This game wasn't on my radar at all until a couple of weeks ago and I'm so glad I picked it up. To say it exceeded my expectations would be a bewildering understatement.

To be honest, I expected a mid metroidvania made a bit more fun than usual given its emphasis on parries and the fact that Sekiro is one of my favourite games ever. And to a degree, that was kind of true: Nine Sols' weakest aspects are very specifically the metroidvania side of things. The feeling of exploration and of growing in power to access unexpected avenues of the world is nothing spectacular, and while movement feels good, it's all very standard stuff. It can't really touch the likes of Hollow Knight for atmosphere, The Messenger for traversal, or Axiom Verge for power creativity.

But it's still above average for the genre, and that's the lowest marks it gets.

Combat wise, it can't quite match Sekiro, but that's purely because it's so much smaller of a project. For what's there, it's honestly just as good. Basic combat is incredibly fun and carries the mundane mobility options, minibosses are plentiful and were really good focal points of the exploration, and the main bosses are pretty much all great. Even the worst of them were fun if a bit underwhelming, and most of them were fantastic experiences, full of personality and with extremely well designed movesets.

My only real complaint is that the pacing of them is a bit questionable. Some mild spoilers here: the whole first three bosses all involve you mostly fighting someone or something else on their behalf, and I really feel those could have been broken up, ideally also with one more boss also swapped over from that to a more standard confrontation given that 'type' feels a bit over-saturated. But that's pretty nitpicky. Given how great most of them are and that the best of them feel at least comparable to the best of Sekiro, it's less genuine criticism and more just finding something to talk about so that this whole review isn't pure gushing.

Story wise is the main way the game really surprised me. The story, characters, and setting, were all *enormously* better than I was expecting. The world is amazingly full of detail and development that really got me immersed in it, the characters are all so adorable and likable I was terrified of bad things happening to them, and the plot really got me digging through the lore for every detail I could find. Absolutely hats off to the writer/s for this, the themes had me incredibly engrossed and by the end of the game I was in a state of reflection and introspection that really, really few games can put me into. Incredibly thought-provoking stuff, and just like the best fights in it, the ideas put into this game are going to stay with me for a very long time.

I'd also like to say that I heard the team was contemplating making the main character nonbinary at some point? Definitely should have gone with that, even before I heard that I remarked to a friend that Yi has some nonbinary swag to them. But, since they wound up using he/him, I've decided that he's he/they transmasc. WE TAKE THOSE.

The visuals were likewise an area I didn't really expect the game to excel in. I'm not someone who cares about visuals too much unless I'm already engrossed from plot + gameplay, and thankfully I was, so I really got to appreciate just how beautiful this game is. The mix of 3D models and drawn (or drawing-style) sprites is executed probably better than I've ever seen it done, both aspects look fantastic. The comic strip sections were gorgeous, the animated cutscenes were understandably sparse but excellent when used, all the character portraits and backgrounds were great. Just an all around beautiful game.

I also want to applaud the creators for including gore in such an effective way: it's a bold choice, given it immediately limits the game's audience significantly, and so often it's just used for shock value. But, in a way that reminded me of Made in Abyss, the gore is specifically used both to further the game's themes, and to pull at your emotions. It's incredibly well executed.

Finally, the music also surprised me more than a few times. Most of the time you'll be listening to fairly standard ambience, but even then there's often little bits of personality sprinkled in, traditional instruments mixing with modern synthesis in a match of both the aesthetic and the themes. The story moments are much more stand-out, usually going the more traditional route and I'm such an enormous sucker for erhu so I loved all of it. But everything absolutely comes together when you get to the best tracks of the main bosses, especially the final boss and the credits where I was completely in love with all the tracks.

Ultimately Nine Sols pretty rapidly became a game that'll stay with me for a long time, and it's even more shocking considering this came from a studio who had previously only made horror adventure games. It's so difficult to nail all the tiny intricacies of a "good-feeling" action game, all the minuscule little details around acceleration and speed and hitlag and hangtime, so to put out this, something that may just settle to be my favourite 2D action game, on a first attempt, is bewildering.

My only other complaint is this, and again, some slight spoilers here but I kind of recommend you look anyway: I don't know why the 'imperfect ending' exists, it's very strange to me, and I frankly recommend against even watching it. It felt a bit like it very slightly lessened the impact of the true ending in retrospect. It's just... Strange, in the context of everything.

Anyway, overwhelmingly more good than bad. 9.5/10. Love this game to pieces and I deeply, deeply hope that we see either some significant DLC or a sequel/successor.

