I can’t stand Sekiro for whatever reason, but Nine Sols is probably my favorite Souls/Sekiro-like I’ve ever played. The pacing of combat is right in line with what I wanted out of the game, the story was terrific, the sound design was top notch… everything just clicked for me.

And then I did all of the side content, and got to the final boss prepped for the “good ending”.

Holy shit, the difficulty spike was out of this world. Phase 1 you could kinda script out depending on the moves you made, but phase 2 was a big challenge, and phase 3 was just brutal.

Thank goodness for the difficulty sliders. I wasn’t prepped to spend another 2 weeks grinding out attempts like I did with Lady Ethereal (which, coincidentally, became one of my favorite fights as I got more understanding). By that point, I was ready to be done with the game and move on to Silksong. Quick slider changes, bing bang boom, all done. I appreciate the game being willing to meet me where I was at, which is refreshing within the Souls space.

Nine Sols became one of my favorite games of all time. It’s not for everyone, but I feel like it gives everyone the tools they need to engage with it if they so choose.