I love Yi's character so much because there are so many layers to everything he's doing. He's such an emotionally clueless hypocrite, but he's also incredibly intelligent, and despite everything, he never quite slips into being unlikeably evil. I love that your dialogue options in the game underline this, you are often given two questionable options that help to colour in his personality.
Reminded of Alpha Protocol from way back, as Yahtzee put it, the protagonist is a ponce no matter what options you take but you get to choose what kind of ponce he is.
I feel like no one took Yahtzee seriously when he did that Dark Souls review and banged on more about the exploration and themes and worldbuilding, lamenting how the difficulty could work against the game. And then so many more soulslikes just became harder and harder instead of doing cool stuff with their world or writing fun characters, which both Nine Sols and Another Crab's Treasure and Hollow Knight all got right. I'm glad we have challenging games, don't get me wrong, but there's enjoying a challenge and there's fetishizing difficulty. At some point in between getting my skull caved in I should at least get to enjoy the architecture.
People making Soulslikes are completely missing the point. Dark Souls was never specifically about the difficulty, it was just a game that threw you in a world and refused to hold your hand or give you very little guidance which was seriously refreshing at the time it came out. So it's more about wandering your way around a world figuring out what's going on in a brutalist world that doesn't particularly care if you live or die in it, carving your own existence into it.
I just watched his dark souls review, he doesn’t really criticise the difficulty. He only criticises the lack of tutorial and unwillingness to ease you into the game’s crushing difficulty. He did an episode of ‘slightly something else’ where he argued that the high difficulty was integral to the dark souls experience, because the game is about an unforgiving, scary world that doesn’t care about the player. I think where other games get it wrong is that they make a soulslike game about a cool action hero, and then proceed to make it crushingly difficult for no other reason except that Dark Souls did it.
@@PrinceSilvermanealmost like the tale of one man who gets the absolute piss beaten out of him, who’s best friend takes EVERYTHING FROM HIM, yet continues to fight to find meaning in his world, without revenge, and he can move past his trauma and on with his life…… (Godspeed Miura. Your work in Berserk inspired a man to make video game that became a cultural phenomenon like Call of Duty and Pokemon.)
Bloodborne is gorgeous but I can’t stand around looking at the place without getting my skull bashed in, what’s the point in making it so pretty if getting ya skull bashed in the name of the game QnQ
Yi keeps shuanshuan around because A. He reminds Yi of his sister. B his parents are gone so he'd be all alone in the village C. The village is absolutely not safe anymore D. Yi probably wants at least someone to keep himself company
@@bennettcarlson3974 E. Shuanshuan is brilliant - he reads a book about programming and, having previously seen spears as the pinnacle of technology, is able to modify the fake weather software. He doesn’t learn to do anything perfectly but he does pick things up very quickly.
Worth mentioning that for the year where Yi is recovering shuanshuan also does that thing where a character won’t leave the stoic hero alone even though the stoic hero actively chastises them for doing so but the little guy is so endearing that you just gotta let them hang out and tell them a bedtime story sometimes. So yeah, exactly like his sister.
I knew Nine Sols would pull Yahtzee in for the full run. For anyone wondering, this game ROCKS. If you have a pc and enjoy anything like Hollow Knight or other Metroidvanias, get it and enjoy the ride. Shoot, he didn't even touch on the amazing artistic design, music, or sound effects. It's a real masterpiece. If you don't have a pc, console releases are on the way.
Honestly, after seeing it during the stream, I directly put it in my wishlist. The combination of "Hollow Knight but rather than being like Dark Souls it's like Sekiro" aspect (I prefer Sekiro combat to Dark Souls personally) and the aesthetics really made it for me. Currently, it's patiently sitting in the backlog of games I'll play after finishing Sekiro (behind Tunic and probably Animal Well).
@@denmark1226 Assuming you asked for the PC requirements, it says "Recommended Ryzen 3/Intel i5 or higher (generation unspecified), 8GB of RAM, GTX 970". And 15GB of drive space.
As much as I am a believer of a good aesthetic is as important as good gameplay, I still can't believe that all it took for Yahtzee to get over his soulslike fatigue is just by making it cute
He's a cynic. Grimdark gets old fast when you already see the real world as pretty crappy. For optimistic people it's probably exotic. At least that's my experience... ...Or just because every single souls-like game was grimdark (and/or hard for the sake of it) before the crab one took the opposite route
I think it's less that the game is cute and more that the game isn't trying to make you hate yourself for playing it. Some Souls-like games really just try to make rage games with a Souls-shaped outfit.
Me too, I'd love it if Fully Ramblomatic was beholden to whatever government you pay taxes to. I was just thinking there's not enough government propaganda in these episodes.
Y'know how businesses can write off business expenses and apply for low/no-interest loans? Your tax-dollars make that possible. Congratulations! You did it! 🎉
Glad someone else shared a similar sentiment to myself when it comes to Yi. He's surprisingly compelling, and was probably the biggest factor in me taking as much interest as I did in the story. The art honestly doesn't really do it for me and the gameplay feels a level of polish or two from really being truly great, however, I got pretty sucked in from the story. More than anything else, I find it refreshing to play as an actual character. Silent protags are cool and all, but it feels great to play as someone who was and is a participant in the world. Not simply our proxy to exist in it. You have a few different dialogue choices here and there, but for the most part, Yi's words and opinions are his own. Of which he will quite actively express. Now, that can lead into a much larger conversation about silent or self-insert protagonists and character writing... Though I think that's a little more beyond the scope of a single TH-cam comment.
