Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Nine Sols - Ep 94
35 Plays27 days ago
Allison spotlights a Taiwanese labor of love full of fun combat, interesting characters, and beautiful lore.
Check out Allison online: twitch.tv/pikapeww
Music is "Fork and Spoon" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Humor
00:00:09
Speaker
ja yeah james james hello james there's There's so many of us here. There's two James, several James James ah james and and infestation of James. Um, we're we're back baby.
00:00:24
Speaker
Finally. Finally, yeah.
Reflections on a Busy December
00:00:28
Speaker
The stars had not aligned for quite some time. yeah December was awful. I got promoted and it has been hectic. but yeah i I have a whiteboard up on the wall that says it's been zero days since James and Alison apologized for not being online for a while. I'm sorry. It's been stressful. It's crazy. That's the thing. It got crazy over here too. I mean, we had the holiday season. and We had just like all kinds of life stuff going on at once. It's been
Podcast Frequency and Social Media
00:01:00
Speaker
hectic. And I think I'm okay with us starting a pattern of like every six episodes or so we say, Hey, sorry, it's been so long. hey hey hey and
00:01:12
Speaker
the audience does not have to know they don't that's want you to know here's here's i'm pivoting actually this is what happens when we make stuff for free if you want consistent head to pat We don't even have one of those. Exactly. You make one for me and donate to it. I do demand it.
00:01:34
Speaker
access the deeds i'm turning i'm turning heels twitter at yspttg underscore po interact with me on tumblr from now on he yeah um ah we're going to I think it was red line is the new tick tock or something. I don't remember. yeah a turill wood still with band There's like a, there's a new, it's a whole thing. Don't worry. don't when i can Obviously, something's going to fill that power vacuum. That's not for today.
Introduction to 'Nine Souls'
00:02:01
Speaker
Speaking of China, though, ah i'm I'm talking about nine souls, which is Taiwanese, which isn't quite China. That's it's separate of China. But like they're gingerly related. They have similar cultures and like backgrounds for like mythology and stuff. And this deals with a lot of that, actually. um Nine souls is so cool, dude.
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, I'm super interested because you've talked to me just a little bit about this before enough to like, kind of hook me into like, okay, I want to hear what the deal is. So yeah, absolutely. Okay, Metroidvania, action platformer. Incredible story.
00:02:37
Speaker
like genuinely incredible story, ah the movement and the actual battles within this game. So fun, so cool, really interesting. And it has such a unique style. I think that that's like one of the things it's like really I wrote it in all caps in my in my notes, but like the style of this game is so, so cool.
00:02:59
Speaker
um Yeah, I'm looking. I'm looking to the judges. And actually, I think let me hold on for just a second. Yeah, actually, there's just one more space you need to hit for a full bingo for things James gets excited about with video games.
Combat Mechanics and Comparisons
00:03:13
Speaker
It's secular like that. That's how they describe it as a secular light, which I think is really cool. OK, combat. How about that? You need unique, unique combat mechanics. I think that was that was touched on a little bit before you got that. You got four in a row. Just line it up. You got it. Knock it out of the park.
00:03:32
Speaker
You play as a cute little fox. That's not what we were looking for, but we'll take it. Hey, it's not Mega Man. That's right. But you get to be like you you get to be a cute little animal. There's there's one one. One's one's pretty good. Everyone loves one's one. One's one is your child companion who is a he's kind of like your adopted son. We love one. One's one such a good little boy. I love one's one already.
00:04:01
Speaker
I know he's so cute. He's so innocent. He just wants to like be your friend and learn and you help him with that. He's he's great. So much ones that go.
Character Depth and Storytelling
00:04:10
Speaker
um But ah yeah, that's actually one of the things that I really liked about this game. um The characters are really well rounded. There's like so much depth to every character that you meet that is named. um There's so much there and it's really, really cool to like actually get to know these people.
00:04:30
Speaker
I let the cat out of the bag. This is one of those episodes where Allison didn't play the game. um I watched my girlfriend play it. I bought it for her. You've rigged the system. I know. I get to play double the games because I just watched her play it. How dare you get excited about things in anything other than than a specific context that fits our rigid structure.
