Alpalkav Nine Sols Review

Nine Sols is an action-packed medtroidvania that captivated me right from the get-go. Its hand drawn art style, unforgiving combat, and intricate level design is a recipe for success that continuously had me wanting more throughout my 45 hour journey around New Kunlun. My experience with Nine Sols was with the PS5 version. Nine Sols is an indie action/adventure metroidvania set in the cyberpunk world of New Kunlun. The protagonist, Yi, is tasked with hunting down and killing each of the nine Sols in order to gain the possession of their Sol seals, ultimately in order to bring an end to their corrupt rule. As Yi traverses the labyrinthian world of New Kunlun, he meets new friends, faces many foes, and uncovers a plethora of secrets pertaining to the Sols and the world they inhabit as well as oversee. The story of Nine Sols is told through cutscenes, NPC dialogue, and item descriptions, and is very well written. The central plot of Nine Sols is given to the player in bite sized pieces and to me, is extremely well written. Underneath the hand drawn exterior of New Kunlun is a very dark, and disturbing story which was truly a joy to unravel. It is up to the player to explore each nook and cranny of the world in order to be able to piece together what is going on. My favorite part of Nine Sols is its combat. Obviously inspired by games such as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice by FromSoftware, the combat system is focused around deflecting enemy attacks, which in turn builds up Qi Charges so Yi can unleash strong attacks that can do massive damage to the opposing enemies and bosses. As you progress through the game, Yi will unlock a bow that can help thin out enemy mobs, and will increase his computing power allowing the player to slot items called jades, which can give various buffs to Yi along his journey. I found the combat in Nine Sols to be extremely satisfying and difficult, but never unfair. There were only a couple of bosses and areas in which I felt frustrated, but was ultimately able to overcome said obstacles and continue my play-through. In terms of graphics and technical performance, on the PS5 version of the game, I cannot recall a single time where there were dips in frame-rate below the 60FPS target. There was also zero instances of lag, which is extremely important in a game so heavily reliant on deflecting and parrying. The game world is also extremely beautiful to look at. Each area of the game world is delicately hand-drawn and truly a treat to explore and look at. The cyberpunk influenced world, mixed with Chinese culture is a very unique setting, and truly adds to the overall experience of Nine Sols. In terms of replayability, I was disappointed in the exclusion of a new game plus mode, however there are definitely reasons to replay this game, especially for someone aiming to achieve the platinum trophy for the game. There are multiple endings, so you will have to play through the game multiple times in order to 100% it. Overall, I was extremely satisfied with my time I spent with Nine Sols, and I would definitely recommend this game to fans of hardcore action/adventure/RPG games, especially those who loved Sekiro. On my rating scale out of 10 points, I give Nine Sols a 9.2/10. Rating Scale Gameplay/Mechanics - 9/10 Graphics/Art Design - 10/10 Sound Design - 8/10 Story/Lore - 9/10 Level/World Design - 9/10 Technical Performance - 10/10 Total Score: 9.2/10