyes off the enemy because I NEED to know what they're doing. But if I don't pay attention to recharging my shield, then I risk myself taking further damage anyway. - The save system. Outside of bosses, there is no autosave system. Meaning if you die, you have to re-explore everything after your last manual save (you can only save in certain rooms). At least have autosave every few rooms or something? - The fast travel. There is a noticeable delay after using the elevator where you cannot open the map. - Room interactions. Sometimes you cannot interact with the elevator or NPCs, even though you are in range. By themselves, each are tolerable. But altogether, each occurring multiple times throughout one's playthrough? A death by a thousand cuts. The game itself feels somewhat short, so I will finish it anyway. But this is a terrible experience for the average person. Definitely needed more time to cook.
El arte es precioso, junto con la música. Pero tiene demasiados bugs. No pude pasar de la pantalla final por lo mismo.
Después de platinarlo puedo decir que el juego simplemente no es divertido, el mapa está feo, hay super poca variedad de enemigos, las zonas donde te cambian de armadura en automático se hacen pesadas, no puedes colocar marcadores en el mapa, el combate y los combos del personaje son muy básicos y hace que la experiencia de pelear (que eso haces en todo el juego junto a la exploración) simplemente se sienta sosa. Además de múltiples crasheos a lo largo del juego y bugs que me obligaron a reiniciar el programa, perdiendo avance dentro del juego. En cuestión de lore perdí el interés muy rápido así que no tengo nada que decir, pero en gameplay me pareció aburrido.
Well the move in the game is called lullaby.. which must be true because it made me fall asleep. Got it on fanatical dirt cheap otherwise I’d have never played this lol
O jogo não é ruim.. é divertido, mapa bacana, no geral é um metroidvania ok. Mas tem muita coisa nele que irrita e tira completamente a graça e o prazer de jogar ele. Primeiro: tem partes nada intuitivas, como um lugar onde vc precisa acessar usando UM INIMIGO como plataforma kk, sério.. geralmente os inimigos causam danos ao encostar neles, certo? nesse inimigo especificamente não, vc pode subir nele e usar ele como plataforma e nenhuma parte do jogo faz menção a isso. O jogo crasha demais, as vezes vc morre e precisa repetir dialogos e ao segurar o botão de pular dialogo o jogo trava as vezes.. Perto do final do jogo na mente de talos, vc passa por uma espécie de boss perseguidor onde deve fugir dele, é fácil, ok, mas ao terminar vc passa por vários dialogos, cutscenes, recebe uma armadura nova, ok.. aí vc volta pro jogo, joga e joga.. e caso morra o jogo VOLTA TUDO, simplesmente ele não faz um save automático após essas cenas todas, sendo que todo boss que vc enfrenta e mata cria um save automático.. mas nesse caso especifico nessa parte não.. Então é isso.. é um jogo com potencial mas que peca muito em defeitinhos que te irrita ao longo da gameplay. Outra coisa que incomoda muito é o fato do mapa não ter marcadores.. o mapa já não mostra pontos de interesse, apenas usa cores para determinar salas de save e salas de teleporte, mas outros pontos ficam em branco no mapa como colecionáveis.. então que poderia ter como marcar o mapa para sabermos por onde já passamos ou o que já pegamos.
蛮好玩的一款类银城，美术也不错，手感稍微差了一些，差强人意吧，就是体量有点小，15小时左右就几乎全收集了，算是一款不错的小品级类银城，而且买cdkey的话价格也很便宜。
Excelent gameplay. Quite good ost. Excelent graphics and character design. I encountered 2 bugs. One at the end of the first sequence, I couldn't go past a dialogue, and the other one, the same exact bug, at the end of the last sequence, when Europa is grabbing the kids hand, pressing A woulnd't do anything. Quick traveling should be free because there is just not enough money in the game to buy all the upgrades without heavy grinding (I grinded a considerable amout of money, still I was like 800 short for the last upgrades, which is A LOT, and I 100% the map). The story is sadly non-existant: there a is curse in the castle, you must destroy it. That's it. Just a little plot twist there but not much more.
Players by region
Where this game's players are, estimated from review languages.
Players also reviewed
The games this title's players most often review too — audience affinity.
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