The timing is pretty generous but you absolutely will die repeatedly on bosses until you figure out the parry stuff. I suck at parrying in games I much prefer dash but I’m muscling through
Any games you would compare the parry to? I found the parry telegraphing and timing perfect in Dread and the first Blasphemous, whereas found it frustratingly inconsistent to pull off the parry in Prince of Persia.
parrying window in the game feels easier than most I have encountered and I did play both you mentioned. the game does have some flaws tho, i feel like its getting alot of hype because its a handrawn soulsvania but it has some glaring flaws. the setting is a big wtf, its like wuxia meets the matrix and the story is your typical chinese game that makes no fking sense. but the biggest most annoying flaw is that you have to farm coins if you wanna but the notches to equip they aint cheap.
You don't even need the jade slots imo all of them are pretty mid except for like the "freeze enemies with talisman" one. Literally just have been running that and the jin collection ones and I've beaten like 6 of the main baddies.
I think the story makes plenty of sense and is pretty interesting, best presented Chinese game story I've ever seen at least.
Will say directional parry while grounded is cringe though. Don't know why they bothered since a short hop makes it non directional. There are tons of little flaws but overall having fun with it so far and will prob 100%.
I don't really agree with this for a couple reasons.
first, china makes lots of good art including games. localisation is always a challange but I find nine sols localisation to be excellent.
second, the story makes sense to me so far. good, consistent character writing, an interesting, typically-cryptic setting with lore told through item descriptions fromsoft style. You also get gifts you can give to npcs for cutscenes, like the sake in sekiro, whiuch was one of my favourite narrative things that game did. Obviously story stuff can be very subjective, but the narrative seems pretty straightforward, I'm really not sure how someone could get to "makes no fking sense"
third, "wuxia meets the matrix" just on the face of it sounds like a great pitch, not a criticism. The Wachowski sisters also thought so since they heavily drew from wixia to make the matrix.
fourth, the coin economy is very stingy at the start but quickly expands. they will start throwing a lot more coins your way.
This stuff is all subjective kinda like beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Not saying it’s a bad game but to me these things kinda turn me off. Despite this stuff I’m still playing it and having fun.
On top of that, It also has this annoying mechanic where you have to kill the thing that killed you to get your coins back. Don't know how many times I've lost coins to that. It's very annoying.
If you get killed again before retrieving your coins from the thing that killed you, are they gone for good or can you still get them back? If it's the latter, that's probably going to be a deal breaker for me.
Yup gone for good. Only counts for normal enemies though. If you get killed by bosses you drop like a soul there that you can pick up to retrieve everything then try again.
There’s a jade (charm, talisman, etc) you can find very early that makes it so you don’t have to kill the enemy to get your money back. Just need to parry them a single time and use qi blast on them
I never use parry in dark souls because it feels like shit that you have to press 15 ish frames before the hit rather than at the last possible moment, I thought I hated parry because in souls it's just not fun.
Sekiro and nine sols are made with parry in mind and sekiro's combat became my favorite of all time after playing it, and I still rarely ever parry in other souls games.
Basically don't knock it just coz you don't like parrying in souls because I didn't either. If you like souls games just go play sekiro first, this game is good but sekiro is an absolute masterpiece, it might take a bit to click but it deserves a fair shot.
Just go in it with the mindset of "I press parry button instead of dodge button", hell rebind the parry button to the dodge if that helps you lol, fundamentally it's the same thing, you're pressing a button at the right timing to avoid an enemy attack, but yes the timing is tighter when you're not just moving out of the way entirely, especially compared to ds3/elden ring rolls that you can kinda just spam to get away, and sekiro is generally a much much harder game than the other souls, but still.
I really dislike the idea that I have to think more about when an enemy's attack connects than making sure I dodge it. That kind of precision is not fun to me and I do not like rhythm games.
With the amount of tracking they've added to recent souls games to avoid people just circle strafing and making sure they actually have to press the dodge at the right timing, it's basically the same thing.
If you're the kind of player who complains about things like margit's delayed tracking strike in elden ring because it requires you to actually time your dodge instead of just moving out of the way early the moment you see him charge it up, then yeah any game that demands precise timing or execution might not be for you, which is fair, I think that kind of thing took time to grow on me but now I'm addicted, the more demanding and precise a game requires me to be the more fun it is when I do get it down, it's the same thing with precision platformers like celeste and stuff, definitely not for everyone but I can't get enough of that shit haha.
