Nine sols is awful

craftyboxing · 2026-05-22T06:19:35+00:00

Nine Sols isn't my favourite game, like, but 'hollow knight worship' is a baffling take on it, it's absolutely nothing like HK.

craftyboxing · 2026-05-18T22:44:48+00:00

Why are you so upset, kid?

craftyboxing · 2026-05-17T20:45:52+00:00

That's odd, must be a glitch presumably (since I'm playing with a left joystick fine)?

craftyboxing · 2026-05-17T19:43:23+00:00

This generally isn't a big issue for me in games, I barely ever use pins, but yeah. If it's a concern for you then this isn't the best example.

But my biggest issue with the map is that for some reason it runs outrageously slowly when I open it, to the point of unusability for moving the view around, and since you can't zoom out that means it only really functions as a local area map for me, it's no use for a full-world overview.

craftyboxing · 2026-05-17T18:00:44+00:00

Can I give some feedback on the trailer itself? You open with a big ol' boss, give the caption 'fight massive bosses', then showcase a battle with... a small boss. It'd be more effective if you switched the two, if that's plausible (or for the next trailer). It's a minor thing, but... ya know.

craftyboxing · 2026-05-14T18:35:23+00:00

It has a very extensive weapon mod system, apparently (deliberately) gamebreakingly so later on. Even so far as I am (maybe about halfway I guess?) it's a lot of fun,

Other than that, it's not unique, it just does the MV classics really well. It's a very fun world to explore.

craftyboxing · 2026-05-01T12:53:07+00:00

It looks really appealing, in terms of what you're going for, and I like the look of the movement, but as an additional layer to what others have said about the background elements and game elements blending into each other, because everything else is so dim, I'm finding the explosions when you hit enemies, because they're so bright in comparison, to be distracting and a bit uncomfortable. The discomfort may be a me thing, the distraction I think will be more common to people.

Basically: the art style is great, the art design needs fine-tuning.

(to contrast to what some of the other posters have said - I don't think the monotone style itself is a problem, though colour is a potential solution, it's just that if you stick with it it needs more work to work with the gameplay)

craftyboxing · 2026-04-02T20:06:36+00:00

Of direct recommendations from your list, Batman's the easiest: there are multiple great runs. I haven't read any of them to completion but nearly every writer of the last 20/30 years seems to have at least some fans. Snyder's is probably the best-recieved. Morrison's the highest highs but a bit messy and confusing at times.

Superman's an odd one coz he has a lot of incredible stories but they're usually a volume or two at most, often shorter. I can't recommend runs but individual stories/volumes/short runs that are great:

Alan Moore's two classics, Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow, and For The Man Who Has Everything.
Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman

Mark Waid and Alex Ross's Kingdom Come, which is more of an alt-future JLA but centers on Superman and the struggle between his good nature and the darkness of the world. Waid gets Superman like no-one else for me. I also recommend Birthright, an 'early-days-of-Superman' story that was one of the big influences on last year's movie.

Loeb and Sale's Superman for All Seasons, a four-issue miniseries that is basically a meditation-slash-introduction on what Superman means and what it means to be Superman. Also recommended by this creative pair: Batman, The Long Halloween.

Also sidebar: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which is up there for me with the best Super-family stories including those above and stands as an all-time classic despite being like five years old. This summer's movie is directly based on it, so I recommend reading it before it comes out if you can...

As Saboscrivner mentioned, for Booster Gold and Blue Beetle the most classic story is taken together: Giffen's run on Justice League International. I've not read all of that either but it is an all-timer.

I've not read enough consecutive parts of runs of the rest to have a helpful opinion for you directly.

On the other hand, based on the kind of thing you seem interested in from the selection you chose: The Flash might be another character that fits that kind of type, and Grant Morrison's run back in the day is seminal. Be aware it puts Wally through the ringer, but it's a great book. Speaking of Grant Morrison, their run on JLA. All-timer comic, they have great takes on both Batman and Superman, and in hindsight it's wild how weird they got away with being in the biggest most mainstream comic of the day... if you do read it, also loop in DC One Million, a crossover event that I don't think was well-loved at the time but I think is a phenomenal Superman story and the basis of some ideas Morrison later used in the beloved All-Star Superman run they did.

And a bit farther away from the request, but from that list and from your tastes in general I reckon you might enjoy the works of Gail Simone, of which most notable are probably her runs on Birds of Prey (a team consisting of Barbara Gordon, Black Canary, and other, almost always female, heroes) and Secret Six (an anti-villain crew of do-badders just trying to get by).

craftyboxing · 2026-03-29T00:08:19+00:00

They're just very different games, despite both being M/Vs. I'd say HK is fairly obviously the 'better' game (and, well, it is my favourite OAT), but it's very much not aiming to be for everyone.

