9 Years of Shadows

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

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Review:

9 Years of Shadows is a Metroidvania released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023. In this game, players take the role of the warrior woman named Europa seeking to find the source of a mysterious curse sapping the world of its color. Which somehow also makes people die? I dunno, the game isn’t clear about it, and color is restored shortly after you start playing, when you’re aided by a… magical teddy bear ghost? Yeah, this game’s plot doesn’t make much sense.

However, even senseless, you can’t help but notice how gorgeous this game is, with incredibly detailed 2D pixel art visuals, often depicting some really imaginative designs, with some really nice animation, all backed by a great synthesized soundtrack, with standouts including Portrait of Hope and Boss Draythus Battle (Phase 1). Overall, this game looks and sounds great.

The core gameplay is pretty good too, with fun abilities like the ability to turn into a mermaid, solid combat controls, and an interesting hook that at any time when you’re out of energy (which doubles as health in the form of a shield), you can recover most of it if you can find a safe place to stop and hug your teddy bear. this can make for an interesting dynamic in boss battles when you’re low on energy – do you expend it so you can recover, hoping you don’t take a fatal hit while you’re vulnerable? Or do you hold onto it even when it’s almost out, hoping the little you have left will be enough.

Yeah, in theory this is great, but in practice it can get annoying really quickly, especially when enemies and hazards often take off most if not all of your health when you get hit. Also, it definitely seems like the game should let you recover health without using up all of your energy first, and wasting it just so you can recover it seems needlessly time-consuming.

Another issue here is that this game doesn’t make good use of its Metroidvania structure, with the game playing out mostly linear, and blocked-off areas often unavailable due to a locked door rather than your own inability to reach that area. There’s also not a lot of backtracking here, and it almost makes you wonder if this game’s creators even wanted to make a Metroidvania in the first place.

Still, despite these issues, 9 Years of Shadows is a solid Action-Platformer, even if it isn’t the best Metroidvania, and while it most certainly has rough edges, I do think its positive qualities outweigh its bad ones. If you’re looking for a new Metroidvania to play, you could do far worse than this game.

tl;dr – 9 Years of Shadows is a Metroidvania where you play a woman trying to find the source of a curse plaguing her land. Some of the gameplay mechanics here seem needlessly irritating, and the game doesn’t really make the best use of the fact that it’s a Metroidvania, but despite these issues there’s a lot to like here, including some creative abilities and a beautiful presentation. This isn’t a great Metroidvania, but it’s not a terrible one either.

Grade: B-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Metroidvania

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