Nine Sols on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
Nine Sols is a lore rich, hand-drawn 2D action-platformer featuring Sekiro-inspired deflection focused combat. Embark on a journey of eastern fantasy, explore the land once home to an ancient alien race, and follow a vengeful hero’s quest to slay the 9 Sols, formidable rulers of this forsaken realm.
Nine Sols is a metroidvania, souls-like and difficult game
developed and published by RedCandleGames.
Released on May 28th 2024 is available on Windows and MacOS
in 14 languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Portuguese - Brazil, Spanish - Latin America, Italian, Spanish - Spain and Polish.
It has received 25,395 reviews of which 24,217 were positive and 1,178 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.3 out of 10. 😍
The game is currently priced at 28.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Nine Sols into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64bit
- Processor: AMD Athlon X4 | Intel Core i5 4460
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 950 | AMD R7 370
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 15 GB available space
MacOS
- OS: macOS 10.13
- Processor: M1 Air
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: M1
- Storage: 15 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
I've no real way to put into words just how incredible this game is. Taken completely by surprise by the devs who previously made two horror games - Nine Sols is an absolutely stellar and masterpiece metroidvania that has genre-defying writing and some of the best boss fights I have ever seen in a 2d game, period. With games like this on the market, there is no justifying "waiting" for Silksong.
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Hollow Knight and Sekiro made love and this was the outcome. Definitely the best indie game of the year. If you enjoy metroidvanias, parry based combat, and difficulty this is the game you have been looking for. Lady Ethereal took me into deep waters and drowned me into submission.
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The biggest snub in Indie Game of the Year. One of the best games OVERALL for 2024. The fact it wasn't Indie GOTY or GOTY is disrespectful. 10/10, one of the most beautiful games I have ever played.
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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: [*] Nine Sols is a Metroidvania and is on the same "tier" as Hollow Knight in terms of quality [*] 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.
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I'm seeing a lot of unfair negative reviews about this game, which bothers me because Nine Sols deserves a bigger audience. Make no mistake, this is a difficult game. Parry mechanics aren't for everyone, and that's totally fair, but so many of these complaints about feeling weak are solved with a couple points in the skill tree, or just some basic game progression. People who haven't gotten past the second area are complaining about a lack of features the game hasn't introduced yet. Players stuck at early bosses are calling the combat unresponsive. 'Git gud' is a really obnoxious sentiment to hear during gruelling boss fights, no doubt, but I really encourage people to give this game a chance, take it slow, and push through some of the difficult opening hours. If it still feels really unforgiving, then play on story mode. You can adjust damage values in the settings mid-game. Yes, you won't get that achievement, but who cares? This is a singleplayer game, play how you want. Every boss, miniboss, and tough enemy that kicks your ass initially will eventually become second nature, especially as the difficulty curve flattens out, you get more upgrades, and most importantly, you learn the game more. Explore every corner, and don't hoard your money. Remember spots on the map to come back to later. Switch your Jades out for different situations. During new encounters, just play passive and learn the moveset. The talisman mechanic is very important, and finding moments to slap paper on enemies will pay off, doubly so if you use it to reposition. A Jade you get early that makes talismans stun enemies will help you get used it, but learn to keep a mental tab on how many you have as you deflect attacks and gain more charges. Experiment with the different types you get later, and find one that suits your playstyle. Every boss makes use of the parry mechanic, so if that's not your cup of tea, I wouldn't recommend the game to you, but if you've played Sekiro, you'll feel right at home here. The final boss of a game hasn't made me feel like such a baller since The Glock Saint himself. It's cocaine. That other Steam review is right - it's cocaine. The bosses in this game are tightly designed, with the great animation work showing off their tells before each attack. It's cocaine. You'll find yourself getting into a flow state where you're picking up patterns and learning how to counter each and every move. It's cocaine. Don't get discouraged from dying - it's part of the game, and you're expected to. But with a bit of patience and some quick reactions, this game CAN be mastered. It's cocaine. The visuals are just stunning. I haven't played a metroidvania this pretty since the Ori games, and both the Taopunk aesthetic and manga panels during key moments really give it a sense of style that adds to the already engaging story. The chilling opening sequence hooked me and made me want to discover what was going on in the massive facility