Amazing and brutal Nine Sols

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Of course I was going to talk about Nine Sols, it has "Sekiro-inspired" in the description! This game had my attention ever since I saw it for the first time. It's been... well... 5 years since I played a game that was this perfect for me. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about all whats and whys and whens, and also keep it as spoiler-free as possible!

Nine Sols is an action-platformer developed by RedCandleGames. You might have heard about this Taiwanese indie studio: their previous games are Detention and Devotion. Yes, these are horror devs, which might give you an idea of what to expect from the tone and atmosphere of Nine Sols. The game is inspired by Sekiro, Hollow Knight, Katana Zero and far eastern mythology. All the great things!

I enjoyed Nine Sols exactly as I did both Sekiro and Hollow Knight years ago — not_immediately. It's always funny to me when I realize that my favorite games of all time are those I didn't initially enjoy. I always took a big break thinking I'd never come back to them, but then I just couldn't get them out of my head.

When I started Hollow Knight, very soon I felt completely lost. I wasn't sure where to go, everyone kept beating me up, I often ended up with my ass on spikes. I was losing geo all the time. I wandered around for like 5 hours until I reached the infamous bench in Fungal Wastes, and then I just gave up. Mantises seemed unbeatable to me; at the time I couldn't even pogo all that well. It was all just really discouraging. So, I stopped playing. But I couldn't forget. There was something in Hollow Knight that just appealed to me so much that even though I decided the game wasn't for me, I still kept thinking about it every day. A few months passed by, and I decided to try again. I started from scratch, and it just clicked. I played through the entire game — all the DLCs were out too by that point — and it became my favorite game of all time.

The same thing happened with Sekiro. If you've watched or read anything from my "The World of Sekiro" project, you probably know that I never intended to play Sekiro in the first place. When I tried it for the first time, I just became convinced that I shouldn't have: the game was obviously not for me. I kept dying again and again, barely escaped with the Flame Barrel from Hirata Estate, and just like with Hollow Knight, at about 5-hour mark I thought that Sekiro wasn't for me. So, I abandoned it, uninstalled and all. Months passed by; I couldn't get it out of my head. I started a new playthrough, and the rest is history.

I didn't really abandon Nine Sols for that long a period, I just... played it rarely, and every time it was more and more difficult to roll back in and remember all the controls. Every victory felt more like a fluke than a testament to my skill; I thought my Sekiro experience would help me since the game claimed its combat was Sekiro-inspired, but it didn't help me as much as I hoped it would. I wasn't lost, I knew where I was going, but the experience just wasn't smooth overall, and I felt like I was progressing very slowly and by sheer luck.

After about 5 hours I was like well, I love everything about this game, but I don't feel like I am very successful. Every step takes a lot of effort. Sometimes I deflect amazingly, other times I miss every single blow.

Luckily, I didn't need to abandon Nine Sols for a year before it clicked. It was just one bossfight that broke the barrier between me and true Nine Sols enjoyment. In case you've played the game, it was Jiequan. I am not really sure what was special about him, but that fight felt like a rhythm game where you just let go and get in the zone. After that, like with a flip of a switch, I just went on destroying everyone. It was still challenging, I died a lot, but at the same time I felt like I was doing well because I learned, not because it was a lucky day. Much like after beating Genichiro atop Ashina Castle, you feel like a veil has lifted and you finally get it now, here, too, beating that boss felt like a revelation. Of course, it's just my personal experience; I know many people who thoroughly enjoyed Nine Sols from start to finish without having a revelation moment. But this is how I experience some games, and they go on being my favorite.

Undoubtedly, one of the strongest aspects of Nine Sols is its story. Despite the fact that you play as this stand-offish Yi character who seems too preoccupied with his quest to really care about personal relationships, the game isn't lonely at all. There is a whole bunch of NPCs you can interact with, each of them has a quest that comes with some pretty substantial benefits should you choose to help them. The hub area, Four Seasons Pavilion, provides much need respite among all the adventuring and Sols' murdering, and I enjoyed coming back there again and again just to see how my buddies were doing. Shuanshuan, the boy that saves Yi in the prologue, is a true highlight among the cast: you can develop a strong bond with the little boy and see how it affects Yi's character throughout the game. I love it so much!

