Nine Sols is my personally game of the year. I love everything about it - great fighting, fantastic story, unforgattable characters and phenomenal bosses. I really loved every second I can spend with this game and for me this is simple a masterpiece
Thanks for showing us some love Pogo! You ain’t kidding about it being hard to be noticed. Super appreciate this video as it brings to light games that are struggling to get noticed.
And they're still working on updates. I've joined their beta testing, and their beta version includes a new mode called Memories of Battle, in which you fight all the main bosses in any order and you have all your abilities unlocked. They are very vigilant at catching bugs and patching them out, too.
Finally someone who is not afraid of talking about nine sols. I alraedy love this game way too much. The platforming is not super good but the combat... The combat system is probably the best one of any 2D game ever. The sound when parrying and the damage output of talisman detonations are so satisfying and rewarding. The bosses are all super different and innovative and the final boss (true form) might be my favorite boss battle in any video game. Please Play this game if you haven´t yet. Absolute 10/10 in my opinion.
Nine Sols is such a great game. The only issue it has is you can skip the true end bossfight if you don't complete some sidequests. Guys, finish everything before running into the endgame!
Not entirely. If you go back into your save file, you'll be taken back before the point of no return. Just teleport back to the Pavillion and you'll be able to continue getting the requirements for the true ending.
Haak is really underated it gets much better kater on and the bosses from the samurai (3rd boss) onwards are extremely tough and fun. The areas are mostly similar with 2 stand out stages that look beautiful. The enemies never get much tougher but they aren't the main point of the areas, it's way more to explore and find out secrets and the side quests are really unique and tie into the world building really well.
Oh, I loved HAAK and have 100+ hours in the game! :-D Admittedly its strength is not in combat, rather in exploration, platforming, puzzles / mazes - those get legit huge and complicated, particularly in the DLC's - and all of that combined with increasingly fast and satisfying movement abilities. Story development and area variation will come, I promise and there was something about the atmosphere and ambient soundscapes that just clicked with me :-)) It's absolutely not an HK-like though, thankfully, because at that point I was tired of grinding HK challenges and really wanted something fresh.
Considering Rain World is my favorite game of all time, I think I'm gonna love Nine Sols. Rain World is tough and unforgiving, has a dark but beautiful story, incredible art, and precise combat, and it seems Nine Sols is similar in those ways. Just without the feeling of being prey, I assume.
I haven't even gotten a minute and thirty seconds in and I already subbed because I heard Tenebre Rosso Sangue meaning that you at least know what ULTRAKILL is enough to use it's music so that's an instant sub
omg just beat the ji boss in nine sols. Its my favourite metroidvania and play these alot! so fun combat. little bit bulshitty that enemies can combo you into oblivion there are no s after hit but I can see that design wise it had to be done.
wdym never heard of, i would put nine sols in running's for best game of the year, its arguably BETTER than hollow knight, and incredibly popular within the hk community
@@OverPowerGamer-nm5xc it’s definitely a hot take, but I’ve not played hk in a while so maybe it’s recency bias, definitely still game of the year worthy
@@zazilia-g4j Nine sold might have the potential to become the GOTY if not for Wukong tho I've heard Nine sols is great and will definitely try it out as soon as it's available on Consoles
Nice recommendations! Have been wanting to try Islets for a while now, so I might buy it when it's on sale. Also, which game is playing on the background of the outro?
i thought im gonna be disappointed since i already played the ones on the thumbnail but there are a couple ive never heard of before. ill try em, thank u
Great list here my friend! If you enjoyed these lovely games, Im sure youd love to play LUCID :D I know I would sure love to see you play hahaha Cheers!
play death's gambit, its a metroidvania, its difficult (a soulslike tho unlike hk), ability unlocks, build variety and has platforming including its own path of pain stye dungeon in the dlc
Jump being on anything but b or zl (if you play terraria y'know why that's best) physically makes me queezy, does biogun have remappable buttons or is it a Castlevania advanced situation where they never considered player comfort?
Aside from Aestik, this has nothing to do with hollow knight. Maybe you're not aware of this but there is a genre called metroidvania and hollow knight is nothing more than one of hundreds of members of this genre.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the best Metroidvania I've played since Will of the Wisps. Can't really compare it to Silksong yet, for obvious reasons. Aestik's demo called for a second playthrough (to change an outcome) but I couldn't even be bothered.