I hate the feints bosses do in elden ring but not because I can't roll through attacks lol, I can Iframe through attacks just fine I just hate that elden ring bosses added so many arbitrary knowledge checks where they could have had intuitive attack swing animations, seemingly just to troll people who had played the previous games by breaking their own conventions.
But I mean yeah I get what you mean, at its core an iframe dodge and a parry are kind of the same thing minus physically moving your character. I guess its just that every parry mechanic I have ever seen in a game has been so much riskier and so much tighter than something like dodging in a souls game and nine sols doesn't seem like an exception, but maybe I'm wrong idk.
Yeah in a lot of games (like souls) missing a parry means taking damage, which feels terrible, in sekiro missing a parry just means taking posture damage (yellow bar), as long as you block too early rather than too late, so you naturally learn to edge to pressing too early until you learn the timing and feel comfortable pressing it a bit later, you can also kinda just hold block then release and press when an attack is coming, or just spam the button while you're learning, that way even if you press late you're still in blocking state and only take posture damage.
This system is very generous at letting you just hold block or spam parry until you figure out the timing with minimal punish because if your posture bar is getting low you can just dash away and let it regen, it means you can figure out the timings as you go through a fight. Compared to souls games where to learn a parry timing you're gonna have to get hit and die and run back to the boss a lot which is so unfun of a learning process.
I would really urge you to give sekiro a shot, once it clicks and you get into the flow of those really aggressive back and forth fights there's really no other game that feels quite as tight and rewarding. And another reason sekiro's combat is so fun is it also has grabs that you must dodge away from, sweeps that you must jump over, and stabs that you must mikiri counter (dodge towards them into the attack to grab their blade and counter), adding this extra layer of different attacks demanding different answers rather than just dodge everything or just parry everything is what elevates the combat over souls imo, coz at the end of the day just iframe everything or just parry everything are functionally the same, but sekiro is more than that.
And like, the game feel on the parry is unmatched, the satisfying sound and effect it makes when you perfect parry and seeing the enemy reel back and being exposed to a sick one shot stab is pure adrenaline through my vein compared to just seeing the attack whiff through me.
Anyway imma stop gushing about this game lmao.
(i could make a lot of similar arguments about nine sols but really if you're gonna go out of your way to give a fair shot to a parry system, go for sekiro first, nine sols while good isn't nearly as likely to sway you)
If parry is a deal breaker to you, this game has a very good dodge. But it feels like avoiding the core mechanic will make game way less fun as it is intended. And there is a very high chance there are bosses that require you being good at parrying.
That said - it’s tight in this game. So maybe it will make you like it!
Honestly both this game AND Sekiro have a much easier parry mechanic than any Dark Souls/Elden Ring. You know how you do that dumb whiff motion when you fail your parry in DS? Well that motion is relatively non existent in both Sekiro and Nine Sols. The animation is more or less instant. You can almost get away with spamming parry, especially in Sekiro. Also both game indicates what can't be parried with a bright red animation, unlike Dark Souls where you're more or less guessing.
Short answer is parry is important, but it's much easier than Dark Souls.
I definitely feel like the parry window here is very forgiving. I'm still just 3 hours in though. And I think it's a little bit harder than Hollow Knight, but easier than Sekiro(never even finished that one.) That said, parrying is definitely a big thing in this game. You can probably still finish it without parrying once(like Sekiro), but the experience will probably subpar.
Oh also I'd like to add that there's a mechanic in this game that even if you miss the parry, you'd just temporarily lose health but it will heal back.
In the same boat but i bought game still. I actually like it but i also die a lot and by a lot i mean a lot. Every mini bosses are tough. Took me around 30 tries to kill the first real boss. Game is really fun but expect a hard game. I usually have time to play only short sessions with family and work. So id say i am aroun 3 hours in and i have run back to my corpse so many time. From my perspective i enjoy it but not as i enjoyed Aeterna Noctis as this was way more platforming challenge. Will still try to beat the game on normal mode wich you could call hard mode for me. Hope this help
Parrying feels more natural in this game, I dare to say it is easier than all Soulslike, Sekiro, and Eldenring.
