Steam reviews
2,606 of 3,403 Steam user reviews are positive (76.6%) and Steam's own label is “Mostly Positive”, according to Steam's review summary for 9 Years of Shadows at the last data refresh.
What Steam reviewers mention
10 of the 20 sampled reviews recommend it: 7 of the 10 most helpful but only 3 of the 10 most recent. Both sides praise the art and music; supporters frame it as a linear, GBA-style Metroidvania, while critics cite crashes, weak fast travel, no autosave, unskippable scenes and uneven bosses.
Sample: 20 reviews from Steam's English filter (10 most helpful, 10 most recent, ), 10 recommending · how Claude counts topics
- Art Style and Music (praised in 12, criticised in 2 of 20): Reviewers on both sides praise the pixel art, animation and jazz-inspired soundtrack as its strongest qualities, though one says tracks repeat often and another finds the character designs generic.
- Boss Fights (praised in 6, criticised in 11 of 20): Reviewers split on the bosses: some praise distinctive designs and memorable fights, while others call them too easy, overloaded with projectiles or drawn out, with unskippable intros and long runs back.
- Combat and Health-as-Ammo System (praised in 5, criticised in 9 of 20): Supporters call the combat satisfying and the shared health-and-ammo bar unique once learned, while critics find it tedious, say armors and late abilities add little, and one reports an unfair last-hit bug.
- Exploration, Map and Fast Travel (praised in 8, criticised in 10 of 20): Defenders like the castle layout, exploration and upgrade-gated routes, while critics cite weak or paid fast travel, long walks, a confusing map, loading screens and linear upgrade placement.
- Bugs and Stability (praised in 1, criticised in 8 of 20): Many reviewers report crashes, soft locks, a credits screen that hangs and other glitches forcing restarts, while one says a launch-day patch fixed much, though it still hit a crash.
- Saving and Skippable Scenes (praised in 1, criticised in 6 of 20): Reviewers complain about no autosave, unskippable cutscenes and boss intros and long replays after dying, although one notes save stations usually sit near bosses and little needed replaying.
Good for
- Players who enjoy ability-gated Metroidvania exploration
- Those who like narrative-driven indie action games
- Fans of pixel art with a mythological aesthetic
- Controller players looking for a sub-20-hour campaign
Avoid if
- You expect the mechanical depth of genre benchmarks like Hollow Knight
- You dislike backtracking to re-explore unlocked areas
- Short runtimes (5-8 hours) feel insufficient for $19.99
Is 9 Years of Shadows an indie game?
Yes. Steam lists 9 Years of Shadows under the "Indie" genre, and its publisher is not on this site's major-publisher list.
- Steam genre tags on record: Action, Adventure, Indie — includes "Indie".
- Developer: Halberd Studios.
- Publisher: indie.io — not on this site's major-publisher list.
The rubric, its limits and the publisher list: methodology.