It really pains me to have to leave a bad review on this game because there's so much to like about it as a piece of art. The story, the artstyle, and the music are all outstanding and come together to make a very appealing metroidvania.

However, as far as the gameplay goes, there's a lot left to be desired in the combat department.

First off, the main combat mechanic in this game would be the weapon switching, You're supposed to change your weapon type to match the element of the enemy you're fighting to deal bonus damage. However, this barely comes into play in the latter half of the game as the areas you explore require you to have a specific type of weapon and armor equipped to progress. Area D, for example, requires that you have the flame armor equipped all the time. The weapon switching feels like a gimmick rather than a though-out mechanic that is meant to be employed throughout the game.

Secondly, there are barely any attacks that you can use in the first place. All you have are the basic combo, the charged attack, and the special attack. This just leads to the player using the same combo over and over instead of getting creative because there is nothing to get creative with in the first place.

Lastly, the enemy variety is pretty poor and many just end up being reskins of previous enemies. Combined with the lack of legitimate fast travel, it makes backtracking a slog, which is the worst thing to encounter when playing a metroidvania where half the game is backtracking.

Did I forget to mention how overpowered the healing mechanic is in this game? All you have to do is time a skillcheck correctly and you get healed to almost full health for no cost. Granted, it gets exponentially more difficult each succesive time it is used, but by then, you'll probably have killed whatever boss you were fighting.

Overall, the game is gorgeous, has nice map and sound design, as well as some interesting boss fights. However, it ends up feeling like the combat was an afterthought. I enjoyed my time with it as a platformer, but as a metroidvania, it fails in too many ways to consider recommending it.

Honestly, the game isn't bad, just very boring if well-designed combat is what you're looking for. If you enjoy platforming more, give it a try. If not, you should probably avoid this one.

Here's hoping Mariachi Legends (Halberd Studios upcoming metroidvania) is a step up from this game!

Played the game for 12 hours on Steam Deck (runs perfectly on it)

Pros :
- Beautiful pixel art
- Very good design overall (level design, character design, enemy design)
- Oustanding soundtrack

Cons :
- Very generic gameplay (very few moves, there's no way to modify your combos or equip accessories that would change the gameplay)
- The mechanic of switching elemental armors to do more damage on opposite element ennemies is not exploited enough and is almost used on exploring areas
- Pretty brutal spike of difficulty in the second part of the game, especially the last boss (I didn't beat it and I really don't want to try hard more on a boss that just spam stuff all over the screen)
- Weird choice of game design in the very last part of the game where you can't heal anymore but instead you replenish your health automatically but very slowly (thus making the last bosses a nightmare)

First areas of the game are really good, and then the game suddenly become a chore

it's likely a user issue, but I found this game to be too tough in a not fun way. I wasn't enjoying myself attempting to beat the bosses, it was more frustrating than anything else.

Mutlitple colored variations of enemies
Frequent gear swap on every screen
Endless tight corridors
Slow movement through areas
Loads of pointless backtracking around a maze
Near non-existent story
Unskippable boss intros
Easy to loose a lot of proggress to the lack of checkpoints

In general not greate not terrible. Better spend time elsewhere

The keyboard configuration is absolutely awful and the default is no better. Going back to default doesn't even work. This is unplayable... Now the keyboard configs going crazy and won't let me input anything, I can't do a thing with this... Why?

the game crashed and didn't register that I killed the final boss, FIX YOUR GAME.

Got to the final boss and just said yeah I've had enough. I didn't lose to him or anything just I've had enough of this game.

This game feels...inefficient. It doesn't focus on its strong suits of the Boss fights and form switching to have fluid platforming moments and spreads itself really thin. The whole game felt really linear to me actually, even moreso than something like The Messenger or Arzette which are inspired by fairly linear platformers.

Overall though, 9 Years of Shadow is still a well made platformer. You may not find the next best thing in 9 Years, but if you're looking for something to fufuil that itch for a weekend yo can do a lot worse.

Annoy but fun, if you want to waste your time play this game.

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Let me buy the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ soundtrack. Also QTE to regain half of your health is one of the most broken things I've seen in a video game.