4/5 ★ – DanteHR's review of 9 Years of Shadows.

Another must-play game for "metroidvania" fans, "9 Years Of Shadows" being one of the games that managed to combine the "Disney" aesthetic, with a slightly darker and hidden one. "9 Years Of Shadows", an indie developed by "Halberd Studios" and published by "Freedom Games". The game is not just a "Blasphemous" with different aesthetics, but a surprising metroidvania with a wide variety of interesting enemies and bosses. "9 Years Of Shadows" has a great start, it introduces the main character "Europa", a woman who lost everything, including her family, due to a curse. After years of hard training, "Europa" heads to the "Talos" castle, where the curse began. From there the situation gets complicated, "Europa" falls victim to a mythical creature from the castle, but a bizarre bear-like creature named Apino arrives and saves his life, and even brings color back to the entire kingdom. When it comes to combat, the developers really delivered. Super satisfying combat akin to any fast-paced metroidvania. Of course, the game also has abilities that you can unlock throughout the game by exploring the map. However, the real spice of the gameplay comes in the elemental armor, which you will be able to get as you progress through the game, we can acquire 3 new elemental armors, each armor gives a bonus for certain enemies. The armors are: water, earth and fire, each representing a certain deity from Greek mythology. The water one is "Poseidon" - "God of the sea", the earth one is "Gaia" - "Personification of the Earth" and the fire one is "Helios" - "God of The Sun" Also, two of the armors have special transformations. The bear-like entity at the beginning of the game also plays a big part in combat, allowing you to use a ranged attack consuming a little of the life bar on each hit. When "Europe" remains completely lifeless, the game allows us to hug the bear and a certain percentage of life is restored. We have reached the part where we talk about enemies. The game has quite a wide variety of enemies, but a lot of them are the same, but with the color changed. The bosses themselves are great, they all have a unique design, a suitable theme and a difficult but very good moveset. Although the intro is strong and the combat is top notch, when it comes to graphics, the game doesn't deliver much. Many effects are clunky and some textures are not in their place. However, the artstyle of the game is very good, an impeccable pixel-art and a superb character design. "9 Years Of Shadows" does not support all the new technologies from "Nvidia" and "AMD", but being an indie, they are not really needed. The game runs smoothly even on a low-end PC. The sounds of the game are very good and super satisfying, every shot you make has an extremely satisfying sound. Besides that, the music of the game is spectacular, the boss soundtracks can keep you hooked for days without getting bored of them even once. Also, the music in the elevator and the music in the jungle is top notch, super relaxing, a perfect match for a metroidvania with a high difficulty. The story of "9 Years Of Shadows" is not the most attractive story in the history of metroidvania, but it is definitely one that you will not forget so easily. The game starts with a young lady called "Europa", a brave warrior determined to enter the "Talos" castle to save the world from corruption before it engulfs the world in darkness. Ongoing, our brave protagonist discovers the truth behind the curse that robbed the world of every color." 9 Years Of Shadows delivers a simple story, but with many plots twists during your journey. Having tremendously satisfying combat, an eye-pleasing art style, a story that's engaging enough for the audience, and music that's just right for the game, "9 Years Of Shadows" it ends up being one of the best metroidvanias at the moment. The game also has its minuses, but since it is the developers' first game, we can overlook it. It's a must-play game for Metroidvania fans. 8.5/10 Made by DanteHR