Right there with you. It's so refreshing to play as someone who isn't a silent protagonist/generic everyman/insert-yourself-here,-players "character". I wish we got more games where the protagonist has their own personality and motivations beyond the most inoffensive boilerplate.
@@EmpiricalPierce @EmpiricalPierce Tell me about it. I'm sure they have their place, but it gets a little boring playing intentionally self-insert protags especially. And nothing takes me out more than having all this agency as a player in the gameplay or everyone fawning over my character, but then they may as well not exist during cutscenes and/or has all the personality of a wet paper bag without any real ambition. It's like... maybe some people play games to insert themselves into those worlds. But personally I like to *immerse* myself into them, which is greatly helped by actually playing a character. Or if they're a blank slate, there could at least be a good reason for it, a la Hollow Knight. I've also really liked how Deltarune has played with that player-protag dichotomy, since Kris is intentionally *not* you. Or funnily enough.... how Bugsnax's writers were so bad at not infusing personality into their characters that even the "self-insert" protag has a backstory, implied liked and disliked characters, and enough snark to transcend that anyway.
I was today years old when I discovered that "Naked And Famous" was not just the name of one of my favourite bands, but also a cocktail. Thank you, Yahtzee.
Nine Sols really might be one of my favorite games this year. The combat feels incredible once you master it, the story was surprisingly engaging for a soulslike, where the stories usually fade into the background, and the taopunk world was really incredible to explore and find secrets in.
That surreal horror teddy bear lady is one of my favourite bosses ever. Her mechanics are so fun and it's really challenging but always fair. I'm really glad Yahtzi came back to this game. I saw the "Yahtzi Tries" where the opinion was pretty mixed, I played it anyway, and thought it was a really great game, and one of the best-written games I've ever played.
a Quality review! i also enjoyed the hell out of this game. a few asides, the characters aren't different animals. they are all the same race called Solarian's. they are all based off of Cats with their Ears and other hints throughout the game *Including a big one at the end*. i do agree when bosses pull out hidden stages it can feel very unexpected, but i disagree with your choice of boss for this example. 03:48 this boss called Lady Ethereal felt from the start that she would have three phases, as the first phase melts like butter, when i hit her with my first attack my reaction was "Oh boy this boss is going to be alot of phases isn't it. However for the average gamer i agree, it will feel like a cheap trick, considering they wont have the same gut reaction to the boss as I did. but no boss in this game felt like it was too long to me, some i wish had another phase when i finished fighting them, but thats just a good sign of a great fight. the game used to have markers just like Sekiro's Deathblow system to indicate how many phases they had, but they decided to remove them i guess. 02:50 Its very cool how the game allows you to build around this, i also felt a little akward with the talismans since i could get caught with my pants down on some bosses and enemies. but instead of going for the Water Flow Ability that Yahtzee picked, I went with the full control, which allows you to stop at any point during the animation for big damage, and if you could squeeze it out go for a full 5 Talisman Parry! dealing massive damage, so instead of the whole samurai dashing past and missing, i felt like i was planting a nuke on my foes chest and blasting them to the moon with my attack. very fun skill tree i enjoyed trying everything out on my second playthrough. I do love the story they told with Yi, it was very fun to see him change over the course of the story as he interacted with the Humans (The Game calls them Ape Men but they are just humans) making for a very satisfying game. can highly recommend it if you love Sekiro!
I love how the item description goes out of its way to emphasize that yes, he is absolutely smoking That Good Stuff (whatever that might be for a space cat) and it is (or was) illegal.
So the surprise health bar thing feels like a “dead/dream the whole time” style twist, where it was awesome the first time, but the more overused it gets, it just becomes obnoxious, unless it’s executed well. Speaking of Sekiro, The Ape just getting back up, picking up its sword and decapitated head, and going “I DIDNT HEAR NO BELL,” I love that, and the lack of cutscene breaking the phases apart keeps it from being annoying. But three phases for the final boss? A BIT much.
Ape's final phase works for me on a few levels. I love the near jump scare effect you get from the lack of cutscene accompanying the new health bar. I love the way it shows how the undying blessed by the worm function without any dialogue. Mostly, I love the pay off of fighting a difficult to read ape to access a duel with a skilled swordsman. The centipede itself fights at an even, if offset tempo that is way more fun to stand and parry than the wild flailing of the ape.
I don't think its so similar, since the 'dead the whole time' trope recontextualises the story and usually makes it a lot worse. Multiple health bars are just something I exepct. Maybe its because I play shoot em up games where you usually have like 8 health bars for the stage 5 boss.
Another way to do it right would be something like, and I honestly question my sanity giving this game points, Sonic Forces: The final boss also had two health bars, but the reason that didn't feel like a copout or random backhand is because it was two separate mechs, operating on different mechanics. It wasn't some crap like the Scadutree Avatar, where it literally just says "no" to two separate deaths before staying down. ... Did it have health bars? I actually can't remember, come to think of it...
Loved this game just for its world building and storytelling alone. I loved seeing how the backgrounds alone tell you what's implied, one of my favorite aspects in a metroidvania. And while I agree with Yahtz of the BS hitboxes we should be used to by now from Dark Souls games, Nine Sols' smooth gameplay still leaves me convinced that my death is my skill issue and that I need to git gud.
I would argue that very little is left to interpretation. A lot of stuff is just straight up told or shown to you later on anyway. To be honest, I really liked that part of this game's worldbuilding.
