Nine Sols review: "Metroidvania blended with Soulslike elements and the execution is nothing short of astonishing"

I can’t even imagine what it takes to completely switch genres and make an entirely new type of game after crafting two of the best horror game experiences of the past decade. That’s what Red Candle Games has done, pivoting from the harrowing halls of Detention and the infamous Devotion to make a hard-as-nails Metroidvania blended with Soulslike elements in Nine Sols, and the execution is nothing short of astonishing. 

Our protagonist is the relentless warrior Yi, and after being left for dead at the hands of their former mentor, they’re out to slaughter all their former comrades for reasons that Nine Sols holds close to its chest until the final hours. It’s a personal Kill Bill-style revenge story dripping in as much mystery as it is blood, and every encounter with a former ally in a boss battle puts one more piece of the puzzle in place. It’s a great central mystery, figuring out why Yi turned on his former allies and was nearly killed by his own tutor for it. 

A captivating entrance

Nine Sols leans surprisingly hard into science fiction with its surrounding world and characters. Red Candles itself has billed Nine Sols as the inception of “Taopunk” - a fusion of cyberpunk and Taoism, the latter a philosophy and religious belief in spiritual immortality indigenous to China. There’s a lot of world information to parse, in the opening few hours especially, and mixed with elements of posthumanism it threatens to become almost incomprehensible at times, but Nine Sols just about pulls it off by making sure its vast, overbearing world feeds back into the central story of revenge. 

Horrific story moments are what Red Candles do best, be it Detention’s final realization or Devotion’s unraveling family, and moments like these haven’t been lost in the genre switch. A child comes within seconds of decapitation in Nine Sols’ opening minutes, and there are confident strides into exploring posthumanism and how one can utterly lose their mind and sense of self. Nine Sols is a surprisingly graceful transition of horror storytelling from a traditional narrative game structure to an action-packed Soulslike Metroidvania. 

There are though, weirdly, a lot of fat-shaming jokes in Nine Sols. One character’s screen time is mostly geared towards being a punching bag for others over their weight, and I can’t for the life of me work out why this is a major character trait in a game in 2024. It doesn’t make the character themselves particularly memorable, nor the people taunting them, including Yi - it just makes everyone look like a bit of a dick. Nine Sols is so futuristic and forward-thinking that the whole immaturity of the jokes is just painfully awkward and off-putting. 

Flying fists of fury 

Nine Sols’ storytelling is generally sublime, though, and it’s matched only by its gameplay. Yi deftly floats over and around enemies in 2D environments and platforms, buffeting them with a series of attacks and parries. The entire combat system is one of the best I’ve played in a 2D space in years, maybe ever - it’s like Red Candles studied everything the Metroidvania genre has put out over the past decade or so, from Hollow Knight to Pepper Grinder, and meshed it all into one exhilarating system that still manages to retain its own identity. 

Take the Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice inspirations, for example. Nine Sols has long been billed as “Sekiro-inspired” by Red Candles, and I assumed the inspiration would begin and end at the difficulty level. In actual fact, Red Candles has plucked the jumping parry ability to counter certain red attacks straight from FromSoftware’s game, and implemented it masterfully in Nine Sols.

When you see an enemy glowing with a red attack, Yi must jump and hit the parry button while above said enemy, just as their strike lands. This is exactly how the same aerial parry worked in Sekiro, and it’s wonderful to see it plucked out of another game and slotted effortlessly into Nine Sols. The system works just perfectly enough to be a tribute to Sekiro’s ace combat system, without feeling like it’s actively ripping off FromSoftware’s work. 

Other than that one ability though, you’ll dodge and dash through arrows, bombs, claws, teeth, and swords as Yi, and Nine Sols’ combat feels fast, fluid, and stunningly clean. There are times when Nine Sols employs bullet hell-tendencies with the sheer amount of attacks headed straight at you, but Red Candles does such a good job of teaching you all the tools you’ve got to work with that you never feel overpowered and helpless. 

If anything does get a little frustrating at times, it’s the boss battles. The story-oriented fights against Yi’s former allies frequently feature foes far taller and bigger than the comparatively little Yi, and certain attacks like explosions ripple outwards across the screen. It’s beautiful, but it is possible to lose sight of Yi, however temporarily, in among all the flying fists of fury. In such a rapid combat system and extreme difficulty levels, even this split-second lapse can spell disaster for Yi. 

Nine Sols’ sense of direction can similarly frustrate at times. The Metroidvania map is pretty open-ended near the start of the game - there aren’t too many areas where you’re instantly barred from entry because you don’t have a certain ability, for example - but Nine Sols does a pretty poor job of pointing Yi in the right direction to continue the overarching story after a boss fight has wrapped.

You’re spat back out into the main world, oftentimes, with very little sense of where to go next, from either Nine Sols’ story, or literal in-game hints and directives. It’s a crying shame, because between the sinister factory regions and the heat-blasting forges, Nine Sols’ background aesthetic and level design is outstanding, but it could’ve done with a little more of a guiding presence in shepherding Yi along the beaten path, instead of having him run helplessly between regions looking for the next step over hours. 

Nine Sols marks a stupendous return from Red Candle Games after five years, and the horror masters are on top form in a brand-new genre. The combat is captivating and exhilarating, while the overarching story of revenge and regret is one that drives Nine Sols forward for nigh-on 20 hours. It’s a shame the story doesn’t push you forward in the lush environments with more focus, and the fat-shaming jokes are similarly irksome, but Nine Sols is still a massively confident step in a huge new direction for Red Candles.