Nine Sols

[EcoHound]

Do you enjoy Metroidvania?
Do you want a super unique art style and aesthetic?
Do you enjoy high difficulty Soulsborne/Sekiro style combat?
Do you like fucked up cats?

Then play Nine Sols. An outlier in Red Candle Games' catalogue, it quickly shot to the top of my all time favorites due to its style, gameplay, characters and story.

I don't want to spoil the story and setting so I'll talk about the gameplay mostly.
The core ethos of the gameplay is "Stay calm or die". The game is based on a parry system and there is always plenty of time to see and react to the enemy attacks. However, there are two factors that you have to overcome to see it:
1. All the flips, tricks and combos the enemies do can easily make you panic, and the instant you panic is that instant you die because
2. There is zero mercy invincibility in this game
A single enemy combo will kill you instantly. However, if you can stay calm and get into the flow and rhythm of the fight, you will be part of the flashiest and most high intensity dance ever.
This game is brutally difficult, and yet I never raged once. Every death was my fault and only my fault, never the game's.

Plus there's a story mode difficulty for accessibility and the story can easily carry the experience if the gameplay isn't to your tastes.

Edit: Oh. And the soundtrack is pure earcandy

[Enbyeon]

I enjoyed Red Candle Games' previous output and the demo for this game. Literally the only reason I haven't gotten around to it yet has been other backlog games, but it's very much up my alley. And I'm glad they got a break after the ridiculous issues with Devotion that they had to deal with.

[Mixi Blacksand]

Oh, this game looks beautiful but I've been ignoring it 'cause I have zero interest in high difficulty games these days. Didn't know it had a story mode. May have to give it a try now!

[EcoHound]

Talking a bit about the narrative themes
SPOILERS AHEAD

Hidden text.

I really appreciate the theme of accepting when something has reached its end and not trying to artificially extend it.
The entire game takes it to the point where it's a one and done complete story, there are no plans nor even any room in the story for a sequel. And in a world where creativity in the AAA gaming space is bankrupt and churning out sequels and remakes, having a game like Nine Sols say "the story has ended, no if ands or buts, so appreciate what it was" really hits hard to me.

[Weasel]

Oh, this game looks beautiful but I've been ignoring it 'cause I have zero interest in high difficulty games these days. Didn't know it had a story mode. May have to give it a try now!

The game has a very robust difficulty system, you can easily make yourself super tanky to turn it into a hack&slash, or make enemies die in one hit.

I ended up indulging in that for the final boss, I just do not have it in me to spend hours learning a boss to beat it.

As a huge From fan, I've come to realise that what I enjoy most about their games is the exploration of its harsh worlds, while bosses are just an annoyance I have to deal with. If a boss takes more than 2-3 tries then beating them is no longer satisfying, I'm just glad it's over.

That said, Nine Sols? Mwah, delightful.

[Paperlanty]

Oh I absolutely love Nine Sols! I haven't actually beaten it but it feels so good to play that I have progressed significantly on the Switch and then bought it on Steam to play it on my nice computer... love this game a lot. I definitely turned down the difficulty at the start -- at least giving myself a 30% damage reduction -- although it feels so fluid to play for me that I was able to breeze by most encounters when replaying stuff

really can't praise it enough... one tip if you struggle with the parrying is, besides staying calm, you can jump to make your parry omnidirectional (so like if you don't have the time to turn yourself around or a little panic is setting in, it can help a lot)

There was a bit where I was certain I'd prefer the guaranteed delay talisman explosion (which is a special move you can do after parrying enough times) because I hated getting hit out of them, but I actually just like the default method of laying them down the most... not too long of a wait and still great damage hehe (I also really like the equip that lets you not get knocked around while charging the explosion, and the ones that heal...)

(also yes my interest did begin with Goumang but my love for the game as a whole surpassed Furry Wife power)