評論

• gamedeal user

  Jul 8, 2023

  Saw some negative recommendations and figured I'd chime in with a positive recommendation and some comments regarding the game. Firstly, yes, the game does have issues with crashing. Sometimes it even crashes when I tell it to exit. I have no idea what state it was in at launch, but it could certainly use more polish in that regard. Whether it is a deal breaker for you or not may vary. There were sessions it didn't crash at all and sessions where it crashed once or twice. i would say buyer beware in that regard. I've seen criticisms regarding the game length, linearity, and difficulty. It's strange to me because, after 100% completion, 9 Years of Shadows feels like a solid Metroidvania in all respects. It's "linear" in that you can effectively 100% each zone without having to backtrack, but navigation is still proper Metroidvania "seek the upgrade, then utilize the upgrade" for progression. I get the feeling Metroid Fusion was an influence here, firstly with the monologues on the elevator rides, but also with each portion of the castle being its own sector that links back to a Hub. However, that hub has multiple points of access between the zones, already making it a bit better than Fusion's design in that regard. So, take an improved take on Fusion's map design without the objective markers (save some towards the end that aren't really necessary), and you've got 9 Years of Shadows. What I think, and this leads into the Combat aspect, is that a lot of players expect every Metroidvania to also be a Souls-like or to try and be Hollow Knight, which itself was taking inspiration from the Soulsborne games. Metroidvanias weren't always open-ended, nor should they all need to be. Similarly, they weren't always the hardest games out there, and they don't need to be, either. I also think that, for most players, the game offers a decent challenge as it is. There are ways to recharge your "shield", as it were, but you can't always guarantee the timing and you have limited hits and shield recovery once it is gone. The final boss in particular can take quite a few efforts due to the punishing nature of its attack patterns. In other words, there is nothing wrong with its "linearity" or its difficulty level. Designing Metroidvania levels is a difficult task, and developer Halberd Studios did a fine job with it. That doesn't mean I don't think there's room to improve, such as perhaps more combat capabilities for the different elemental armors and such, and I was able to 100% the game's completion (well, 101%, technically) without even trying. Nonetheless, I can see myself coming back to this game on the regular, just as I do with every Metroid game, with Symphony of the Night, with Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, with Bloodstained, just because it scratches that Metroidvania itch. Maybe it just depends on whether you grew up with games like Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, or Symphony of the Night defining the genre for you instead of Hollow Knight (and don't get me wrong, I love Hollow Knight, but it's just one take on the genre). For me, this is a dose of that old school fun with some new ideas and some modern execution. Like a GBA game brought to modern day. For players like that, I highly recommend 9 Years of Shadows.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 29, 2023

  9 years of shadow is somewhat decent, but ultimaltely not a very good metroidvania. I do not regret playing it once, but not going to replay it in future. Your heroine explores different parts of a big castle, battling monsters and collecting stuff along the way. Each area has its own theme (fire,water,poison,etc…) and the corresponding power-up that allows you to solve the puzzles in that area and continue your journey. End of the area is usually a boss fight. Also each wing has a few optional bosses. PROS: + very good visual style and general aesthetics. Sprites, portraits, locations, background illustrations and so on are all vibrant and top-notch; + layout of the castle is decent, the locations do not feel samey; + couple of interesting boss fights (mb 2-3 for the entire game); CONS: - enemy variety is not great, a lot of reskinned monsters; - difficulty is insultingly low, you will steamroll like 90% of the game. Srsly, most boss fight (with a few exceptions) you will win with 1-2 tries, regular enemies are literal trash; No option to change difficulty either (even after you complete the game); - traversal is…annoying. The castle is big and you got basically only one way to fast travel – the big central elevator with a few stops. Everything else is you running by foot, with gets really old very fast; - upgrades are meh. Just small numerical increases, nothing fancy. The plot-related powers are also kinda uninspired, ive used only the basic hit attack all game; - the game is rather short for a metroidvania. I did a 100% items run in like 7h TL;DR A game you might want to play if you are starving for a new metroidvania, but nothing really fancy besides the looks. Gameplay gets boring pretty fast.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 13, 2023

  Alright, I just finished the game! Congratulations to those of you who are good at Metroidvanias and are saying that you finished in 5 hours, but maybe take my 30ish-hour playthrough as an example of what this game might hold in store for people who are not super familiar with the genre. I had a great time, the pixel art was gorgeous, and there were lots of memorable bosses. I was initially taken in by the colorfully light-edged aspect of the art, which you can see in the promos. Little did I know going in that those edges are crucial to the gameplay, with different armor sets having different effects - the function follows the form - and the form happens to be very beautiful.
• gamedeal user

