Why Nine Sols is one of 2024’s most anticipated indie titles
Red Candle Games, the team behind Nine Sols, is a Taiwanese video game developer. Over the years, it has released a couple of games, both of them focused on East Asian culture, often with a mix of horror blended in. Its games were so popular that they were even developed into a movie and a television series. Due to much praise online, people are understandably excited about Nine Sols, its upcoming release. This is despite Nine Sols being a clear departure from the sort of things that Red Candle Games is known for. Let’s take a look at why people are so eager to get their hands on it.
Red Candle Games has history
Red Candle Games has a history of developing high-quality games. Sure, they’ve only got two games to their name, but both have reviewed incredibly well in both Asia and the West, and often feature in best game lists.
It’s a company that is not afraid to rock the boat a little bit too. We don’t know if you remember, but its previous game, Devotion, had a little bit of controversy when it was found to be quite mocking of the Chinese Communist Party, which is surprising from a Taiwanese developer. As you can probably imagine, it ended up being banned in China.
Because Red Candle Games have this history, people just know that their next game is likely to be good, even though it will be in a completely different genre. Much of the same team is working on it anyway, and they seem to be creative geniuses.
It’s a 2D platformer
Just like pokies among gamers in New Zealand, gamers are always on the hunt for a brand-new 2D platformer. We’ve had a good few quality ones from indie developers over the last few years, with Hollow Knight being one of the most popular. While we are waiting for the follow-up to Hollow Knight in the form of Silksong, which should be announced pretty soon (although they’ve been saying that for a couple of years now), Nine Sols may just fill the gap. The team behind Nine Sols says that they’ve taken a lot of inspiration from Hollow Knight. If the game is half as good as Hollow Knight, then we know that we are in for a great experience.
East Asian themes
One thing that all of the games from this team have in common is the fact that they follow very strong East Asian themes. Nine Sols is a game that is developed by a team that loves its culture, and they manage to accurately nail the East Asian themes, both in terms of art style as well as the stories they tell. At the moment, we’ve got a market that is lacking in proper East Asian-themed games, and gamers are clearly on the hunt for something new. There is a good chance that Nine Sols could end up filling that void.
The art style is beautiful
One thing that we’re loving about these 2D platformer games that have come out recently is the art style. It takes us back to our childhood. This is how we imagined the games that we played on our NES and SNES looking – although, let’s be honest, they didn’t even come close.
One of the cool things about Nine Sols is the fact that everything in this game is hand-drawn. Even the animations. That is a huge amount of effort for something that barely anybody will notice. But come on, we’ve noticed. Many of the serious gamers will notice, too. If you’ve ever played a game like Cuphead (and, seriously, you should play Cuphead), then you’ll know the sort of art style you can expect from Nine Sols. It is going to look like you are playing your favorite Saturday morning cartoon – or something like that.
It’s coming to all platforms
After Red Candle Games were able to reach their quite lofty goals from their kickstarter, they announced that Nine Sols would be coming to all platforms. Well, all console platforms, PC and macOS. You rarely see a game announced for all platforms at the same time – or close to the same time. The game is already available on PC and MacOS.
So, for console owners, Nine Sols is eagerly anticipated. Launching in November 2024, several months after its release on PC and macOS, gamers already know it is good. They just want to see how good it is on the console. Guess what? It’ll be amazing.
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