9 Years of Shadows Review (Nintendo Switch)

Metroid Fusion is one of my most favorite and cherished metroidvanias from my childhood. It’s not the perfect metroidvania by any means, but it’s memorable because of how it told a mysterious and intriguing story set in the Metroid universe alongside tight platforming combat and rewarding exploration. That said, it’s a short game – the last time I replayed Metroid Fusion, I was able to complete its story in somewhere around six hours. I’d memorized where the majority of the secrets were, meaning I was able to keep my playthrough under seven hours. Thanks to Games Done Quick players presenting their speedruns, I’ve picked up quite a few tips on speedrunning over the years.

But the fact remains that Metroid Fusion is a short game. I consider it to be near perfect because it’s a great portable game, but…it’s really that short. This isn’t to say that short games are bad, but short games should pack as much content into their short experiences as possible without being derivative whilst also being memorable.

9 Years of Shadows is an example of a good, but short, metroidvania. It’s now out on the Nintendo Switch.

I began this review of 9 Years of Shadows with a brief discussion about Metroid Fusion because of how familiar it felt upon opening it up on my Switch. I was presented with a glimpse of exploration in a monochromatic pixelated world. The female protagonist I controlled was chased through an ornate castle by a gigantic floating demon, only to find it waiting in the next room with a massive scythe and terrifying grin.

Of course, it strikes me down in one fell swoop. Game Over.

Instead, it’s not. The world suddenly blooms into color ala The Wizard of Oz. Castle walls that were once varying degrees of grey now shimmer in gold and magenta. Enemies are outlined in red, blue, purple, yellow, and green. I’m teleported to an alternate universe (or perhaps the same universe, it’s too early to tell) where a small little floating teddy bear named Apino guides me to find armor and lift the monochromatic curse plaguing the world.

I was to play as Europa, an orphaned maiden whose sole purpose was to explore the Talos Castle, a hub that once housed orphans, and uncover its secrets to lift its curse.

9 Years of Shadows follows a typical 2D metroidvania gameplay loop. You’re given a basic set of tools to explore a world chock full of branching paths and platforms. If I hit a dead end, I’m to backtrack to the previous branch and continue exploring. After some time, I come across a boss. Slay that boss and I get something that can help me get past one of the earlier roadblocks I was unable to encounter. Rinse and repeat through multiple biomes until the final boss.

Far too often, metroidvanias’ maps skew labyrinthine and obfuscate progression by making it take longer to move to the next objective. While biomes help break up exploration into manageable chunks, some rooms end up being full of nothing and necessitates holding a single direction to proceed. Sometimes, rooms are brimming with enemies that chase you through the room, making the experience frustrating because of the rubberbanding from desolateness to overpopulated danger.

9 Years of Shadows avoids these pitfalls quite well thanks to its well-crafted maps and biomes. The overall map isn’t the biggest, mind you, but this also means that each room avoids rehashing elements, platforming sequences, and sets of enemies found in rooms prior. Its eight biomes are visually distinct enough thanks to moderately unique enemies and biome-specific traversal sequences. Like the Metroid series, Europa is granted additional powers and suits of armor that allow her to continue exploring and survive the depths of Talos Castle.

For instance, the blue armor lets Europa turn into a mermaid and swim up waterfalls while dealing extra damage to blue-outlined enemies. The red armor lets Europa float upwards using heat pillars. Traversal powers are the main sources that fuel 9 Years of Shadows’ power fantasy, with very little on the combat front. There’s very little combat benefits other than dealing bonus damage to enemies with the same colored outline as your currently equipped armor.

It’s a shame, really, because each of the armors look cool. The attack animations look different depending on which armor is equipped, but the abilities themselves lack distinctness. I would have liked the combat to step one level deeper and make it so that choosing one armor over another had meaning. In The Last Faith and Blasphemous 2, each weapon significantly changed how my character attacked and forced me to make decisions on what to upgrade and which weapon to consider specializing. I could choose one weapon that slowed me down whilst dealing bonus damage, or I could opt to strike quickly, dealing less damage but letting me rush down enemies. That wasn’t found here, sadly.

An upgrade system already exists in this game, but it’s more for upgrading Europa’s base stats. Some rooms have hidden walls (marked with crumbly textures) that open up to reveal blue notes, red notes, a map upgrade, or an armor currency that can be spent at orchestral-themed vendors. Spending this currency simply boosts her total health and her base damage. There’s also a small chain of sidequests that lets Europa upgrade her final suit of armor, making it worth doing some light exploration to find the secret bosses that wait in the shadows of Talos Castle.

