Recent reviews by Korji

In the first encounters with the enemies, you eliminate them with 10 standard blows or 5 heavy blows. And as other reviews have pointed out, each attack has a slow startup, roughly a second or less for each swing. This makes the enemies feel tanky when you start the game. Also, with how the enemies are created (rock spirits forming sandy bodies), they look over-designed. There are also a ton of particles, bloom, and visual clutter that doesn't really work as you explore the world.

Maybe the game gets better from where I ended, but this is a really rough start to a game claiming to have spectacular action

Incredible game, I very much enjoyed my time with Nine Sols. The game has so much depth with it's story, music, art/art style, worldbuilding, and most of all, combat. Whenever I play a melee-oriented Metroidvania, the flow of the combat is very important to me and Nine Sols hits the mark. As you fight and progress through the story, the combat has a wonderful flow that compliments the tone of the game well. Although I wish there were a bit more skills, moves, and tools available to the player, what is there works wonderfully as you travel around New Kunlun.

This is not an easy game by any means, but I never felt like I hit a true wall until the last boss of the game. After you get used to the controls and how Yi moves and attacks, each fight feels fair and balanced. There are plenty of bosses, each titular leader you face are very unique from one another. While some of the area and mini bosses are slightly re-used, I never felt like they became excessive.

Word of warning however, this game is dark and shows that theme very quickly. The brutality of Nine Sols makes it standout from other Metroidvanias, but it may not be to everyone's taste. While it mainly has graphic violence that could rival Doom, both in gameplay and the world around you, the game does tap into psychological horror and body horror. The general tone of the game is also depressing: the world is dying but clings on to what is left. However, it's not all doom and gloom... but most of it is. There are moments of reprieve to be found and they're great to enjoy, but don't get comfortable with it.

Overall, I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys difficult fights, exploration, sci-fi themes and elements, and Metroidvanias in general

A great shift of the typical Metroidvania! The game really pushes you to utilize all of the skills you learn throughout your journey, so each boss fight/enemy wave is a worthy win when the intense music is over and the locked doors open. There are lots of little secrets to be found and you can get a sense of how the devs poured their talents into this game. There's secret rooms with just cameos, hidden rewards, or power-ups that help you enhance your survival skills.

One note, there are secret palettes scattered throughout the game (they looked like little C4s to me) and while I enjoyed finding them, the game auto selects them. Each secret of this type forces an entirely different view and turns what you have expected into unusual colors that would likely disorient you. I never really used any of the palettes, but they're fun little Easter eggs to find. This had no impact on my review, but thought it worth noting as I think the secret hunt is one big pillar of the overall game play.

This was a fantastic surprise for April Fools day, you can tell everyone involved put so much love and effort into this game! I had such a blast playing this as the story progressed and cracked a smile anytime there was references to other games, memes, jokes, and more! I hope more projects like this come in the future, I would especially pay for any future titles like this!!

I really appreciate that the devs took the time to give the game a single-player experience as well. I love booting up this game for a few minutes and going through the Wave Survival/Tiers of Heck and enjoying the varied maps, enemies, and weapons. I can't wait to see how this game grows and evolves, and I hope other indie multiplayer games learn from your example!