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

What a wild ride this one was. With the art style that reminded me of Ori and The Blind Forest and a combat hack and slash parrying system that was like a 2D Sekiro, Nine Sols is one gem of an indie metroidvania game. The story too ends up being pretty dark and twisted the more you peel away at the plot. It revolves around a spiritual god like guardian Ki hell bent on revenge of the council who lied and betrayed him hundreds of years prior. It’s a tale of vengeance that has a bit of heart throughout as well with and ending that is kind of sad in a sense. The combat, exploration and upgrade systems are Nine Sols bread and butter though. There’s a true sense of wanderlust as you try to uncover each zone in this Metroidvania style map system as you find upgradable items to upgrade Ki’s abilities which range from more powerful arrow projectile attacks to simply upgrading your damage output on your sword and bomb like talisman abilities. You also unlock traversal upgrades too like in most of these types of metroidvanias like a dash ability and double jump, etc as the game marches on. And the boss fights are simply spectacular. It is very rare for me to utter “Again! Again!” Like a child getting off a high octane roller coaster ride after each boss fight and that is exactly what I did here. Each boss was filled with 1-3 phases of pure exhilaration. You must hone your parry skills though or suffer defeat though. That is one way Nine Sols excels and at the same time may be a hindrance for some. If you suck at timing your parry and counters you’re gonna have a bad time throughout this game. I died several times throughout because my timing wasn’t precise enough and I kept taking damage. But once you master the parry mechanic, this game is just chef’s kiss. Overall, I haven’t had this much enjoyment from a metroidvania esque 2D side scrolling game since probably the last Ori game. It was 18 plus hours of pure adrenaline rush. I’m not sure where these indie devs Red Candle came from but their future sure looks bright.