00:04:53
Speaker
I know i'm I'm horrible but you know I had Lily play this one I love watching it it was such a good time it said it was a secular light and it was Metroidvania and I was like hey Lily I like watching you play these play this um I actually would love to drill down on something. I know we haven't gotten too far into this yet, but you've mentioned that it's a a Sekiro light. to mine not this This is a 2D game. You've described it as a Metroidvania, right? Yes. I would love just a little bit more um understanding of like what makes it specifically Sekiro. Because when I think about Sekiro, a lot of what I think of is the navigation of 3D space and the way that that happens. But I know that's a kind of limited
00:05:38
Speaker
So, the way that they describe it in their own press kit, which is where I got the Sekiro Lite terminology from, it's actually on their Steam page, if i if I remember correctly. Sorry, give me one second to click buttons.
00:05:53
Speaker
um I click too many buttons. Yeah, it is the second line of their first sentence of their description. Renssel's is a lore rich hand-drawn 2D action platformer featuring Sekiro inspired deflection focused combat. That's a real big thing. The unique combat mechanic is very centered around parries and deflections. There's a lot of really cool movement. You jump, you wall climb, you flip back and forth. The direction that you're facing and
00:06:26
Speaker
ah matters a lot for deflections. and It gets really interesting. um I think that that really, I like the way that they take the combat that way, and they do focus really on these parries and deflections. It makes it really, really cool and very interesting. It makes you think about attacks from a new angle, because it's not only where can I hit, but where can I deflect? How many do I need to deflect before I can take a hit?
00:06:50
Speaker
it It really puts you into a different line of thought, which gives you a little bit more of that push and pull that Sekiro definitely does have. It is really, really cool. The boss fights are just beautiful. They're very scenic. One of them like has heavy Madoka vibes, which I really, really loved. It's the Butterfly Lady. She's so cool. There's also a Butterfly Lady in Sekiro, so that's also a thing.
00:07:16
Speaker
but ah I was just gonna say, when you started talking about Butterfly a Lady, i I know nothing about this, but immediately my mind was like, oh yeah, like in Miraculous Ladybug. Yeah, maybe. And that's not, I don't think, I think there's a Butterfly guy, and he sucks, and the whole show sucks, and I'm taking a hard stance, but... No, for actually Miraculous is pretty fun. It's just a magical girl show.
00:07:39
Speaker
it's um Well, again, don't have time for that. I can't open this can of worms and then sure lie in it. That's not the right turn of phrase. Those are called misnomers. I actually really like misnomers, but continue on. Yeah. No, it's just for whatever reason, when you started talking about Butterfly Woman, I was like, oh yeah, I like that show. It's simply the best things go wrong. I gotta warn you right now, if this game is anything like Miraculous, ah my interest level has been cut to like a third of what we were at. No, not at all, actually. I don't think that there's anything to do with... That's maybe the best thing you could say about it. No, genuinely. It's like... uh there's just so much unique about this that is so like ready to be loved they have uh the story itself is very interesting it has so many little twists that keep you on your toes and i kept trying to predict of like oh yeah this seems like
00:08:36
Speaker
this, this, and this are going to happen. And then just absolutely not. It kept me guessing every single time and I could never fully nail it down. I really love all of the characters, even people who I hated upfront. I actually grew to really respect and love and they have so much growth throughout um your drinking buddy. ah I think it's while wrong. I don't remember his name off the top of my head.
00:09:02
Speaker
um Very, very, very grumpy, grouchy, like just I don't want to kind of dude, but ah really becomes very lovable towards the end. It has a lot of growth and becomes such an interesting and full character um from like why he's so grouchy to understanding that he's been made this way on purpose. It's it's it's very, very cool.
00:09:31
Speaker
um we We love a full, well-rounded character who's more nuanced than they first appear. i ah It's it's so good. A side note, I've been playing um the first Dragon Age recently and it's bringing out my appreciation of but not not related to really what I'm not going to be speaking on that anytime soon, but that that's given me, ah I think, a deeper appreciation for like subtlety and nuance in like a character's personality and fleshing them out and giving them room to be like multifaceted. And to hear that that's in a ah game that's ah also has all these other things going for it is really nice to hear.
