9 Years of Shadows from Halberd Studios, indie.io, and JanduSoft is a 2D sidescrolling Metroidvania set inside the mechanical giant Talos. Learn more in our 9 Years of Shadows review!
9 Years of Shadows from Halberd Studios, indie.io, and JanduSoft is a 2D sidescrolling Metroidvania set inside the mechanical giant Talos. You must do whatever it takes to succeed, or else the world will end up falling under the corruption growing within the giant, which is set on engulfing the world in its darkness. The world is losing its color, and it’s now been – as the game’s name suggests – nine years since the curse struck. At least you won’t be doing this on your own. Once you’re inside Talos, you’ll end up finding Apino, a cute floating bear you’ll befriend. It’s Apino who saves you from death at the hands of the first guardian who stood on your path, and it will be Apino who will make sure that you succeed.
Apino has magical abilities that can bring back color to the world, as well as heal your wounds if needed. There’s more to Apino on top of the aforementioned abilities. Alpino will be crucial for your survival and for you to even have a chance to complete your mission. He will provide you with a shield that will protect you from damage. Every time damage is received, a bit of the light war at the upper left corner of the screen will be consumed. When the Light Bar is completely empty, you can hold down the R2 button to hug Apino and restore a bit of the Light Bar. On top of being able to cleanse the corruption, Apino can also be used to shoot different projectiles that can destroy dark crystals as well as deal damage to enemies!
Indie studio Halberd Studios took 9 Years of Shadows to Kickstarter back in 2020, seeking MX$380,000 in funding to work on the game’s development. Once the crowdfunding campaign was over – and thanks to the support of more than 2,900 backers – it ended up with more than MX$1,900,000 in funding, thus considerably crushing the studio’s main goal. This led to some stretch goals that added extra content for the game, such as animated intro and ending sequences, and more songs for the game’s soundtrack.
Once your journey begins, you’ll be taking control of Europa with the left analog stick or the D-Pad as you jump by pressing the X button. The longer you hold the button, the higher your jump will be. You can perform quick attacks with the Square button. You can press the Triangle button for a strong attack. You can perform a backdash with the L2 button to try to avoid incoming attacks. Shoot by pressing the R2 button. This will consume some of the Light Bar that Apino has provided to protect you, so you’ll need to decide if it’s worth being left defenseless for a bit in order to attack enemies – or bosses – from a safer distance. You can use the right analog stick to aim where Apino will shoot. As long as the Light Bar is not empty, you’ll be able to recover some of it by defeating enemies.
You’ll begin with only your dress to protect you, but you can end up locating powerful armor to aid you. Take, for example, the Poseidon armor. This one will allow you to move freely underwater and perform water-elemental attacks. It will also allow you to activate blue switches. You can switch between armors by pressing the L1 and R1 buttons. Other armors will provide you with additional attacks and abilities. The good news is that when you enter an area that requires a specific armor, Europa will automatically switch to it.
Since this one is a Metroidvania, you should always keep an eye on your map to get a better idea of where you’ve already been and where you should be going next. It will also allow you to check where you can find a save room for you to play the organ as you heal your wounds and save your current progress. You’ll also have to find new abilities along the way that can allow you to explore further. Things such as the Grace of Zeus, which makes your attacks have an electrical nature. This one will allow you to deal more damage to enemies with a yellow outline, as well as activate yellow switches.
Defeating enemies and bosses will reward you with some crystals that you can use to strengthen yourself. You can do this in combination with the special colored notes you find along the way. Red notes and crystals can be used to increase your vitality. Blue notes and crystals can be used to increase the length of your Light Bar. And as you defeat enemies and bosses, they will be added to your Bestiary. You can go there to check their entry so that you can learn their name, get some additional info about this or that enemy, as well as learn about their element – if they have one – as well as any particular weaknesses you should keep in mind. And yes, fully completing the Bestiary is definitely one of the things that you’ll need to do if you want to add a new Platinum trophy to your collection!
This release has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy. The list is split into 18 Bronze trophies, 11 Silver trophies, and 5 Gold trophies for you to work on. What will you need to do for that shiny Platinum? You’ll get trophies for acquiring all progression abilities, defeating the same common enemy ten times, completing the entire Bestiary, finding all eight of the cartographer’s journals, finding ten secret rooms, performing a Lullaby with Apino for the first time, upgrading your vitality to the maximum, upgrading your Light Bar to the maximum, as well as defeating each of the bosses in the game, to name some examples.
9 Years of Shadows is a 2D sidescrolling Metroidvania set inside the mechanical giant Talos. You must do whatever it takes to succeed, or else the world will end up falling under the corruption growing within the giant, which is set on engulfing the world in its darkness. The world is losing its color, and it’s now been – as the game’s name suggests – nine years since the curse struck. At least you won’t be doing this on your own. Once you’re inside Talos, you’ll end up finding Apino, a cute floating bear you’ll befriend. It’s Apino who saves you from death at the hands of the first guardian who stood on your path, and it will be Apino who will make sure that you succeed. The game was originally released on Steam in early 2023, followed by a late Nintendo Switch release from indie.io. It’s now 2025, and we’re finally getting the game on PlayStation. 9 Years of Shadows is out today on PlayStation 5.
Disclaimer
This 9 Years of Shadows review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by JanduSoft.