This game wasn't on my radar at all until a couple of weeks ago and I'm so glad I picked it up. To say it exceeded my expectations would be a bewildering understatement. To be honest, I expected a mid metroidvania made a bit more fun than usual given its emphasis on parries and the fact that Sekiro is one of my favourite games ever. And to a degree, that was kind of true: Nine Sols' weakest aspects are very specifically the metroidvania side of things. The feeling of exploration and of growing in power to access unexpected avenues of the world is nothing spectacular, and while movement feels good, it's all very standard stuff. It can't really touch the likes of Hollow Knight for atmosphere, The Messenger for traversal, or Axiom Verge for power creativity. But it's still above average for the genre, and that's the lowest marks it gets. Combat wise, it can't quite match Sekiro, but that's purely because it's so much smaller of a project. For what's there, it's honestly just as good. Basic combat is incredibly fun and carries the mundane mobility options, minibosses are plentiful and were really good focal points of the exploration, and the main bosses are pretty much all great. Even the worst of them were fun if a bit underwhelming, and most of them were fantastic experiences, full of personality and with extremely well designed movesets. My only real complaint is that the pacing of them is a bit questionable. Some mild spoilers here: [spoiler]the whole first three bosses all involve you mostly fighting someone or something else on their behalf, and I really feel those could have been broken up, ideally also with one more boss also swapped over from that to a more standard confrontation given that 'type' feels a bit over-saturated.[/spoiler] But that's pretty nitpicky. Given how great most of them are and that the best of them feel at least comparable to the best of Sekiro, it's less genuine criticism and more just finding something to talk about so that this whole review isn't pure gushing. Story wise is the main way the game really surprised me. The story, characters, and setting, were all *enormously* better than I was expecting. The world is amazingly full of detail and development that really got me immersed in it, the characters are all so adorable and likable I was terrified of bad things happening to them, and the plot really got me digging through the lore for every detail I could find. Absolutely hats off to the writer/s for this, the themes had me incredibly engrossed and by the end of the game I was in a state of reflection and introspection that really, really few games can put me into. Incredibly thought-provoking stuff, and just like the best fights in it, the ideas put into this game are going to stay with me for a very long time. I'd also like to say that I heard the team was contemplating making the main character nonbinary at some point? Definitely should have gone with that, even before I heard that I remarked to a friend that Yi has some nonbinary swag to them. But, since they wound up using he/him, I've decided that he's he/they transmasc. WE TAKE THOSE. The visuals were likewise an area I didn't really expect the game to excel in. I'm not someone who cares about visuals too much unless I'm already engrossed from plot + gameplay, and thankfully I was, so I really got to appreciate just how beautiful this game is. The mix of 3D models and drawn (or drawing-style) sprites is executed probably better than I've ever seen it done, both aspects look fantastic. The comic strip sections were gorgeous, the animated cutscenes were understandably sparse but excellent when used, all the character portraits and backgrounds were great. Just an all around beautiful game. I also want to applaud the creators for including gore in such an effective way: it's a bold choice, given it immediately limits the game's audience significantly, and so often it's just used for shock value. But, in a way that reminded me of Made in Abyss, the gore is specifically used both to further the game's themes, and to pull at your emotions. It's incredibly well executed. Finally, the music also surprised me more than a few times. Most of the time you'll be listening to fairly standard ambience, but even then there's often little bits of personality sprinkled in, traditional instruments mixing with modern synthesis in a match of both the aesthetic and the themes. The story moments are much more stand-out, usually going the more traditional route and I'm such an enormous sucker for erhu so I loved all of it. But everything absolutely comes together when you get to the best tracks of the main bosses, especially [spoiler]the final boss and the credits[/spoiler] where I was completely in love with all the tracks. Ultimately Nine Sols pretty rapidly became a game that'll stay with me for a long time, and it's even more shocking considering this came from a studio who had previously only made horror adventure games. It's so difficult to nail all the tiny intricacies of a "good-feeling" action game, all the minuscule little details around acceleration and speed and hitlag and hangtime, so to put out this, something that may just settle to be my favourite 2D action game, on a first attempt, is bewildering. My only other complaint is this, and again, some slight spoilers here but I kind of recommend you look anyway: [spoiler]I don't know why the 'imperfect ending' exists, it's very strange to me, and I frankly recommend against even watching it. It felt a bit like it very slightly lessened the impact of the true ending in retrospect. It's just... Strange, in the context of everything.[/spoiler] Anyway, overwhelmingly more good than bad. 9.5/10. Love this game to pieces and I deeply, deeply hope that we see either some significant DLC or a sequel/successor.