Thanks for this game <3

[Vicpool]

Just wanted to give a massive THANKS to devs for this absolute masterpiece. It was an easy purchase to me because my overall favorite game ever is Hollow Knight, and my fav game in terms of control/fun/challenge is Sekiro, and Nine Sols is the "baby" this two games would have. Even if considering Nine Sols a "baby" wouldn't be fair nor realistic, because what a game!

I'd consider it as hard as Sekiro (I've prolly gave some Nine Sols bosses more tries than I did with Sekiro), but also as smooth, clean and FAIR, which is the reason I absolutely love Sekiro, and now Nine Sols too. It's really difficult, so I wouldn't say it's a game for everybody, just as I'd say about Sekiro, Dark Souls, or even Hollow Knight (endgame is hard as hell). But for these games to shine, you NEED to turn ON the philosophy of "OK, this gonna be very difficult, but I also know it's fair and perfectly tailored, so if I have the patience to actually LEARN it, I can get to the point of no-hit mode and dance with enemies while perfecting them", even if at first I was getting obliterated in two seconds.

I have friends that get angry/mad with this kind of games and give up, but I somehow manage to die for the 28th time against the final boss, and still have a smile and think "hey, this last try I managed to perfectly parry all those combos", and get to a point (after many tries) that I feel like I'm ready, and then you pull it and manage to beat'em easy peasy and it feels absolutely amazing. But you gotta have that "spirit", cause again, the game is actually very hard and towards the end it pushes you "to the limit". At least, in my opinion, compared with all these other mentioned games, that are also generally considered really hardcore, Nine Sols felt as hard, if not more (maybe I'm getting a bit old, too ).

My review of Nine Sols would be something like:

Story/setting: 8.5
Visuals: 9
Music: 9
Gameplay: 9,75

As a reference, I'd say Hollow Knight would be a 10 - 9.5 - 9.5 - 8.5, and Sekiro 8.5 - 9 - 9 - 9.5, but of course it's just my opinion (and keep in mind I consider Hollow Knight my top 1 game ever, but still gameplay-wise I've enjoyed Nine Sols better by a decent margin). And also that I am a difficult person to surprise in this area, I've played a ton of games, and if I rate anything above 8 it's because I actually enjoyed it a lot. If I give it a 9 or more, it's because I actually got amazed by the game.

Just my two cents, I don't usually come around forums telling my life, but I loved this game so much I wanted to share my vibe. Thanks a lot and have a nice day!

[leo_gear]

I've been scared to get back into Sekiro. I played it for a short time and felt obliterated. Now that I've beat this game, maybe it's time to revisit some past games.

[Vicpool]

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡:

Hard as Sekiro? Are you sure

Difficulty is subjective, but in my experience I'd say yes, at least in the bosses department, I had to give more tries to some Nine Sols bosses than I had to in Sekiro. But it's true that I had a really strange way to play Sekiro, which was a source of laughter among friends, and it was that I played jumping a lot, while blocking/parrying and chipping damage airborne (we called it "the way of the monkey"), so my experience was different to others who played more with the feet on the ground

I mean, I downed almost every boss in Sekiro in a few attempts, only Demon of Hatred and Isshin took a bit more tries, but around 10-15, while many people I know had to give them a gazillion attempts to take those down. Meanwhile, Nine Sols final boss ("true ending") took me like 30-40 tries, and it was an absolute blast (as also said, maybe I'm just older now haha).

Both Sekiro and Nine Sols are my only platinum games in Steam, so that's why I brought the comparison, and it's true that I remember my last hours of Sekiro (hunting the last locked challenges) being a breeze, so maybe my memories are a little altered compared to my first time playing, but again, it wasn't such a nightmarish experience (difficulty-wise) in my book haha

[11clock]

Nine Sols is harder than Sekiro in some ways.

In Sekiro you can block, which allows you to learn attack patterns in relative safety before you start trying to parry them. Also in Sekiro, stealth blows instantly kill any enemy. You can also break enemy posture and then death blow them with a push of a button. It’s also easy to kite around most enemies by spamming dodge and utilizing the 3D environments.

In Nine Sols, you cannot block, only parry. Without this safety net, you basically need to learn enemies and bosses through trial and error. Stealth blows only instantly kill basic enemies. This game’s version of death blows, talismans, are not instant kills and must be well-timed to take full advantage of. Your dodge has a long cooldown, and it’s harder to kite enemies in 2D. Also, I am finding that enemies are more aggressive and faster in Nine Sols than in Sekiro.

