I went in blind into the game, not knowing anything about the plot, the world, etc, and that is something I would recommend to everyone. It is so rewarding to explore the game and discover the truth about the world bit by bit, not having it spoiled by trailers or reviews.

I will therefore keep this review spoiler-free.

Overview

The best way to describe Nine Sols in one sentence is “Hollow Knight meets Sekiro”. Nine Sols is a 2D metroidvania game with heavy emphasis on skill-intensive combat.

You are Yi — a cat-like protagonist, who dies in the first cutscene, and is later revived by a mysterious force.

The Vibes

The visuals and music are beautiful.

The art conveys the scale of the world really well. It evokes awe, overwhelming you with the scale of the world, melancholy, showing you a collapsing empire, and horror when uncovering the macabre truth of the civilization.

The characters are nice to look at.

A great addition are comic-book style intros when encountering a new boss.

I like the music from the game so much that I would listen to it while working sometimes. I am playing it during TTRPG sessions I run with friends. Again, it helps to build the uneasy, sad atmosphere of the game. With the combat being such a major part of the game, it helps to parry and attack in rhythm, turning each boss battle into a dance — more on that later.

Music is as important in telling the story as dialogue and exposition.

Combat

The most important, and innovative part of the game, I would say. It is a strong selling point of Nine Sols.

If you’ve played Sekiro, you will find the combat familiar, being almost a direct translation from the From Software game into a 2D environment.

You can dodge the attacks or parry them. A precise parry allows you to counterattack, but you have to time your offensive moves correctly. The whole thing is very dance-like, with you parrying and dashing to the rhythm of the boss’s moves.

The attacks are well-telegraphed, and in theory you could defeat each enemy the first time you see them. The game doesn’t put any surprises or “gotcha” moments against you. It is fair.

The animations make it so satisfying when you land a perfect combo. You do feel like a master of fantasy martial arts.

Plot

It helps the plot if your character can talk. While Hollow Knight and Dark Souls tell the story through the environment and mysterious dialogue, Nine Sols gives you a lot more. You have cutscenes, flashbacks, dialogue — and this helps to flesh out the story.

The plot is tragic. It is about technology, corruption, the inevitability of death and how we choose to approach it. It is about hope, desperate measures one takes to avoid the end, and the acceptance of fate.

While being of grand scale, personal relationships are also important here, further accenting the important beats of the story.

You can only show tragedy through contrast — through moments of joy and connection. And Nine Sols does have those moments that bring a smile to your face, showing how deeply sad the other parts are.

Quality of Life Improvements

Never have I played a soulslike game that was so easy to 100%. It’s not because the game is shallow, rather, the map and UI do a great job at telling you what you’re missing and where to find it. Developers aren’t hiding things from you.

If you don’t like the difficulty, and just came here for the plot and art, you can adjust it, helping you defeat a boss you would struggle with otherwise. I love it that Nine Sols doesn’t gatekeep the progression behind artificial difficulty walls.

Do you sometimes die to the boss on purpose, just so you can fight it again? Well, here you don’t need to, as you can replay all the boss fights with all the progression you’ve made so far. It is easily accessible — a nice feature to have that surprisingly few games implement.

The Flaws in the Flawed Masterpiece

No game is perfect, and Nine Sols is no exception to this.

First, the animation on common enemies feels janky at times — as if the components of their bodies were simply moved around instead of drawing each frame of animation. While the bosses get all the love they deserve, the design of common lackeys is not as interesting.

Second thing is that the combat system, being almost always fair, can feel frustrating at times. Especially at lower levels, where you don’t have that many tools to dodge, parry or attack enemies. You can sometimes get stun-locked, or pushed by one attack into the range of another. It doesn’t happen too often, but when it does it is frustrating. The combat does get better and better with getting more abilities.

A word of warning — the game does contain some elements of body horror.

I am recommending this game to anyone I talk to about video games. Do you like action RPGs? You should play Nine Sols.