Nine Sols Review

Nine Sols is a gorgeous hand-drawn metroidvania. Many have compared it to Hollow Knight, even going as far as stating that «now that we have Nine Sols, Silksong doesn’t need to hurry». Damn, that’s quite the statement!

If you’ve read anything about Nine Sols, you’ve probably come across the term «Taopunk». And if you’re like me, you might have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. Turns out, the Taiwanese game studio behind Nine Sols came up with that term to describe their setting: a mix of cyberpunk, Taoism, and Far Eastern mythology. An interesting and unique setting, giving Nine Sols its own identity.

Nine Sols is very lore-driven, so let’s start there. The opening cutscene introduces Yi, the protagonist, badly injured and thrown off a cliff by a mysterious figure. At this point, you have no idea what’s going on, but the game does a good job gradually reveiling the events that led up to that moment.

Yi is a Solarian, a race that, some five centuries ago, saw its existence being threatened by a virus. The ten Sols, leaders of the Solarians, launched the Eternal Cauldron Project – a virtual reality program to shelter them during the development of a cure. However, the enormous energy demands of the project forced the Solarians to travel to a new planet – Earth – where they started harvesting «apeman» (humans) as an energy source.

As you eventually learn, before leaving for earth, Yi discovered the true origin of the virus, something he was never meant to know. Betrayed by his mentor, he was placed in hibernation but survived thanks to his special connection to the Primordial Roots, a connection that explains why Yi can’t die in-game as long as he remains close to the roots.

Speaking of stunning – the visuals in Nine Sols are incredible. I absolutely adore the hand-drawn comic style, along with the use of contrasting colors. Each biome is visually distinct and memorable, though they all share a certain level of gore. Enemy design is fantastic, with stronger variants of regular enemies being introduced over time, with their own visual distinctions. Elite enemies and minibosses resemble their regular counterparts, but with an upgraded look that make them appear powerful and menacing.

Bosses do look incredible too – no two Sols are alike, and their «roles» in the world are reflected in their appearances. In short, Nine Sols is a beautiful game, and its striking visual style is one of its greatest strenghts, drawing players in before the gameplay hooks them even further. That’s our next topic.

Let’s talk about movement and exploration first. Nine Sols is a metroidvania, so you know the drill – certain paths are blocked off initially, and you unlock new movement abilities over time. In Nine Sols, the abilities make a difference and feel like they really do open up the map in meaningful ways, although I felt like something was «missing» until I unlocked Yi’s double jump, which was deep into the second half of the game. Personally, I think it should’ve been unlocked earlier (the air dash probably too).
Platforming is pretty simple throughout the game, but becomes a bit more complex as you unlock traversal abilities in the second half. There are even certain areas designed around platforming challenges, like Lady Ethereal’s realm and The Sky Tower, though neither of these sections requires too much platforming prowess. These sections have no enemies, which balances the increased platforming difficulty. In contrast, most other areas combine platforming with combat.

In addition to Yi’s own abilities, there are other progression locks in place. There’s a hacking mechanic that I found very underwhelming. Certain paths are blocked and need to be either hacked by Yi himself by entering a sequence of directional inputs, or use the «Mystic Nymph» to fly to the hacking point and press a button. This just fent unnecessary.
On the other hand, the parry robots – statues that attack you when you get close – are a neat addition. If you have the right ability to counter their attack, they can be hacked and disabled, which can lead to a new path being open, or to treasure.

The story picks up hundreds of years later, with Yi being awakened by Shuanshuan, a young apeman held as livestock for harvesting. The apeman worship the Sols, and have been holding «ceremonies» in their honor – actually human harvesting rituals in disguise. This time, it’s Shuanshuan’s turn to participate in the ceremony, and Yi decides to save the befriended human, which inadvertedly awakens the remaining nine Sols. From here, Yi embarks on a journey to collect the Sol Seals from the remaining nine Sols – by force if necessary – to regain control of the Eternal Cauldron Project. A project which, as it turns out, was initiated by Yi himself.

As the game progresses, you uncover more about the project’s flaws and problems, but I’ll leave those discoveries for you tou experience yourself.

I personally found the story quite moving. Shuanshuan’s presence makes you care about the people from the get-go, adding emotional weight to the events that follow. It’s not only Shuanshuan, though – other NPCs are intriguing too, like the always skeptical, poison-reststant Shennong, Kuafu, the only friendly Sol, and the artsy vendor who’s supposed to be a devastating fighting machine. All characters have their place in the narrative, offering new and fresh dialogue every time you return to the safe haven to restock or give Shuanshuan new gifts.

Overall, the story is visceral, well-paced, and beautifully presented through dialogue and comic-strip-style scenes. Though cutscenes are unfortunately rare, the ones included are stunning and left me wanting more.

Exploration in general is very rewarding, though some players might find it too linear, and I must agree. There aren’t really many well hidden items, and close to no secret areas or alternate routes, though there are a few – albeit scarce – points at which you can choose the order in which to explore the next few destinations.

