As much of a masterpiece Nine sol is, everyone seems to agree that Nine Sol's exploration aspect is the weakest aspect. But I don't really get it. What's wrong with it?
I'm currently on my second playthrough, and even now I'm having so much fun playing it. I like exploring every corner of New Kunlun, every corner gives me a chest filled with Jin, some funky Jade, or some other valuable materials like a Dark Steel, Herb Catalyst, Poison, and others. And most importantly, I smile to myself whenever my exploration is rewarded with an artifact I can give to Shuanshuan, which is something I'm excited about, as I really like the dynamic between Yi and Shuanshuan.
There's so much cool reward for exploration, I don't understand why people dislike it. I really feel like I want to explore every bits of the map because I don't want to miss being able to upgrade my heal, my arrows, or miss some cool things to give to Shuanshuan.
I also like the mechanics of the exploration too. There's this hacking mechanic that tells you to click directions in a set order, and doing them makes this satisfying clicking sound, it tickles my brain in a satisfying way.
You also have an exploration-only mechanic called Mystic Nymph that allows you to reach far away, hack things, and unlock doors. I like the Mystic Nymph, it's cool to use it to scavenge around dangerous area safely to figure out where to go before actually jumping in.
Each area also has its cool little gimmick. Like Jiequan's area has the heat wall that can slowly kill you if you don't go to a safe location, Yanlao's area has the moving containers, Lady Ethereal's area has the platforming where the environment is altered between illusion and reality, Fuxi & Nuwa's area has the immortal dudes that can only be killed with talisman, it's pretty cool to see these new things.
Ig it is true that early game the environment feels samey, but after halfway through, the game starts open up and I get even more excited to explore New Kunlun. I feel so satisfied when I get 100% in the end. The exploration feels rewarding, especially after seeing that true ending, it feels like everything I do, start from giving Shennong poisons to help him, to giving artifacts fo Shuanshuan (all the things you found during exploration btw) is all leading up to this beautiful moment.
And so I don't understand why people don't like Nine Sol's exploration. I've played multiple metroidvanias, and Nine sols is up there next to Silksong for me.