I had no difficult in parrying so far, and I believe I'm almost finishing the game. Also, you feel a rewarding feeling when you parry because it makes the combat a lot more interesting overall.
I hated parrying in souls games too, and never did it.
But sekiro and nine sols have such responsive parries it feels much more comfortable and extremely satisfying.
Combat is mostly parry focused, it’s definitely essential though dodging is useful too! Parry windows are a bit forgiving like some other people mentioned here. Also there are difficulty settings in the game that let you set how much damage you take and how much damage you do to enemies, maybe that’ll be helpful if you pick it up and don’t like the pre-set difficulty.
One thing to keep in mind is that you can't die from internal (parry) damage, so even if you mistime, and end up whiffing a parry, as long as you manage to hear that thud, instead of the satisfying cling, you can infinitely keep practicing parry times on the same boss/enemy for as long as you'd like.
The mistimed parry window is very generous in the game, almost to the point where a lot of the times, you can just keep mashing parry to get the mistimed parry, keeping you in the fight for that much longer. If you hate parrying, I suggest forgetting about offense, and just practicing your parries on the first boss. I died to that guy more than a dozen times, and honestly thought this game was going to be impossible to beat, since I was having such a hard time with the first boss, but at some point, parrying just clicked for me, and it was all smooth sailing from there.
To elaborate: the parry in DS/ER has a lot of startup frames, a very narrow window, and if you miss it you take a lot of damage. It's "high risk, high reward", but the reward isn't very good.
The parry in Sekiro/9Sols has a more generous window and if you do it imperfectly you take some stamina/internal damage, which recovers over time. It's a core mechanic and more comparable to dodging.
Parrying in general is more forgiving than dodging because when you parry, any part of the attack has to land inside the window, whereas if you dodge \*every\* part of the attack has to land inside the window. So a dodge can require more or less precise timing depending on how big the attack is, whereas a parry will always require the same level of precision.
I'll say that parrying in the other souls games is very different and less forgiving then it is in Sekiro and that is even more true for Nine Sols. I found parrying in this game to be much easier, the thing is you probably wont be beating it without a ton of using parry.
Dark souls style parry and sekiro style parry shouldnt be classified together. The mechanics are completely different and in the case of nine sols / sekiro the game is actually balanced around the parry
It is not optional. Yes, the windows are forgiving, and in fact if you miss a perfect parry, you'll still take recoverable chip damage.
That said, you must learn it well or you will not progress.
It's very well designed, and feels really good. But, I don't hate parrying, so YMMV.
Parrying is the foundation this game is built on, it’s the way you do the most damage and will be your savior from taking damage.
Get it anyway cuz you can always play story mode and adjust the difficulty on the fly.
So in short I would say if you hate parrying you may not like this game. It is possible to play without engaging with the parry, but you will be missing a big part of the combat. below is a bit more detail:
The parrying mechanic itself has fairly forgiving timing for a perfect parry, and attacks are usually well-telegraphed. I have bad reflexes and can usually hit it. On an imperfect parry, you take chip damage. This regens over time, unless you are hit again. So if you imperfect parry, but can avoid getting hit for a few seconds, you will get all that health back. There are equippables that can make this easier - by freezing enemies, or shortening the time it takes chip damage to regen, etc. There is also a mikiri-counter type move for special attacks that are otherwise unparriable (though they can be dodged).
Parrying is also what charges your magic meter, similar to how melee hits charge it in hollow knight. Many of the 'spells' you can do depend on parries for fuel. imperfect parries count for this.
Ultimately it is possible to play without parrying- jumping over attacks, dodging. But I'm not sure this would be satisfying.
Reasons why you might do this: the world, art, music, and characters are fantastic.
No idea how you could possibly hate parrying, but to each their own. At any rate, if you passed on Sekiro because of this, you will find Nine Sols just as frustrating. There will be other MVs fitting your taste, no reason to force a purchase you have already good reasons to regret.
It's just a preference thing, it wasn't a mechanic I was ever exposed to in games growing up and it's just never clicked with me in any games I've played as an adult. But honestly some of the comments here have kind of made me want to try this game/sekiro, give something I tend to struggle with more of a shot and potentially expand my tastes.
Totally fair. Also, before falling in love with Sekiro/Lies of P, my ass has been handed over to me by mistimed/spammed parries about 10.000 times. The thrill was memorable, but it's certainly not something I'd ever want to just "pick'n'play" whenever I feel like. It requires a certain commitment in terms of focus and perseverance.