I always like to see Red Candle get some love. I've adored every single one of their games so far. Folks, if you haven't played Detention or Devotion, I highly recommend them.
Glad you liked it! I finished this one last week and it was a great experience! I kinda agree on the second health bar thing - though it helps in some parts, I think the minimum they could do is telegraph it more, in some cases. The exploration and combat of this game were both very fun to me, and I was hooked more than I expected since I could never really stick with Hollow Knight.
Glad to be here, saying "Ha" and snorting bitterly at the end as usual. Thanks for the best takes on the dang internet! Warms the tarnished little cockles of my heart.
That kinda caught me off guard, I forgot Australians call flipflops "Thongs". Bet that makes for some awkward moments whenever Australians go looking for flipflops here in America.
really right on that difficulty lowering on bosses, the moment you understand the timing for parrys, everything just clicks (and it feels awesome when it happens).
I don't know what it is or combination of but I've been finding this show so much funnier than ZP on the escapist. I was just watching because I was in a routine but since second wind started I've been genuinely excited every week
It seems the secret to getting Yahtzee to do ad reads was to just let him write the copy. I imagine the meeting was very short: Nick: "He'll do it how he wants and you will like it." Advertisers: "But-" Nick: "Or He'll just, quote, 'Slag you off in a review anyway because, fuck you." Advertisers: "........ok."
I really hope that if we ever do get a future sekiro sequel thing, that they take inspiration from the Chi blast delay damage cool guy explosion. A Kurosawa esque passthrough attack that you then hold and then bam, impact frame opponent falls over dead with a spray of blood. Its so satisfying in nine sols that it would feel criminal not to include in future games of this type. Also I adored the lady ethereal fight.
I watched his initial impressions and he said the game lacked identity, or something along those lines. I'm so glad he came around to see it for the masterpiece it is.
I'm going to agree with Yahtzee. Finished Elden Ring, and I guess its satisfying. But for a second playthrough I installed a mod with an easier mode and my assessment is the game is really is overtuned. It helped me appreciate how the game wants you to play it, making use of the right talismans and consumables, but that it's just more *fun* when you aren't getting pancaked immediately. I still died plenty, and even ran into walls, but it "felt" better because I could stay in a fight longer, take more risks and learn rather than "whoops, didn't dodge that attack right, dead." A simple reduction in moment-to-moment lethality didn't make the game free, if anything it made me more willing to experiment. Granted some of that was because I also had game knowledge that helped me appreciate the turning down of the temperature, but I agree: I felt my first unmodified playthrough was a bit of a slog, and full of cheap, uninteresting deaths by yet-another-flailing boss and again, a simple reduction in moment-to-moment lethality made it more fun. So yeah, I can see how if you like the *formula* a simple reduction in punishment would make it more appealing.
I will say, in regards to multiple health bars, I think they at least make sense when the point is you did kill them, but surprise, they came back to life cause, idk, a centipede demon made them immortal, or a god revived them as a reward for their devotion, or maybe they didn’t come back and it’s a friend of theirs jumping in to get immediate revenge.
Great to see that you gave the game more chance, after your negative impression on a Yahtzee tries video! Now, please give one to Minishoot' Adventures as well?
@@Epicmonk117 actually while sol is latin, the name is reference to a Chinese myth where Yi (a mythological figure with the same name as Nine Sol's protagonist) hunted and killed nine of Earth's 10 suns, leaving us with one sun in the sky. The story of the game is very heavily inspired by this myth.
3:44 the image of the cover art from the game is used from a iranian piracy website. thats what the farsi gibberish underneath points directly to the piracy website name.
The surprise second and third phases can be a wonderful tool for game design, but it needs to be used extremely sparingly to be effective. If you pull it more than once in a game you lessen the impact. The wonderful panic of the final boss of Touhou 7's surprise second phase is still with me over 15 years later
This game was my biggest surprise this year, so far 2nd best game that came out this year, just after Hades II. But with hades we all knew it was gonna be good, and this caught me off guard SO much.
The game looks and plays well. The only caveat is a quit moment at the energy center's first elevator which kind of hides the correct path and shows you an unaccessible path due to needing qi jumps.
Gotta say, I didn't think the late game really had any difficulty spikes, except for the last boss. There were a few optional bosses/enemies that were unreasonably hard, but all the boss fights were fine, EXCEPT for the last one. That said, I still beat the last boss, and once you get the fight, it's SO FUN. But it's a huge step up from all the previous boss fights, imo.
Why is this video consistently showing up in my notifications as a new episode? It came out weeks ago, I watched it weeks ago, I don't know what's going on
On the subject of later phases with a new health bar, I am of two minds. On one hand I agree that it tends to get gratuitous, but on the other hand I think sometimes it makes sense, especially when the new phase in some way fits with the idea that the boss was in some sense defeated but you're still in danger. I also appreciate how in Hades (1 and 2) it makes sense specifically because the bosses that do it are the ones who have Death Defiance, just like you. It also works in Sekiro because it's built into the system and (with rare exceptions) explicitly telegraphed. The problem, and for all my love I will freely admit that Nine Sols is guilty of it, is final bosses who have second health bars JUST because they're powerful and important without any kind of diagetic twist to justify it.
asumin this references a different group of hendersons and not the former crime syndicate that Daniel distanced himself from and yet still had the assault put on him even though he was in a suit of armor controlled by an ai? i just finished power washing the drive and that was good company thanks loved the series
"So to unlock the Distorted Pine Lamp, you have to go to the northwest corner of the map, enter the fog, and wait thirty seconds until Coinhoard Thomas the Nookrotic shows up..."
