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My GOTY personally. Left a really strong impression. Combat is an absolute joy, and the boss fights are my favorite since Sekiro. Story and atmosphere are incredible, you can at times really feel that this is a studio accustomed to making horror games.
They totally nailed it, in other words. Great post-release support as well. Can’t wait to see what they do next
The artwork looks great to me, but I can’t really see anything amazing game mechanics wise from the trailer. What do you think makes it GOTY for you? (I’d genuinely want to give this game a try)
Oh, the mechanics are superb. I also didn’t see it from the trailer, and originally got the game based on the art alone lol.
But the gameplay feels absurdly good. The main hook I would say is the talisman system. When you parry attacks, you build up charges of what is essentially an explosive that you can then use an another offensive option. Not only that, but it’s applied via a dash, which is a movement option (and can be used to do some cheeky sequence breaking outside of combat, if you’re into that sort of thing in these games). There’s an upgrade tree with several options for it that affect gameplay in a huge way as well.
Other than that I mean, I just like everything about the game. The story was well constructed and emotional. The characters are well designed, especially the bosses who are not just enemies but important characters in the story. The boss fights themselves as I mentioned. Music got me going. Environments are jaw dropping.
To give voice to the other commenter who bounced off the game after 4 hours, it has overwhelmingly positive reviews on steam but even among the good reviews a common complaint is that the game takes a fairly long time to spin up. There’s a lengthy linear section before you get some more freedom of exploration, and even then it never becomes the game’s strongest point. It also takes a long time to get certain essential upgrades. I think this is a good thing in terms of boss design, but can feel like somewhat of a slog if you’re experienced with metroidvanias and really just want your basic dash and double jump etc.
It’s a long game, took me around 40 hours. But I enjoyed it very much in the beginning, and continued to enjoy it more as I progressed and unlocked things. I went in with no expectations however, and was surprised as the game organically developed from “cool little project I’m supporting because I like the genre and the cat is cute”, to “possibly my favorite action game since sekiro”. I hope I’m not doing a disservice by setting expectations too high! But in the end, yes I was left feeling like it was that good
For a differing opinion, the artwork is great, but as a metroidvania it's below rate for my taste. I went four hours with the game and didn't see any new enemies and virtually the same environments. In this genre, that's a long time to go without seeing something new.
Maybe I went in with the wrong expectations and should have looked at this as a platformer/2D action game. The combat is certainly the centerpiece of the game, but that wasn't enough for me.
Same. Was disappointed (but not entirely surprised) to see it getting ignored by pretty much all of the game awards.
This is purely conspiratorial but I think given the studio’s notable previous controversy, they probably excluded it because Wukong has such a prominent presence this year.
Other than that, yeah it just doesn’t make sense to me. Nine sols has better sales and reviews than other games being honored
I remember seeing some dev notes on reddit a year ago and it felt like a total Hollow Knigh ripoff. Same moveset, same tools, same everything. Is this still the case?
It's not. I backed this game. The mechanics of a lot of metroidvanias are similar but this one is especially parry based. I haven't run into a whole lot of similar platforming challenges and the parry mechanic is important not just to game play but to advancement in the game. Hollow Knight by comparison has a combat strategy that is much more forgiving and in its way more pogo and juggle-based than Nine Sols.
Forgiving? Base game Hollow Knight maybe, but late game Hollow Knight (Arena/Pantheon) I would rate much harder than Nine Sols.
Late game is expected to be difficult. Nine Sols kind of sets you up to either get good at that parry mechanic or rage quit and the rest of the move set is kind of built around it. Hollow Knight teaches you to pogo and juggle in kind of round about ways, and it doesn't force you to use those mechanics in battle despite the fact that when you do things get a lot easier. That's part of the reason that the late stages of the game are so brutal. You spend so much time learning to evade and then strike, the pogo, to juggle. And then a lot of that moveset is just not applicable (to the colosseum, or the final boss fight (final ending) etc. The mechanics you get in late game you have the least amount of playtime with and they're crucial to learn for the final boss.
For sure. I struggled so much in the Colosseum I did not finish the last stage (Aspids can go fuck themselves), and didn't even bother with the Pantheon. Wasn't story required anyway so I'm fine with it.
No.
Think of it like this.
If Hollow Knight is partly a Dark Souls inspired metroidvania... what would that be with parrying?
Sekiro!
Once you get used to the flow, this is a pretty good game. I felt the difficulty spike at the last boss though
The final boss was very fun, but it did take me a few hours. Phase 2 is wild.
I think there are 3 phases if you do the right things in the game.