Nine Sols shouldn’t exist. It’s the work of Red Candle, a small Taiwanese studio that had previously made just two story-driven horror games, one of which was banned from sale for two years due to political controversy. Most studios would fold at that point; instead, Red Candle made a game in a genre it had no experience in, and somehow created the best combat Metroidvania since Hollow Knight. As we approach its first anniversary, I spoke to Shihwei (Vincent) Yang, Nine Sols’ producer and creative director, to discover how this miracle occurred.

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