Recent reviews by Meat

Unfathomable for someone to release this game in 2024

When you buy an indie game, usually the story is trash or non-existent, but the gameplay is good (e.g. Rogue-lite deckbuilders, bullet heavens, etc). Or the story is good, but the gameplay is a drag (To The Moon, DokiDoki LC, visual novels, etc).

Once every few years, I find an indie game that has it all: great writing, crisp sound design, memorable visuals, fresh world-building, and most importantly, fun gameplay. Nine Sols meets all this criteria, and it’s a shame it took me so long to play it.

I normally think Metroidvanias are lazy and boring. I think Hollow Knight is one of the most overrated indie games of all time. Recursion through old zones after obtaining a new power up feels tedious and not rewarding. However, the lore of Nine Sols is so interesting, it’s forgivable — I look forward to learning more about the world, not treading back to get +1 hp fragment that was gated behind an arbitrarily inaccessible area.

Speaking of the lore… they really outdid themselves. Combining the dystopian themes of Promised Neverland with cyberpunk Taoism? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Within an hour into the game, I was blown away with the breadth and depth of the story.

I couldn’t wait to write this review early into the game. It’s one of those rare experiences that within each moment, you are reveling in a masterpiece that you hope never ends.

The animations, the hand-drawn art, the personality of each character (including MC), the satisfying boss fights and combat, the ancient lore, the root-system concepts, the simplicity of the skill tree… all A+

To me, this game propels the studio of RedCandleGames into SuperGiantGames levels. Nine Sols is like “Bastion”, where I was so moved by the game, I knew I would be a life-time customer of their products. I look forward to squeezing every drop out of Nine Sols, and I know that whatever RedCandle comes up with next, it will surely be another work of art.

Finally... a bullet-hell roguelite with decent progression depth. Bosses are varied and unique. Unlike Touhou and Cuphead, you don't need to play through stages of fodder before fighting a boss, which is truly the most fun part of the genre.

My only qualms are that when you're in alter difficulties, the pixelated design makes it hard to differentiate your character's hitbox vs. the bullets compared to the crispness of other bullethells. When bullets are coming from behind, north, and southern parts of the screen, the colors match too closely to the MC and background. The bullets in other genres "pop out" and contrast more to the background. TVRUHH's bullets hardly pop out, and the pixelated bullets mesh too closely with the pixelated background. They should really create some more 3D or lighting effects on each orb.

Also, "Love" is mentioned literally 100+ times per run. I get it -- the story clearly has a lot of inspiration from battling depression from Celeste. It's just way too on-the-nose with this story, whereas the metaphor of "climbing the mountain" of depression was way more subtle. Love Love Love Love Love... you quickly become fatigued from the motif. The robot is cute, though.

Highly recommend for any bullet-hell enjoyers, or a roguelite fans that may have come from the Soulstone Survivors / Vampire Survivors / Halls of Torment isometic genre.

For the first time, Supergiant Games has compromised gameplay for aesthetics. Pyre plays like a story-driven visual novel, similar to To The Moon. If you are looking for otherworldly, dystopian world building, soundtrack, and characterization as expected from an SGG game, you'll probably satisfy that need here. If you are looking for deep gameplay and innovative RPG mechanics, look elsewhere.

Pros

- Rich post-apocalyptic world similar to Bastion and Transistor
- Great soundtrack
- Characters are not black / white, but grey and complex with robust backstories
- Modular "home base" similar to Bastion's town and Transistor's Break Room where you slowly unlock things as you meet new comrades on your adventure
- Deep, optional lore filled with legend, infamy, ethereal creatures, heroes, and betrayal

Cons

- RPG elements and skill tree feel like they have little to no impact. Compare "Move +1 quicker" or "Respawn .05 seconds faster" to augmenting an entire weapon or changing the entire foundation of one of Red's skills
- Actual "combat" lasts 2-3 minutes. Before, your home base was a short respite before jumping back into the action. You would review your spoils, allocate skill points, make tough strategic decisions. In Pyre, it's the opposite where the rites are short breaks from the narrative that do not feel impactful.
- The "star" system feels like a very forced narrative that is hard to connect to.

