Nine Sols

W Game

[h1] Insanely Good, Insanely Difficult [/h1] Nine Sols is a story and character-rich, combat-focused metroidvania set in an incredibly cool Science Fantasy setting that merges futuristic spacefaring technology with Daoist ideas of Magic, Alchemy and Cultivation with a tone that combines cute animal characters with intense violence, drama and even at times horror. Unlike more traditional metroidvanias, Nine Sols is in theory quite light on the backtracking, generally only requiring you to retrace your steps to find an entrance to a new area and make actual progress. If you've uncovered the map, chances are you've everything in it and if you're missing something, chances are it's in the part of the map you haven't uncovered yet. Most collectables can be found on your first visit, making the game more linear and lighter on wall-hugging and secret-finding than others in its genre. The main focus of the game is the story and the combat, both of which are plentiful and intense. Combat is all about parrying. You will learn to parry. Then you will learn how to perfect parry. Then how to special parry. Then how to do it all at once, underwater, in a small box while driving a car. The game is difficult, at times insanely so. The game likes kicking you in at the deep end, forcing you to learn quickly and not allowing you to progress until you have downloaded the enemy's moveset. I often had to settle into a Fighting Games mindset, where success is measured not in victories, but in improvements and moments of understanding. The final boss alone took me over six hours across three evenings. It is truly harsh at times. What kept me gritting my teeth, controlling my frustration and coming back for another intensive course at the School of Get Mulched was the story and characters. Nine Sols has the Soulslike Standard Lore-heavy narrative, but innovates on it by having an actually dramatic plot, full of memorable characters and high emotional stakes. Main character Yi in particular is a genuinely interesting and complex character, simultaneously a cool, badass kung-fu wizard-scientist prodigy and kind of a smug, pretentious, immature, Reddit-core shape-rotator in dire need of some character development (which he does in fact receive, courtesy of the small child he inadvertently adopts, forming the emotional core of the story). Uncovering the mysteries of the strange, techno-magical dungeons you find yourself exploring is great fun and by the end the story becomes genuinely touching. I was moved to tears at one particular scene near the end of the game. Nine Sols is a real challenge, perhaps unnecessarily so. On its standard difficulty it sits at the edge of what I am willing to put up with difficulty-wise. Still, it is well worth the effort. Even for less sweaty players, the story, art, music and exploration are good enough to be worth a playthrough (maybe on the easier difficulty setting). It's a real treat and one of my favourites of the metroidvania genre.

its very fun with the parries and the dash explosion thing, had a problem with the controls for a while though using a ps5 controller

w speed w game w vsyo

This game is criminally UNDERRATED. The fact this isn’t talked about more is a crime