9 Years of Shadows

9 Years of Shadows is an approachable pickup for anyone interested in a light and charming metroidvania. If you want some colorful and thoughtful action in your life, this one's for you.

Nine Years of Shadows is a good Metroidvania with an impressive presentation and intriguing world. Gameplay mechanics will be instantly familiar to any genre fans and easy to understand for newcomers. There aren’t too many surprises in the narrative but it is imbued with a sense of optimism that kept me engaged. I wanted more variety for combat encounters and a smoother difficulty curve for the bosses. The game also has a weird tendency to put its save rooms just outside of the way enough that it’s easy to forget about them and lose progress. But otherwise, Nine Years of Shadows execute a good idea well and its look allows it to distinguish itself from competitors.

9 Years of Shadows will draw you in with masterful pixel art and irresistible music, then keep you hooked with its glorious halberdy action and overall strength of character. Despite some overly forgiving map design and limited replay value, this is a Metroidvania you might just fall in love with. An ideal entry point for newcomers to the genre, a must-play for long-time fans.

Those technical troubles aside, 9 Years of Shadows is a marvelous adventure. It’s a more intimate take on the metroidvania formula, but what it lacks in scale it more than makes up for in clever design and synergy between its moving parts. The sheer beauty of the game and the world it asks you to explore don’t hurt, either.

An enjoyable, entry level metroidvania. It looks, sounds and plays great even if it is a little on the short side.

9 Years of Shadows may not shake up the world of indie games, but it comes as a metroidvania with quality, personality and a lot of good ideas. Recommended for fans of the genre.

Hopefully, post-launch patches will arrive to remedy this experience to its best possible iteration because it deserves it. Underneath it all, 9 years of Shadows is a fantastic time assumedly hampered by developmental circumstances.

9 Years of Shadows is a typical metroidvania which still manages to draw attention thanks to its interesting design and the somewhat eccentric elements of its world building.

9 Years of Shadows can be frustrating in places, but if you’re looking for a 2D Metroidvania with solid combat, enjoyable platforming, and beautiful world design, it ticks all of those boxes.

9 Years of Shadow is not a true metroidvania and should not be approached as such. It is a scrolling action game that is linear most of the time and does not have much content, as you can get 100% in less than ten hours. The combo system is very simple, with few moves available, and attacks from a distance are far too powerful. If you are a fan of the genre you might give it a chance, as soon as you find it in a price range you think is appropriate, but don't expect it to be your new benchmark in terms of quality.

9 Years of Shadows is a great game that fans of Metroidvanias will definitely love; it’s just the problems with the game crashing and freezing that make me have to score the game lower than it really deserves.

9 Years of Shadows clearly shows that Halberd Studios' underlying ideas are good, but their development hasn't been flawless. Despite a particularly lively background imagery, which mixes different influences in an interesting way, staged with considerable care in the graphics department, this short adventure fails to exploit its full potential.

It's pretty and it plays well, but this is a short, underwhelming Metroidvania with no exploration and uninteresting level design.