This game gets compared to Hollow Knight a lot, but I only find the comparison useful when it communicates one or both of these two points:

1. Nine Sols is a Metroidvania and is on the same "tier" as Hollow Knight in terms of quality
   
2. If you're a fan of Hollow Knight, you're likely to be a fan of this game

Other than those two points, I hope that these comparisons slowly start to dwindle away, because I believe that Nine Sols is more than good enough to stand on its own, and does not deserve to live in another game's shadow. Now on to my review:

Hollow Knight is my favorite game of all time, with Sekiro coming in at a close second. So when I first heard about Nine Sols, I was cautiously optimistic. The thought that your two favorite games can be amalgamated into one complete package is an exciting proposition, to be sure-- but it's also really hard to believe that a studio will be able to understand and tap into what made those games special on their first foray into a genre. But I'm happy to report that Red Candle Games blew my expectations out of the water and into the stratosphere. Nine Sols clearly understands what made these two games special; but rather than try to imitate them, it learns lessons from their successes to create a unique and beautiful work of art.

Nine Sols introduces itself by showing off the two things that it does best: Story, and combat. (Intro Spoilers for the first ~10 minutes of the game): The story starts in the middle of the action, as your character Yi is betrayed by his master and left for dead. You are aided by some mysterious roots, and later again by a little boy named Shuanshuan, who you befriend off-screen. The game begins right before Shuanshuan is about to have his head voluntarily severed by a machine in a bizarre and shady religious ritual, but Yi intervenes, saving his life.

You are then rushed by enemies and given a concise tutorial for the unique combat system. Here are the basics: Block an attack just as it's about to hit you to perform a perfect parry, which denies all damage. Imperfect parries deny some, but not all, damage. Successfully parrying (either perfect or imperfect) rewards you with a talisman-- an explosive xi (chi) card that you can place on an enemy as you dash past them for a burst of damage. You can also swing your sword in a 3-hit combo, with the third hit doing some extra damage. There is also a jump button, and a dash for a small speed boost and a few i-frames. There is also an "estus flask/bonfire" system that works as you'd expect, except you rest at a root node and smoke out of a pipe (so f****** cool) to heal. If you like a good combat system, then you're in for a treat-- This is just the beginning, as Nine Sols uses the metroidvania formula to add more and more abilities as you progress. Thanks to the well-balanced skill tree and shop systems, you have tons of autonomy to choose and perfect your own playstyle as you go. As you add, perfect, and combine these abilities throughout your playthrough, you will slowly unearth what I believe to be one of the best combat systems in all of gaming.

*Note: I found normal difficulty to be perfectly tuned and quite forgiving as long as you're trying to parry and find healing windows. But if the game's difficulty is making you want to quit, don't; know that there's an easy mode that allows you to tweak damage done/received to any number you want.

As far as story, Nine Sols tells a Kill Bill-esque tale of revenge, but also redemption. Themes include spirituality vs science, nature vs man (or should I say, cat), and justice vs forgiveness, just to name a few. These are all handled very maturely. There is also significant character progression for Yi and all of his friends-- not so much for the villains, but rest assured that each of their motivations/behaviors are compelling and believable. There is a normal ending, and a "true" ending. The true ending requires doing almost everything in the game, which leads to maximum main character progression-- this is worth it, as Yi's newfound maturity creates an incredibly beautiful and much more satisfying conclusion to the story.

I also cannot end this review without highlighting the boss fights. It's easy to explain what separates a good boss fight from a bad one, but harder to explain what separates a good one from an amazing one. I'll try anyways-- Nine Sols bosses have an amazingly smooth (but not perfect) progressive difficulty curve. Meaning that the further you go, the harder the bosses get, but without ever creating so big of a bump that it makes you feel like you've hit a wall. On top of that, no two main bosses feel too similar to one another, with each having a unique identity that aligns with their respective stories/abilities. Almost every main boss fight, and even most of the mini-bosses require at least a few attempts to learn their patterns (except maybe two of em), giving you a flow feeling while you're fighting them and a euphoric feeling when you master them. There are two standouts that I want to shout-out just because I think they're near-perfect fights:

• Lady Ethereal is the most emotional battle, and has the most beautiful level and music in the game.
  
• The final boss of the game is a very complete and demanding test of your accumulated skills, while still allowing you to be quite expressive in your approach. These two seriously belong on the boss fight hall of fame.

Here's a plain list of all the other stuff the game does well, to spare y'all the word count: Art style (holy crap), world design, platforming, movement, lore, and progression are all top-tier. Enemy variety, music, and navigation are also quite good. Some minor complaints are that hitboxes were a little bit too big for some attacks, and sometimes I found myself not knowing where to go next.

In conclusion, if you like metroidvanias, tough-but-fair games, deep combat, boss fights, and/or meaningful, well-written narratives, Nine Sols is a masterpiece that might soon find a comfortable spot in your all-time list; it's certainly made it into mine. Please support this game and its studio.

For the longest time, I didn't really "get" speedrunning. I felt like it was ruining games; abusing bugs only to finish mere seconds faster than a small pool of competitors. Over time, I've come to appreciate it as an art, but from a distance. Getting on the leaderboard requires making discoveries (shortcuts, hidden mechanics, etc.) followed up by flawless execution. This sounds like tons of fun to me, but I don't participate because of the unreasonable commitment of time and effort it requires.

That's where Neon White comes in. The gameplay loop goes like this: you platform your way through a short level (usually under a minute long) shooting demons along the way, only to earn a bronze/silver medal. You learn the layout and go as fast as possible, earning a gold medal. The game then provides you with a shortcut hint, shaving seconds off your time and earning you an Ace medal. You see your friend .05 seconds above you on the leaderboard, and maybe grind the level out a few more times to beat em. If you're lucky, maybe you'll even earn the highest medal: a red one, indicating that you have beaten the developer's own best time. As you progress, you unlock new guns and abilities (i.e. dash, stomp) that make the movement even faster/more complex and add even more possibilities for shortcuts. Effectively, you become a speedrunner every time you boot up a new stage. But how far you want to push it is completely up to you.

All of this on its own would have made for a solid game. Thankfully, it doesn't stop there. The game is gorgeous, and the soundtrack bangs. The level design ranges from good to insanely good. There are collectibles hidden in every level that unlock story and MORE levels (if you count these, the game has well over 100 levels). Reaching them usually requires you to move through the stage in an unconventional way in order to hoarde power-ups. It also forces you to explore and take in the level design. Finding every collectible rewards you with the true ending, and unlocks "rushes" -- how fast can you beat clusters of 8 levels? How fast can you beat the 90+ base levels? Can you do it without dying a single time?

Now I will warn story-first gamers: this one is probably not for you. The dialogue is intentionally cringe, in like an edgy pre-teen anime kind of way. It serves as an effective break from the frantic action. Some of the characters grow on you, and it contributes to the world-building and personality of the game. So in that way, I love it. But I must admit that if this was a standalone visual novel, I wouldn't go near it with a ten foot pole (the fast forward button was tempting sometimes).

But, If you're a gameplay-first gamer like me, this is an absolute must-play. I haven't been this addicted to a game in a really long time. It'll make you feel like a godlike speedrunner without the 1000-hour commitment (That is, until you see the REAL psychos halving your time in White's Hell Rush). I love this game.

9.5/10