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There is no foundation for "9 Years of Shadow"

1K View2023-03-30

9 Years of Shadows (Reviewed)

Developer: Halberd Studios

Publisher: Freedom Games

Released: 27 March, 2023

Price: $19 USD

9 Years of Shadows is an attempt at a Metroidvania-style game that has a finer emphasis on the visual art and animations than the primary gameplay.

You follow and play as Europa, a young warrior who has spent her entire life training in anticipation of the day when she may exact revenge for her parents and deliver the planet from everlasting darkness that took them from her.

A curse has been cast upon the world, and has been cloaked in a endless night, devoid of color. She enters the castle where it all began in hopes to end the curse, but is met with defeat, upon which she is reunited with a ghostly spirit who helps bring her back to her senses, returning color to everything around her, and helping her on her journey to free the world.

The Many Issues

There is a long list of issues. The gameplay, exploration, Steam achievements, and game crashing for many users, the enemies and the linear gameplay.

I can say with confidence that, for their debut title, it isn't a complete disaster, but it also isn't exactly enjoyable for die-hard fans of the Metroidvania genre.

Combat

As previous stated in my first impressions review of this game, the combat has not improved at all since. It's the same tediously slow paced gameplay I have come to expect from this specific game that claims itself to be a Metroidvania.

There is just a lot more waiting between attacks than I am used to, and other gamers who have sat down to play it for the brief 10-hour experience that it is frequently mention this, if the pacing were more moderate and the fights were more in-depth, I believe that it would be better off, but currently it is not good.

Approach the enemy, attack, back off, wait or duck/jump, repeat. It doesn't change until you reach one of the few boss fights in the game, but only briefly.

Mana Spam

Although the mana system is somewhat unpleasant, it is also quite easy to exploit against all of the game's trash mobs. If you use the reload button after running out of mana, you will replenish all of your mana and be able to safely dispatch adversaries at a distance with no further battle effort.

You may simply respond, "So don't spam mana?" But you must realize that if you don't you will have to repeatedly wave through fights with the same creatures, which wastes your time. They must be killed because you can't get through them, unless you are capable of jumping over them, which is not often.

The system is flawed, and doesn't fit in this game.

Boss Fights

I expected more of them. They cycled through the same 2-4 rotations, making them far too reasonably simple to kill on the first try or second try. Due to the mana health system, you're practically immortal, so long as you hug Apino.

Each of them has an invulnerability phase, during which you must employ your ally Apino to pierce their defenses before striking them when they collapse.

I want to say that the confrontations with these beasts were at most passable despite the good animations and aesthetics, which is far better than the trash mobs that are scattered across the levels leading up to these fights.

Extreme linearity

If you are expecting a game that has you running around, thinking about where to go, keeping an eye out for secret rooms and locations, while farming up currently to power yourself up to take on ever increasing monsters and bosses, this really isn't the game for you. It has practically nothing going for it besides moving in one direction, obtaining a piece of gear, and moving to the next.

Inability to skip elevator cutscenes

You will have to wait for about 15 seconds after entering an elevator to get to the next location as the character speaks through her internal dialogue with stunning background pixel animations. Nevertheless, this can't be skipped.

Every time you try to enter a new area, which is frequently because you have to travel back to the previous location to get to the next location, this continues to take up more and more of your gaming time, which becomes very tedious.

Not a true Metroidvania game

The Metroidvania formula is characterized by non-linear, exploration-based gameplay, power-ups, and role-playing aspects. The game offers some of these, but is exceedingly linear, both in the exploration aspect and the combat.

Once you enter a new location, all secret areas and locations will be revealed to you on the map. All you have to do is go to the walls that can be destroyed and enter.

The Developers

Reached out to me

While playing through the game I was approached by the developers in an attempt to ask how I was enjoying the game. I straight up told them the truth.

The game is not fun in it's current state, due to the many issues plaguing it, and the boring slow paced gameplay, along with the story if I am being honest. While yes, it looks visually amazing, especially with the pixel art. It's just not fun.

They seemed very receptive to the complaints and issues, and mentioned that they would make all the necessary changes to the game in the coming weeks and months to fix instabilities, bugs and hopefully the gameplay itself.

Conclusion

Short and severely lacking any depth

The game lacks anything distinctive outside of graphics, unlike many other games in its category. The bosses were a welcome change of pace until you realized how straightforward and basic they actually are, which only adds to your growing dissatisfaction. I'm not trying to be rude it needs an overhaul.

The further I advanced in game, the more frustrated I became because each new upgrade, boss, or repeating adversary didn't seem like an accomplishment; rather, it felt like a waste of my time overall because it didn't matter that I was learning something new or making progress. The game was and is linear.

I sincerely hope the game's creators give the primary gameplay some additional polish so that it becomes something people can really enjoy rather than just "play" for the sake of trying something new.

This concludes my review of this game, while my opinions may be met with criticism, that's what makes gamers unique, you don't have to like the same things that others do, nor do you have to agree with them.

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- Pawkt

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