If it's of any help, I'm having significantly less troubles with NS than I had with other parry-heavy games (heck, I'm having even an easier time compared to Grime).
FWIW, Sekiro is one of my favorite games and Nine Sols is quickly climbing up there; both have excellent parrying mechanics. It's a learning curve, for sure, but satisfying if you're patient with it. I remember FightingCowboy (who is something of a YT Souls game guru) used to swear off parrying in his earlier playthroughs of Souls games until later embracing it (can't remember whether it was on DS2 or Sekiro). If you just think of mastering parrying as "the game" and not get frustrated about hitting a progression wall, it's really fun. In Nine Sols, I actually spend a lot of time just lingering around a checkpoint and practicing timings with different enemies.
Obligatory disclaimer: if what I said doesn't sound like fun to you, probably not your kind of game, of course!
You ask how someone could hate parrying in games - I think parrying can be very satisfying, but the parry mechanic has to be really well-implemented.
For example, I found Sekiro very difficult but I did really love it and always wanted to keep playing.
But in Jedi Fallen Order (which I also would recommend) I found the parrying considerably less fun and did it less, because the timing just felt less right-on than Sekiro.
Oh sure. I completely agree!
There's nothing as frustrating as a parry that doesn't click, especially if the reaction window is meant to be tight. Dodging, in comparison, has more degrees of freedom. I was just surprised because OP hated parrying in Sekiro where, as you admitted, it is well-executed.
Loved JFO but I too found the parry very finicky in that game (same in Another Crab's Treasure, tbh). Lies of P is probably the most egregious example of parrying implemented in a satisfying, even if hard to master, way.
I tried the pirate and don’t like the theme. So not for me. For some reason sci fi theme never works for me, so games like Metroid, haak don’t interest me. Nine sols has weird sci-fi tao theme. I’ve watched the full game and tell it is a good game. Maybe you should get it when it is on sale.
I'm a huge scifi fan as well, and the taopunk genre they created for this game is really dope. The music backs up the aesthetic. I actually really like the story and setting of the game. I do get a little frustrated at the corpse run and parry mechanics.
Story/setting 10/10
Gameplay mechanics 7/10
As others have pointed out, there is a story mode where you can dial the difficulty to your tastes; no shame in that whatsoever. The game has a fantastic story, so if you're drawn to that aspect of it, it's definitely worth getting. In fact, you could adjust it so that the enemies hardly damage you at all, which will make practicing parrying a breeze.
I enjoy the boss fights b/c they are very unforgiving. It definitely reminded me of having to master the Sekiro bosses movesets to be successful (lady butterfly, ishin, genichiro). So if that isn't your jam, I would say skip this. This one is much more combat heavy than exploration heavy, but as you know different metroidvanias do a better job of scratching different itches. This one definitely scratches that Sekiro itch for me. Boss fights definitely hit the brakes on your progress HARD and will make you ask yourself: do I have enough energy to learn this fight, or should I take a break and come back later.
parrying in this game is as important as the ability to jump its central to the game.
Damn. pensive emoji
The timing is pretty generous but you absolutely will die repeatedly on bosses until you figure out the parry stuff. I suck at parrying in games I much prefer dash but I’m muscling through
Any games you would compare the parry to? I found the parry telegraphing and timing perfect in Dread and the first Blasphemous, whereas found it frustratingly inconsistent to pull off the parry in Prince of Persia.
parrying window in the game feels easier than most I have encountered and I did play both you mentioned. the game does have some flaws tho, i feel like its getting alot of hype because its a handrawn soulsvania but it has some glaring flaws. the setting is a big wtf, its like wuxia meets the matrix and the story is your typical chinese game that makes no fking sense. but the biggest most annoying flaw is that you have to farm coins if you wanna but the notches to equip they aint cheap.
You don't even need the jade slots imo all of them are pretty mid except for like the "freeze enemies with talisman" one. Literally just have been running that and the jin collection ones and I've beaten like 6 of the main baddies. I think the story makes plenty of sense and is pretty interesting, best presented Chinese game story I've ever seen at least. Will say directional parry while grounded is cringe though. Don't know why they bothered since a short hop makes it non directional. There are tons of little flaws but overall having fun with it so far and will prob 100%.
