Nine Sols Is A Masterpiece That Broke Me…

[@benro6564]

"You have no more unread messages from Pengali" hit me so hard. Yi's last interaction with Heng was being a dick to her, and he never got to make things right. I love how much of a slow burn this game is with character development. You usually don't see this much talking and waiting around in souls-likes, but I think the game taking its time works super well and makes you really care about them by the end.

[@WhyNotLevin]

Yeah, I think the game really benefits from its first hour or so which has a great hook, I’m honestly pretty impatient with stories in games, which I should work on, but getting invested was very easy in nine sols, despite the amount of dialogue

[@paladincomics]

Is it not Penglai in the game?

[@evanliu1939]

You can also find Lady Ethereal's soulscape design took inspiration from Tao Yuanming's folklore "The Peach Blossom Spring 桃花源記". The story follows a fisherman stumbled upon a mysterious otherworldly village in a peach blossom forest, where everyone lives happily and respectfully. He then discovered that the village had been actively isolating themselves for centuries to stay away from war. After he left, the village vanished and was forgotten ever since.

[@WhyNotLevin]

Huh, that's really interesting!

[@VioletScorpion]

17:27 I believe Heng’s response about not being at fault is in line with Taoist principles. They both acted in ways true to themselves and followed their own nature. There’s no “fault” in that there is no need for guilt. Lear makes a similar comment regarding his actions in life. Heng is second most attune to Taoist principles only behind Lear in the game, so it makes sense that she would take a similar point of view.

[@invinci1059]

I remembered at first getting Heng's messages and cutscenes thinking it was a live call like all the other messages, but when I realized how Yi wasn't replying to any of the messages and that Heng was already dead was depressing as fuck. No one really had their good ending in the game except the Apemen. Yi lost Heng, Guilted himself for not being able to come back for her as he was asleep, then ultimately sacrificing himself. Heng died while feeling like Yi abandoned him and never came back. ShuanShuan basically lost everyone he cared about except the beer guy and Kuafu. And Shanhai 9000 finally finding his friend only for her to be turned into an unkillable monster that killed him in the end. The game truly lived up to it's Dark Souls-esque inspiration with how near to none of the npcs had good endings, basically everyone either died or got trauma

[@XDrotkon]

Only Chiyou died in honor knowing that he lives consciously and his brother will have his empty, soulless life ended.

[@berkebus]

I actually believed all of his conversations with Heng were entirely dreamed up and in his head. When I saw that he had no further messages, I suddenly realised Yi was playing back the messages he'd received from Heng on Penglai. In that interpretation it hit just as hard.

[@invinci1059]

​@@berkebus I too at one point thought Yi was schizophrenic

[@invinci1059]

It's actually unbelievable how you have such little recognition for such high quality of videos you're putting out, hope the algorithm favors you soon enough!

[@WhyNotLevin]

Thank you, I hope this video does well, this is the first proper video for this new channel, so I expected a slow start, thanks for watching!

[@TheHatManCole]

I love your analysis, especially how you include the story's connotations to traditional Asian mythology as that seemed you be a founding force of this game. This is one of the few games out there which deserve to be reviewed and analyzed like good literature. Here are some notes I wanted to include from my own analysis of the story: I just finished the True Ending in Nine Sols, and I just wanted to share a quick thought which is that in the end Yi is fighting himself when he fights Eigong at the end of the game. There are a lot of parallels between Eigong and Yi, especially if we look at Yi in the beginning of the game. They both share similar ideologies; they both believe that science and technology have been unjustly shunned by Solarians, and both believe that Science and technology is the only answer for Solarians survival. In a way, they both start out almost believing in science as a religion (though don't over think that). They also both believed that Solarian survival was to be held above the survival of all intelligent live, which is how they end up condoning the farming of the apemen. As the game continues onwards Yi begins to depart from this path as he gains new appreciation and respect or the apemen and the Tao, something that Eigong doesn't have. However, there are different but nonetheless sticking similarities between Yi and Eigong in their fight against each other. First, similar to Yi, Eigong relies mostly on basic melee attacks just as Yi tends to do. Eigong is one of very few bosses which doesn't really have projectile attacks despite being an advanced enemy. Instead she fights similar to Yi: up close and personal with a lot of fancy leaping and dashing to get the job done. Another interesting similarity is that Eigong is the only other character in the game besides Yi who can use a Talisman. So they are both very ideologically similar (especially at the start of the story) and their fighting styles are similar, but the most interesting thing about all this is the themes used in the fight. Each boss has their own theme song, and so does Eigong... at least for the first two rounds. During the first two round Eigong's theme My Will is Our Truth plays, but this changes in the third round where YI's theme plays: The Path for Us All. The third round becomes Yi's boss fight. The last thing he must do to complete his character arch is defeat his old self and become a new person, and of course this only happens in the True Ending where the third round takes place and Yi's Theme plays. (not even to mention that Eigongs and Yi's theme are very similar musically.) So finally Yi is reborn, and can destroy New Kunlun. Bringing the Solarian species to an end, and yet giving new life and hope to the apemen. Yi was the real boss all along, and defeating him was the game's true objective.