On the topic of Europa’s health, 9 Years of Shadows implements a unique form of health and combat management. Europa has a blue light bar and two red health gems. If she takes damage or uses Apino’s ranged attack, it consumes some of the light. Upon reaching zero light, Europa can stop moving to hug Apino, restoring most of her health. If she takes additional damage at zero health, one of her gems is consumed. Consume all of the gems and it’s game over.

It took a bit of time for me to get used to the light management system. Once I was able to unlock an upgrade that let me time a button press for an instant yet small boost of light, I had less trouble with some of its boss battles.

Bosses feel Metroid-y, too. Instead of mindlessly whacking away at them with Europa’s halberd, I was often challenged to thoughtfully utilize my most recently acquired traversal upgrade in the bosses’ biome throughout the multiple boss phases. The bosses lacked health bars, but they turned more and more red as they got closer to death. It kept me in the loop as to how close I was to slaying the boss without outright telling me how far (or close) I had left to go.

I was able to complete the entire game with all of its side quests in just under six hours. If I wanted to do some light exploring to find the final red and blue notes to bring my completion percentage from 94% to 101%, that would probably require an addition 20-45 minutes of time. The upgrades obtained throughout the game make Europa move faster through Talos Castle, so there’s very little time spent meandering about through empty rooms.

It’s difficult to get lost in 9 Years of Shadows. I never once had to backtrack too far to proceed with the story and reach the next biome. The world is set up in such a fashion that the rooms contain shortcuts that can only be used once a traversal upgrade is obtained, highly expediting moving through the smaller map.

This is all to say that 9 Years of Shadows is a great starter metroidvania for those unfamiliar with the genre. It lacks punishing combat that some recent titles have instilled to create a souls-like experience, but it also lacks combat depth to warrant the satisfaction of investing thought into how to play in the most optimal fashion.

I wanted a bit more from the story, as it lacked the allure and worldbuilding that connected me with Europa and made the stakes crystal clear. There were bits and pieces of lore to be found in a few rooms in Talos Castle, but there wasn’t much that caught my eye to interest me in learning more. The few cutscenes were gorgeous, but I was left feeling as though some of the mysteriousness was overlooked in favor of other elements.

Combat, traversal, and story aside, 9 Years of Shadows is quite the gorgeous game. The boss’ designs and Europa herself look crystal clear, even on the Nintendo Switch’s smaller screen. The enemy outlines helped a bit, too, but there’s a lot to be said about a game’s visuals when even the smallest of visual details can be discerned without squinting. Heck, even the monochromatic portions used varying shades of grey to keep visibility front-and-center. The animated cutscenes are full of character and (again) feel eerily similar to Metroid Fusion’s elevator cutscenes.

I loved 9 Years of Shadows’ soundtrack. It skews more jazzy than traditionally classical, but its full orchestrated soundtrack is a treat to the ears. I especially loved visiting the armorer because of his jazzy tunes (with real saxophone, no less!) and the orchestra leaders who upgraded my health. It’s honestly great to work to because of how well it maintains a steady beat without conflicting instruments or overwhelming melodies. It’s enough for me to consider adding the soundtrack to my rotation of video game music to listen to while I work and write reviews. Like right now. I’m listening to the soundtrack as I literally write this review.

Before I conclude , some of you might be wondering how it runs on the Nintendo Switch. This game came out on PC earlier this year, so it’s not as though this is a Switch exclusive. I didn’t encounter that many bugs until the latter half of the game when I upgraded my red armor and then fought a hidden boss. The red armor left pink squares on my screen when chaining an attack. It didn’t impact my visibility of enemies or hazards, but it was weird. On the other hand, one hidden boss was lacked one of its sprites. I didn’t realize that it lacked a sprite until I looked the boss up on YouTube to figure out what I was doing wrong. It wasn’t gamebreaking by any means, but it was a smidge frustrating. I’m confident that the small graphical kinks will be worked out in future updates, but it’s not the best experience. Consider playing 9 Years of Shadows on your PC if you want the optimal experience at this time.

Call it refined nostalgia. Call it a love letter to Metroid Fusion and other Game Boy Advance metroidvanias. Call it what you want. 9 Years of Shadows is a good, short, yet approachable metroidvania. While it doesn’t quite hit the depth of combat complexity and story beats of its GBA predecessors, it overdelivers via gorgeous pixel art and an orchestrated soundtrack. Its Nintendo Switch port is not the best in its current state, but it’s worth playing if you’re wanting a metroidvania to play on a lazy Sunday.