@@peterc504 The combat is very sophisticated with an insane amount of combos (more than I could even learn) and the platforming is absolutely fantastic. Music is also very good. The story is nothing groundbreaking but it fits the theme nicely. If you think the Persian Empire is a boring setting for a Metroidvania then I don't know what to tell you.
How did you like THE MESSENGER? IMO it is now 2nd best ever behind Castlevania Symphony of the knight. I'm an old schooler, Super Metroid is my 3rd fave
So tired to see every non hk metroidvania together with silksong. These games are great alone and they are worth playing nlt just to scratch the silksong itch.
Heeeeeeey wait a sec, Cookie Cutter is not on here! Makes sense, as far as Metroidvanias go CC is quite a different beast from Hollow Knight :P (still a good game though! Can recommend looking into that one)
@@peterc504 What makes you say that, if i may ask? Can definitely see it not being remembered for being THE BEST OF THE BEST/MOST EXPERIMENTAL/PUSHING THE TECHNOLOGY, but as it is, CC is a solid game. I very much like it, warts and all, and am excited for more. Lead dev's working on ports, keeps his finger on the pulse of the community for criticism (he's stubborn on the parry staying the way it is) and the green light was given to work on more content with things like new story beats, areas, characters, bosses, weapons etc.
It’s literally for people that want more games like HK. Of course everything is going to be compared to it. I agree HK can be the « Persona 5 » of metroidvanias but there’s a difference between reviewing a game on its own and recommending it to fans of another game.
Yeah Bo feels so much like wotw The fast fluid movement, the mentioned bash ability, the first npc interaction being a gate opening quest, the enemies laying flat on the ground that want to chomp you are like the chomp plants in baur's reach, the eye fetching, magnet, the bug boss fight where you need the enemy to run into a wall to attack it, the again mention chase-fight sequence, if I stretch a bit the lamp-gate mechanic also reminds me of baur's area I was surprised he didn't compare it to wotw specifically
Yeah Hollow Knight just hits different, there's no way another metroidvania is gonna fill in that Silksong hole... I would actually go as far as to say that metroidvania is one of my most disliked genres, they just get so boring so quickly. I played 5 metroidvanias in my life and only ever finished 2 of them (Hollow Knight and The Messenger) Thanks for the dose of cope, but I'll just stick to just waiting instead Also, do I smell Alabaster Dawn hype??
@@OverPowerGamer-nm5xc I finished and 100%-ed Hollow Knight and The Messenger like i already mentioned, the games i dropped were Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Blasphemous and Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus. But I should specify that i don't think any of these game are bad I just don't like metroidvania games really, something i learned about myself this year, I really struggle with immersion playing any of them and I just hate contact damage.
@@Darkal_ So you want immersion and no contact damage... what other (types of) games are to your interest? Perhaps Clash: Artifacts of Chaos from 2023 may be fun for you. It's a 3D beat-em-up in a colorful and weird monster world with hardly a proper human in sight. It's a prequel to the Zeno Clash games from 2009 and 2013, but with a different perspective and more to the combat. Finding different martial arts styles for the protagonist-- and fun thing is, hardly anyone really dies. Every time you face for example a boomerang-throwing Southern-accented arrogant goose woman, it's the same goose woman you fought in an earlier battle. The enemies just appear in different team-ups and all have their own movesets. Soulstice from 2022 and No Straight Roads from 2020 may be interesting too, despite their shortcomings. As far as Metroidvanias go, there's Cookie Cutter. Aside from instakill spikes in the later half of the game (checkpoints are quite forgiving) , some environmental hazards such as flames and buzzsaws, and an enemy that can set its shield on fire, there's no contact damage whatsoever. Combat's quite fast, smooth and you won't be left wanting for offensive options as you progress through the game. The tone of that game is quite out-there with some edge and over-the-top elements that won't land with everyone, but there is a genuine core to it.