4:02 I just realized that second phases in Souls games don’t bother me because I grew up on Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. Games in which you fight the final boss 3-6 times respectively. And that likely isn’t the case for a lot of people
TH-cam likes comments on videos, I like this video, therefore I shall leave a comment to make TH-cam like this video just a little bit more. On topic though, as I’m currently going through the Elden Ring DLC and getting my butt handed to me, this sounds like a lovely game to ease off the difficulty curve that has hoisted me quite high in the air and am coincidentally in need of a way down to get some snacks and a toilet break.
I agree fully on that dream boss fight. It took me a bit to learn the first one, most in what is worth using the talisman on and what is not, then the second one came about and I was like "well this is bullshit, but I can manage." THEN THE THIRD ONE COMES OUT and I had to turn off the game before I broke my controller because while I was able to get through the first two, it was never without difficulty and the third phase I still haven't figured out exactly what button spam bullshit I did that allowed me to finally beat the damn thing. Conversely, the next one that I had the most trouble with would be the true final fight and even that was only in that it's intentionally hard as the final boss. Every move was learnable so it only took me maybe 5 tries to get through the whole thing.
Considering a Couple of months ago Yahtzee was bitching about the tonal dissonance of Sonic Frontiers I actually thought he would bounce off of this. But no color me surprised.
![[DRIP] ‘Woke Up In Tokyo (RUKA & ASA)’ PREVIEW](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QN44lcR_VkI/mqdefault.jpg)
![Nine Sols - All Bosses [No Damage] + All Endings](/img/n.gif)
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NO NICK, I WANT TO GET MY "allow me to hold your face under the putrescent waters of knowledge" v2 T-SHIRT
THONGS
Yahtzee's ad reads are of my favorite on this entire damn platform.
"I'll bite whoever edited this ad"
And I now have a perma-grin plastered to my face to go about the rest of my day. Thank you!
Now review Bo, the other new metroidvania soulslike heavily influenced by Japanese culture that just got released today.
I love Yi's character so much because there are so many layers to everything he's doing. He's such an emotionally clueless hypocrite, but he's also incredibly intelligent, and despite everything, he never quite slips into being unlikeably evil. I love that your dialogue options in the game underline this, you are often given two questionable options that help to colour in his personality.
Reminded of Alpha Protocol from way back, as Yahtzee put it, the protagonist is a ponce no matter what options you take but you get to choose what kind of ponce he is.
the ending to the Goumang bossfight o_o
@@Uhcip Yes! What he did to her was honestly more brutal than any of the other bosses!
Japanese translation at 3:08 is “I need to pee” for those who might be curious. Pretty funny
Another comment points out the translation is more like "I need pee"
@@ArifRWinandar Literally "Pee is necessary"
‘Urine is necessary’ is how I will be announcing my toilet breaks from now on
I think it's more like "pee is necessary"
Knew that already.
Devotion was a great experience that deserved way better than it got, so I'm glad to see Nine Sols seems to be doing really well
I feel like no one took Yahtzee seriously when he did that Dark Souls review and banged on more about the exploration and themes and worldbuilding, lamenting how the difficulty could work against the game. And then so many more soulslikes just became harder and harder instead of doing cool stuff with their world or writing fun characters, which both Nine Sols and Another Crab's Treasure and Hollow Knight all got right. I'm glad we have challenging games, don't get me wrong, but there's enjoying a challenge and there's fetishizing difficulty. At some point in between getting my skull caved in I should at least get to enjoy the architecture.
People making Soulslikes are completely missing the point. Dark Souls was never specifically about the difficulty, it was just a game that threw you in a world and refused to hold your hand or give you very little guidance which was seriously refreshing at the time it came out. So it's more about wandering your way around a world figuring out what's going on in a brutalist world that doesn't particularly care if you live or die in it, carving your own existence into it.
@@PrinceSilvermane this.
I just watched his dark souls review, he doesn’t really criticise the difficulty. He only criticises the lack of tutorial and unwillingness to ease you into the game’s crushing difficulty.
He did an episode of ‘slightly something else’ where he argued that the high difficulty was integral to the dark souls experience, because the game is about an unforgiving, scary world that doesn’t care about the player.
I think where other games get it wrong is that they make a soulslike game about a cool action hero, and then proceed to make it crushingly difficult for no other reason except that Dark Souls did it.
@@PrinceSilvermanealmost like the tale of one man who gets the absolute piss beaten out of him, who’s best friend takes EVERYTHING FROM HIM, yet continues to fight to find meaning in his world, without revenge, and he can move past his trauma and on with his life…… (Godspeed Miura. Your work in Berserk inspired a man to make video game that became a cultural phenomenon like Call of Duty and Pokemon.)
Bloodborne is gorgeous but I can’t stand around looking at the place without getting my skull bashed in, what’s the point in making it so pretty if getting ya skull bashed in the name of the game QnQ
Yi keeps shuanshuan around because A. He reminds Yi of his sister. B his parents are gone so he'd be all alone in the village C. The village is absolutely not safe anymore D. Yi probably wants at least someone to keep himself company
"company" ;)
@@deusexvesania1702 DO NOT LEWD THE CHILD-SHAPED PIXELS.
@@bennettcarlson3974 E. Shuanshuan is brilliant - he reads a book about programming and, having previously seen spears as the pinnacle of technology, is able to modify the fake weather software. He doesn’t learn to do anything perfectly but he does pick things up very quickly.