It may sound that I'm comparing Pyre too much to SGG's other titles and not reviewing it as a standalone game. My references to Transistor and Bastion are intended to communicate how disappointing the gameplay is. There is a pungent imbalance in Pyre as you play the game.

I'm going to see the game through, because I'm already hooked on the story. However, I feel especially bad, because I think SGG has a ton of potential as game designers and this game may not succeed. I know they are a smaller, grass roots company that puts most of its profits into the development of future titles. I imagine they wanted to branch out from their standard formula of a top-down RPG, but that is not what Pyre is lacking. It's missing the SGG gameplay magic of when Kid enters his first Challenge or when you get to test out Red's new ()skill augmentations. You're left with a hollow game featuring a great story and a constant tinge of disappointment as you mash your way through the narrative.

I rate it a 6.5/10, but steam only gives you a yes/no recommendation. Do I recommend this game? No, the game feels imbalanced despite having some great qualities.

Really fun game if you play with friends. If you don't have at least 3 friends to play with, you won't have any fun. Like literally, this game is less than ♥♥♥♥ if you play with randoms. Incredibly imbalanced -- your power level is directly correlated to how many hours you have into the game. There is some illusion of a skill tree but everyone at level 50+ maxes armor, because regeneration and tankiness is overpowered. People create custom games with rulesets that allow people to grind EXP the most efficiently. If you're with friends, there's an understanding to try out creative angles and fun builds when you play. If you play with randoms, expect fighting 250 armor tanks that regen every turn.

Do not buy this game solo unless the way trees are designed and weapon exp are fundamentally changed. There is no way to balance the game in its current state.

The art, music, and general aesthetics are absurdly good in Transistor. Check out my screenshots I've taken in-game, and that is the sort of eye-candy you'll see when you play. The music is amazing, just check out the launch trailer. The voice acting is crisp and convincing. I'd say that this game's aesthetics can match something out of Bioshock, which is a tall glass for an indie game.


Transistor has standard RPG elements such as experience points, health bars, acquiring new skills, and deep story. However, this game has a completely unique combat experience unlike any game I've seen before. Transistor mixes familiar real-time RPG elements (fluid enemy encounters, simultaneous combat with enemies) with turn-based RPG mechanics (carefully planning out your turn to min-max DPS & positioning). If you are surrounded by enemies, you can choose to consume your "turn()". When that happens, time stands still and you can input a series of moves. When you activate turn() a second time, the game fast-forwards all of your moves that you've planned. The drawback is that you are stuck in the real-time world until your turn() meter replenishes.

The way you create skills in this game are also very interesting. You can pick 4 active skills and 4 passives. Then, you can upgrade your active skills with excess ones to transform it into something different. Consider the first skill you get in the game: crash(). Here is a picture of the possibilities you can mix with crash(). Note that this only covers one upgrade, but you can put two upgrades per skill. This allows for crazy customization to cater to your playstyle. Do you want to summon a bunch of minions to do your bidding while you stay hidden and mobile? Do you want to charm enemies to temporarily fight the enemies? Do you want to snipe from range, AOE all around you, or deal damage in the form of DoTs? The game lets you play however you want -- something I've only seen in AAA RPGs like Diablo or Skyrim.

Lastly, the story. People seem to be disappointed in the storyline over other aspects of the game, but then you see they have less than 10 hours played. This is a game that becomes more clear the more you put into it. There is a lot of optional reading you can do that provides you with more pieces to the puzzle that makes the story of Transistor clear. Playing Newgame+ also helps. Lots of people don't understand the ending. In my experience, I thought it was refreshing that the game did not force-feed me the story-line in plain-text like Call of Duty script. In regards to the storyline itself, I loved it.

To recap, this is easily one of my favorite single-player experiences you can find on steam. I highly recommend it, coming from a dude who plays a lot of games. To recap --

Pros
+ Good storyline if you decide to read into the text
+ Creative combat full of personalization and theorycrafting
+ Art that is rarely matched
+ Soundtrack is amazing
+ Newgame+ provides replayability in the form of more difficult mobs and even more customization
+ 15$

Cons
+ Relatively short if you're someone who is strictly gameplay and does not indulge in the world (~5 hours)
+ Storyline is percieved as confusing to many