Nine Sols vs Hollow Knight

We think Nine Sols is the pick if fighting is what you play a metroidvania for. Its deflect-and-talisman rhythm combat is precise and distinctive, closer to Sekiro than to Hollow Knight. Deflection mastery is mandatory for the late bosses, so expect your progress to hinge on learning the rhythm of each fight. If a late boss walls you, a story mode slider offers relief. Nine Sols is also the pick if you want a plot you can follow as a plot.

Red Candle Games built a full cinematic story in which the vengeful cat-spirit Yi hunts the nine Sols of a lost techno-Taoist civilization, and the characters are ones you grow attached to, an emotional weight that is rare for the genre. The hand-drawn East-Asian sci-fi setting, with talismans, shrines and orbital tech, creates a Taopunk world unlike anything else in the genre, even if Hallownest edges it on immersion overall.

It is also the shorter commitment, reaching the credits in around 21.7 hours against Hollow Knight's 27, with sessions of 1-2 hours in both games. What you give up is breadth: zones interconnect satisfyingly but the gating is more directed, and the talent tree and jade loadouts adjust play feel while builds stay close to one core kit. That is a fair trade, we think, for the player who wants every hour to point at the next boss.

We think Hollow Knight is the pick if exploration is the reason you open a metroidvania. Hallownest's interlocking zones and secrets set the genre standard, and cartographer-driven exploration rewards every ounce of curiosity, so the map itself is the main event rather than the corridor between bosses. Years of free expansions built it into one of the densest games in the genre, and it is the foundation Silksong builds upon.

It is also the pick for atmosphere: the melancholy art, Larkin's score and a coherent ecology make the ruined bug kingdom unforgettable, and the story arrives as an oblique environmental tragedy whose lore runs deep the more you dig. If you like piecing a tragedy together from the world instead of being handed a plot, that oblique telling is a strength, though it lands with less direct emotional weight than Nine Sols' cinematic story.

Combat still supports real mastery, with nail arts, spells and charm synergies, and charm loadouts meaningfully alter play within one core kit, giving it a slight edge in build variety. Difficulty matches Nine Sols overall: the base path is firm but fair, while the White Palace and the dream bosses are infamous. Plan for the longer run, around 27 hours to the credits against 21.7, in sessions of 1-2 hours.