Nine Sols

Nine Sols is an 2D action-platformer developed and published by Red Candle Games. The game is set in an Asian fantasy-inspired futuristic world which Red Candle Games describes as "taopunk", a combination of Taoism and cyberpunk, stating that “we had a clear goal of combining Taoism with cyberpunk, melding sci-fi elements with Eastern mythology." In gameplay, combat emphasizes the player deflecting attacks from enemies to build up energy to perform special attacks. It features a hand-drawn animation style. The game was released on Windows and macOS on May 29, 2024.

Premise
The story follows Yi, a legendary hero from the past who is on a quest for revenge to overthrow the titular Nine Sols, the powerful, tyrannical rulers of the deserted realm of New Kunlun.

Plot
Five hundred years ago, the Tianhuo virus infected the Solarians, an anthropomorphic cat-like race. With no cure in sight, their leaders, the Ten Sols, developed the Eternal Cauldron Project, in which Solarians could rest in a virtual reality to delay the virus while they searched for a cure. However, the energy to power the project required the brains of intelligent lifeforms, so the Solarians left their home planet of Penglai and set sail on a 500-year-long journey on an island-ship called New Kunlun to the "pale-blue planet" (Earth), where "apemen" (humans) were discovered. Yi, the Tenth Sol, was betrayed and put in a temporary state of hibernation shortly before New Kunlun's launch but survived due to a special connection with the Primordial Roots, a plant that produces vast amounts of energy and which the Solarians harness for their technology.

Yi awakens a few hundred years later in Peach-Blossom village, an area within New Kunlun where the Solarians had kidnapped humans to breed as livestock. He befriends a human named Shuanshuan and subsequently saves him during the brain-offering ceremony, awakening the Nine Sols in the process. To regain control of the Eternal Cauldron Project and exact revenge, Yi seeks out the Nine Sols in various locations within New Kunlun to take their Sol Seals.

During his journey, Yi stays in the Spring Pavilion, which is defended by an artificial intelligence system called Abacus. As he progresses, more residents come to the Pavilion: Shennong, a skeptical human who realizes the truth behind the village and brings Shuanshuan to the Pavillion, Chiyou, a former battle robot turned scholar and merchant who gained sentience, and Kuafu, a Sol and close friend of Yi who chooses to betray the other Sol and upgrades Yi's weapons. Yi also receives periodic messages from his sister Heng, who chose to remain in Penglai when New Kunlun departed. It is also revealed throughout the story that Yi was the mastermind behind the Eternal Cauldron Project and that the Tianhuo virus was created by Eigong in her attempts to research immortality. Yi also learned that the Eternal Cauldron was immensely flawed. His encounter with Lady Ethereal, a Sol and the project's lead programmer told him that the Eternal Dream simulation she created was so good that none of them wanted to wake up and the ones that did became incredibly insane and hostile to everyone even to themselves which in turn attack their fellow solarians, then self-mutilate and commit suicide. And to make matters worse, the Empyrean District where nearly the entire hibernating Solarian population was housed has fallen to the Tianhuo virus. He later learns from the logs in the labs that Eigong was responsible for the outbreak as the constant failures of making a cure has driven her insane and instead started to see the virus as their salvation as it made them basically "immortal"(though their minds have long died and are just walking corpses at that point). She then started making more and modifying the virus. After completing the newly modified Tianhuo virus, she then released it to the unknowing Solarian population.

After defeating eight of the Sols, Yi obtains their Sol Seals, which were stolen by Eigong, the last Sol and leader of the Sols, and Yi's former mentor who betrayed him in the past.

Depending on the player's choice, there are two endings:


 * In the True Ending, Yi deepens his connection with Shuanshuan and other humans and decides to save them. He evacuates them and sends them back to Earth before confronting Eigong. During the battle, Eigong fuses with the Primordial Roots after being infected with Tianhuo. Yi chooses to destroy New Kunlun, killing himself and the remaining Solarians in the process and effectively ending the Tianhuo virus, and reunites with his sister Heng in the afterlife.
 * In the Normal Ending, Yi kills Eigong and obtains the remaining Sol Seals before taking control of New Kunlun and returning to Penglai. The remaining Solarians are still in hibernation, with human brains being used to power the virtual reality, and it is unknown if there is a cure for the Tianhuo virus.

Gameplay
Nine Sols is a 2D action-platformer in which the player controls Yi, who aims to defeat the Nine Sols to get revenge. The focus is on melee combat mixed with side-scrolling platforming and deflection mechanics. Yi's basic attack is slashing with a sword, but he can also deflect enemy attacks, which allows him to absorb and accumulate qi to unleash charged attacks on enemies through a technique called "reverse deflect", with the power of the attack increasing as more energy is charged. When reverse deflecting, Yi dashes through his opponents and attacks them with talismans called "Foo charms", which explode when activated. In addition to wielding a sword, Yi also wields the Godly Bow for ranged combat. In regards to movement, Yi can run, jump, double jump, wall jump, dash on the ground and in the air, climb, wall run, and grapple.

Development
The game was announced on March 22, 2022. Red Candle Games, a Taiwanese company behind Detention and Devotion, led the game's development. The game's combat was heavily inspired by Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.