9 Years of Shadows Review
When you go to an event like PAX East, you either see games you have heard about or entirely new games. Of the games you heard about, most are soon to be released (in my own experience). In rare cases, you get to demo a game and then play it at home the very next day. That would be the case for 9 Years of Shadows. I demoed the game on Sunday and bought it on Steam the very next day.
9 Years of Shadows is the debut game of Halberd Studios and is described as an emotionally driven Metroidvania (in my opinion, this is less of a Metroidvania and more of a 2D action adventure platformer - having features of a genre does not make it one of that genre). You play as Europa and, with her companion, Apino, a magical stuffed bear, must fight back the darkness attempting to swallow the world.
In the beginning, Europa has a basic attack and she can dodge attacks with a backward dash. As you progress through the game, Europa gains access to elemental armor sets which serve two purposes. The first of which is that they charge your attacks and you do more damage to enemies susceptible to that particular type. Enemies actually glow when you have the right set equipped. Equipping them is very reminiscent of Mega Man with the ability to swap between weapons minus the concern over ammo. The armor sets also provide new ways of traversal in the game such as swimming underwater or floating on air currents. In fact, the game will automatically swap you to the appropriate set when needed. For example, the first time you encounter water, Europa can jump in but you just float up top and/or swim across to the other side. Once the elemental armor set is available, jumping in will automatically allow you to swim underwater even granting the ability to become a mermaid for faster travel. In another instance, there was an area blocked off because poison would kill me. For the life of me, I could not recall where this area was but eventually, I received armor allowing access. At this point, I did not search for it but probably naturally came across it as I further progressed in the story.
Maybe I am just reaching here but this automation of abilities felt like it took the Metroidvania out of the game. Sure, there was no neon sign pointing the way to go but the “figuring out” portion was somewhat served to me on a silver (maybe a dull, somewhat rusty) platter. There was no thinking, “I wish I could reach that area up there” when the game practically tells you to swim here or ride this current there. Additionally, there was no “ah ha!” moment where you suddenly remembered an area that was just out of reach but now your new ability can get you up there. It almost feels required to have ledges that are just out of reach that you have to remember to return to later on. The new abilities just felt like they were a part of the progression of the story and were just acquired to move on versus encouraging the explorative nature one should feel with a Metroidvania.
To round off Europa’s abilities, she gets a double jump, charged attacked, and a combo move (the light and heavy attacks were there but the game finally recognizes a specific input). On top of that, Apino shoots lasers from his eyes (sort of…)
The lasers can also open different types of doors but it all felt like everything else, it never elicited your inner Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones drive to explore as everything just seemed laid out in front of you.
That said, with all the abilities/armors at your disposal, combat was quite enjoyable. Controlling Europa felt good and swapping armor types to expose weaknesses felt great. No enemy was truly difficult, bosses included, BUT Europa had limited life so some caution was advised. Apino’s “ammo” meter was also your shield. If that shield depleted, you could only take a hit or two at most. I found out later in the game that attacking with your weapon while simultaneously unloading with Apino’s abilities could decimate enemies but there was an inherent risk of the enemy getting a hit off and killing you on the spot.
Speaking of dying, it is probably best to avoid doing so but not for painfully obvious reasons. 9 Years of Shadows has limited save points and absolutely no checkpoints. If you die, you restart from the last time you saved. Now, this is nothing new to many games but restarting here is more akin to just loading up your last save. Anything you did, with the exception of boss fights, is reset. At one point, I defeated a mini-boss, got the Steam achievement, died a few rooms over, and had to refight the mini-boss. Save rooms are clearly indicated on the map when you find them but accidents happen. I mistimed a few jumps and landed on spikes or I dodged back into another enemy. Towards the end of my time, I was planning routes based on hitting a nearby save point first. The only comparison I have to restarting a checkpoint way back whenever is returning to retrieve your souls and dying to an even lesser enemy before you claim them. It is an incredibly deflating feeling.
I lied when I said I planned routes. Each of those aforementioned armor sets comes from vastly different biomes specifically geared toward the element as well as the new traversal method you will acquire. Did I mention how stunning they are? They look absolutely incredible with multitudes of vibrant colors. Yet, each biome is just a giant maze that can be exceedingly frustrating to navigate.
There is no minimap so prepare to open up the main map repeatedly. Part of the frustration with this came from the caution one must exhibit to spare yourself an incredibly painful death. Nothing like playing for 25 minutes and realizing you have not saved and literally anything can kill you. Also, the biomes are all themed around various elements. I could not enter the poison area early on but when the game decided it was time, I did and retrieved the armor that made me immune. Same with fire. With the automation of swapping armor, there was never a worry about the environment killing me. I think sections of impending death based on players’ ability to choose the right tools would have more fully embraced the Metroidvania label.
As part of my due diligence, I should point out some of the technical issues with the game. The game has both crashed on me and frozen enough that it needs to be pointed out. Since launch, there have been 2 updates with numerous fixes. Normally, crashes and freezes could be brushed off (by me) but the issues with save progression do not need external factors piling on.
9 Years of Shadows is not a terrible game by any means (despite the negative tone of this review). Personally, I think I hyped myself up to play a Metroidvania and faced an uphill battle when I realized it contains Metroidvania-like aspects. The combat is enjoyable and the visuals are phenomenal. Once the technical issues are cleaned up, I would highly recommend this to fans of action/adventure 2D platformers. Perhaps I am being a little too hard but I think anyone interested in this as a Metroidvania should tread lightly.
