Mina the Hollower

After 100%ing the game (not the Steam Achievements, but all collectibles, items, weapons and so on), I can confidently say that this games is a little masterpiece. From the first moments it gave me 2 distinct feelings: my childhood with my GBC games and the first time I played Hollow Knight. As the Lead Designer said, this game is heavely inspired by those old school GBC titles, particularly Zelda (Link's Awakening especially). That can be seen from the graphics. the design of the levels and the music. I am a sucker for pixel art games, even more for low bits ones (like this 8-bit one). Here the graphics are clean, distinguishable and memorable. The various mobs, bosses sprites and environments are so, so, so good. The exploration you can do in this game and the things you can find, see and uncover reminded me when I entered the City of Tears (in Hollow Knight) for the first time. A feeling of discovery, of awe and of a remnant of the past. Here, in Mina, those feelings can be seen but under a new light with this new world (an Island called Tenibris) and it's zones, features and facets. Combat is fun and challenging but never really unfair! You'll probably die a lot from normal mobs simply because you don't have enough upgrades / trinkets / weapon upgrades or simply because you don't know their movesets, especially on bosses. Be prepared to retry them a couple of times (probably a lot more)! You can choose from different weapons each with their own movesets and combat types. Making the game play out differently in those fights. There is a bit of puzzles and backtracking, needed to both advance in the game's story and to unlock specific things. There is a pletora of collectables and unlockables. From trinkets, that give some ability, much like Hollow Knight's charms, upgrades to max life, vials (healing potions, with a twist), joules pouch (to use sidearms), sparks (you'll find out what they are and what's their use), and many more things you'll uncover playing and exploring the game! You can find various easter eggs here and there, that I won't spoil, that give back to those old games and even some "recent" indies (gogo my beheaded!). Sooooo, bit of long but really wanted to lay down what this game gave me and explain it's features a bit. TLDR: If you like an old school 8-bit graphic action-adventure game, good game design and gameplay, a bit of puzzle and backtracking and a lot of challenge, buy this game!

i had a lot of fun with the game but its terribly balanced. the difficulty curve is extremely frontloaded and then never gets challenging again until the end of the game. 50% of my deaths were before before the first tower, and another 40% were in astral orrery / radiant manor. so I cleared the middle 2/3rds of the game almost deathless. I beat almost every boss first try... For a game thats hyped up as difficult, the majority of it was an utter cakewalk, and I only got ever got challenged when I was getting the hang of it and then in the end. Incredibly bizarre. frankly if it was longer who knows if I would've gotten bored before finishing it. I don't wanna leave a negative review but I do feel strongly that these are huge problems and I wish the middle of the game got given some teeth.

I mean I like the idea, but the traveling / exploring is just too much for me. Combat and platforming are pretty frustrating too and not very fun.

never ending ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. great art. mth dares to ask , 'what if no aspect of a game was enjoyable?' really love the art & music though

Tentei gostar desse jogo mas não consegui. A exploração é boa, os mapas são bem grandes, interligados de um jeito legal e cheios de itens e segredos escondidos, esse fato é inclusive o ponto alto do jogo pra mim. O combate é mediano (pra não dizer ruim) e o fato de beber DEMAIS da fonte dos soulslike pesa demais na hora de avaliar esse ponto porquê não existe a complexidade dos inimigos e o dinamismo de combate que normalmente vemos nesse gênero de jogo porquê a Mina só consegue atacar para cima, para baixo e para os lados enquanto os inimigos atacam de qualquer direção e desviam também para qualquer direção (até voando pra um andar acima de você), esse último ponto te impedindo de atacar com certas armas e te obrigando a esperar o inimigo "descer" pra ficar vulnerável de novo. O combate acaba sendo uma experiência frustrante em que você joga com um personagem lento e com uma mecânica de esquiva esquisita com delay contra inimigos desbalanceados. A movimentação é imprecisa e isso se mostra bastante durante os combates e as sessões de plataforma: foram diversos os momentos em que se desvia do inimigo e se move para atacar ele e a Mina ataca para o lado errado porquê o game não "registrou" a movimentação antes do ataque, ou momentos em que se calcula a movimentação e o pulo corretamente mas ele acaba saindo "mais curto" e você precisa reiniciar toda a sala. As sessões de escalada pós-boss são na minha opinião a pior parte do jogo porquê a movimentação fica bastante bugada e muitas vezes a Mina não responde aos comandos corretamente nessa parte. A história é basicamente inexistente: diálogos soltos aqui e ali e apesar do mundo aberto os dungeons tem uma ordem de execução bem linear, caso contrário é 1 hit kill pelos monstros da região. Saio desse jogo com a impressão de que ele só é difícil por causa dessas falhas de design e do combate truncado, caso contrário seria um jogo muito mais gratificante de se jogar, mesmo com a curva de aprendizado e dificuldade alta.

Mina the Hollower has all the right ingredients, but instead of letting you enjoy them, the game constantly throws unfair diagonal hitboxes, clunky platforming, and artificial frustration your way, making every mistake feel overly punishing.

They made this one for me