  May 28, 2023

  Review After 100% I hadn’t heard about 9 Years of Shadows until just a few days before launch, so I was really hyped when I saw this. I’m playing more metroidvania style games this year, and I’m so glad that I gave this one a try. This game was not without its flaws, but overall, I really enjoyed the core experience and the awesome features that were to offer. The overall plot is about a noble warrior woman who is on a quest to venture into a mysterious robotic fortress and destroy the corruption coming from there. Sounds cool right?! Pros: Art Style – this is where 9 Years of Shadows really shines. After the beginning grey intro scene, you are presented with a vibrant and colorful world. You can tell this was a huge focus for the dev team and they delivered big time. In my opinion, the different areas were all beautiful to look at and different enough to help me remember each zone vividly. Atmosphere – I personally loved the story and feel of the world around you as you progressed through the game. The small cutscenes when traveling through the elevator to a new zone were a nice touch. The atmosphere really went hand in hand with the art style which made the gameplay of this game feel awesome. Music – the music is absolutely phenomenal. It grabbed my attention right away and just added to the overall experience of traversing Talos. I’m a huge fan of video game music so I definitely loved this part of 9YoS. Gameplay – there is a lot to cover in gameplay! Combat and game controls feel great. 9 Years of Shadows has a unique combat style that intrigued me from the start. It took me a little to get use to how the main character’s shields and mana were combined. Once the pool of mana was depleted, a timing event occurs on screen and allows you to refill your bar back up. If your pool of mana is depleted and you take a hit, you lose an armor point (which you upgrade your number of armor points during the game). After I mastered this, combat felt super fluid and I almost felt unstoppable. Your sidekick (Apino) has an ability that drains your mana pool but can definitely be useful to traverse the world or refill your mana pool. Another aspect of gameplay are Europa’s (main character’s) armor sets. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the ability to switch between them based on the area you’re in, and upgrade them individually was super sick. Combat may seem pretty basic as far as different attacks go, but I think that is a positive! Like I said before, you can increase your armor and mana by collecting upgrades throughout the world, combined with coins that you get from killing enemies, then visiting the blacksmith. Lastly, questing is pretty straightforward in 9YoS but overall, I felt it was great addition to the game that helped players actually seek out optional bosses. The musicians were an awesome hub area to check progress of your character and pull the story full circle with how much progress you have made in Talos. Bosses were unique and there were quite a few of them! Some more challenging than others, but overall, I didn’t have a hard time progressing through them. Cons: Crashes – after the patches and updates I have heard that the crashes have gotten better, but on launch day I had quite a few crashes. After certain boss fights, while traversing the map, when trying to save…there were quite a few different scenarios where my game crashed to desktop. I understand it is hard to optimize a game for PC, and I’m super grateful they are working even harder to make the game flawless in performance. I don’t know if all the bugs causing crashes are fixed, but in my experience of playing the game right after release, I had to replay areas because I hadn’t saved for a long time or even replay full boss fights. Just a thing to keep in mind! Locked Achievements – Being an achievement hunter, I was losing my mind when achievements weren't unlocking for me after my first full playthrough. Haha. They should all be fixed now so this isn’t really a negative anymore, but for some reason a few boss achievements didn’t pop for me on my first playthrough, as well as some collectable/sidequest achievements. That’s kind of why I put my review of this game off because I couldn’t 100% it until some of the achievements were fixed. All good now! Overall, 9 Years of Shadows is a super fun metroidvania at a great price. The devs didn’t try to over innovate, they created a solid experience for players to bite their teeth into. I enjoyed my experience with the game. Newer players to the metroidvania genre will probably love this game while veterans may feel like they want more from it. I thought this was a solid title and I can’t wait to see what comes next!
• gamedeal user

  Apr 14, 2023

  For those who are achievement hunters, the achievement "fully equipped" is bugged and is not obtainable. Pros: + The game offers a good "risk vs. reward" with the light system most of the game. Functions as a shield and an attack. + Varying range of difficulty for bosses, from easy to hard. If you're struggling with a boss, watch the attack pattern. + Excellent soundtrack + Vibrant world; colors are meaningful. Cons: - The element system feels like a matching game. For most bosses, elemental damage is not impactful. - Elevators with unskippable pointless dialogue (looking at you, "...") - Unskippable boss scenes. Not bad the first time, pretty annoying the 5th time. - Game doesn't save after bosses.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 28, 2023

  Briefly: - Will immediately remind you of Castlevania - Is apparently short, but I don't have a lot of time to play games so short is fine, although... - ...replayability would be nice. This doesn't seem like a metroidvania at all. - Music is good - Controls are great - Enemies are meh - Map is fine, but I haven't had to backtrack so.. - Love the pixel art, though the environmental graphics can also be meh at times Recommended, but don't expect a metroidvania, and go in knowing it's a short experience. Like Super Metroid, except Super Metroid can be replayed for ~30 years.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 12, 2023

  I saw some negative comments but I think that I need to tell that... yeah. This game is really not for everyone. It's a very specific type of metroidvania. More like a classic one. And I think that's what some people are not understanding the full potential of the game. This is a FANTASTIC videogame and a classic vibe with some modern twists in a "castlevania" game. I really think the music just gives all the vibes you need and the movement in this game is done flawlessly. Definitely I would recommend for someone that want to feel the same thing as playing the best Castlevania games of PS1 and GBA eras.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 28, 2023

  It seems like the game has a memory leak problem. Many people are reporting crashes, I watched in task manager and the game easily goes into using 2GB+ of memory and then still growing further.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 31, 2023

  Game look beautiful. Game plays OK (some of the aiming is below par when it comes to the companion and a Steam controller). This game crashes all the time at this point. I'm more than happy to give this a positive review once the crashes are fixed but I cannot recommend this game in its current state.
• gamedeal user

  May 13, 2023

  9 Years of Shadows is an excellent metroidvania excelling in art style, music, style and atmosphere. The music and art especially I found quite captivating. My only qualms are the combat and save system both being dated (manual saving ONLY, no autosaving... yikes) Despite this, huge recommend for a relatively short, casual metroidvania with outright fantastic setting and atmosphere.