Worth mentioning that for the year where Yi is recovering shuanshuan also does that thing where a character won’t leave the stoic hero alone even though the stoic hero actively chastises them for doing so but the little guy is so endearing that you just gotta let them hang out and tell them a bedtime story sometimes. So yeah, exactly like his sister.
@@deusexvesania1702 bruh shuanshuan is like 10 and Yi is in his 20s at the least ☠
"'Parry' and the Hendersons." Yahtzee, that deep cut is making me feel elderly.
I was holding out for William "The Refrigerator" Parry.
"Parry" Goldwater was a joke for your parents.
@@ed_halley Sad to say I recognized that one, too, although only the name as it's been used in jokes.
This review has been the most positive I've seen yatzhee in a while
Glad Nine Sols is getting the attention it deserves, the Sekiro parrying mechanic is one of the coolest things i've seen put into a video game.
I knew Nine Sols would pull Yahtzee in for the full run. For anyone wondering, this game ROCKS.
If you have a pc and enjoy anything like Hollow Knight or other Metroidvanias, get it and enjoy the ride. Shoot, he didn't even touch on the amazing artistic design, music, or sound effects. It's a real masterpiece.
If you don't have a pc, console releases are on the way.
What's the of requirements looking like
Honestly, after seeing it during the stream, I directly put it in my wishlist. The combination of "Hollow Knight but rather than being like Dark Souls it's like Sekiro" aspect (I prefer Sekiro combat to Dark Souls personally) and the aesthetics really made it for me.
Currently, it's patiently sitting in the backlog of games I'll play after finishing Sekiro (behind Tunic and probably Animal Well).
@@denmark1226 Assuming you asked for the PC requirements, it says "Recommended Ryzen 3/Intel i5 or higher (generation unspecified), 8GB of RAM, GTX 970". And 15GB of drive space.
Too pricey currently. Need to drop like 50% before I buy it.
@@NetConsole While it'll likely get eventually a very sweet Steam sale discount, that's the going rate for bigger indies now.
My favourite section of the game will hopefully involve an unlikely battle between Parry Potter and Dirty Parry , on the top of Parry Hill
Which unlocks a temporary sidekick, Drew Parrymore
Nice
As much as I am a believer of a good aesthetic is as important as good gameplay, I still can't believe that all it took for Yahtzee to get over his soulslike fatigue is just by making it cute
He's a cynic. Grimdark gets old fast when you already see the real world as pretty crappy. For optimistic people it's probably exotic. At least that's my experience...
...Or just because every single souls-like game was grimdark (and/or hard for the sake of it) before the crab one took the opposite route
I think it's less that the game is cute and more that the game isn't trying to make you hate yourself for playing it. Some Souls-like games really just try to make rage games with a Souls-shaped outfit.
Making it cute grabbed his attention, but it's the actually ongoing plot that got him hooked.
its cute, and also there is actual characters and the gameplay is fun rather than just frustratingly challenging.
Waiting for the "he's a furry" crowd to come and act like a cult.
I wish my tax dollars went towards paying for fully ramblomatic episodes
Wait...they...they AREN'T? I thought my tax dollars were going to fund 2 things: Funding for Second Wind & sending Monkeys into Space!
Nope, bombs.
@@bigpharts Don't forget Space Farce.
Me too, I'd love it if Fully Ramblomatic was beholden to whatever government you pay taxes to. I was just thinking there's not enough government propaganda in these episodes.
Y'know how businesses can write off business expenses and apply for low/no-interest loans? Your tax-dollars make that possible. Congratulations! You did it! 🎉
Glad someone else shared a similar sentiment to myself when it comes to Yi. He's surprisingly compelling, and was probably the biggest factor in me taking as much interest as I did in the story. The art honestly doesn't really do it for me and the gameplay feels a level of polish or two from really being truly great, however, I got pretty sucked in from the story.
More than anything else, I find it refreshing to play as an actual character. Silent protags are cool and all, but it feels great to play as someone who was and is a participant in the world. Not simply our proxy to exist in it. You have a few different dialogue choices here and there, but for the most part, Yi's words and opinions are his own. Of which he will quite actively express.
Now, that can lead into a much larger conversation about silent or self-insert protagonists and character writing... Though I think that's a little more beyond the scope of a single TH-cam comment.
Right there with you. It's so refreshing to play as someone who isn't a silent protagonist/generic everyman/insert-yourself-here,-players "character". I wish we got more games where the protagonist has their own personality and motivations beyond the most inoffensive boilerplate.
@@EmpiricalPierce @EmpiricalPierce Tell me about it. I'm sure they have their place, but it gets a little boring playing intentionally self-insert protags especially. And nothing takes me out more than having all this agency as a player in the gameplay or everyone fawning over my character, but then they may as well not exist during cutscenes and/or has all the personality of a wet paper bag without any real ambition.
It's like... maybe some people play games to insert themselves into those worlds. But personally I like to *immerse* myself into them, which is greatly helped by actually playing a character. Or if they're a blank slate, there could at least be a good reason for it, a la Hollow Knight. I've also really liked how Deltarune has played with that player-protag dichotomy, since Kris is intentionally *not* you. Or funnily enough.... how Bugsnax's writers were so bad at not infusing personality into their characters that even the "self-insert" protag has a backstory, implied liked and disliked characters, and enough snark to transcend that anyway.
I was today years old when I discovered that "Naked And Famous" was not just the name of one of my favourite bands, but also a cocktail. Thank you, Yahtzee.
I thought he had a glass of "naked" and one of "famous"
Also the best song from The Presidents of the United States of America.
