Nine Sols Review (EShop Transfer)
Scroll through the eShop any week and in the new releases section you’re bound to find one Metroidvaniaif not a number. This genre is full of games that few people can break through. However, the Red Candle Game’ Nine Sol managed to make a name for itself earlier this year on PC and now that it’s arrived on Switch, it’s clear why.
It incorporates the precise and intense blocking system seen in Sekiro: Darkness dies twice with satisfying skills, abilities and upgrades, all emphasized by strong visual and sound design. While the world design and building didn’t particularly appeal to us, its combat was enough to make it stand out when compared to 2024’s Metroidvania competition.
As Yi, you are betrayed by your colleagues and abandoned. Years later, you are awakened by the boy Shuanshuan and revered as a long-forgotten hero. After recovering your strength, you disrupt a sacrificial ritual to save Shuanshuan and take revenge on those who left you for dead, and you (as the player) must set out to discover the truth about the region. land for yourself.
Described as ‘Taopunk’, Red Candle Games calls the world design a fusion of cyberpunk and Taoism, the latter being a philosophy and religious belief originating in China, where animals and People live in harmony with the universe. This gives the game’s story and art style a traditional, ornate edge but didn’t sit as well with us as we expected.
The two halves often collide rather than intertwine nicely. For example, futuristic areas, robot enemies, and robot bugs are juxtaposed with environments and settings that feel in conflict with these technological enemies. Also, an earthy, airy soundtrack using traditional Chinese instruments doesn’t always work for the same reason, even though it’s quite excellent. Overall, cyberpunk and Taoist styles don’t mix well and a more focused design would have felt more memorable and engaging.
The art and animation here is excellent though, with incredibly smooth movement, well-delivered attacks, and clear visuals, whether it’s the flash of a spear about to strike or the way Yi’s cloak flew away after a struggle. Yi’s overall revenge story and character arc are also some of the strongest parts of the game and carry us through the moments when the world design just doesn’t work.
Combat is also a big part of what attracted us. Compared to some Metroidvanias, Nine Sols has excellent balance. It’s not as fussy and precise as something like Hollow KnightBut it’s not entirely easy either. Instead, the closest connection is actually Sekiro, as mentioned. Nine Sols is a game about defending, blocking and parrying attacks, only to then unleash powerful attacks or special abilities to destroy your enemies in one hit.
While this can be done through the main attack, you also have access to many of the Amulet’s abilities through the skill tree. These expand your options as you play. The first one you get, Qi Blast, allows you to hold down the ‘R’ button to dash through enemies, applying the Talisman to them and causing a massive explosion while they recover from the attack.
It’s all very stylish and extremely satisfying thanks to some great sound effects, like the clang of a parry. This is also challenging, especially as you progress, requiring you to get better at parrying and with natural timing. Nine Sols’ combat never feels unfair, but it can be quite unforgiving if you’re new to the demanding Souls-like battles. The ‘Jades’ upgrades available as you explore can help a bit here, providing passive buffs that increase your attack. These can include making you uninterrupted during a certain move, increasing your damage, or slightly increasing your stats. Even with these upgrades there is still a high skill level.
These abilities expand as you progress and explore new areas (such as being able to jump on enemies performing unblockable attacks against them). You can change these attacks by gaining new skills, such as being able to hold explosive charges longer to deal more damage. Very extensive skill tree with really important options. It’s not huge, and the choices you make don’t feel like small incremental stat increases or adjustments. This gives a lovely sense of progression throughout and as you move from boss to boss throughout the roughly 20 hour journey, along with the ability to move and explore that you gain as you go between each area.
Speaking of bosses, they are often the highlight and focal point between encounters, as you would expect. From hulking knights, mysterious wizards, ancient samurai and hulking tech-infused monsters, they create awe-inspiring designs that truly stand out from the rest of the game for whether they are core or optional battles. The combination of cyberpunk and Taoism tends to work a little better in boss fights, although not perfectly. Nine Sols also takes another note from Sekiro’s book here, allowing you to do whatever you can to regular enemies towards bosses. Whether integrating Charm effects or stunning enemies with unblockable attacks, the decision is the right one and creates an epic dueling atmosphere in every battle.
However, the map for moving around these areas in New Kunlun is not good. While the individual zone maps are fine, the larger world map that links zones and shows connecting paths is difficult to navigate and unclear about where and how to actually move between each zone area. While it didn’t completely ruin the experience, we quite often found ourselves frustrated by having to return to the main healing point or hub of the game to upgrade and purchase new items. However, those feelings quickly dissipated as soon as we started fighting the enemy again.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the game feels built for the Switch. Scenes are sharp and visual effects look stunning, especially on the OLED Switch. The game manages to maintain that resolution while running at a smooth frame rate, delivering smooth gameplay that never saw any distracting performance drops during our time with it. use it.
Conclusion
Combat and progression are the best parts of Nine Sols, and they can erase the shortcomings sometimes found in the game’s map design and exploration. It’s a really great combination of systems from other games with a great revenge story. While aspects of the world design and ‘Taopunk’ style may seem mismatched, there’s always another enemy waiting to be fought, reminding you just how good the core gameplay is.