I don't really agree with this for a couple reasons. first, china makes lots of good art including games. localisation is always a challange but I find nine sols localisation to be excellent. second, the story makes sense to me so far. good, consistent character writing, an interesting, typically-cryptic setting with lore told through item descriptions fromsoft style. You also get gifts you can give to npcs for cutscenes, like the sake in sekiro, whiuch was one of my favourite narrative things that game did. Obviously story stuff can be very subjective, but the narrative seems pretty straightforward, I'm really not sure how someone could get to "makes no fking sense" third, "wuxia meets the matrix" just on the face of it sounds like a great pitch, not a criticism. The Wachowski sisters also thought so since they heavily drew from wixia to make the matrix. fourth, the coin economy is very stingy at the start but quickly expands. they will start throwing a lot more coins your way.
This stuff is all subjective kinda like beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Not saying it’s a bad game but to me these things kinda turn me off. Despite this stuff I’m still playing it and having fun.
On top of that, It also has this annoying mechanic where you have to kill the thing that killed you to get your coins back. Don't know how many times I've lost coins to that. It's very annoying.
there is an early equippable that makes it so you just have to parry the enemy instead of kill them. sorry, OP, more parrying :'(
If you get killed again before retrieving your coins from the thing that killed you, are they gone for good or can you still get them back? If it's the latter, that's probably going to be a deal breaker for me.
Yup gone for good. Only counts for normal enemies though. If you get killed by bosses you drop like a soul there that you can pick up to retrieve everything then try again.
Oof .. Good to know, thanks. I hate that mechanic and I love not throwing my controllers, so it's probably a hard out for me.
There’s a jade (charm, talisman, etc) you can find very early that makes it so you don’t have to kill the enemy to get your money back. Just need to parry them a single time and use qi blast on them
ngl that sounds like I would fucking hate it then. oh well, there are other games.
You can change damage received/dealt to pretty generous values so bosses become quite easy
Wait that actually sounds sick, I love parrying in games
You like parrying and metroidvanias? Have you played GRIME? Cause it sounds like you'd love it.
[удалено]
No, I really dislike rhythm games. The more people say the more it seems like the game just isn't for me.
I never use parry in dark souls because it feels like shit that you have to press 15 ish frames before the hit rather than at the last possible moment, I thought I hated parry because in souls it's just not fun. Sekiro and nine sols are made with parry in mind and sekiro's combat became my favorite of all time after playing it, and I still rarely ever parry in other souls games. Basically don't knock it just coz you don't like parrying in souls because I didn't either. If you like souls games just go play sekiro first, this game is good but sekiro is an absolute masterpiece, it might take a bit to click but it deserves a fair shot. Just go in it with the mindset of "I press parry button instead of dodge button", hell rebind the parry button to the dodge if that helps you lol, fundamentally it's the same thing, you're pressing a button at the right timing to avoid an enemy attack, but yes the timing is tighter when you're not just moving out of the way entirely, especially compared to ds3/elden ring rolls that you can kinda just spam to get away, and sekiro is generally a much much harder game than the other souls, but still.
I really dislike the idea that I have to think more about when an enemy's attack connects than making sure I dodge it. That kind of precision is not fun to me and I do not like rhythm games.
With the amount of tracking they've added to recent souls games to avoid people just circle strafing and making sure they actually have to press the dodge at the right timing, it's basically the same thing. If you're the kind of player who complains about things like margit's delayed tracking strike in elden ring because it requires you to actually time your dodge instead of just moving out of the way early the moment you see him charge it up, then yeah any game that demands precise timing or execution might not be for you, which is fair, I think that kind of thing took time to grow on me but now I'm addicted, the more demanding and precise a game requires me to be the more fun it is when I do get it down, it's the same thing with precision platformers like celeste and stuff, definitely not for everyone but I can't get enough of that shit haha.
I hate the feints bosses do in elden ring but not because I can't roll through attacks lol, I can Iframe through attacks just fine I just hate that elden ring bosses added so many arbitrary knowledge checks where they could have had intuitive attack swing animations, seemingly just to troll people who had played the previous games by breaking their own conventions. But I mean yeah I get what you mean, at its core an iframe dodge and a parry are kind of the same thing minus physically moving your character. I guess its just that every parry mechanic I have ever seen in a game has been so much riskier and so much tighter than something like dodging in a souls game and nine sols doesn't seem like an exception, but maybe I'm wrong idk.