@@jurtheorc8117Damn, you didn't had to search anything for me but thank you, I'll check them out at least. Honestly contact damage is not as big of a deal as i made it sound to be, I just dont like it from conceptual standpoint, like why do I get punished for rubbing gently against enemy's toe? This is a rhetorical question no need to answer that, I know why sidescrollers use it. Also don't get it twisted, I love hard and challenging games, if I love a game enough I'm hunting every single achievement and explore every corner there is, the game just has to hook me in some other way. At this point its getting harder and harder for me to try and rationalize my reasoning why i droped these games and why i dislike MVs without sounding like a crybaby, I'm just speaking based on my feeling not rational though and I guess I just dont FEEL good playing this genre, but that's just me of course. FYI my favorite genres are veriety of action games, especially FPSs and RPGs and lore-rich games with great story, characters and world with its own history and secrets to uncover
I’m honestly just tired of pixel art graphics. I’ll bet you a couple bucks the developer thinks they’re being revolutionary and say “let’s go old school”
@@MossMothMyBeloved Yeah ppl are accusing the game for being a HK clone but i might give the game a try if it comes on switch coz the environment of the game isn't really that bad so i guess I might give it a go
Nine Sols is my personally game of the year. I love everything about it - great fighting, fantastic story, unforgattable characters and phenomenal bosses. I really loved every second I can spend with this game and for me this is simple a masterpiece
Thanks for showing us some love Pogo! You ain’t kidding about it being hard to be noticed. Super appreciate this video as it brings to light games that are struggling to get noticed.
You guys did a fantastic job with BioGun!!
Nine Sols have in my humble opinion, one of the best histories in videogames
Yes.
I do say yes agree.
And they're still working on updates. I've joined their beta testing, and their beta version includes a new mode called Memories of Battle, in which you fight all the main bosses in any order and you have all your abilities unlocked. They are very vigilant at catching bugs and patching them out, too.
Finally someone who is not afraid of talking about nine sols. I alraedy love this game way too much. The platforming is not super good but the combat... The combat system is probably the best one of any 2D game ever. The sound when parrying and the damage output of talisman detonations are so satisfying and rewarding. The bosses are all super different and innovative and the final boss (true form) might be my favorite boss battle in any video game. Please Play this game if you haven´t yet. Absolute 10/10 in my opinion.
Glad to see how many other people love nine sols so much
Nine Sols is such a great game. The only issue it has is you can skip the true end bossfight if you don't complete some sidequests. Guys, finish everything before running into the endgame!
Not entirely. If you go back into your save file, you'll be taken back before the point of no return. Just teleport back to the Pavillion and you'll be able to continue getting the requirements for the true ending.
You sold me on Bo! I really like movement based 2D games and Bo looks so fluid!
And thanks for delivering!
KUAFU SLANDER WILL NOT BE TOLERATED
Voidwrought should also be on this list (it wasn’t out yet) doesn’t reach the heights of hollow knight but I’d put it up there with Bō and 9sols
I see Nine Sols on the thumbnail, I click. Simple as that.
Same
The mc is badass
Lol
Bo and Nine Sols look really interesting!
Haak is really underated it gets much better kater on and the bosses from the samurai (3rd boss) onwards are extremely tough and fun. The areas are mostly similar with 2 stand out stages that look beautiful. The enemies never get much tougher but they aren't the main point of the areas, it's way more to explore and find out secrets and the side quests are really unique and tie into the world building really well.
Oh, I loved HAAK and have 100+ hours in the game! :-D Admittedly its strength is not in combat, rather in exploration, platforming, puzzles / mazes - those get legit huge and complicated, particularly in the DLC's - and all of that combined with increasingly fast and satisfying movement abilities. Story development and area variation will come, I promise and there was something about the atmosphere and ambient soundscapes that just clicked with me :-)) It's absolutely not an HK-like though, thankfully, because at that point I was tired of grinding HK challenges and really wanted something fresh.
Since Black Myth:Wukong released, Silksong is now the Nr.1 most wishlisted game on Steam.
We got the monkey before spider
Considering Rain World is my favorite game of all time, I think I'm gonna love Nine Sols. Rain World is tough and unforgiving, has a dark but beautiful story, incredible art, and precise combat, and it seems Nine Sols is similar in those ways. Just without the feeling of being prey, I assume.
hehe, was looking for this comment, and love rainworld so much i just finished it last week
@@Fulminagehow many hours did it take to beat rain world?