00:10:09
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, you're, you're beatable bar to ask, like, um, I don't know. I keep saying beetle the bard cause he's not a bard that just rolls off my tongue. I think it's a Harry Potter thing, but beetle from Zelda, the shop, keep the traveling shop. It was just like kind of wherever you end up being. Um, there's a guy here. Yeah.
00:10:33
Speaker
um But yeah that guy. um there is There is very much a guy who has kind of a similar role, not a similar personality, you know but he he became a really beloved character of mine. I thought he was so cool.
00:10:50
Speaker
him and his brother and then there like his struggle to find him ah and spoilers he does find him and then the things that come after that are so interesting and you have to like keep your eye out for him every time because there have been times where like oh we almost missed him but uh Man, if you do keep up with him and you do the little tasks he asks of you because there is like a little bit of a push and pull of like, like yeah, I'll sell you stuff. But also i need I need a couple of things. So you help him, he helps you, you help him, he helps you. And then in the end, it leads to this really, really heartwarming, very thought out, very purposeful moment. And I think that's actually a really good way to put a lot of this is it's very purposeful.
00:11:36
Speaker
There's a very, very poignant purpose to almost everything that happens. It is very well thought out. The plot has very few holes where I'm like, yeah, this just do this right then. So, again, no like there's there's such a ah ah unique purpose to every character and their goals and motivations are so well thought through. It it becomes this really, really beautiful tapestry of a game. um that's that Honestly, just beautiful.
Boss Battles and Replayability
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, I loved it. And then like the bosses each have their own motivations as well. And like you see, they all have their own like unique environment that you get to explore throughout. And that's kind of a part for the course for most Metro Metroidvanias. But as you go, you kind of realize where you're at because you don't really have much knowledge of the previous ah ah goings on ah even though you're ah a pretty hefty part of them.
00:12:40
Speaker
um So you kind of come into this a little blind, but you you know that you were important. And as you unlock and kind of figure out more about this pretty stoic um or he's Daoist really a little Fox man.
00:12:58
Speaker
um You really learn so incredibly much about ah all of these bosses and what their motivation is and what their what their goals are for really just living their life and why they're fighting and why they fight so hard to the point to where they they are willing to die for their belief and you're willing to ah A, put them down and you learn why.
00:13:27
Speaker
And B, you learn your motivations more as you go through with just going through going through the game. It's really, really cool. And the bosses' visual style and their fighting style mimic the environments that they're in and their specialties because each of them were hand-selected to be one of the nine souls who run this kind of society and they are gifted each in a specific way, whether it be brawn, brain, courage, motivation, speech or whatever. And they all kind of battle in their own own ways. And there are little things that if you pay attention, you can like upset fights. One dude is like really st strong through genetic modification and you can find things to make that fight significantly easier by disrupting his ability to genetically modify himself.
00:14:19
Speaker
or one dude does like robotics and you're like, Oh yeah, I have this thing that helps me like kind of EMP your, your, so I can, I can freely get in there and mess with you. And like, if you pay attention there, their own, uh,
00:14:35
Speaker
strength can be their weakness and it kind of plays to that as well. And like, yeah, you think that you're so strong in this one area that you actually are weak in it because you are so overly confident, not just the right amount. It it it becomes very interesting of using their own hubris against them. I did really, really love watching that. And then also they had After we beat it like literally a week after we Concluded the game and beat it in the first time they added a boss refight mode not really a boss rush But you can replay the bosses just solely boss to boss to boss and it's really really cool to let you like Master them but also see some of the other like little elements of them that you wouldn't normally notice just playing through once It's kind of cool
00:15:19
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, that' that sounds like just a lot of love is important to like all the like the the way this game kind of shows it's like the the the the concept and the the way that you can kind of interact with it.
Behind the Scenes with Red Candle Games
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah. Has ah as a lot of like attention to detail, which is great.