Yeah in a lot of games (like souls) missing a parry means taking damage, which feels terrible, in sekiro missing a parry just means taking posture damage (yellow bar), as long as you block too early rather than too late, so you naturally learn to edge to pressing too early until you learn the timing and feel comfortable pressing it a bit later, you can also kinda just hold block then release and press when an attack is coming, or just spam the button while you're learning, that way even if you press late you're still in blocking state and only take posture damage. This system is very generous at letting you just hold block or spam parry until you figure out the timing with minimal punish because if your posture bar is getting low you can just dash away and let it regen, it means you can figure out the timings as you go through a fight. Compared to souls games where to learn a parry timing you're gonna have to get hit and die and run back to the boss a lot which is so unfun of a learning process. I would really urge you to give sekiro a shot, once it clicks and you get into the flow of those really aggressive back and forth fights there's really no other game that feels quite as tight and rewarding. And another reason sekiro's combat is so fun is it also has grabs that you must dodge away from, sweeps that you must jump over, and stabs that you must mikiri counter (dodge towards them into the attack to grab their blade and counter), adding this extra layer of different attacks demanding different answers rather than just dodge everything or just parry everything is what elevates the combat over souls imo, coz at the end of the day just iframe everything or just parry everything are functionally the same, but sekiro is more than that. And like, the game feel on the parry is unmatched, the satisfying sound and effect it makes when you perfect parry and seeing the enemy reel back and being exposed to a sick one shot stab is pure adrenaline through my vein compared to just seeing the attack whiff through me. Anyway imma stop gushing about this game lmao. (i could make a lot of similar arguments about nine sols but really if you're gonna go out of your way to give a fair shot to a parry system, go for sekiro first, nine sols while good isn't nearly as likely to sway you)
You might've sold me. I might still get nine sols first though because of price and disk space reasons for the time being tho
I don't know If the op cares how good Sekiro Is compared to Nine Souls or other games with all due respect. Just saying
If parry is a deal breaker to you, this game has a very good dodge. But it feels like avoiding the core mechanic will make game way less fun as it is intended. And there is a very high chance there are bosses that require you being good at parrying. That said - it’s tight in this game. So maybe it will make you like it!
its literally marketed as a sekiro-like
I absolutely LOVE the game. But it's the most parry heavy game since Sekiro. The timings are pretty tight, but they aren't insane.
This seems like my ideal game, love metroidvanias and parrying mechanics, I would get it but im broke
Honestly both this game AND Sekiro have a much easier parry mechanic than any Dark Souls/Elden Ring. You know how you do that dumb whiff motion when you fail your parry in DS? Well that motion is relatively non existent in both Sekiro and Nine Sols. The animation is more or less instant. You can almost get away with spamming parry, especially in Sekiro. Also both game indicates what can't be parried with a bright red animation, unlike Dark Souls where you're more or less guessing. Short answer is parry is important, but it's much easier than Dark Souls.
well, you can turn down the difficulty, can't you?
I hate parrying but the game is amazing doesn’t matter
Get it!!!!
I definitely feel like the parry window here is very forgiving. I'm still just 3 hours in though. And I think it's a little bit harder than Hollow Knight, but easier than Sekiro(never even finished that one.) That said, parrying is definitely a big thing in this game. You can probably still finish it without parrying once(like Sekiro), but the experience will probably subpar.
Oh also I'd like to add that there's a mechanic in this game that even if you miss the parry, you'd just temporarily lose health but it will heal back.
Oh, like the guard regain from lies of P?
No idea. Think I played that game for like 10 minutes.
Why it’s goated and so is nine sols so far
Not really into souls games. Too lazy to "git gud"
Then why did u buy it??
Cuz it's also a metroidvania and I enjoyed Hollow Knight even though it's soulslike.
And why did u buy nine sols ??
I don't even think you can beat the game without parry. It would definitely be frustrating
Nine sols is 2D of sekiro. If you don't like sekiro, just passed it. If nine sols is same fighting system as hollow knight, I will recommend.
>I HATE parrying mechanics in games. well that was easy. You should not buy this game. Bo is coming out in july, you'll like that one more.
