9th Dawn Remake Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published October 16, 2024 · Updated October 15, 2024

9th Dawn Remake Review, Rediscover the magic of the 9th Dawn series with this complete re-imagining of the original game. Venture into a massive 2.5D open world. Explore 45 new dungeons in single-player or online/local co-op, craft weapons, raise pets, play a deck-building card game, and take down the Castle of Maltyr!

9th Dawn Remake Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
1.08GB download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller support.
Four save slots.
Graphics settings – resolution, v-sync, fullscreen, GUI scale slider, graphics preset, and pet HP bars in UI.
Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, can remap buttons for each individual player.
Local two-player support.
A field of view slider.
Character creator – hair type, hair color, and skin Color.
Three difficulties – Easy, normal, and hard.
Game setup – enemy density can be set to classic (low) or modern (high) along with treasure type set to default, randomized, and set from seed.
Online Co-op support and you can host or join.
Adventure gameplay.
Tutorial signs are scattered around the world.
Loot chest contents can be looted individually or all at once.
Twin stock controls for fighting.
You have a huge selection of gear slots – four rings, head, arms, necklace, boots, body, bow, arrows, two relics, and two weapon slots.
Many Breakable objects in the world that can drop items.
Find map fragments to fill in the map and mini-map.
Bloodspawn is a place you activate and it becomes your respawn point. You can’t miss them, lot of red.
Fog of war is in play meaning parts of the level and map don’t show until you move and explore it.
Very easy to get into the game thanks to simple controls.
In-game character interaction, you can click through them to speed it up.
A fascinating world to explore.
Each area on the map has a completion score.
Fast travel points can be found and used.
You do have missions both main story and side but you can just go off and do what you want.
Command-line prompt setting.
Force the death button.
Day/night cycle and weather effects.
Rolling info bar of what’s killed or picked up.
Shortcut items use the system of holding a button and then pressing the shortcut button assigned.
Clear bars showing exp, health, etc.
Save when you want.
Skills will go up as you use those weapons in battle.
Dungeon entrances are everywhere.
Earn EXP and level up to get attribute points to distribute.
Crafting-find recipes and make weapons/armor/items.
Main quests and optional side quests.
A lot of loot.
Fishing Survivors mini-game – unlock new water types (quiet, etc) and you have a seperate progress bar for this mode. Four playable classes and it plays like Vampire Survivors. That is it’s an auto-attacking survival game where you move around killing enemies and collecting orbs to level up and get loot.
full of atmosphere.
Collect eggs and hatch then get a pet who follows you around.
Big boss encounters.
The game has its own card game battler in the towns. You can collect cards in the world to use in it.
Buy and sell weapons and gear with vendors in towns.
It’s possible to wear sets of clothing by getting all the pieces.
Craft weapons and potions that can heal or give you buffs.
It’s possible to have an army of pets following you around attacking enemies for you.
The game world is either a third-person 2.5D game World or a full first-person 3D game World.
Ability orbs can be collected and spent on upgrading stats, you can respect them whenever you want.

9th Dawn Remake Review Cons:

You do need a keyboard for name entry.
Even in a single-player game, you cannot pause the game.
Enemies respawn quickly.
Can feel lost a lot of the time.
Shortcut buttons are not always ideal as you need to press a button beforehand to activate them as it were.
Way too much food loot meaning loads of small HP recovery food.
Constant difficulty spikes.
Inventory management is clunky.
You cannot zoom in on the map.
Not the greatest signposting for finding objectives.
Dungeons all feel the same.
The first person takes some getting used to.
I found the controller to not always be great with the combat. Not very precise or consistent.