Is that how you end up after drinking THAT??
Nine Sols really might be one of my favorite games this year. The combat feels incredible once you master it, the story was surprisingly engaging for a soulslike, where the stories usually fade into the background, and the taopunk world was really incredible to explore and find secrets in.
That surreal horror teddy bear lady is one of my favourite bosses ever. Her mechanics are so fun and it's really challenging but always fair.
I'm really glad Yahtzi came back to this game. I saw the "Yahtzi Tries" where the opinion was pretty mixed, I played it anyway, and thought it was a really great game, and one of the best-written games I've ever played.
cant believe they made 8 sols and still had it in them to make this masterpiece
EDIT this is a lot of likes for such a bad comment
Truly impressive that the franchise still manages to feel new and fresh after so many entries.
good joke
Shame the first 8 games are lost media
Wow, what an original joke. Why haven't people made similar jokes about games like XII or Killer7 20 years ago...
@@NetConsole Wait till I tell you about the 2076 previous Cyberpunk games...
The ending gag was truly -mortifying- _horrifying_ 10/10
Mortifying means embarrassing
Maybe they're a member of the elite cabal and feel personally attacked?
@@hobomofofosho I’m sure it was at least mortifying for the dog.
Thank you @@hobomofofosho 🙏
3:47 Her name is Lady Ethereal, you're welcome those interested in her for... reasons.
And i think she's a lynx, not a bear.
a Quality review! i also enjoyed the hell out of this game. a few asides, the characters aren't different animals. they are all the same race called Solarian's. they are all based off of Cats with their Ears and other hints throughout the game *Including a big one at the end*. i do agree when bosses pull out hidden stages it can feel very unexpected, but i disagree with your choice of boss for this example.
03:48 this boss called Lady Ethereal felt from the start that she would have three phases, as the first phase melts like butter, when i hit her with my first attack my reaction was "Oh boy this boss is going to be alot of phases isn't it.
However for the average gamer i agree, it will feel like a cheap trick, considering they wont have the same gut reaction to the boss as I did. but no boss in this game felt like it was too long to me, some i wish had another phase when i finished fighting them, but thats just a good sign of a great fight. the game used to have markers just like Sekiro's Deathblow system to indicate how many phases they had, but they decided to remove them i guess.
02:50 Its very cool how the game allows you to build around this, i also felt a little akward with the talismans since i could get caught with my pants down on some bosses and enemies. but instead of going for the Water Flow Ability that Yahtzee picked, I went with the full control, which allows you to stop at any point during the animation for big damage, and if you could squeeze it out go for a full 5 Talisman Parry! dealing massive damage, so instead of the whole samurai dashing past and missing, i felt like i was planting a nuke on my foes chest and blasting them to the moon with my attack. very fun skill tree i enjoyed trying everything out on my second playthrough.
I do love the story they told with Yi, it was very fun to see him change over the course of the story as he interacted with the Humans (The Game calls them Ape Men but they are just humans) making for a very satisfying game. can highly recommend it if you love Sekiro!
0/10, Yahtzee didn't mention that you smoke space cat opium to heal.
How could you NOT mention Yi chiefing that squang?
I love how the item description goes out of its way to emphasize that yes, he is absolutely smoking That Good Stuff (whatever that might be for a space cat) and it is (or was) illegal.
thank god someone's covering this incredible game.
So the surprise health bar thing feels like a “dead/dream the whole time” style twist, where it was awesome the first time, but the more overused it gets, it just becomes obnoxious, unless it’s executed well. Speaking of Sekiro, The Ape just getting back up, picking up its sword and decapitated head, and going “I DIDNT HEAR NO BELL,” I love that, and the lack of cutscene breaking the phases apart keeps it from being annoying. But three phases for the final boss? A BIT much.
Ape's final phase works for me on a few levels. I love the near jump scare effect you get from the lack of cutscene accompanying the new health bar. I love the way it shows how the undying blessed by the worm function without any dialogue. Mostly, I love the pay off of fighting a difficult to read ape to access a duel with a skilled swordsman. The centipede itself fights at an even, if offset tempo that is way more fun to stand and parry than the wild flailing of the ape.
It actually only has three phases if you do the true ending, otherwise it's just two
@@TheMasterTrainer it doesnt help that her attacks fill the entire screen
I don't think its so similar, since the 'dead the whole time' trope recontextualises the story and usually makes it a lot worse. Multiple health bars are just something I exepct. Maybe its because I play shoot em up games where you usually have like 8 health bars for the stage 5 boss.
Another way to do it right would be something like, and I honestly question my sanity giving this game points, Sonic Forces: The final boss also had two health bars, but the reason that didn't feel like a copout or random backhand is because it was two separate mechs, operating on different mechanics. It wasn't some crap like the Scadutree Avatar, where it literally just says "no" to two separate deaths before staying down.
... Did it have health bars? I actually can't remember, come to think of it...
These Yahtzee ads are amazing beyond words.
Your review is the first one that I have seen for Nine Sols!
I am happy you guys gave your thoughts regarding it!
The child in his apartment must be a reference to Katana Zero.
3:06 very amusingly the japanese text reads "i require urine" like the anime girl is going to provide it
3:48 Undertale lives rent-free in this man's head 🐐
I beat this game 4 times, loved it so much and the feeling of getting better is amazing. Bosses that took me hours would go down in 5 minutes.
