I know, I know, there's way too many metroidvanias out there, you already played the ones you want or some of you are still waiting for Silksong. You'll probably skip this one, and think you have what you need on your wishlist. But, no, I think you're really missing something out here.
Honestly, I wish people paid more attention to the video games coming from Taiwan, I mean, Korean soulslike and action titles are great and all, but the indie scene here has started to sprout few years ago. With the results being multiple well-received titles with dense atmosphere, great stories and strong narratives relating to both social issues, and the human condition.
Though, these devs (Red Candle) tackled controversial problems, their two horror games taking place during the Kuomintang timeline, the kind that I didn't want to continue for not having an accident in my underwear. The other, is this Asian technomancer type.
Nine Sols has merits that come from a lot of things, it doesn't play like the best ones out there, but implements influences from those other games pretty well. The combat is difficult with a high skill ceiling, yet keeps me on my toes. They're easy to learn, but takes time to master as well. Sometimes I even forget certain skills or functions, due to how hard they are to keep track of. Yet you can't help but mimic this guy, who's super skilled at stuff. Has to relearn everything thanks to amnesia.
The intro starts with him being bloodied, and cut out. Hanging on a ledge while his killers looks at him with dissent. Drops to his death, only to be healed through these veins from the wall. It has this future Chinese futurepunk brutalism art style, juxtaposed with ancient relics, cyborg armies eager to kill anyone who crosses them, so on. It's like those old school flash games but scaled to 4K.
After exploring his village and getting familiar with the locals, Shuanshuan was put alongside two others for a ritual sacrifice. But because he was there when our alien hero was swallowed up, helping him heal and providing him a home, it was disrupted to save him.
I was at the edge of my seat, it was so calm and peaceful, serene just through conversing, and knowing the villagers before all this. Now, am inside a deep underground facility, imbued with highly sophisticated technopunk aesthetics. There's more to read from the environments, where they lead to, purpose of their existence, and the decapitated villagers bodies transported to places.
Starting the game off with a combat introduction, a simple slash attack and dodge, attacks don't stagger enemies, and there's also parrying, which allows me to dash and tag em with a talisman before quickly holding the talisman tag to make them explode behind me. It's not easy to grasp, but practice helped. In this very first level, I faced combat soldiers, archers, officers with large staffs, and non-parry attacks to adapt from. It gets trickier the further I progress.
Further souls-like gameplay elements are introduced, like a rest place which saves progress, If I die, the experience for skill points and Jin currency can only be retrieved back from last place of death or the enemy who slayed me. Now, no matter how well I play, it's difficult to adjust with its combat. The scariest part is each area has different kinds of enemies, some very tough even.
So it is worrisome to trek further without knowing what's over there, but I have to eventually in order to progress. This game has a high skill ceiling, I mean, we're talking about mixing two or three different inputs together. Some enemies are sponges, and I've easily died thanks to them.
I died once, and was sent to some spirit realm to learn new moves. Noticing the attention to detail, and intriguing dialogue exposition adding more to its world building, and that's the whole other thing. The world building in here is so engrossing, it requires tons of reading through documents, interaction with characters, and even the environments themselves.
Later on, I found a safe house called the Pavilion. A place where Shuanshuan is kept safe, and is also where I can create Jades and get upgrades by spending Jins, and unlock more interactions, a few will help provide new ways to explore, and maybe grow stronger too.
I know Hollow Knight is a long way off, but wouldn't it be nice to play a game that is somehow similar in mechanics and game design? Because this one mostly is, heck I could go as far to say it is almost as challenging as playing Cuphead due to how elevated it becomes later.
There's a fluidity that later comes, the challenges of unlocking crazy skills and uncovering intriguing places to explore too, which thankfully there's a good number of places to deviate to. I have a scout fairy that can look around and enter small areas to open locked gates. Those also involve puzzles and the hacking mini-games too. Sometimes terminal hacking have rounds that reset if failed. Enemy encounters get harder and varied, that's the thing, I have to keep senses sharper to continue.
Storytelling gets more tragic, as more characters come in and do their exposition, revealing their history with the character, Yi. Who only seems to be the goal oriented silent type, but made a lot of good impressions on them despite their vicious, nihilistic nature, lacking in human compassion.
Unlike your so-called western games, it's combines eastern culture mythos into its set design. All that reflects on my next encounters each time, I got better at playing, as well as unlocking complex new moves. More health, healing pipes, jade slots to unlock, it's non-stop trailblazing for the sake of getting stronger. And yet, sometimes I even forget the basic stuff.
Boss fights are scarier, even though I can pick up the lost Jin, and skill points, I have to work around their crazy attacks to retrieve it. Other encounters are where I was trapped in a room, fighting multiple soldiers spawning, one of them where I died dozens of time before getting out.
It's a brutal game, yet the insane wanderlust beckons me to go forward. And mastering it or coming close really feels satisfying during combat as it relies on some form of discipline, quick thinking, and fast reaction. Also, this one is long, I mean, like we're talking over two dozen of hours worth of content. I've encountered guard dogs, critters running at me with laser shields blazing.
Elite tier guards even, like this place as emaculate as it is, will throw obstacles of the annoying kinds to stop me going. At least I got to see a great story, with a great mythos surrounding it, and not everything is somber, there are charming and funny characters that hold up too.
