Analysis of Nine Sols – Sword Dance without Swords.

Notions like Axe-lite o Taopunk They emerge from Nine Sols, a metroidvania for learning to parry.

Red candle sets is a developer Made in Taiwan with two psychological horror video games set in Taipei in the 1960s and 1980s, blending the events of that era with popular folklore of the region. Thanks to Crowdfunding in 2022 were able to continue to study the oriental mythology of the Tao from another point of view with Nine Floors. They also ditched psychological horror for action, exploration, and some of 2D's most demanding eye-rolling.

The path of Parry.

The developer himself defines it as a Axe-liteand Miyazaki's game popularized the word parry on a global scale. Nine Floors bases its development on blockingin fact it has several ways to block depending on the attack received. From the first enemy, it shows you that it's not just about dodging and attacking. Perfect blocking benefits the quality of life of Yi, the cat/fox protagonist.

If you defend yourself, you suffer internal damage that you can recover from. How ? do it parry at the right time. It is also used to accumulate Qi and being able to apply explosive seals to the backs of our enemies, the most powerful attack we can do. If we want to finish a fight we must practice and master the sword dance (even if few characters carry swords), essential with Bosses, where it almost becomes a rhythm game parrying attacks one after the other until the window of opportunity opens… and then you have to think quickly.

Nine Sols is a difficult gamefrom the start this encourages you to switch to “story mode” if you don't feel capable of doing so, which is the same in terms of action, but more comfortable in an aspect which in my opinion is a part that is unbalanced in the game: damage received and given. On normal mode, the life taken from all enemies is exaggerated (again, in my opinion), from putties to mid and late bosses. In these last two cases, a sequence of moves with failure in the parades This can lead to direct death. So far everything is normal, but before I talked about windows of opportunity.

The main battles against the Sols are frenetic and each in its own way. Challenges that force you to see patterns and rhythms to make the best blocks and exhaust the Sun to give him those which are not written. The problem is that most of the time we have to take advantage of these opportunities to heal ourselves, because during the battle there is no option to take a few puffs from a pipe (Yes, good old Yi heals himself by smoking).

This results in a vicious cycle of “I heal and then I don't hit him and the fight doesn't progress.” And it's at this point that you come to the conclusion “or I will Perfect or I don't. Those of The corner of souls They'll say I'm a crybaby, that it's more rewarding when I do it (and I am, I'm not lowering the difficulty). But the damage I do (even raising the little that can be raised) and the bosses from several phases, each crazier They don't make it easy for me. Even though I love furs.

“The hare does not try to jump twice.”

I focused on the combat but as a metroidvania the rest of the typical elements of the genre are also present. Character upgrades, these skills that allow you to advance in certain scenarios They are not given to you by killing bosses but rather you find them more or less organically. by the stage. As if they reward exploration even though the game clearly directs you without the wires being visible. These skills (Dashdifferent forms of dodge and seals) are upgraded from a skill tree.

After 4 p.m. (and many deaths) still I didn't do the double jump. And metroidvania Without a double jump, it's like a garden without flowers, right? NO. As one of this year's GOTYs taught us, the double jump is only necessary when the rest of the moves are mastered. Nine Floors It also has some excellent platform-based phases, although perhaps not as challenging as Sargon's. Anyway expresses all his movements and abilities.

“Draw with your heart, not just your hand”

Nine Floors It's a manga, note I didn't say anime. The latter is inspired by the latest trend which mixes traditional drawing with 3D, but that is part of the game. The manga is the story, dialogues with bubbles and sequences that can be animated told in vignettes in black and white and from right to left, something much slower and epic.

The story is one of revenge, of the resurrection of a warrior left for dead. A gang member who returns to eliminate those who hurt him one by one. A Kill Bill with Furros and transcription of the gods “Taopunk” (word invented by Red candle sets) which mixes oriental mythology with cyberpunk and comes together wonderfully.

Manga porridge Floors and its rooms. Each with the personality of the lord. THE the bosses These are not deities that we see only to kill them. They were known, they have a past and over the phases they can get to know each other, have an arc of redemption or destruction, if it's not a manga I don't know. Yi himself, solitary avenging angel, ends surrounded by charismatic characters and although still stoic, his character evolves with each interaction. Not only is it a good story, but the way it is told, even though it has been seen many times in Nine Sols, seems unimaginable.

Conclusions.

In a year with great metroidvanias, this Nine Sols seems to stand out with demanding combat based on our player skills, it is not accompanied by farming stories to increase health or damage. Either you get into the rhythm or you're dead. And in that sense, it's very challenging, if you're prepared. Anyway, Having to do it almost perfectly can disappoint many. Nine Floors It conveys affection for manga culture with its hand-painted drawings mixed with 3D, just as it mixes ancestral folklore and high technology. Essential if you like metroidvania, it's also on Game Pass.