[@HunterForHire422]

Never had a game leave me utterly hollow at the credits. It's fantasic. Having to accept your species just...isn't meant to last anymore despite all the promises you made to your people and family. And having to make the decision to put them all to rest. God, that's just soul wrenching for me. Even though the ending was hopeful for the humans. I was too devastated at the loss of Yi's entire species to process. Even now I'm still shaken up by it. What a game

[@ywl2587]

13:10 actually, judging from Kuafu’s surprise when Yi didn’t kill him, we can infer if not for Shuan softening Yi up over the two years, he would have killed Kuafu

[@NymPSeudo]

Fine work. I enjoyed the overview of the mythological ties.

[@SubmissiveOwlet]

I have not had time to watch the full video, but i had to mention my absolutely favorite thing about this game, and it's the growth of Yi as a person. He is actually incredibly relatable as a character for myself, primarily in terms of his view on science throughout the story. I do think that, for myself, at least, it's important to hold science and objective facts close to my mind. But, it's also important to recognize that theres simply some things that, while can be explained with pure luck, faith is important to humans. I dont believe in a religion, but i wouldn't describe myself as an atheist for many reasons. But believing in something, whether it's a necklace of wood or someone in your life, gives us the courage to push through the obstacles in our lives. I think Yi is a perfect character that shows growth. Being a game inspired by games directed by Myiasaki, it has a lot of themes of accepting our end when it's time, naturally. And i think Yi especially grows in that regard. The acceptance he has in the true ending is something i would consider beautiful and is obviously in stark contrast to the other ending.

[@JohnJohnson-ew3vz]

Omg i just realized...yi and heng as opposite personalities and their names are close to yin and yang..that just clicked in for me😅

[@WhyNotLevin]

Oh, yeah I never noticed…

[@AleanoraLevidia]

Another little note, sol is actually latin for sun, too

[@sumagestad4962]

Sol is also sun in spanish, we just didn't change the world

[@lm9029]

Same in swedish

[@ricochet1732]

I'm so glad to finally find a video essay that goes into the mythology of the analysis. There are waaaay to many video essayists that do the bs of "well idk the philosophy/culture so I'll ignore it" lazy way out. One of the other small interpretations possible [albeit very political] is the fact the company is a Taiwanese company, a country constantly in a philosophical battle for its own independence on the international stage.

[@WhyNotLevin]

Yeah, the mythology and religion of it all seems very central to the developers in interviews and it really fascinated me when playing the game, so I really enjoyed researching it. I do think it would still be cool for a scholar on Taoism or an active practitioner to analyze it, as my knowledge is very surface level, but I’m glad you enjoyed the video!

[@gabrielvicente9245]

Cool video

[@alphonsofrett2757]

But there is hope

[@zelddan]

Masterpiece, true.

[@heathkish6901]

The story of this game reminds me of Laika (perhaps the most unique metroidvania I've ever played), especially the final message from Heng. That game is so goddamn miserable from beginning to end, highly recommended!

[@WhyNotLevin]

I’ll have to play it sometimes, sounds miserable!

[@SamJonh-ju4uh]

yi is like father than a best friend to shuenshuen

[@MichelleCastillo03]

Top video

[@leandrobenitez292]

it was hard for me to play this game, mostly because i agree 100% with the villains, superstitious religions and anything that falls outside the realm of logic must be discarded without a second thought as it holds absolutelly no value at all and is in fact an anchor slowing progress down

[@WhyNotLevin]

OMG its Yi himself

[@thomaswang2223]

I agree, but only to a certain extent. While irrational religions can and do hold back progress, only leaders and scientists need to worry about that, and even then only when they’re on the clock. In the day to day life, it is the meaningless, trivial things that give color to individual days, and superstitious religions can fill that role. Just be sure that those religions are not dogmatic and rigid enough to deny progress, or you’ll end up like Yi’s parents.

[@neminemMaxime]

You should probably finish the story before making that statement. *Spoilers* The pursuit of progress released the virus that doomed the planet, which led to subjugation and genocide of the apemen (the Fusang Dyson sphere was blocking out the sun causing an ice age, and would only get bigger) and the ultimate goal was a singular hive mind creature. Even simply removing Eigong would return to a status quo of stagnation and subjugation.

[@leandrobenitez292]

@@neminemMaxime science in that world clearly did not have a limit, the state of stagnation is up to debate Yi was certainly smart enough to find a cure eventually and he was seemingly inmortal

[@HPkobold]

Nine

[@WhyNotLevin]

9

[@TheAviator85]

Nine Sols is more Metal Gear Rising than Sekiro.

[@poploki4844]

Unfair AF

[@Look-at-the-ghost]

Is there a physical?

[@WhyNotLevin]

If you mean physical edition of the game, no, there's not one out right now or announced, I hope we get one in the future, its coming digitally to consoles on November 26 and is out on Steam now

[@d00mnoodle24]

I don't know tbh i found the story quite mid. Wayyyy too much talking that didn't amount to anything, like all the gift items. Also just a ridiculous amount of logs that say nothing at all. Things like water filtration running at x percent due to Y reason. I didn't skip any dialogues because i'm a completionist but it became very tiring after a while.

[@WolfyRagnarok]

For comparison, what videogame(s) do you consider to have a good story?