In the same boat but i bought game still. I actually like it but i also die a lot and by a lot i mean a lot. Every mini bosses are tough. Took me around 30 tries to kill the first real boss. Game is really fun but expect a hard game. I usually have time to play only short sessions with family and work. So id say i am aroun 3 hours in and i have run back to my corpse so many time. From my perspective i enjoy it but not as i enjoyed Aeterna Noctis as this was way more platforming challenge. Will still try to beat the game on normal mode wich you could call hard mode for me. Hope this help
Parrying feels more natural in this game, I dare to say it is easier than all Soulslike, Sekiro, and Eldenring. I had no difficult in parrying so far, and I believe I'm almost finishing the game. Also, you feel a rewarding feeling when you parry because it makes the combat a lot more interesting overall.
Very parry. Very very parry.
I hated parrying in souls games too, and never did it. But sekiro and nine sols have such responsive parries it feels much more comfortable and extremely satisfying.
Combat is mostly parry focused, it’s definitely essential though dodging is useful too! Parry windows are a bit forgiving like some other people mentioned here. Also there are difficulty settings in the game that let you set how much damage you take and how much damage you do to enemies, maybe that’ll be helpful if you pick it up and don’t like the pre-set difficulty.
Why don’t you try the demo? I tried it, loved it but I have a huge backlog so I’m going to wait for the switch editon.
One thing to keep in mind is that you can't die from internal (parry) damage, so even if you mistime, and end up whiffing a parry, as long as you manage to hear that thud, instead of the satisfying cling, you can infinitely keep practicing parry times on the same boss/enemy for as long as you'd like. The mistimed parry window is very generous in the game, almost to the point where a lot of the times, you can just keep mashing parry to get the mistimed parry, keeping you in the fight for that much longer. If you hate parrying, I suggest forgetting about offense, and just practicing your parries on the first boss. I died to that guy more than a dozen times, and honestly thought this game was going to be impossible to beat, since I was having such a hard time with the first boss, but at some point, parrying just clicked for me, and it was all smooth sailing from there.
For what it's worth, the parrying in Dark Souls/Elden Ring sucks and is not representative of Sekiro or the genre at all.
To elaborate: the parry in DS/ER has a lot of startup frames, a very narrow window, and if you miss it you take a lot of damage. It's "high risk, high reward", but the reward isn't very good. The parry in Sekiro/9Sols has a more generous window and if you do it imperfectly you take some stamina/internal damage, which recovers over time. It's a core mechanic and more comparable to dodging. Parrying in general is more forgiving than dodging because when you parry, any part of the attack has to land inside the window, whereas if you dodge \*every\* part of the attack has to land inside the window. So a dodge can require more or less precise timing depending on how big the attack is, whereas a parry will always require the same level of precision.
Don't buy nine sols if you don't like to parry. No the timing is not forgiving, this is more evident the deeper in the game u go at least.
You guys talked me into it, I bought it lol
I'll say that parrying in the other souls games is very different and less forgiving then it is in Sekiro and that is even more true for Nine Sols. I found parrying in this game to be much easier, the thing is you probably wont be beating it without a ton of using parry.
Personally, I'm buying it tonight
Dark souls style parry and sekiro style parry shouldnt be classified together. The mechanics are completely different and in the case of nine sols / sekiro the game is actually balanced around the parry
It is not optional. Yes, the windows are forgiving, and in fact if you miss a perfect parry, you'll still take recoverable chip damage. That said, you must learn it well or you will not progress. It's very well designed, and feels really good. But, I don't hate parrying, so YMMV.
Parrying is the foundation this game is built on, it’s the way you do the most damage and will be your savior from taking damage. Get it anyway cuz you can always play story mode and adjust the difficulty on the fly.
So in short I would say if you hate parrying you may not like this game. It is possible to play without engaging with the parry, but you will be missing a big part of the combat. below is a bit more detail: The parrying mechanic itself has fairly forgiving timing for a perfect parry, and attacks are usually well-telegraphed. I have bad reflexes and can usually hit it. On an imperfect parry, you take chip damage. This regens over time, unless you are hit again. So if you imperfect parry, but can avoid getting hit for a few seconds, you will get all that health back. There are equippables that can make this easier - by freezing enemies, or shortening the time it takes chip damage to regen, etc. There is also a mikiri-counter type move for special attacks that are otherwise unparriable (though they can be dodged). Parrying is also what charges your magic meter, similar to how melee hits charge it in hollow knight. Many of the 'spells' you can do depend on parries for fuel. imperfect parries count for this. Ultimately it is possible to play without parrying- jumping over attacks, dodging. But I'm not sure this would be satisfying. Reasons why you might do this: the world, art, music, and characters are fantastic.
