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9 Years of Shadows
Fight to bring beautiful colors back to a hand-crafted world of darkness and discover the story of Europa, a young warrior, and her ghostly childhood companion, Apino.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
50 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“6 / 10. Ambitious, but plagued with annoying issues 9 Years of Shadows is a really ambitious Metroidvania that tries to go full head with the classic Castlevania series. The graphics and soundtrack are gorgeous and the…”
“I'm not a Gamer. It's a very pretty game. Which is the main reason I picked it up. I love a good metroidvania that has bright colors, and this one delivers on that. The bosses are interesting. Difficulty is a bit…”
44 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I'm not a Gamer. It's a very pretty game. Which is the main reason I picked it up. I love a good metroidvania that has bright colors, and this one delivers on that. The bosses are interesting. Difficulty is a bit…”
“9 Years of Shadows have an absolutely beautiful pixel art style, and thanks to the smooth animations, it feels great to play. The strongest points are definitely the original boss fights and the element swapping…”
17 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“6 / 10. Ambitious, but plagued with annoying issues 9 Years of Shadows is a really ambitious Metroidvania that tries to go full head with the classic Castlevania series. The graphics and soundtrack are gorgeous and the…”
“+++ superb pixel-art and music!”
10 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Jank, but decent, casual Metroidvania. It doesn't overstay it's welcome, it's easy, it rapid fires bosses at you, and it's pretty tough to miss anything, unless you do what I did and try to cheese the spikes you're…”
“9 Years of Shadows have an absolutely beautiful pixel art style, and thanks to the smooth animations, it feels great to play. The strongest points are definitely the original boss fights and the element swapping…”
“Amazing metroidvania, its very easy compared to others. nice mecanics with the armors the game has its own concepts and its fun to play. yes there is some bugs every now and then but nothing major i would say. basic…”
9 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“6 / 10. Ambitious, but plagued with annoying issues 9 Years of Shadows is a really ambitious Metroidvania that tries to go full head with the classic Castlevania series. The graphics and soundtrack are gorgeous and the…”
“Steam Deck - ✅ Got this through a bundle and this was a rather nice romp! The artwork is truly solid and the movement is rather snappy. The story is a bit lacking and the last upgrade at the moment of when I played the…”
“Fun fluid gameplay with a beautiful pixel art graphics and sweet soundtrack.”
26 of the 104 reviews raise this · 11 of them still recommend the game.
“The game itself is not bad but there are a few dastardly things that make me want to smash my monitor. 1. The dash is locked to always dash the opposite direction of your character meaning it goes against all the muscle…”
“It's a pretty run-of-the-mill Metroidvania that won't win any awards or make it to any "Best Games" probably ever, but is good fun if you're into Metroidvanias. The best-looking part of the game are the cutscenes, but…”
“5/10 experience at best. Maybe I am doing this game wrong, but in the 3 hours I have spent playing, I didn't encounter anything that would catch my interest and pull me in like other metroidvania games. Combat is clunky…”
20 of the 104 reviews raise this · 13 of them still recommend the game.
“Jank, but decent, casual Metroidvania. It doesn't overstay it's welcome, it's easy, it rapid fires bosses at you, and it's pretty tough to miss anything, unless you do what I did and try to cheese the spikes you're…”
“Some bad game design, unskiabble scene, getting hit removes ability to shoot which makes it impossible to hit bosses.”
“I'm not a Gamer. It's a very pretty game. Which is the main reason I picked it up. I love a good metroidvania that has bright colors, and this one delivers on that. The bosses are interesting. Difficulty is a bit…”
17 of the 104 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“Developers, repeat after me: "CHECKPOINTS MUST NOT BE PLACED FAR AWAY FROM BOSSES!!!"”
“The game itself is not bad but there are a few dastardly things that make me want to smash my monitor. 1. The dash is locked to always dash the opposite direction of your character meaning it goes against all the muscle…”
“I feel like the developers are actively trying to waste my time. Playing this game right after ENDER LILIES was a mistake. The QoL features in ENDER LILIES set a standard in my mind that this game offends again and…”
15 of the 104 reviews raise this · 10 of them still recommend the game.
“The game itself is not bad but there are a few dastardly things that make me want to smash my monitor. 1. The dash is locked to always dash the opposite direction of your character meaning it goes against all the muscle…”
“I feel like the developers are actively trying to waste my time. Playing this game right after ENDER LILIES was a mistake. The QoL features in ENDER LILIES set a standard in my mind that this game offends again and…”
“There's definitely a couple highlights in here and it looks pretty good through and through. However, the combat feels very underwhelming, loading screens and elevator cutscenes ruin the pace and every now and then, the…”
15 of the 104 reviews raise this · 10 of them still recommend the game.
“I'm not a Gamer. It's a very pretty game. Which is the main reason I picked it up. I love a good metroidvania that has bright colors, and this one delivers on that. The bosses are interesting. Difficulty is a bit…”
“I actually liked it, the story, visuals and feel... but the shield being your life and ammo is terrible, just God awful, and makes boss fights 5x harder than they should be, and since there's no openness to the map, if…”
“Steam Deck - ✅ Got this through a bundle and this was a rather nice romp! The artwork is truly solid and the movement is rather snappy. The story is a bit lacking and the last upgrade at the moment of when I played the…”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 76.7% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“Recommended, but JUST barely. Since I can't leave a 1-10 scoring (with 10 being the highest), this one sits solidly at a 6. Pros: + Beautiful level design. Environments are wonderfully detailed, truly a labor of love. + Exploration is fun. + Neat abilities (knowing your enemies…”
— a player, Steam review · 10 hrs played“I have mixed feeling about this game. Idk if it's a hard concept to understand, but you can not put save points five miles from boss fights... it's the most annoying thing ever, and it only makes the experience less enjoyable. Also there's ZERO map guidance so you'll be walking…”
— a player, Steam review · 20 hrs played“No checkpoints = my time not being respected”
— a player, Steam review · 2 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-05.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-04). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
9 Years of Shadows: Restore the Light at 60% Off
The world of Talos has been swallowed by shadow, its color and warmth drained away. As the warrior Europa, descend into the dark with your spirit companion Apino at your side and fight to bring the li
9 Years of Shadows on PS5: Physical Editions Announced!
9 Years of Shadows will be released in Physical Edition for PlayStation 5 on December 12, 2025 . Two versions will be available: Standard Edition — includes the full game and an exclusive Talos Secret
9 Years of Shadows is on sale!
July 10th . Check out other great indies on sale during the indie.io Summer Sale to add them to your collection.
Build Update #9: 1.1.41
Greetings, everyone! It’s been a while—and we truly appreciate your patience and continued support during our time away. While it’s been over a year since our last update, we’ve been quietly working b
9 Years of Shadows is on sale!
If you were thinking about getting the game, now is a great time to do so as we are part of the indie.io Publisher Sale! Catch the game on sale from April 11th through April 25th . Check out other gre
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Indie |
| Player tags | Metroidvania · Platformer · Side Scroller · Fantasy · Anime · Action RPG · Pixel Graphics · Action-Adventure · Exploration · Action · Adventure · Action Roguelike (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Full controller support · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English * , Spanish - Latin America, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 34 |
| Official site | http://halberdstudios.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i3-9100F Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: GT 730