00:15:36
Speaker
for sure um it's very funny because i was reading up on red candle games who is the the dev team who made this game they have one other game which is kind of a little more like um a little nightmare style game not very action based not very platformer very just like I am puzzle solving, it's kind of scary, it's kind of cute-ish, not really. um It's very, very interesting. I liked it quite a bit looking at it, but I didn't play it itself. But ah their whole goal with their games was to show off the um
00:16:13
Speaker
their culture. They really are very deep into Taiwanese culture, Taiwanese mythology, and they really wanted to show that to the rest of the world. So they got together and made a couple of games, and they the way that they put it in their press kit is that ah They were just an organization of people getting together to show their devotion to games and to talk about it and before they realized their passion had grown into game making and led us to establishing our own game company. Like it kind of happened by oopsies is how it seems and it initially was six people and spread to be 12 as they've grown and it's just
00:16:52
Speaker
Very much just a bunch of people who got together and were like silly nerds and were and just wanted to show the love that they have for their their culture and their world and ah Really just wanted to pour that into every moment of their games and it shows so well um one of the things that they described ah Their style for nine souls as was tau punk or dau punk which is So fun. It's like, uh, cyberpunk and Taoist culture mitt mesh. And it's so apt. It makes so much sense, but it's unlike anything I literally ever seen to the point where when I type in Dow punk into, I don't use Google anymore. I've been using duck duck go. Cause I'm a little nerd, but when I type it in, because it sayr
00:17:40
Speaker
Yeah, it is. ah The only thing that pops up is nine souls. Like it is that unique in its style ah style guide that the there isn't really a reference to draw from other than Taoist culture and cyberpunk, but there's no other melding of the two that I've really been able to find. And if you know anything, listener out there, please send it my way because it's so rad. It's so cool. I love it so much.
00:18:07
Speaker
I was going to say, I hoped that you weren't talking to me because I absolutely don't know anything like that, but it's such a pure like that's that's what. is so great about like the the game design space and where it's at nowadays. that's That's like the purest form of we just got together because we love games and we love this part of our like culture and we got excited about these things and then I don't know what happened but a game came out of it and it's great. That's like the purest form of like making a game that you love that people want to play and that's how some of the best stuff gets made.
00:18:46
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I really, i I really appreciate that they are so unabashedly engrossed in their culture. Like they don't name characters like Jerry or anything like that. It's like, your name is you. And then like there's Schwann Schwann's your main boy. And like everyone has like very, like they they made sure that like, Really keep it engrossed within their culture. There's no like pulling any punches and it's so rad.
Visuals, Design, and Cultural Impact
00:19:13
Speaker
I love it so much um and and it It was so visually stunning that there were so many times where I was like wow that dude is cool like just like blown out of my mind like that is such a cool fight or like such a cool scene or such an interesting character designer enemy design that I was just I could not help but like stop and be like wow that this is
00:19:38
Speaker
rad This is rad as hell. um It just spoke to me so much. I really loved it. In each area, it like so well works for the thing that it was intended for on the greater like schema of the world that you're in. like they They really do tie the world the districts together in their purpose for the greater unit. I'm trying to be a little vague because I don't want to spoil too much. but like yeah It is really cool to see them all have their own unique style for each area and them to be so purposeful, tied back into the boss's strength or like skill, and then all be so well packaged to be a greater part of the entire unit. It's it's really, really rad. i just I can't give it more praise.
00:20:30
Speaker
Yeah, it it sounds just genuinely, like on on a lot of different levels, just beautiful and like the the truest kind of, I guess, form of the word, the most literal form of the word. yeah Just like it's it made with with passion about something that you don't get at least ah here in, you know, like the the US s and the the circles, I think we're more familiar with. You're not getting in a lot of the way. Yeah.
00:20:54
Speaker
I think it's, I think it's really AAA. I think that that's like a lot of the issue is like the AAA game is is starting to like really fade because there's just not, it doesn't feel like when you have a game of that scale, you can't feel the passion of these six nerds or 12 nerds yeah who really like got together and just beat a game out of themselves. And I don't know. I think it it really shows that they poured everything into this. And it wasn't that no one was there just for a check. Right. I don't think any of them expected a check. And then they got a pretty decent one because nine souls really popped off um their first game was successful. But like, I think it has a total of like 3000 reviews. It like it did well, but it did not do
00:21:41
Speaker
this well nine souls really put them like on the map on the map and it is it is really cool and I cannot wait to see what they do more um I think this will probably be a little bit of a shorter episode but I just genuinely I think this is all I've got if you've got any questions for me like I i just think you should play this game It's beautiful. The battles are incredible. The fighting and the movement are really cool. The mechanics are great with the deflection focus combat. Just leaves you thinking so much. And the visual style of it is just breathtaking. I i don't have any more praise. Oh, and the soundtrack. Oh, God. There it is. That's the last big space we were looking for. We got there. It's it's it's it's it's you you always have to finish out with that as a mission.
