(Played on Steam Deck in Traditional Chinese. 25 hours to see the True Ending in Story Mode.)
To Red Candle Games, Nine Sols is both their most ambitious project to date and the one they played the safest among their first 3 outings. In comparison to their previous 2 horror-themed point & click adventure games, this action rpg is long and gamey. After 2019’s Devotion brought the wrath of Beijing on them, the Chinese speaking developers almost apologetically let their next one retell Chinese mythology as science fiction (Not in the “putting those tales in space” way but the ancient alien route.). This is just one of many balancing acts Nine Sols managed to pull off well.
When a Lord of Light had Three-body Problem
One other balancing act the game managed to pull off is with its opening cut scene joggling production value and narrative efficiency. It’s a fully animated cut scene clearly not cheap to produce. It effectively set up the game’s hero (Player character), villain (Final boss and the only irredeemable evil one in the story) and the innocent caught in between without context nor a word said. The context and reasons would be shown to player in the whole duration of this game at a pace I am fine with.
Nine Sols’ player character is Yi, a feline alien on a revenge trip after a betray by his own people. How Yi is drawn speaks volume to me. There is the Sanrio method of not drawing mouth but without that dot-for-eye approach, the obviously narrowed eyes on Yi certainly implies something boiling under his stoic demeaner.
As someone who came into this game relatively cold, yours truly saw the Chinese character for “Yi”, thought about the game title meaning “9 suns” and thought “Red Candle Games, you cheeky bastards!” “Yi shot nine sols” is one of 2 tales in Chinese mythology that could explain why sun worshipping not being as prominent in Chinese culture as the other Eastern Asian culture like Japan (Whose royalty still consider a sun deity as their ancestor allegedly.).
The star of that other such tale is presented as a friendly with one character in his (Yes, this game’s living friendlies make up a sausage party. Also, the game’s traditional Chinese text uses the character for the gendered “he/him” of modern use as if it’s the non plural “they/them” in earlier times.) name altered. The myth retold here is closer to the “when myth ended and history began” type. 2 other friendlies of the game were people who Sima Qian (Chinese counterpart to er, the West’s Herodotus, as both men put "story" into "history") began his History with.
My own impression of “sun worshipping not being as prominent in Chinese culture” also came from Liu Cixin’s Three-body Problem probably the best-known Chinese language science fiction novel internationally. The gest of it would be an alien invasion began because those aliens’ home solar system will be devoured by its 3 suns soon enough. Nine Sols also tell a story about a feline alien called Solrians running from their home world to our solar system and enslaving a race of primates that was likely the ancestor to us homo sapiens.
However unlikely Three-body Problem and its sequels focusing on homo sapiens, Nine Sols has analogue to colonial “white guilt” (Player character’s fur color not withdrawn.) like Roger Zelany’s Lord of Light. This story asks “Will he, won’t he?” regarding a member of technically advance colonists helping the locals. The mechanics of this game is more interested in the how much until a threshold.
Backtracking is caring
Mechanically speaking, Nine Sols falls into the Metrovania mold. The context for movement suite is an experienced combatant picking up a new-to-him material art discipline. Out of 5 updates, only 2 are purely movement, namely mid-air and double-jump. The other 3 are two types of parries with a hold-then-release attack (Like Serio’s stab or Metroid series’ charge shot) in between.
The button mapping should be easy to anyone played a side scroller in their life. Down face button to jump being the four decades old standard and tap left face button to slash being a three decades old standard. Up face button for the limited projectile and right face button as griping hook near gripping points. Though with right on d-pad for healing, this game only has joy stick movement. Right trigger to evade and right bumper to, for lack of better words, attack magically (Something mandatory for an enemy type near end game. Also something one got to master if they want clear bosses more effectively).
Left bumper for parry and one has to face an incoming attack to parry it off. The 2 upgrades would be mid-air parry, also part of platforming, and a hold-then-release one against enemies’ charge up attacks. This hold-then-release parry is a dance require bit more patience, as it would automatically stop if player holds long enough. It only works when released as the right time.
Nine Sols certainly follows From Soft’s “three is a crowd” kind of challenge setting, even the gauntlets usually send in waves of 3, rarely above 4. 3 enemies can pull off a deadly combo killing Yi easily in Standard difficulty or a minor set back in Story difficulty. With just one exception, all Nine Sols (2 of which appear as a tag team.) pull at least one extra life bar out of their asses, no matter they engage Yi directly or send in their robot lackeys. At least the mini bosses go down after cleared life bars and all bosses have a save point just before.
Of course, one cannot say that they learnt from From’s Soulsborne without the save point healing the player and bringing the enemies back in the area. Fast travel is tricky in this one, first one can travel from save points to Yi’s base of operation and verse versa. Then one can travel from save points to said base of operation then other save points from there. Save point also serves for Jade plug-in swapping for different character builds and skill trees.
In Yi’s base of operation, there are different shops for weapon upgrades, health upgrades and Jades. There is also someone to shower gifts on with cut scenes for levity as rewards. To reach the game’s obviously intended ending, backtracking thoroughly is a must. It feels like a perfect marriage of narrative and mechanic, at least to yours truly. The game’s 2 endings are about how far Yi would go to help the primates his people enslaved, so the amount of back tracking player choose to partaking marks the difference between a spices-reversed save-the-cat trope and a real helping act for those come after.
Not going against one’s nature
Some players of Red Candle’s previous outings might look at the white cat in yellow robe on Nine Sols’ cover, deem the game too much a departure and do not give it a chance. To them I say fear not, for the “Master of horror” is still at work in this game. The game has a tutorial phase with rather cozy vibe. But to kick off the action, there is the religious ceremony related horror imagery that is deep rooted in Red Candle Games’ house style. Not to mention the futuristic and industrial nightmares in the background, some of which are “remastered” ones from Detention like eyes on trees. The game has the usual “not for the faint of heart” contents warning before it after all.
Personally I find ancient tales on the verge of becoming history have more er science fictional potential, and Nine Sols mined those admirably. The game has a good story to tell and a challenge for its target audience. But I am glad that it also has Story Mode for me who just want to play it more ruthlessly and enjoy the story. The game certainly deserves to be played by more.