Loved this game just for its world building and storytelling alone. I loved seeing how the backgrounds alone tell you what's implied, one of my favorite aspects in a metroidvania. And while I agree with Yahtz of the BS hitboxes we should be used to by now from Dark Souls games, Nine Sols' smooth gameplay still leaves me convinced that my death is my skill issue and that I need to git gud.
I would argue that very little is left to interpretation. A lot of stuff is just straight up told or shown to you later on anyway. To be honest, I really liked that part of this game's worldbuilding.
Yahtzee writing is powerful enough to make me not skip ads. Genius, I say.
I always like to see Red Candle get some love. I've adored every single one of their games so far. Folks, if you haven't played Detention or Devotion, I highly recommend them.
6:55 the end credits 😂
Glad you liked it! I finished this one last week and it was a great experience! I kinda agree on the second health bar thing - though it helps in some parts, I think the minimum they could do is telegraph it more, in some cases. The exploration and combat of this game were both very fun to me, and I was hooked more than I expected since I could never really stick with Hollow Knight.
Glad to be here, saying "Ha" and snorting bitterly at the end as usual. Thanks for the best takes on the dang internet! Warms the tarnished little cockles of my heart.
That kinda caught me off guard, I forgot Australians call flipflops "Thongs". Bet that makes for some awkward moments whenever Australians go looking for flipflops here in America.
That's funny, it's the same in French (although the "h" is dropped).
really right on that difficulty lowering on bosses, the moment you understand the timing for parrys, everything just clicks (and it feels awesome when it happens).
I don't know what it is or combination of but I've been finding this show so much funnier than ZP on the escapist. I was just watching because I was in a routine but since second wind started I've been genuinely excited every week
It seems the secret to getting Yahtzee to do ad reads was to just let him write the copy. I imagine the meeting was very short:
Nick: "He'll do it how he wants and you will like it."
Advertisers: "But-"
Nick: "Or He'll just, quote, 'Slag you off in a review anyway because, fuck you."
Advertisers: "........ok."
I really hope that if we ever do get a future sekiro sequel thing, that they take inspiration from the Chi blast delay damage cool guy explosion. A Kurosawa esque passthrough attack that you then hold and then bam, impact frame opponent falls over dead with a spray of blood. Its so satisfying in nine sols that it would feel criminal not to include in future games of this type.
Also I adored the lady ethereal fight.
Ok but when is yartzee going to review that niche indie game from 10 years ago?
@@MarquisForneus eh, which one was it again?
Nine Sols got a full Ramblomatic, we did it boyos
I can tell Yahtz was the one who written the ad copy, this time because it was actually worth a chuckle
I appreciate the fact that Yahtzee lounging on the beach is lounging around in BOTH kinds of thongs.😂
I watched his initial impressions and he said the game lacked identity, or something along those lines. I'm so glad he came around to see it for the masterpiece it is.
I was anticipating a "Parry the Platypus" pun
I'm going to agree with Yahtzee. Finished Elden Ring, and I guess its satisfying. But for a second playthrough I installed a mod with an easier mode and my assessment is the game is really is overtuned. It helped me appreciate how the game wants you to play it, making use of the right talismans and consumables, but that it's just more *fun* when you aren't getting pancaked immediately. I still died plenty, and even ran into walls, but it "felt" better because I could stay in a fight longer, take more risks and learn rather than "whoops, didn't dodge that attack right, dead." A simple reduction in moment-to-moment lethality didn't make the game free, if anything it made me more willing to experiment.
Granted some of that was because I also had game knowledge that helped me appreciate the turning down of the temperature, but I agree: I felt my first unmodified playthrough was a bit of a slog, and full of cheap, uninteresting deaths by yet-another-flailing boss and again, a simple reduction in moment-to-moment lethality made it more fun. So yeah, I can see how if you like the *formula* a simple reduction in punishment would make it more appealing.
I will say, in regards to multiple health bars, I think they at least make sense when the point is you did kill them, but surprise, they came back to life cause, idk, a centipede demon made them immortal, or a god revived them as a reward for their devotion, or maybe they didn’t come back and it’s a friend of theirs jumping in to get immediate revenge.
Parry Goldwater and The People versus Parry Flint had me laughing harder than I should have!
"im pretty sure it's not to swap Yu-Gi-Oh cards" - excellent, most excellent burn
Yahtz itd be really funny to do another Fifa "review" for CFB 25, like you did back in the day.
Great to see that you gave the game more chance, after your negative impression on a Yahtzee tries video!
Now, please give one to Minishoot' Adventures as well?
Second Wind is really funny because I've totally forgotten that there was another show or channel before this.
wait this is the Devotion guys? Might have to actually pick it up
that was a great review, I brushed off this game as "another metroidvania" but this review sold me on the game. I'm wishlisting it
That thumbnail! XD
When I first saw the art I never thought it involved combat!
0:25 *FUN FACT:* “Sol” means “sun,” so the title actually reads “Nine Suns”
Because Chinese Mythology.
@@docbaker3333 I’m pretty sure “sol” is Greek or Latin, not Chinese.
@@Epicmonk117 actually while sol is latin, the name is reference to a Chinese myth where Yi (a mythological figure with the same name as Nine Sol's protagonist) hunted and killed nine of Earth's 10 suns, leaving us with one sun in the sky. The story of the game is very heavily inspired by this myth.
@@palendromemoredenlap TIL. Thx.
Bo just came out! I'm excited.
I really hope they release this game for consoles considering how well received it is.
4:02 that's just how student loans work normally. Source: I used to work with student loans.
I’m not the only one who saw he replaced the head with a hello kitty in the thumbnail right?