you find yourself in. Fair warning to people drawn in by the charming character designs - the game has some dramatic tone shifts, and you will go from picking up bubble tea rations to exposed intestines in the span of a room. The atmosphere is also very eerie as you blitz through cyborg guards and mutated freaks to an absolute banger of a soundtrack full of chimes and distorted wailing. I personally could not get enough of it. I harpooned the backs of dragons and hid in storage containers filled with human meat and marvelled at the creative choices on display here. Did I mention the lovingly hand-drawn animations? It's all gorgeous. The game has built a rich world, with a lot of history before the time you start the game, and many characters are absolutely ancient. Each Sol (boss) runs a sector of the facility, and part of the fun as you go throughout their level is finding out how they've adapted (or contributed) to the crisis going on at the moment as your angry little rationalist hamster clashes philosophies with them and generally talks some mad Taoist shit. Some of my favorite bits in this game come from when a Sol decided to introduce a new gameplay mechanic in their level - or completely switch genres in one case. The strongest of these segments come in the first two thirds of the game, but each level has a unique twist that makes for some interesting platforming. If you're a lore enjoyer like me, there's a lot to dig into here. You'll find loads of entries detailing the facility's many ethically questionable processes. You'll learn about dynasties, families and religious groups in power who had a hand in shaping the current world. You'll stumble on recorded hologram meetings that help put a timeline on the web of events that went on before the game's story. That's without even mentioning all the Taiwanese myths and symbolism inspiring this game that I'm too culturally stupid to catch. -- Some issues that could be fixed with a patch or two: Item Tracking: The true ending for this game requires picking up a loooot of collectibles, most of which you will find just by exploring and playing the game naturally. But if you missed one or two, scouring the map for them near the end of the game is a pain in the ass, which isn't helped by the barebones map markers. I think a simple "X artifacts/health upgrades left" for each area would help the pace of the game near the end if you're going for the 100%. Progression Guide: Similarly, your AI computer and a few other characters in the game will point you in a direction for the main story or a sidequest, and then never speak of it again. This was fine for me, as I played the game in big sessions, but I can easily see someone picking up this game after a busy week and getting lost or completely missing a sidequest location because it's mentioned in one dialogue box. Obviously, exploration should still be a priority for minor upgrades, but there should be one of those permanent orange markers whenever an important character offhandedly tells you to check a broom closet across the map. Arrow Switching: I'm not sure if this was a problem for anyone else, but the game would constantly switch around my arrow types throughout the game, even mid-fight. Maybe there was some quick-switch button combo I missed, but I lost many a boss run because I was expecting to stun a boss out of an attack with a laser arrow, and the game decided to randomly switch to another arrow type despite me never touching the menu since the fight started. -- These are nitpicks though, and the game is overall very well designed. I think Nine Sols may be the best metroidvania I've played in a long time, and I can't give it enough praise. I'm not sure why there was absolutely zero marketing for this game, but it's really sad that the Elden Ring DLC is right around the corner, because between that and the challenging gameplay, I'm not sure how much attention Nine Sols will get. Maybe some big name youtubers or streamers will pick it up and there can be a much needed spotlight for it. There is so much love put into this game, and I'd hate to see it fade into obscurity, especially with the popularity of Sekiro and Hollow Knight, which it borrows a ton from. Hopefully this review convinces at least a few people to try it out. Thanks Red Candle, I really hope you guys get the recognition you deserve. -- Overall: You chief a hit of that squong to heal. You get glad. You parkour into the exact same electric wall 14 times in a row and lose all your money. You get mad. You talk to any character in the game. You get sad. Red Candle, make a boss rush mode that pays for Shuanshuan's university tuition if you beat it. Or make a dating sim. I see some of those character designs, you ain't slick. The furries will go nuts. You'll make bank. Everyone wins. That idea's for free because this game is such a 10. I'm still annoyed I had to waste a third of this review telling people to play it. Buy Nine Sols. It's cocaine.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 26 March 2025 11:08 |
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| SteamSpy data | 25 March 2025 11:39 |
| Steam price | 01 April 2025 20:48 |
| Steam reviews | 31 March 2025 09:49 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Nine Sols, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Nine Sols
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Nine Sols concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Nine Sols compatibility
Online players
631
Developer
RedCandleGames
Publisher
RedCandleGames
Release
28 May 2024
Platforms