9 Years of Shadows is an emotionally-driven Metroidvania, enhanced by healing music that tells the story of Europa, a young woman of noble birth tasked with ending the curse that plagues her people and restoring color to all lands.
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I'm really starting to hate how I can just tell "Ah yes, this is a kickstarter game" the moment I encounter minibosses. Also the backer gallery was placed in the most obnoxious possible pace-breaking position.
Yes the pixel art is stunning, but the actual design of the game here is pretty average to sub-standard imo.
The health regen mechanic trivializes the bulk of the game until the very very end. I was at first willing to recommend this as a newbie friendly metroidvania, but the final boss difficulty spike is totally out of place with the rest of the game.
Also the game is badly written. The scene that supposedly explains the motivation behind why "the curse" was put in place? Total non-sequitur. Am I to believe the entire reason any of this shit happened is because some kid was upset by a painting? What am I not getting here? The scenes read like they were supposed to be revelations but they were incredibly flat "nothings". Characters make vague allusions to undisclosed bullshit and tell each other how they suddenly "understand" and then you're once again off to "wander" down the nearly linear pathways of Talos using your powerups in the exact order and locations that the developers have laid out. There's minimal exploration to be had, though thankfully player movement can feel pretty smooth so its not a total slog.
Sadly there's an entire backend to the campaign after you've acquired every ability (kinda) that does basically nothing to iterate upon 9 Years of Shadows' threadbare game design. This part is just needless padding that I suspect only exists because modern players throw a shitfit if games don't waste enough of their time to delude them into thinking they got their money's worth.
I was initially going to rate this 7/10, but the final sliver of the game sufficiently pissed me off to not do so. The game is fine, but I wanted Mahou Shoujo Super Metroid, not what feels like a middling action platformer with spritework that belongs in a better game. I can't be bothered go hunting for my remaining 6% completion.
The music is good though, I'll give'em that.
Yes the pixel art is stunning, but the actual design of the game here is pretty average to sub-standard imo.
The health regen mechanic trivializes the bulk of the game until the very very end. I was at first willing to recommend this as a newbie friendly metroidvania, but the final boss difficulty spike is totally out of place with the rest of the game.
Also the game is badly written. The scene that supposedly explains the motivation behind why "the curse" was put in place? Total non-sequitur. Am I to believe the entire reason any of this shit happened is because some kid was upset by a painting? What am I not getting here? The scenes read like they were supposed to be revelations but they were incredibly flat "nothings". Characters make vague allusions to undisclosed bullshit and tell each other how they suddenly "understand" and then you're once again off to "wander" down the nearly linear pathways of Talos using your powerups in the exact order and locations that the developers have laid out. There's minimal exploration to be had, though thankfully player movement can feel pretty smooth so its not a total slog.
Sadly there's an entire backend to the campaign after you've acquired every ability (kinda) that does basically nothing to iterate upon 9 Years of Shadows' threadbare game design. This part is just needless padding that I suspect only exists because modern players throw a shitfit if games don't waste enough of their time to delude them into thinking they got their money's worth.
I was initially going to rate this 7/10, but the final sliver of the game sufficiently pissed me off to not do so. The game is fine, but I wanted Mahou Shoujo Super Metroid, not what feels like a middling action platformer with spritework that belongs in a better game. I can't be bothered go hunting for my remaining 6% completion.
The music is good though, I'll give'em that.
I'll bump this up a star if they fix the Switch version so that the Opening Night boss isn't fucking impossible.
more like 9 Hours of Sleep because I'm fucking bored
This is simply too gorgeous, damn.
Um dos metroidvanias com movimentação mais inventivas e criativas que já joguei, a criatividade das armaduras e transformações pra exploração são muito bem feitas. O visual é lindíssimo, esse estilo com pixel art me lembrou bastante o Blasphemous (que inclusive tem até uma homenagem no jogo, que me chamou bastante atenção), que é um dos jogos mais lindos que já joguei.
A progressão de dificuldade eu achei bem interessante, o jogo te recompensa bastante por jogar agressivamente com a recarga da barra principal dele, mas na reta final do jogo esse recurso é meio que tirado, deixando a última batalha bem diferente do resto e sendo pra mim, a mais dificil de todo o jogo.
Eu acho que faltou algumas paradas que hoje em dia agregam demais nos metroidvanias que joguei, por exemplo marcadores para o mapa, que não tem no jogo, e a história eu achei um tanto sem graça, apesar de achar legal o design dos personagens.
A progressão de dificuldade eu achei bem interessante, o jogo te recompensa bastante por jogar agressivamente com a recarga da barra principal dele, mas na reta final do jogo esse recurso é meio que tirado, deixando a última batalha bem diferente do resto e sendo pra mim, a mais dificil de todo o jogo.
Eu acho que faltou algumas paradas que hoje em dia agregam demais nos metroidvanias que joguei, por exemplo marcadores para o mapa, que não tem no jogo, e a história eu achei um tanto sem graça, apesar de achar legal o design dos personagens.
>100%
Played before I created a Backlogged account.
Played before I created a Backlogged account.