@@zojirushi1 i checked my steam and it says i have 48 hours of the game
When you put it that way they seem similar, but they are _completely_ different games! I've played both and never thought to compare them once
Rain world? Hmm no, never heard of it.
Lone Fungus is WAY closer to Hollow knight then Islets. Not saying Islets isn't an awesome game, cause it is amazing.
Lone fungus...MORE LIKE FUNGAL WASTES BUT ITS ALIVE
any videos similar to ironpineapple's "steam dumpster diving" are an instant win for me, great video
Good to see you back g
I haven't even gotten a minute and thirty seconds in and I already subbed because I heard Tenebre Rosso Sangue meaning that you at least know what ULTRAKILL is enough to use it's music so that's an instant sub
> Hears Keygen Church music in intro
> Neuron activation
I'm really waiting for Nine Sols, Ender Magnolia to hit switch since I've given up on silksong and SOTN to hit the switch
Nine Sols is coming to Switch in this November. Can't wait.
I will die on the hill that BioGun comes closest to scratching the Hollow Knight itch :P
BioGun was that good? I played the demo and loved it but not sure how the full game turned out?
Yes, it's that good
First person had played Silksong to compare other games with. Congrats!
Nine sols is the Metroidvania for Ultrakill players
omg just beat the ji boss in nine sols. Its my favourite metroidvania and play these alot! so fun combat. little bit bulshitty that enemies can combo you into oblivion there are no s after hit but I can see that design wise it had to be done.
wdym never heard of, i would put nine sols in running's for best game of the year, its arguably BETTER than hollow knight, and incredibly popular within the hk community
Better than HK that's one hell of statement to make but i haven't personally played Nine Sold yet so i guess I'll try it when it comes on Switch
@@OverPowerGamer-nm5xc it’s definitely a hot take, but I’ve not played hk in a while so maybe it’s recency bias, definitely still game of the year worthy
@@zazilia-g4j Nine sold might have the potential to become the GOTY if not for Wukong tho I've heard Nine sols is great and will definitely try it out as soon as it's available on Consoles
Nice recommendations! Have been wanting to try Islets for a while now, so I might buy it when it's on sale. Also, which game is playing on the background of the outro?
Bro is actually going to be brunt out in 2028 when Silksong releases
i thought im gonna be disappointed since i already played the ones on the thumbnail but there are a couple ive never heard of before. ill try em, thank u
You bastard. You reminded it still existed. Good video though
Yea the best thing to do is to forget abt the damn thing
Aestik used the music from the Metroid game that was on Nintendo 64. That just unlocked something :')
Bought Nine Sols the moment it went on sale, that game does *not* pull its punches. Gotta say, getting back into it after a pause feels painful
ultrakill music jumpscare
I personally really like haak, I never finished it but not caz I didn't care or anything I just have the bad habit of never finishing random things 😅
What game is that at 0:23? It looks a lot like CrossCode, but i don't think it is...
Very early footage of Alabaster Dawn, those devs' new project
I prefer 2D Platformers. But 2D Metrodivania's are good.
Great list here my friend!
If you enjoyed these lovely games, Im sure youd love to play LUCID :D
I know I would sure love to see you play hahaha
Cheers!
play death's gambit, its a metroidvania, its difficult (a soulslike tho unlike hk), ability unlocks, build variety and has platforming including its own path of pain stye dungeon in the dlc
Biogun & nine sols were the only 2 demos that I enjoyed playing...I heard 9 sols was amazing full game but not sure abou the biogun....
Imagine if it got announced today at the nintendo thingy
I loved nine sols and hollow knight so sekiro is pretty much a must buy now
But it's 3d tho
Completely different kind of game
Jump being on anything but b or zl (if you play terraria y'know why that's best) physically makes me queezy, does biogun have remappable buttons or is it a Castlevania advanced situation where they never considered player comfort?
I... Need... COPE...
Aside from Aestik, this has nothing to do with hollow knight. Maybe you're not aware of this but there is a genre called metroidvania and hollow knight is nothing more than one of hundreds of members of this genre.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the best Metroidvania I've played since Will of the Wisps. Can't really compare it to Silksong yet, for obvious reasons.
Aestik's demo called for a second playthrough (to change an outcome) but I couldn't even be bothered.