Now is the time to mention that Yi is not a picture-perfect protagonist, far from it: he is calculating, cold and distant, and also rather malevolent towards those he considers enemies. His emotional intelligence needs a little development at the start of the game, let's put it this way, and you'll have a chance to watch him transform throughout his quest of vengeance and what he thinks is justice. I found it fascinating. Yi is quite a character.

The lore of Nine Sols runs very deep, but the game excels at presenting it to you. It might seem confusing at the start; all the names that get casually dropped by Yi and other characters: New Kunlun, Penglai, Solarians, Eternal Cauldron Project... Interestingly enough, in Nine Sols, the player doesn't know what the protagonist knows. As you play, you not only help Yi on his quest, but you also move forward in your quest of understanding what even happened on Penglai, and how New Kunlun came to be. Luckily, the game leaves very little to the imagination: if you listen to all the dialogues and read the descriptions (there are not that many of them) — all pieces will undoubtedly fall into place.

Much like Okami, Nine Sols is created in such a way that you don't need any pre-existing mythological, philosophical or religious knowledge to understand what is happening in the game. It's nice if you have it! But you can always do a little research afterwards to learn about all the references and give yourself a bit more context.

So, what about combat and platforming? Well, platforming in Nine Sols is very well-balanced: it provides an adequate challenge without being an annoying hurdle. There aren't as many platforming moves available to you, so don't expect Hollow Knight's level of precision and finesse being required. I didn't find a single platforming sequence that would be comparable to the White Palace, let alone Path of Pain, or even some of the more challenging platforming puzzles you can encounter across Hallownest. There are lasers and moving platforms in Nine Sols, sure, but nothing too extreme, which I appreciated.

All the gameplay emphasis has fallen to combat. If you've played Sekiro, you know that in Sekiro combat is largely deflect-based. There you have a few ways of responding to an enemy attacking you: either straight up deflecting a blow, or using mikiri counter if it is a thrust, jumping over if it's a sweep, and dashing away if it's a grab. Or deflecting a grab, if you're really good with your timings! I was curious how one could adapt this system in a 2D game where you don't necessarily have the observation angle to determine if something is a sweep or a grab, and I found the developers' approach to be quite interesting.

All regular attacks can be deflected with a button press. There is a perfect deflect, and an imperfect deflect where you still receive some chip damage. Similarly to Sekiro, dangerous attacks are marked: the enemy starts glowing red. At first, the rule of thumb is that all red attacks should be avoided because you can't deflect them. You need to either run away, jump over them if you can, or dash. However, as you progress through the game, you learn how to deal with them, one at a time. There are red attacks that you need to dodge and there are red-green attacks that you can jump over and then punish the enemy. Works exactly like jumping over a sweep attack in Sekiro and then — on the enemy's head. Distinguishing the red and the red-green attack certainly takes some getting used to, but then the reaction becomes almost automatic. I won't spoil the rest of it, just bear in mind that the further you progress, the more tools you have at your disposal to deal with the initially unblockable red attacks.

Successful deflects generate so-called "Internal Damage" that enemies can regenerate back into health. Don't worry, you can do it too: chip damage from imperfect deflects is your Internal Damage. To translate all the Internal Damage into real damage all you need is your trusty talisman. Plastering it onto the enemy's forehead takes some agility and timing precision so you don't get hurt while activating it, but as soon as you do — SWOOOSH! — the enemy is on their deathbed. Initially I was very skeptical about the talisman mechanic, but the game is three times more fun if you learn how to use it, so I highly recommend practicing it as soon as you start playing.

Nine Sols also features a chip system, which works like trinkets in Hollow Knight: you equip different chips to modify your abilities or gain new ones. I can't say there's a huge variety of builds that you can pull off in Nine Sols, but there certainly are a few. For example, you can emphasize your Charged Strike and modify it; it's a very powerful build but it is also slow, so I personally decided against it. My build was focused on perfect deflects. I loved every minute of it. By the end of the game, I embraced the Great Tao and stopped attacking bosses. Why attack, if you can just deflect and then turn all the Internal Damage from your perfect deflects into real damage with a talisman?..

It's honestly hard to believe that the developers who had no previous experience with this genre managed to deliver such a fantastic game with such tight controls. Nine Sols plays amazingly. Great job, RedCandleGames!