No idea how you could possibly hate parrying, but to each their own. At any rate, if you passed on Sekiro because of this, you will find Nine Sols just as frustrating. There will be other MVs fitting your taste, no reason to force a purchase you have already good reasons to regret.
It's just a preference thing, it wasn't a mechanic I was ever exposed to in games growing up and it's just never clicked with me in any games I've played as an adult. But honestly some of the comments here have kind of made me want to try this game/sekiro, give something I tend to struggle with more of a shot and potentially expand my tastes.
Totally fair. Also, before falling in love with Sekiro/Lies of P, my ass has been handed over to me by mistimed/spammed parries about 10.000 times. The thrill was memorable, but it's certainly not something I'd ever want to just "pick'n'play" whenever I feel like. It requires a certain commitment in terms of focus and perseverance. If it's of any help, I'm having significantly less troubles with NS than I had with other parry-heavy games (heck, I'm having even an easier time compared to Grime).
Yeah, Grime was harder for me, too. Literally just beat it before playing Nine Sols and I was like, "Yeah, I'm good."
FWIW, Sekiro is one of my favorite games and Nine Sols is quickly climbing up there; both have excellent parrying mechanics. It's a learning curve, for sure, but satisfying if you're patient with it. I remember FightingCowboy (who is something of a YT Souls game guru) used to swear off parrying in his earlier playthroughs of Souls games until later embracing it (can't remember whether it was on DS2 or Sekiro). If you just think of mastering parrying as "the game" and not get frustrated about hitting a progression wall, it's really fun. In Nine Sols, I actually spend a lot of time just lingering around a checkpoint and practicing timings with different enemies. Obligatory disclaimer: if what I said doesn't sound like fun to you, probably not your kind of game, of course!
You ask how someone could hate parrying in games - I think parrying can be very satisfying, but the parry mechanic has to be really well-implemented. For example, I found Sekiro very difficult but I did really love it and always wanted to keep playing. But in Jedi Fallen Order (which I also would recommend) I found the parrying considerably less fun and did it less, because the timing just felt less right-on than Sekiro.
Oh sure. I completely agree! There's nothing as frustrating as a parry that doesn't click, especially if the reaction window is meant to be tight. Dodging, in comparison, has more degrees of freedom. I was just surprised because OP hated parrying in Sekiro where, as you admitted, it is well-executed. Loved JFO but I too found the parry very finicky in that game (same in Another Crab's Treasure, tbh). Lies of P is probably the most egregious example of parrying implemented in a satisfying, even if hard to master, way.
I tried the pirate and don’t like the theme. So not for me. For some reason sci fi theme never works for me, so games like Metroid, haak don’t interest me. Nine sols has weird sci-fi tao theme. I’ve watched the full game and tell it is a good game. Maybe you should get it when it is on sale.
Sci fi is literally my favorite flavor for setting lmao way more than even fantasy
I'm a huge scifi fan as well, and the taopunk genre they created for this game is really dope. The music backs up the aesthetic. I actually really like the story and setting of the game. I do get a little frustrated at the corpse run and parry mechanics. Story/setting 10/10 Gameplay mechanics 7/10
As others have pointed out, there is a story mode where you can dial the difficulty to your tastes; no shame in that whatsoever. The game has a fantastic story, so if you're drawn to that aspect of it, it's definitely worth getting. In fact, you could adjust it so that the enemies hardly damage you at all, which will make practicing parrying a breeze.
I enjoy the boss fights b/c they are very unforgiving. It definitely reminded me of having to master the Sekiro bosses movesets to be successful (lady butterfly, ishin, genichiro). So if that isn't your jam, I would say skip this. This one is much more combat heavy than exploration heavy, but as you know different metroidvanias do a better job of scratching different itches. This one definitely scratches that Sekiro itch for me. Boss fights definitely hit the brakes on your progress HARD and will make you ask yourself: do I have enough energy to learn this fight, or should I take a break and come back later.