What Hello Kitty? You must be lying, or seeing things, or crazy. There is no Hello Kitty in the thumbnail (I am gaslighting you)
It's still like that lol
@@cinnis5670 No youre not gaslighting him (im not gaslighting you)
Yeah, and it makes no sense.
I put corks on the nails is my new favorite way to describe an easier souls like
3:44 the image of the cover art from the game is used from a iranian piracy website. thats what the farsi gibberish underneath points directly to the piracy website name.
2:10 nooo, you should've sang the souls-combat rock!
light attack
heavy attack
parry dodge block!
3:44
they took the picture from a piracy website lol
The surprise second and third phases can be a wonderful tool for game design, but it needs to be used extremely sparingly to be effective. If you pull it more than once in a game you lessen the impact. The wonderful panic of the final boss of Touhou 7's surprise second phase is still with me over 15 years later
That kinder bueno bit got me 😂
writing in ninesols was stellar, really gripping
other than the final "fuck you stage 3" bossfights i enjoyed every second of it
This game was my biggest surprise this year, so far 2nd best game that came out this year, just after Hades II. But with hades we all knew it was gonna be good, and this caught me off guard SO much.
The game looks and plays well.
The only caveat is a quit moment at the energy center's first elevator which kind of hides the correct path and shows you an unaccessible path due to needing qi jumps.
Gotta say, I didn't think the late game really had any difficulty spikes, except for the last boss. There were a few optional bosses/enemies that were unreasonably hard, but all the boss fights were fine, EXCEPT for the last one.
That said, I still beat the last boss, and once you get the fight, it's SO FUN. But it's a huge step up from all the previous boss fights, imo.
Parry and the Hendersons 😂
Everytime I see that intro I hope the puppy will land safely
Why is this video consistently showing up in my notifications as a new episode? It came out weeks ago, I watched it weeks ago, I don't know what's going on
Thank you Yahtzee for this amazing birthday present!
No mention of the soundtrack? For anyone wondering, it's pretty good.
I never thought Yahtzee could top the boxers with eyes gag, but he somehow managed to with the NordVPN ad.
On the subject of later phases with a new health bar, I am of two minds. On one hand I agree that it tends to get gratuitous, but on the other hand I think sometimes it makes sense, especially when the new phase in some way fits with the idea that the boss was in some sense defeated but you're still in danger. I also appreciate how in Hades (1 and 2) it makes sense specifically because the bosses that do it are the ones who have Death Defiance, just like you. It also works in Sekiro because it's built into the system and (with rare exceptions) explicitly telegraphed. The problem, and for all my love I will freely admit that Nine Sols is guilty of it, is final bosses who have second health bars JUST because they're powerful and important without any kind of diagetic twist to justify it.
Yeah this will be top 3 at the end of the year
asumin this references a different group of hendersons and not the former crime syndicate that Daniel distanced himself from and yet still had the assault put on him even though he was in a suit of armor controlled by an ai? i just finished power washing the drive and that was good company thanks loved the series
I wonder if someone should take this trend in the opposite direction and make something like Animal Crossing but with Soulsbourne art direction
"So to unlock the Distorted Pine Lamp, you have to go to the northwest corner of the map, enter the fog, and wait thirty seconds until Coinhoard Thomas the Nookrotic shows up..."
Honestly that Thumbnail took be my surprise.
3:47 decided to look up some of the characters and by god yatzhee's kinda right with her looking like toriel
4:02 I just realized that second phases in Souls games don’t bother me because I grew up on Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. Games in which you fight the final boss 3-6 times respectively. And that likely isn’t the case for a lot of people
TH-cam likes comments on videos, I like this video, therefore I shall leave a comment to make TH-cam like this video just a little bit more.
On topic though, as I’m currently going through the Elden Ring DLC and getting my butt handed to me, this sounds like a lovely game to ease off the difficulty curve that has hoisted me quite high in the air and am coincidentally in need of a way down to get some snacks and a toilet break.
95% of people watching this didn’t get the Harry and the Hendersons joke. But I did, and I appreciate it.
Love this game. Playing at a high level with all the abilities feels absolutely amazing.
I agree fully on that dream boss fight. It took me a bit to learn the first one, most in what is worth using the talisman on and what is not, then the second one came about and I was like "well this is bullshit, but I can manage." THEN THE THIRD ONE COMES OUT and I had to turn off the game before I broke my controller because while I was able to get through the first two, it was never without difficulty and the third phase I still haven't figured out exactly what button spam bullshit I did that allowed me to finally beat the damn thing.
Conversely, the next one that I had the most trouble with would be the true final fight and even that was only in that it's intentionally hard as the final boss. Every move was learnable so it only took me maybe 5 tries to get through the whole thing.
I lost it at the weather vane
Considering a Couple of months ago Yahtzee was bitching about the tonal dissonance of Sonic Frontiers I actually thought he would bounce off of this. But no color me surprised.
I'm surprised Yahtzee didn't call this one a "Sols-like"!
Expecting Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus review soon.
A parcel of crawfish and shrimp, final offer.
Now that's what I call an ad read. Well done!\
Of course they will not be swapping Yu-Gi-Oh cards, everyone knows Yi is into Lorcana right now.
Hello Kitty soulslike could become a new genre.
3:06 小便が必要だ means "I need to pee"
Hilariously it more accurately translates to ‘urine is required’
Like the merchant will give you anything good for just 9 Sols.
Haven't seen a cute game be this tough since the Lion King on SNES.
As a taiwanese,Im really glad you guys like this game.