9 Years of Shadows Review (Steam)

For our 9 Years of Shadows Review, we fight to bring beautiful colors back to a hand-crafted world of darkness and discover the story of Europa, a young warrior, and her ghostly childhood companion, Apino. Many have tried to venture inside the twisted depths of Talos, a dormant fortress where several civilizations have settled over centuries. And, after losing everything she held dear, Europa has nothing holding her back from attempting what others could not achieve. As a noble fighter who refuses to be bound by the curse, she must enter the castle, find the source of corruption, and return the color once and for all.

9 Years of Shadows Review  Pros:

• Decent pixel art graphics.
• 7.06GB download size.
• Steam achievements.
• Full controller support.
• Graphics settings – resolution and window mode.
• Can rebind controls.
• 3 save slots.
• Awesome animated cutscenes.
• Metroidvania platformer gameplay.
• 2D perspective.
• Smooth solid controls.
• Hack and slash combat with free-flowing combos.
• Breakable objects within the world.
• Tutorial pop-ups as you play.
• Instant smash hit soundtrack.
• The animations look so cool.
• Elemental armor makes an appearance and this can help you deal mega damage to enemies but also absorb more damage.
• The map uncovers as you play.
• Beautiful artwork and colors.
• Big boss encounters.
• Enemies respawn when you leave and return to a screen.
• Find music note relics to upgrade your health and magic bar.
• Takes a lot from the Castlevania games.
• The map fills in as you explore.
• Save rooms.
• Very enjoyable.
• Slight puzzle elements.
• Hidden rooms and routes.
• Has a mix of hack and slash accompanied by a basic shooter addition, your ally can in fact shoot enemies and switches.

9 Years of Shadows Review Cons:

• Bare minimum graphics settings.
• Hard crashed a few times with no saving.
• Played a bit then after the last hard crash I cannot pass the opening cinematics. Has been fixed now but it can occasionally happen.
• Not a lot of things to collect and do in terms of items etc.
• Combat is very repetitive.
• Slow starter.
• Save rooms are far apart resulting in replaying large chunks.

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9 Years of Shadows:

Official website.

Developer: Halberd Studios

Publisher: Freedom Games

Store Links –

Steam