Nine Sols review: deflection sharpens the Metroidvania

Review basis: 9 hours on PC. The stated time covers several sessions with the release build and is not a claim of full completion.

This Nine Sols review finds Red Candle Games building a Metroidvania around confrontation rather than evasive attrition. Yi absorbs attacks with timed deflections, places talismans and turns an enemy’s pressure back on them. The system is exacting, but its visual and audio rules make improvement tangible.

Nine Sols review: the opening hours

Yi awakens in New Kunlun and begins a revenge journey against the nine Sols who rule it. The opening moves from ritual horror into a hub populated by rescued allies. Detailed conversations and manga-like scenes make the political and personal conflict more explicit than in many exploration games.

Routes branch from the Four Seasons Pavilion into facilities controlled by different rulers. Combat supplies currency and skill experience; death leaves resources behind for recovery. New movement tools open shortcuts and secrets, while bosses test whether deflection, positioning and talisman timing have become a sequence rather than isolated reactions.

Systems and meaningful decisions

The skill tree supports internal damage, talisman use, healing and traversal. Jades modify Yi through limited computing capacity, creating build trade-offs rather than free stacking. Deflection converts attacks into recoverable internal damage, so a calm player can survive pressure and answer with a charged talisman detonation.

We judged progression by whether it changed the next decision rather than merely increasing a number. A useful unlock opens a route, answers a recurring problem or creates a new risk. Busy menus received no extra credit when the underlying choice remained obvious.

Controls, combat and feedback

Parries are crisp and successful chains produce clear sound and animation. Aerial deflection and unbounded counters expand the vocabulary later. Some ordinary enemies punish contact more harshly than their size suggests, and boss learning demands repetition. Story Mode provides adjustable combat values for players focused on exploration.

Failure is productive when the game supplies enough information for a better attempt. We separated setbacks caused by a readable rule or poor plan from repetition that only consumed time. Challenge can create tension without hiding responsibility for the outcome.

World and visual direction

The Taopunk setting combines Taoist imagery, biological horror and advanced machinery without feeling like a surface collage. Hand-drawn animation gives bosses personality before dialogue explains them. Rooms use signs and colour intelligently, though layered machinery can make optional passages easy to miss.

Presentation was assessed during ordinary play, not only in composed screenshots. Strong direction guides attention through colour, movement and contrast while preserving mood. A beautiful effect becomes a liability when it hides an objective, hazard or rival.

Music and sound design

Percussion and electronic textures support the collision of traditions. The deflection sound is the crucial instrument: immediate, bright and distinct from a blocked mistake. Quieter hub music gives character conversations room after demanding encounters.

Audio was treated as atmosphere and information. Distinct warnings, impacts and movement cues matter more over several hours than one loud set piece, although a memorable score can give repeated actions identity.

Performance and interface

The PC build was stable in the tested sessions with fast restarts and responsive controller input. Text and menus are readable, and remapping is useful for a timing-focused game. Individual patches have addressed issues since launch, so current notes should be checked on unusual hardware.

One platform cannot represent every configuration, and later patches may change performance. We report the observed experience without promising results on untested hardware. Players with strict accessibility or frame-rate requirements should check current platform documentation.

We also compared the advertised fantasy with the action repeated between major set pieces. A score rises when ordinary minutes express the same strengths as the trailer, and falls when progress regularly depends on friction the game does not acknowledge or explain.

Learning curve and pacing

Nine Sols asks players to abandon panic dodging. Early enemies safely demonstrate rhythm, but bosses combine delays and rapid strings that expose guessing. The challenge feels fair when attention is high; long sessions can cause timing fatigue, making breaks a genuine strategy.

The opening session was separated from later play. A system that initially feels obscure may become expressive after its vocabulary settles, while a polished tutorial can hide a loop that never develops. Essential status and resource information should remain available during play.

Replay value and practical fit

Nine hours covered several major regions and bosses, enough to see movement and combat grow together. Backtracking is eased by shortcuts but not eliminated. Alternate jades and Story Mode support another approach, while narrative choices make full completion more valuable than pure boss repetition.

Replay value can come from alternate routes, builds, conversations or mastery of a fixed sequence. Those forms are not interchangeable. We credit only the structure visible in the stated hours and do not award points for an assumed endgame or promised roadmap.

Value and accessibility

The game offers a substantial authored campaign and unusually rich dialogue for the genre. Difficulty is the main purchasing question: adjustable Story Mode helps, yet the intended combat still revolves around reading attacks rather than overpowering them through levels.

Value was judged from the quality and repeatability of the available experience, not from a temporary discount. A compact game can justify its scope when every hour develops the idea; a larger game can still waste time through repetition.

The buying question extends beyond technical compatibility. Consider whether a normal twenty-minute stretch contains the decisions, reading, repetition and downtime you enjoy. Unedited footage of ordinary play is often a better final check than a trailer assembled from peak moments.

Limits of the 9-hour review

This review does not cover every Sol, ending, jade or late movement ability. The score reflects the repeated boss and exploration structure within nine hours, not an assumed finale. Later narrative payoff may alter a complete reading.

The test window was long enough to revisit the core loop across separate sessions, but it did not cover every ending, late encounter or future update. Price, discounts and online population are not treated as permanent facts.

Who should play it?

Choose it for Sekiro-like deflection, hand-drawn science fantasy and character-driven exploration. Players who dislike repeated boss learning or dense dialogue may find its strongest commitments exhausting.

Nine Sols review verdict

Nine Sols makes defense expressive. Each clean deflection advances both survival and offense, while the Taopunk world gives those fights narrative consequence. Minor navigation friction and severe difficulty do not erase the confidence of its combat design.

Pros: excellent deflection combat; distinctive Taopunk art and story; flexible jades and difficulty options.

Cons: boss repetition can be exhausting; some routes are easy to overlook; contact damage can feel severe.

Final score: 8.5/10. A demanding Taopunk action game where precise deflection and a strong narrative give exploration unusual momentum.

Sources: primary release notes or official records. Factual claims were checked against these records; interpretation is our own.

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How we used the review time

Each session included ordinary progression, optional exploration and a return to previously learned systems rather than only opening spectacle. Notes were compared between sessions to distinguish a durable strength from one memorable set piece. The score reflects what the stated hours demonstrated directly; it does not award credit for unseen endings, promised updates or an assumed endgame.