9 Years of Shadows Review (Steam)

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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.

Related post: Ravenswatch Preview (Steam Early Access)

9 Years of Shadows:

Official website.

Developer: Halberd Studios

Publisher: Freedom Games

Store Links –

Steam

  • 8/10
    Graphics - 8/10
  • 8/10
    Sound - 8/10
  • 8/10
    Accessibility - 8/10
  • 7/10
    Length - 7/10
  • 8/10
    Fun Factor - 8/10
7.8/10

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!