There are plenty of metroidvanias that I abandoned because I felt like the exploration was tedious and unrewarding. Nine Sols, however, is such a joy to explore. Maps are compact and easy to vacuum clean while being visually and architecturally interesting with a lot of verticality, branching paths and secret nooks. At the same time, you don't need to knock on all walls to find a secret passage: you'll find a couple of them naturally and then just learn what they look like. Exploration in Nine Sols is always rewarding; it pairs beautifully with the game's tight and brutal combat system. Every single bit of power you find is meaningful and immediately impacts your gameplay: whether a computing unit to equip more chips, a herbal catalyst to upgrade your healing pipe, or just a bit of gold to purchase something from a merchant, the feeling of you becoming stronger with everything you accomplish, however small, never fades.

I was playing Nine Sols in parallel with another game, and it got me thinking about the nature of the challenges that I enjoy in videogames. In both games I was fighting bosses, but only in one I really enjoyed it. Bossfights in Nine Sols are much like bossfights in Sekiro and Hollow Knight: rhythmic, controllable, reaction-based. This is the type of fights that I love. Knowing that I died because I didn't deflect in time, or I panicked and jumped when I should've dashed. Seeing immediately what I can improve on my next try is so encouraging to me. It might seem tedious for some people, but I love it, I just drink it up. Emerging victorious because I learned — this is what's important to me in a bossfight.

Also, I want to mention that bossfights are quite challenging at any stage of the game. No matter how powerful you become after the last boss — the next one will likely match you. You can't really button mash bosses into pulp on your first try. Sometimes after a bossfight I'd search some YT videos to see how the boss could be cheesed or easily defeated. Well, even the most powerful builds and most clever tactics still rely heavily on movement and deflects :D

In the best traditions, the regular enemies prowling the area you're exploring have some of the boss' attacks and combos, so when you face a Sol, you feel like you have come prepared, at least a little bit.

However, Nine Sols is not without fault. Pacing at times was relatively uneven: the first few bosses are quite far apart, while after Jiequan you get on a killstreak that ends with the credits. Of course, the pacing naturally picks up the more abilities you gain and the more you learn about the story, but still, I feel like the start of the game could use some tightening in this regard.

My main complaint, though, is the economy. In Nine Sols you lose money upon death but have a chance to recover it when you pick up your remains. I never lost that much money, but surprisingly I never had enough for major upgrades that were available to me from merchants. It was really bothering me; I was wondering if I was doing something wrong, or maybe I missed something important. I fought all enemies and minibosses I could find, scouted the areas for chests and yet never had enough money. There was some sense of achievement in saving for a while for an upgrade and then feeling on top of the world after finally purchasing it, but I was still unsure if I was supposed to somehow have more money than I did. Farming is not really an option until much later in the game, it's just not cost effective. There are a couple of NPCs whose personal quests depend solely on you buying things either from them or for them, and I was worried I'd miss something important because I was moving fairly quickly through the game, yet couldn't afford half of the merchant's initial catalogue.

Then, suddenly, towards the end of the game, it started raining money. Every chest was full of coins, and new enemies also dropped a whole bunch. I was making regular trips to Four Seasons Pavilion just hauling in bags of money clearing the merchant's shelves. It was so weird to me. Don't get me wrong, I was happy I could finally buy things and move the quests along, but I am still unsure where I could have procured the money the game clearly expected me to have earlier in my playthrough. I still managed to do all the quests and everything turned out great, but still, the economy in Nine Sols is bizarre to me.

I adore Nine Sols. I picked it up out of curiosity expecting nothing and I got one of my favorite games of all time. Yes, it's up there now with Hollow Knight and Sekiro. Nine Sols broke my heart and took me on an emotional rollercoaster that I never expected from a game about seemingly cute cat people. This game definitely scratched the Sekiro itch I've had for the last five years, but it can stand on its own as a brutal action-platformer with blood-boiling combat, rewarding exploration and a story about a dying world and a hero on a quest to slay the 9 Sols.

If you enjoy this type of games, I highly recommend Nine Sols. Just be careful because, coming from horror developers, it has some disturbing themes, body horror and such. If you have already played Nine Sols, let me know in the comments what you liked and disliked about it. Please, be careful not to spoil too much for those who have yet to play it.

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Thank you very much for your time. Take care.