5/5 ★ – spathcody's review of Nine Sols.

Without a doubt one of the best metroidvanias I have played to date. Given it takes heavy inspiration between both Hollow Knight and Sekiro in terms of gameplay and level design, this game proves it's capable of standing on its own amongst titans; something few games can ever achieve Given it's runtime, I had expected the game to get a bit repetitive in both level design and enemy arrangement (something I admittedly think Hollow Knight is ever so slightly guilty of), but this was definitely not the case. The slow drip feed of new combat mechanics made for an increasingly difficult experience with only a few sharp difficulty spikes (I'm looking at you Unbounded Counter). Nine Sols also delivered a surprisingly rich narrative that had me hooked to the point of getting emotional by the end of it. All-in-all, this is one I'll be thinking about for quite awhile, and given this team elicited a similar response from me out of both Detention and Devotion (starkly different games than Nine Sols), I'm excited for whatever else this dev does next, regardless of genre. Oh and the soundtrack is damned beautiful too.