Nine Sols is easier in other ways, though. You don’t have posture, talismans are much quicker to charge than Sekiro’s death blows, and there are a LOT more shortcuts to make it easier to get back to where you died. You also have a “nope” button (the bow).

[Vicpool]

Originally posted by 11clock:

Nine Sols is harder than Sekiro in some ways.

In Sekiro you can block, which allows you to learn attack patterns in relative safety before you start trying to parry them. Also in Sekiro, stealth blows instantly kill any enemy. You can also break enemy posture and then death blow them with a push of a button. It’s also easy to kite around most enemies by spamming dodge and utilizing the 3D environments.

In Nine Sols, you cannot block, only parry. Without this safety net, you basically need to learn enemies and bosses through trial and error. Stealth blows only instantly kill basic enemies. This game’s version of death blows, talismans, are not instant kills and must be well-timed to take full advantage of. Your dodge has a long cooldown, and it’s harder to kite enemies in 2D. Also, I am finding that enemies are more aggressive and faster in Nine Sols than in Sekiro.

Nine Sols is easier in other ways, though. You don’t have posture, talismans are much quicker to charge than Sekiro’s death blows, and there are a LOT more shortcuts to make it easier to get back to where you died. You also have a “nope” button (the bow).

Yeh, pretty good analysis on harder/easier aspects of each game (again, considering both are really hard). I'd add internal damage to the difficult points in Nine Sols: it was one of the things that made me a bit anxious at first, but it's true that the game does really well when giving you tools to neutralize or get advantage of your own internal damage, props on that too.

One of the things I also enjoyed a lot in this game is that it does so well about giving you the tools/QoL changes that you are begging for ("man, I wish I could do X thing", "this is really annoying, wish I had some way to bypass this..." and then suddenly the game delivers with an upgrade/new stuff that solves that, I really loved some of those).

[kalibanana01]

I would give more points to the story of this game, I prfer it more tnah the story of Hollow Knight and I don't get people complaining about dialogues,

[11clock]

Originally posted by kalibanana01:

I would give more points to the story of this game, I prfer it more tnah the story of Hollow Knight and I don't get people complaining about dialogues,

I am a gameplay-over-story person (outside of visual novels), so I was annoyed by Nine Sols’ slow start. That said, after it picks up I appreciate that most of the dialog is optional events in your home base that you can do at any time. Checking back on your room mates is a nice break from the brutal difficulty of the rest of the game. More games should provide these chill moments.

[Vicpool]

Originally posted by kalibanana01:

I would give more points to the story of this game, I prfer it more tnah the story of Hollow Knight and I don't get people complaining about dialogues,

I'd say that beyond the story itself, the narrative style is VERY different. Nine Sols story begins pretty obscure, but it's pretty "straight forward" and much easier to understand than Hollow Knight. On the other hand, you can complete Hollow Knight and not have understood anything, cause there's no clear narrative, just pieces around there (that sometimes are easy to skip) and you have to do a lot of research to join all the pieces of the puzzle.

The thing is, when you solve the puzzle, and understand/realize the level of detail, how deep and rich it gets, while being absolutely beautiful (almost always with a bit of sadness in the mix), that's when you fall in love with Hollow Knight's story. It gets a lot of effort, but I'd say it's my favorite story not only in videogames, I'd even go and say in any type of media. It's funny cause some friends thought I was exaggerating when I said this (cause they are of those who played the game, but didn't get anything about the story), and one day I started to explain some things, details, etc. about Hollow Knight story/setting and they were absolutely speechless

[SERGEANT]

Originally posted by Vicpool:

The thing is, when you solve the puzzle, and understand/realize the level of detail, how deep and rich it gets, while being absolutely beautiful (almost always with a bit of sadness in the mix), that's when you fall in love with Hollow Knight's story. It gets a lot of effort

You mean watching a video on YouTube that explains the lore? I'm a FromSoftware fan. I know the drill.

[Vicpool]

Originally posted by SERGEANT:

Originally posted by Vicpool:

The thing is, when you solve the puzzle, and understand/realize the level of detail, how deep and rich it gets, while being absolutely beautiful (almost always with a bit of sadness in the mix), that's when you fall in love with Hollow Knight's story. It gets a lot of effort

You mean watching a video on YouTube that explains the lore? I'm a FromSoftware fan. I know the drill.

Well, that's the easy workaround, to each one what they like the most