Last week we talked about Nine Sols, the upcoming Taopunk action platformer from Red Candle Games, and how a demo was supposed to come out.
Well, the demo is out now on Steam, so I tried it out over the weekend.
I was surprised by how quickly I became interested in its story and characters. The demo seems to be the start of the game, with Yi living alongside a human child before a sinister ceremony causes him to embark on his mission.
Combat has a few different elements that took a bit of getting used to, but once I practiced with it, I liked it. In addition to your basic attack, you can deflect enemy attacks to build up energy and then unleash it in a special attack.
That attack is much more effective than simply hacking at enemies, which led to a rhythm of deflecting strikes and then attacking.
There are certain spots where you can rest, restoring your health and healing items and acting as a checkpoint. It doesn’t seem as though you’ll level up stats in that way, though. Instead, there are unlockable nodes on a skill tree to provide you with upgrades and benefits.
The demo lasts up through the first boss fight, but a second, more challenging boss is also accessible from the main menu afterwards.
I enjoyed the Nine Sols demo a lot, so I’m looking forward to the main game. The only concern I have is that combat could start to feel repetitive (especially long boss fights), but overall I liked what I saw in the demo and am interested in how it will progress.
I’ll probably back the Nine Sols crowdfunding campaign now, so be sure to take a look at the Nine Sols demo to see what you think.