What Nine Sols implements very well, however, is its economy, crafted in such a way that every single chest feels meaningful. Even if it only contains Jin (the in-game currency), a chest always feels worth finding. And even if you don’t find everything on your first run through a biome, you can purchase (or forcefully remove) a map chip from a service robot in that area, which then shows whether you’ve collected all items and fought all minibosses in the area. In contrast to many other games filled to the brim with unecessary loot, Nine Sols motivates players to return to these biomes to clean up anything they might have missed with its well-balanced economy.

The other main aspect of gameplay is combat, which in Nine Sols is primarily centered around parrying, making timing the core of every battle. There’s not even only one parry… there are three types of parries: the standard parry, an aerial parry, and the Unbounded Counter, each designed to deflect different types of enemy attacks. The areal parry and Unbounded Counter are required to deflect Crimson Attacks – powerful moves that can’t be blocked – adding a layer of complexity. And while the game is forgiving in that misstiming a parry does not cause direct damage (Yi takes internal damage instead, which heals over time), mastering these timings is essential. And it’s also more satisfying, with a motivating «thiiin» sound to reward correct timing.

However, the game does lean heavily on this defensive style. Offensively, combat is rather straightforward. Yi primarily uses a three-hit sword combo, and maybe a single charged attack here and there – unless you specialize in charged attacks and build Yi accordingly. You also have a limited-use bow for ranged combat, and a talisman that deals a bit of damage and, more importantly, converts internal damage dealt to enemies into actual damage. However, the offensive side of combat feels somewhat underdeveloped compared to the intricacy of the parry system. While it’s fun to slash through enemies, the swordplay doesn’t evolve much throughout the game, and by the end, your attacks feel largely the same as they did in the beginning.

And sure, there are ways to add some variety through the Jade system. Yi can equip different Jade Stones that offer perks such as recovering internal damage back to health by hitting enemies, enhancing the charged attack, or increasing your Jin collection radious. This lets you fine-tune your combat style. But the offensive options remain limited.

There are ways to turn the defensive parry mechanic into an offensive one, but these options are limited and inconsistent. One specific Jade Stone, The Hedgehog Jade, allows perfect parries to deal internal damage to enemies, and is a great way to make parrying more aggressive. But it still doesn’t drastically change the flow of combat since you’ll be constantly parrying anyways. Some abilities, like the Unbounded Counter, stagger enemies, opening them up to a flurry of attacks. I thought «hey, great! Another way that the defensive options enable offensive ones». But it turns out that these moments are inconsistent, and a stagger only follows after parrying specific, very rare attacks. There is also an ability that allows you to reflect projectiles back at enemies through perfect parries. Unfortunately, this only works against regular enemies – projectiles from boss encounters are only deflected, not reflected back, limiting the usefulness of this ability.

Ultimately, Nine Sols’ combat is a fun system, but lacks variety. The focus on parrying and countering works well for the most part, but it leaves the offensive side of combat feeling somewhat underwhelming, and I’m certain it’s the reason for my main issue with Nine Sols: The boss fights.

Yup, the boss fights in Nine Sols are a mixed bag. The design, backstories and personalities of the bosses – especially the Sols – are top-notch. Each main boss has a unique design that reflects their role in the game’s world, which adds a lot of narrative depth to these encounters. However, the actual mechanics of the fights are often frustrating. Many of these encounters rely on gimmicks rather than straightforward one-on-one combat, which can be disappointing for players expecting tense duels that test their skill. Let me name some examples.

The second boss, Goumang, is the first example. Instead of fighting her directly, you face two of her minions: a large but slow foe wielding a large weapon, and a smaller, much faster opponent (sounds familiar?). Take one minion down and you’ll have a small window to damage Goumang while she revives her subject. This fight is thus more about crowd control than anything else.

Similarly, in the battle against Fuxi, one of the game’s later bosses, his sister, Nuwa, enters the fight in the second phase. Nuwa isn’t a targetable enemy, but she bombards you with her own attacks in addition to Fuxi’s relentless onslaughts. Nuwa’s presence adds chaos to the fight, and this second phase is more about managing her interference, which can feel more frustrating than rewarding.

Then there’s Kanghui, a boss who doesn’t even engage in combat directly. Instead, the creature repeatedly summons waves of regular enemies to fight you. Not very intersting. Or Lady Ethereal, a fight which begins against a focused opponent, but then falls into the gimmick trap as well. Lady Ethereal summons additional copies of herself – first two, then six – creating a confusing mess of identical enemies which don’t take damage, unecessarily drawing the fight out. The fight is visually striking and fits Lady Ethereal’s illusion-based character, but the challenge becomes about managing confusion more than anything.

And that’s a shame, since the few one-on-one fights in Nine Sols tend to be the most satisfying! But despite these shortcomings, the bosses are memorable in terms of personality and world-building, and it’s clear that the fights were designed to feel epic and visually impressive.

I don’t want to end on a negative note. The last paragraph was a bit negative, but don’t get me wrong: I had a fantastic time with Nine Sols. I think it’s a game that any fan of the genre should check out. While it’s not perfect – and doesn’t quite measure up to the games it’s being compared to – it’s still an amazing experience. It’s flaws are mostly in combat and exploration, which are key elements in a metroidvania, but even with those issues, Nine Sols is absolutely worth your time.