Devotion studio's next game looks like Hollow Knight crossed with Sekiro

Nine Sols is the next game from Devotion studio Red Candle Games, and it's a bit of a departure for the Taiwanese team. Whereas Devotion and its predecessor Detention were both spooky survival horror games, Nine Sols is a 2D platformer "featuring Sekiro-inspired deflection focused combat." The studio describes the setting as "Taopunk".

The trailer above shows the first substantial gameplay footage of Nine Sols. It looks really impressive, mixing the fluid 2D movement of Hollow Knight with what definitely looks like a more complex approach to combat. Red Candle has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help finish the project, which still doesn't have a release window.

The crowdfunding tiers are typical: around $20 gets you a digital copy of the game, though the highest tier—which asks for over $1,000—is sold out and included an invitation to "co-write a short in-game story", among other things. The campaign has already well exceeded its NT$3,000,000 (around $105,000) goal with 48 days spare, so it's clearly piqued a lot of people's interest.

The interest is unsurprising. Devotion is a brilliantly atmospheric horror game, but its profile was also boosted by its release history. The game was removed from sale weeks after its initial 2019 launch due to an unfavourable reference to China's president. This depiction led to a heavy review bombing from Chinese users, but more consequentially, resulted in the game's Chinese publisher having its business license revoked. It took two years, but Devotion is available to buy direct from Red Candle.

Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.

Read more
The fox swordsman Yi in Nine Sols.
Nine Sols review
A ferocious fish-man
Frogwares shows off The Sinking City 2's first in-game footage and launches a Kickstarter safety net: 'After 3 years of this horrid war hanging over our daily lives, we've learned to adapt'
Sunset in the desert in Hello Sunshine
Hello Sunshine is a desert survival sandbox where you live in the literal shadow of the colossus
Close up of Mashina, the protagonist of Mashina, a little round robot with a tiny smiley face in a world of garbage
The team behind one of 2024's hidden gems is following it up with a stop-motion 'relaxed digging and discovery' game about a happy robot's underground adventures beneath a lake of slime
A stylized drawing of a horned demon with a skull for a face and glowing eyes peering over a forest cabin.
Bloober Team’s new horror label just unveiled an isometric survival horror game straight out of a comic book: ‘Avoid the Horned Man at all costs’
Palworld early access
Palworld studio's first move as a publisher is to save a struggling indie dev: 'This is the energy I want to see driving games in 2025'
Latest in Game Development
princeton review best game design programs 2025
The best game design schools, ranked by the Princeton Review 2025
Sharon Tal Yguado speaking at the 2025 D.I.C.E. Summit.
'These kids do not care about romance': Game devs want to know what today's teens want, and surveys say sex and romance isn't it
Palworld early access
Palworld studio's first move as a publisher is to save a struggling indie dev: 'This is the energy I want to see driving games in 2025'
Yakuza/Like a Dragon creator Toshihiro Nagoshi says his studio's new game won't be that big after all: 'it's not modern to have similar experiences repeated over and over again'
A man with a sausage-shaped head
'Calm down!' says Facepunch Studios: Garry's Mod successor s&box is getting a fan-requested sandbox mode and an alternative to 'Sausage Men'
Hellboy Web of Wyrd
Devolver has a new label dedicated to making games based on comics, films, TV shows and 'cult heroes'
Latest in News
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway