9th Dawn III

Platform	Windows
Genre	Action RPG
Release Year	2020
Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐⚝
Added	2025-Jul-10

The 9th Dawn series is a strange homage to a collection of different games: Ultimas, diablolikes, a little bit of Souls. It's all wrapped up in a very indie, slightly janky, but thoroughly enjoyable package.

All three games take place in massive worlds full of side quests and optional dungeons: you'll miss 3/4ths the game if you stick to the main quest. Your controls are twinstick style, with a full RPG inventory, equipment, and skill system behind the simple control interface.

9th Dawn III specifically presents a hybrid progression system where you level up as normal, but also completing dungeons gives you skill point tokens. You need to do both to progress, but just wandering the world looking for trouble (and tokens!) is a delight.

It's a perfect modern indie fling for people who want to just explore a huge world while blowing things up. The difficulty curve can get a little spiky at times, but that's nothing delving into an optional dungeon or four can't cure.