00:22:28
Speaker
entrenched in culture like and it so well speaks to the rest of the game it fits it all together it really does it just we got there it's got everything it's just gorgeous and i can't that that was going to be my final question i think is everything everything else that I have about it that I'm i'm like wanting to ask is not a, oh, what's what's the deal with this? It's a, oh, I want to play this and see how it is because you're you're clearly trying to like not spoil some stuff. And there's aspects of these kinds of games where it's like, you just have to play it and see what the big deal is. And I think that's where I'm at.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I I definitely think that you should check it out. And yeah, they sell the OST as well. And it's it's incredible. It's phenomenal. It's beautiful in every way of the word. And yeah, the story is happy and tragic. And it makes me feel so like full and sorrowful. And yeah, it's got it's got it all. It really does. Just just check it out. I think that that's why you should play this game. And I think that that's that's all I got.
00:23:35
Speaker
and I absolutely love it.
Audience Interaction and Personal Gaming
00:23:38
Speaker
um If you'd like to interact with us, we don't use Twitter because it sucks. um ah Uh, you can catch me on Twitch sometimes. I haven't streamed in a little while. Um, I was a lot more on it. I've been a little off it, but I'm trying to get back on. Um, I'm at twitch.tv dot twitch.tv slash pika pew p i k a p e w w come follow and check us out.
00:24:06
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I'm, I'm kind of not anywhere right now and that's my bad and I probably should be somewhere if I want to interact with everybody. I'm checking the Spotify Q and a that's about it. Spotify Q and a is always a great place to reach out to us. We love hearing from y'all there. Uh, Apple podcast reviews always do us some, some great, uh, we'd, we'd love to see it. So yeah, let us know how we're doing. I really appreciate y'all for listening. Thank you so much.
00:24:32
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. even Even though I've disappeared into the darkest corners of the Internet and myself, I do still appreciate um the the interaction, knowing that we're... Because, I mean, we're we're back at it again after a while. the The gamers are back in town. And it's just it's so exciting to to be able to be talking about this kind of thing. Like, like i I could hear the excitement in your voice the entire time. It's just wonderful. It's been great.
00:24:59
Speaker
um But yeah, thanks thanks for thanks thanks for telling me about this and I'm absolutely going to be checking it out as soon as I get through a backlog of games that I am not working on by starting Dragon Age. That's been on my backlog actually for a long time.
00:25:15
Speaker
Uh, one thing that I, another thing that I did like, um, if you do play this game, uh, you, you can get every skill in the skill tree. They don't get you out and like yeah only some of them, you can get every skill in the skill tree. Sorry for the entire game. No, no, no. It's very important. It's so nice. I hate the entirety of the mechanics.
00:25:37
Speaker
yeah that that was one of the things i didn't like about cyberpunk i know we like had a whole thing about cyberpunk but like yeah you only get like 60 credits and there's like 80 skills and i'm like i need more credits for the skills i actually hacked my game to get the rest of them because like yeah But yeah, they let you unlock the whole skill tree top to bottom. You get the whole thing. Love it. Yeah, so good. But yeah, check us out. ah and Thank you for listening and join us again next time. I think this will be the most coherent sign off we've ever had. I think we're also I might need to start a second whiteboard for the number of times we've said that, too. You know, we're really mellowing out in our old ages.
00:26:18
Speaker
I know it's almost my birthday and we're we're getting there. I'm going to be ancient. I'm going to I'm going to be I'm going to be at least 16. At least five. I know. That's getting there. and how How far past five is I mean, that's you really start getting into it then. Oh, dude, I do remember asking my little sister when she was like to how old and she thought my dad was and she was like. Nine, I'm so.
00:26:48
Speaker
Yes, ma'am. You're almost there. Almost right. I remember when my parents being 30 was, wow, I'm never going to get that all crazy. Yeah. I remember that with my mom and my mom was like, we're having 29th birthday forever now. I'm like, yes, ma'am. I, yep, we, we get it now.
00:27:16
Speaker
But yeah, have a good one y'all.