Whats so great about PoP ? Ive heard its good but I dunno i never liked the world of PoP was kinda boring....
@@peterc504 The combat is very sophisticated with an insane amount of combos (more than I could even learn) and the platforming is absolutely fantastic. Music is also very good. The story is nothing groundbreaking but it fits the theme nicely.
If you think the Persian Empire is a boring setting for a Metroidvania then I don't know what to tell you.
Ender Lilies should make one of these vids if it hasn’t already 👌
How did you like THE MESSENGER?
IMO it is now 2nd best ever behind Castlevania Symphony of the knight.
I'm an old schooler, Super Metroid is my 3rd fave
So tired to see every non hk metroidvania together with silksong. These games are great alone and they are worth playing nlt just to scratch the silksong itch.
nine souls is better than hk tho
I’m going to play nine sols and see if it’s actually that good I NEED TO KNOW
@@Thesktre9 They accomplish completely different things
@@Silksong_sketches for me its better than hk but others might disagree. It is at least ori wow level
It has to be some kind of autism when people forget genres exist and think games "like" the game they like are trying to kill it off
Did you change the difficulty settings in nine sols? Or played without changing any difficulty settings?
Folks, play nine sols, abd play cross code. Both very good games.
When your said air dash I got Celeste flashbacks
*Intense farewell flashbacks*
@@ThatDwag69 fr
Silksong is coming out in 3-6 months.|
As for Biogun, yea, it's a skill issue. He stops if you shoot him enough.
3-6 months. Uh huh. Sure. The copium here is unbelievable.
@@celestialkitsune we'll see
lol we will be lukcy if it comes in 2025....but its all good there are so many other good games coming I dont care....
3-6 years you mean?
That is massive amounts of cope
Heeeeeeey wait a sec, Cookie Cutter is not on here!
Makes sense, as far as Metroidvanias go CC is quite a different beast from Hollow Knight :P
(still a good game though! Can recommend looking into that one)
CC was not that good lol
@@peterc504 What makes you say that, if i may ask? Can definitely see it not being remembered for being THE BEST OF THE BEST/MOST EXPERIMENTAL/PUSHING THE TECHNOLOGY, but as it is, CC is a solid game.
I very much like it, warts and all, and am excited for more.
Lead dev's working on ports, keeps his finger on the pulse of the community for criticism (he's stubborn on the parry staying the way it is) and the green light was given to work on more content with things like new story beats, areas, characters, bosses, weapons etc.
Thoughts on Haiku and alone Fungus?
can you tell me what is the game at 0:24 and 24:56?
I need to know this too.
@navi-charlotte @lampard82004 It's Alabaster Dawn, the follow up to CrossCode :)
@@lampard82004 .
It's Alabaster Dawn, an upcoming game from the developers of CrossCode!
@@kaitlynryan thanks a bunch! wishlisted.
no fishing minigame :(
what is the game at 0:24 if anyone knows please and thank you :)
How can you compare games to a game that hasnt released
what is that action game at the end?
What was that game shown after Haak?
peanuts
Reviewing a metroidvania without saying its kinda like hollow knight but x. Difficulty impossible.
It’s literally for people that want more games like HK. Of course everything is going to be compared to it. I agree HK can be the « Persona 5 » of metroidvanias but there’s a difference between reviewing a game on its own and recommending it to fans of another game.
What about ULTROS?
Alabaster Dawn stans represent
rain world?? its not exactly like hallow knight but its fun give it a shot
I'm so glad you covered Aestik, but you should definitely cover it now it's released
It doesn't seem that good imo
what about ori and the will of the wisps
oh fuck
Yeah Bo feels so much like wotw
The fast fluid movement, the mentioned bash ability, the first npc interaction being a gate opening quest, the enemies laying flat on the ground that want to chomp you are like the chomp plants in baur's reach, the eye fetching, magnet, the bug boss fight where you need the enemy to run into a wall to attack it, the again mention chase-fight sequence, if I stretch a bit the lamp-gate mechanic also reminds me of baur's area
I was surprised he didn't compare it to wotw specifically
rainworld?
What’s the game @24:55
i want to try 9 souls. But i HATE Sekiro. FAR to fast, to hard, to punishing. No way to level grind or change your build. 90% get gud or OOF. (
Yeah Hollow Knight just hits different, there's no way another metroidvania is gonna fill in that Silksong hole... I would actually go as far as to say that metroidvania is one of my most disliked genres, they just get so boring so quickly. I played 5 metroidvanias in my life and only ever finished 2 of them (Hollow Knight and The Messenger)
Thanks for the dose of cope, but I'll just stick to just waiting instead
Also, do I smell Alabaster Dawn hype??
I mean ive also played a few metroidvanias and really enjoyed them I dunno what MVs u played but the once I played were above decent
@@OverPowerGamer-nm5xc I finished and 100%-ed Hollow Knight and The Messenger like i already mentioned, the games i dropped were Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Blasphemous and Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus. But I should specify that i don't think any of these game are bad I just don't like metroidvania games really, something i learned about myself this year, I really struggle with immersion playing any of them and I just hate contact damage.
@@Darkal_ So you want immersion and no contact damage... what other (types of) games are to your interest? Perhaps Clash: Artifacts of Chaos from 2023 may be fun for you. It's a 3D beat-em-up in a colorful and weird monster world with hardly a proper human in sight. It's a prequel to the Zeno Clash games from 2009 and 2013, but with a different perspective and more to the combat. Finding different martial arts styles for the protagonist-- and fun thing is, hardly anyone really dies.
Every time you face for example a boomerang-throwing Southern-accented arrogant goose woman, it's the same goose woman you fought in an earlier battle. The enemies just appear in different team-ups and all have their own movesets.
Soulstice from 2022 and No Straight Roads from 2020 may be interesting too, despite their shortcomings.
As far as Metroidvanias go, there's Cookie Cutter. Aside from instakill spikes in the later half of the game (checkpoints are quite forgiving) , some environmental hazards such as flames and buzzsaws, and an enemy that can set its shield on fire, there's no contact damage whatsoever. Combat's quite fast, smooth and you won't be left wanting for offensive options as you progress through the game.
The tone of that game is quite out-there with some edge and over-the-top elements that won't land with everyone, but there is a genuine core to it.
@@Darkal_ Ive never heard someone say that they dropped Ori after playing HK tho what caused u drop those game even if MVs are not ur thing
@@jurtheorc8117Damn, you didn't had to search anything for me but thank you, I'll check them out at least. Honestly contact damage is not as big of a deal as i made it sound to be, I just dont like it from conceptual standpoint, like why do I get punished for rubbing gently against enemy's toe? This is a rhetorical question no need to answer that, I know why sidescrollers use it.
Also don't get it twisted, I love hard and challenging games, if I love a game enough I'm hunting every single achievement and explore every corner there is, the game just has to hook me in some other way.
At this point its getting harder and harder for me to try and rationalize my reasoning why i droped these games and why i dislike MVs without sounding like a crybaby, I'm just speaking based on my feeling not rational though and I guess I just dont FEEL good playing this genre, but that's just me of course.
FYI my favorite genres are veriety of action games, especially FPSs and RPGs and lore-rich games with great story, characters and world with its own history and secrets to uncover
Bal man
I don't think i will EVER play From Software games, but nine sols.... Is just amazing
Play rain world
Try Grime
The fandom of Hollow is the worst of the Game, FACTS!!!!!!
Is surprising how many Metroidvanias following the style of Hollow Knight have been made.
"Hollow-likes"
Hollow like is not a genre
I’m honestly just tired of pixel art graphics. I’ll bet you a couple bucks the developer thinks they’re being revolutionary and say “let’s go old school”
No deviator... Unsubbed
Tbh it really doesn't deserve that much hate coz it's not a bad game
@@OverPowerGamer-nm5xc Its a meh game. Not bad for what I believe to be the studios first project but I also don't think its worth your money.
@@MossMothMyBeloved Yeah ppl are accusing the game for being a HK clone but i might give the game a try if it comes on switch coz the environment of the game isn't really that bad so i guess I might give it a go
"ACTUALLY like silksong" says the desperate 'creator' for views. Why are newcomers ao pathetic?
Tf are you talking about
Idk silksong kinda is bad why would games wanna imitate it.
We got ppl saying Silksong is bad before it even released
Team Cherry peaked with their hit game "Ugly Jesus vs. Mummy" the rest of them were mid at best. Silksong won't be any different