I’m about 10 hours into Nine Sols 九日. After 9 hours, I might have told you that this was becoming as close to a perfect game as one could make in 2024. Then the game committed three game design sins in a row:
1. A boss with a surprise second health bar and a second phase nearly identical to the first
2. An unwinnable boss fight with a scripted loss
3. A mandatory stealth section without all the combat and movement abilities I had earned up to this point.
It’s still a fantastic game, but what an Icarus-like plummet after reaching such highs.