A difficult, deeply engaging deflect 'em up in the Sekiro vein, integrated with a lore-packed revenge story about Chinese space cats

This is a meaty work indeed!

The gameplay is full-to-bursting and certainly more than difficult enough on "standard," the toughest and default of the two settings. The central offensive mechanic is this: you have to time the rhythm of your parries just so to charge up exploding energy talismans and paste them on your enemies. Between times you can manifest an energy sword and slash for extra damage, or toss a few projectiles for breathing room. An imperfect parry will give you provisional damage you can heal from in time, while missing parries altogether will get you killed quickly. Though Nine Sols places a heavy focus on the intricacies of its parry-based combat -- you can finely customize your loadouts via the jade system, redolent of Hollow Knight's charms -- it's also big enough for an exploration-focused metroidvania. The first major area, nothing more than metallic science-fiction corridors and elevators, is strikingly dull compared to the rest of the map, but it really does get prettier and weirder from there -- torture prisons, creepy secret labs, Taopunk palaces, posh space cat drug party houses, and failing agricultural centers are yours to explore, among others. The artistic variety of these places and of the treasures themselves, which frequently have unique graphics and flavor text, goaded me to sift through every biome from top to bottom. (There's a proto-human who eats poison and renders life medicine from his waste, and every toxin you can find for him has its own life cycle to read about, pretty much.)

A lot of the fighting mechanics I've seen before in some form, all except the unbounded counter, which involves holding down the button in preparation and releasing it at the time an attack strikes you -- it's "unbounded" because you can deflect or break anything with it, and normally this refers to the unblockable attacks of enemies and turrets, but includes other things too, like the enormous industrial machines in the Transmutation Zone. Naturally, you can't hold the button down long before the counter mode goes away, otherwise it would be too good. The execution of the parry system in general is top-notch, and the inclusion of the unbounded counter makes it that much better in terms of variety -- not to mention adding yet another fun, precise thing you can totally screw up if you're thinking about some IRL shopping list. Boss battles will demand every ounce of your attention. Three-phase, true-ending Eigong (an elderly cat-woman with a laser sword) has to rank among the most difficult vidya battles I've ever fought, requiring hours across multiple days to get the timing right and figure certain things out. It's one of those fights you think you just can't hack till you do. Ah, there's sweet catharis at the end of it, and an ending to match the feeling!

The story really had me by the middle, but at the start I was rolling my eyes and complaining to my brother about all the info dumps full of Chinese names and vague-sounding stuff I never thought would actually come together -- but it all does cohere and then some, to the extent that if you like science-fiction stories at all, you won't be able to get enough of it. Why the huge colony ship? What's the deal with those crazy energy roots called Fusang? Why does Yi (your catman character) reincarnate from them? What about the history of the space cats on their native planet, Penglai? It's all there in full, shocking detail, very unlike the soulsborne standard of "we left big blanks so somebody could make a four-hour video interpretation." If you don't get something, just wait. (Imagine me, long-winded idiot that I am, complaining about info dumps that actually go somewhere!)

Nine Sols expects three things of you: you like long, difficult games and you like highly detailed storytelling, and furthermore you are in the mood for both at once. It's gourmet richness on every front! Though you'll certainly have to clear some space on your schedule and set aside some precious life-energy for it, which is part of the reason I'm going to wait a while before tackling Silksong.

(The Chinese names will be weird at first for Western players who are more used to seeing Japanese-flavored stuff in their games. It was even weird for me -- and I took a little Chinese way back in college! You will get used to it. With the rise of China in the economic sphere (yes, I know Nine Sols is from Taiwan), you'll be getting lots of practice in the future, you can mark me on that.)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I loved this. From the mechanics to the story to the bosses to the little details, they make this game a masterpiece. I will 100% on my second run in the future. I definitely reccommend it

Quite honestly one of the best games I have ever played in my life.

Everything here is made with love: the Player can feel it through the gameplay, the INSANE soundtrack, the art/design and a story that I would've NEVER thought to be this engaging.

If you like metroidvanias and parrying stuff, this will probably be one of the best games you can play right now.

Sure, some stuff could be better. The map for example is not that good: it has very little detail, it could be more interactive, for example, by adding the ability to use pins... the hacking mechanic could've been explored a bit more (it stays the same during the whole gameplay).

Also, the gameplay improves SO MUCH with time...

Overall a great, GREAT game. Well done Red Candle!