4.5/5 ★ – Lord_Hazenberg's review of Nine Sols.

It may not be my favorite of 2024, but Nine Sols is without a doubt one of the best games of 2024. A crowdfunded and fully hand drawn metroidvania from a small Taiwanese studio, Nine Sols is full of charm & passion especially being this team’s first crack at this genre of game. It took me around 22 hours to finish the game, get the second ending, clean up collectibles, & finish every NPC quest. I will be upfront though, about a third/halfway through the game I had to drop the difficulty off of Standard Mode. 2D games are not my cup of tea, and I tried so hard to power through but this game taught me 7000 new flavors of pain. Kudos to anyone who’s able to finish it on Standard, because you are far stronger than I. I’ll point out the obvious first, this game is art. Every adjective imaginable is applicable to the outstanding visuals on display. The environments, enemies, & characters are all exceptionally crafted to fit in the game’s world. The use of manga style panels in place of cutscenes further cements the unique look of the game. The story is similarly told like a Souls game with text logs & environments doing the heavy lifting so you aren’t taken out of the game often. The setting is so damn cool as well. I won’t spoil it for anyone who wants to find out on their own, because the opening few minutes sets the stage perfectly. Combat is inspired by Sekiro with a deflect mechanic being your primary means of defense, and then follows your usual Metroidvania path of gaining new tools & abilities throughout the game. TLDR; this is the must play Indie Game of 2024. Even if you have to adjust the difficulty sliders to where you’re practically invincible, everyone should give this game a chance. It is on game pass for those who are on Xbox or PC, or it’s only $30 full price. Please support this amazing game in any way you can. Don’t be like the fraudulent “Game Awards” who completely ignored this masterful work of art.