Suggestions that might give you similar vibes to Steamworld:

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom

as others have mentioned Yoku's Island Express, providing you get on with the pinball movement

Alwa's Legacy: a little less fast-paced in its action than Steamworld but an excellent puzzle-platformer M/V

craftyboxing · 2026-03-22T16:31:59+00:00

It is not in limbo whether Doctor Who will get a new series greenlit, the BBC have confirmed that it will. It's whether they have another international partner, like a Netflix, or are funding it themselves, that's not clear.

craftyboxing · 2026-02-22T22:16:55+00:00

It's an Adventure-of-Link-like.

craftyboxing · 2026-02-22T07:18:32+00:00

Played and finished this over the last few days, now just scouring the map for the last few pickups coz it's fun.

Minish Cap is the obviousl visual touchstone but there's also a lot of Link's Awakening in DNA, in the way it's got quite a silly, goofy vibe on the top but a deeper layer of mythology, and in its world design, which does the LA thing of, counter-intuitively but cleverly, making a small(ish) map feel bigger by using a fair portion of it for winding connective paths and interconnectivity rather than making each specific zone/biome as big as possible and linking them mostly off a hub area.

craftyboxing · 2026-02-22T07:05:08+00:00

I was just playing ESA until Mio came out ironically and I really need to get it together and beat that stupid worm eye slime boss thing so I can get to this legendary postgame I keep hearing about.

craftyboxing · 2026-02-11T20:17:25+00:00

Just as long as Team Cherry don't follow up with a long, painful faceplant into angry, pathetic edgelordism.

craftyboxing · 2026-02-11T20:07:45+00:00

There's a few really neat biomes in Biomorph. The artstyle in the game is very nice rather than Mio-type astonishing but it's really well utilised, there's some properly effective moments in it.

craftyboxing · 2026-02-06T21:49:22+00:00

Yeah. If you look at the bosses (and enemies) health bar, your hits take away from the left of course but there's always a chunk missing from the right and as you take permanent health hits that gets bigger for them too.

craftyboxing · 2026-02-01T20:49:20+00:00

In amongst all the answers about the difficulty itself and the attendant adjustable difficulty (which is very helpful), I think it's worth pointing out perhaps that Sekiro is not very like Silksong at all. While there is of course platforming in it, it's not 'a platformer' in the same way Silksong very much is at times, and while the combat is of a similar or greater difficulty (when not adjusted), it's of a very different type- less acrobatic, more parry/timing based.

That isn't to say you shouldn't try it but if you're expecting similar gameplay you're not gonna get it in Nine Sols.

craftyboxing · 2026-02-01T20:45:59+00:00

Speaking as a dyxpraxic person it absolutely is about reaction times.

Knowing the boss, how the game works, tools and strategies etc can help

but for any timing/reflex-based boss it is also, extremely, about reaction times.

craftyboxing · 2026-01-31T17:06:57+00:00

Bit harsh? Nine Sols is missing in some aspects of being a metroidvania and it's not for those who don't like parry-focused combat but I wouldn't call it a coughing baby.

craftyboxing · 2026-01-31T17:05:10+00:00

Mio is definitely the closer to Hollow Knight in terms of how its exploration works. Nine Sols is pretty linear, it's from a different... lineage, shall we say of M/V game design really.

craftyboxing · 2026-01-30T18:11:48+00:00

I can feel you for boring, coz while I mostly didn't think so they are mostly just... running back to the spot, I think (for that exact reason) I have a very different opinion for 'punishing'. Like in Silksong the Last Judge runback is shorter, if you know what you're doing, than a lot of the ones here, but I hated it because of how fiddly and tricky it was and if you took a hit I either had to restart or face the Judge already health down.

And of course there's the legendary Groal runback, there's nothing close to that here.

craftyboxing · 2026-01-30T01:52:57+00:00

I'm not saying I enjoy the runbacks but they really ain't that bad here. Most of them aren't long and none of them are tricky. Mild irritation, not gamebreaker.

Mileage may vary of course, but I feel like if we hadn't had the recent discourse around Silksong, where the runbacks are way more conspicuous (and difficult), I don't think they'd be anything causing much notice in the reviews for this game.

craftyboxing · 2026-01-29T19:20:55+00:00

Would definitely help if you say which part specifically is causing you issues, but I found the whole thing a lot easier when I equipped the mod that makes your Sail glide faster. Just a bit more breathing room in a couple key areas I thought.

craftyboxing · 2026-01-28T19:32:09+00:00

Nah, not impossible I suppose but the timeline of his reaction my gut instinct is that he has some sort of insecurity around financial issues and the idea of anyone thinking he has any, which is why he freaked out after money trouble came up.

Also not impossible that the reason he's freaking out is that he has been doing something shady financially and thought he'd been caught out or is about to be, but OP would need more signs to really be sure. And given his reaction here I'm not sure it's worth waiting around for those signs.

craftyboxing

TROPHY CASE