3/5 ★ – EmmyOK's review of Nine Sols.

Decent enough Metroidvania but I went in with really high expectations and it didn't meet them. There was fairly minimal platforming and none of the sections were that hard or complex. One reasonably satisfying area in a kind of dream world but it was still too much of a breeze but at least a fun rhythm. The combat had some really good mechanical ideas and some decent enemy types. There is a second longer parry where you hold and release vs tapping that was pretty fun to master and a really nice addition I haven't seen in games. Ultimately it was just too easy again though. All the bosses are pushover except one who's a medium challenge midgame and then a big difficulty spike for the final boss. Final boss was really excellent but imo grated a bit by feeling like such a jump in difficulty instead of being the peak of a nice curve. The NPCs were really good though and the storyline. It's nice playing a character in a game who knows what is going on rather than a mute who is slowly discovering the world and various conspiracies. I also really liked that the collectibles you can give to an NPC lead to multiple different interactions and conversations rather than just one or two lines when you hadn't them over. I'd rate it still as a 4/5 but I also found probably at least half of the areas had just really unfun gimmicks so by the end of the game I just wanted it to be over ASAP once they broke out the zombies. As well as it just being way too easy for 90% of the game. I feel very similarly to it as I do about Bloodborne. Really incredible visual design, a very well done story, and really solid core mechanics. Ultimately though I just didn't think it did nearly enough with what it had so that most stuff was easy and or annoying.