Mina the Hollower

The initial pacing of the game is incomprehensibly bad; they should've guided the player more clearly towards the easier zone first. I ended up in a far harder one and it wrecked my first impression of the game. Then, the level design has some truly evil details, like ledges you can easily miss that throw you into bottomless pits... So many pits... The hitboxes are immensely punishing too, which is very noticeable when using the hammer. The vertical hitboxes in particular feel horrible, and I wish simply touching an enemy wouldn't damage you. It wasn't fun game design in 1993 on the Game Boy and it still isn't fun today. Also, the fact that for you to dodge (i.e. dig) you first have to make yourself vulnerable by jumping has got to be the most insane decision of all. Imagine if, in Dark Souls, your roll had half a second of vulnerability at the very start! Come on, now... And the story is just bad; Mina can gain pretty critical narrative information midway through that she just sits on for the entire game for seemingly no reason. She discusses the events with no one, doesn't reflect on anything, and we as players are given no options to take meaningful narrative actions on her behalf. If the story gave us a reason to understand her behavior, then that'd be easier to accept, but the game's just disinterested in its own story. The most frustrating aspect of this game is that, by many of the other metrics, this project is a resounding triumph. Boss designs are fun to learn (but not to fight due to the hitboxes and dodging mechanic), the graphics are top notch, the music! Oh my goodness the music, another incredible Jake Kaufman project. Even many of the gameplay ideas are great! It's so so close to being an easy recommendation. But a slew of small negative decisions kept on piling up, leading to an overall unfun game. Pick this up only if you're a hardcore retro game player, and please read a guide of what to do/get at the start.

I've never had a game like this where I want to love it, but everything about the game actively does everything it can to make me hate it. This first half of the game? Fantastic. A lot of fun, very challenging. The second half? Dreadful and uninspired. Mechanics exist in the game solely for the purpose of making the player miserable. Joules are the best example for this. You died and lost one of your sparks, putting you closer to losing all of your bones? That's apparently not punishment enough! You also have to lose ALL of your joules as well, which are what you use to use sidearm weapon attacks. There's a Joules shower you can get for your den that you would think would solve the problem! However, NO! The shower can only hold a certain amount of Joules, and if you use them up, they take time to come back! Because, again, being punished once for dying isn't enough! This means by the late game, if there's a boss you're struggling on, the upgrades you've purchased to help you SPECIFICALLY when there's a boss you're struggling with do literally nothing! Good game design 101. That's how literally all of the den upgrades work. They're all solutions to a problem that was tailor made for the game. Not to make it more fun or interesting, not to make you engage with the world, but specifically to make the game more frustrating for you to play. The final area is a living testament to this game design philosophy. It starts out fine. Strong enemies, sure, but fine. And then come the mouse traps. You get clipped by them once and quickly learn that you can't just ignore them. So, you pay more attention to where you're fighting. Not entirely unfair, but an annoyance. Then come the flipping tiles. A further annoyance, but nothing impossible to handle. And then there's a room filled with disappearing tiles AND with an enemy that likes to ledge guard you if you get voided out, making it nigh impossible to get into the area again without taking further chip damage. ...And then, there's the crushma machine. The final area before the boss fight. This is, without a doubt, the most miserable I have been playing a game. A single room has never so drastically shifted my opinion about a game prior to the auto-scrolling crapheap that is this final room. It goes on for FAR too long with not nearly enough space to maneuver. It expects lightning fast reflexes if you want to get through without losing a majority of your HP to the pits. And even then, if you get unlucky with enemy behavior, that doesn't matter! You're still going into the pit! The actual ending itself also felt like a final punch in the throat. Without going into spoilers, it's a miserable ending to a miserable section of gameplay. There has never been a game that I like this much that I physically cannot recommend to anyone of sound mind. The game wants you to hate it, and unfortunately, I think I do now.

Очень крутая игра, несмотря некоторые достаточно странные решения (типа наличия плазмы для отхила или наличия трех разных способов быстрого перемещения по карте). Очень понравился эксплоринг и большое количество секретиков. Интересно, что всякие возможности разрабы поместили в предметы наряду с какими-то пассивками и прочим - не стали делать ГГ абилки.

Kickstarted a Zelda like, got a Souls like instead. Honestly it's fine but not what I wanted and I put it down after a few hours. Wouldn't really recommend it though.

just play dark souls... The combat, platforming, and enemy mechanics will have u tossing slurs at ur screen. Its like they created areas not for fun sake but to just annoying and piss you off. Creating near impossible areas with poor platform mechanics over complicated enemies that make the game a slog to try and get to new areas. Rest points are to few and far from each other. No fast travel so when u r in an area that is your ownly option forward. Cant back track once you get stuck in a section of the game. So if u get stuck on a part of the game thats it...

I'm sure there's an adventure to be found here for some, but unfortunately this is another miss for me, and one more promising looking game lost to the vast, seemingly never-ending ocean of "game, but super hard/Souls-y"

前期太難, 中後期太容易, 完全不平衡的遊戲進程. 跳陷阱比打怪更多, 基本上就是一個跳跳樂遊戲, 而不是RPG打怪遊戲. [h3][b]完全垃圾的回血設計[/b][/h3] 要打怪才能儲回血的黃條, 然後被打黃條就掉, 但是回血動作超久而已會被打斷, 前中期沒有回血相關裝備打boss等於不能回血一樣. 然後一堆怪進攻性超強, 一直追着你打, 不然就跳來跳去你根本打不到他, 不然就是整個超大碰撞體積 (碰撞也會扣血), 超大攻擊範圍, 血超厚的怪, 長時間上逃跑比打怪更有效率. 後期塞一堆超遠距攻擊的怪配合陷阱關卡噁心你. 然後純跳陷阱的關卡就算你有12枝回血都沒用, 因為沒怪讓你儲黃條, 跳錯幾下沒血就要死. 5種武器但你基本上只會用到兩種, 大錘和手槍, 其他的傷害都太低及太短距離, 完全沒用. 60種功能飾品也是只有幾樣是有用的, 其他只是充數量純收集用的. 裝備只能在儲存點更換, 在關卡內不能更換. 但是如果在關卡中拿到某個武器的升級, 就會把你目前的武器換成另一個, 真的很白痴. 辛苦打完王關後, 還要弄個限時跳陷阱關卡嘔心你, 時間內跳不過就要重來, 不然就是過不了關. 其他層面: 故事情節十分爛. 畫風還可以. 很適合用switch/steam deck之類的掌機玩. 沒有重玩性可言, 因為某些跳陷阱關卡太煩人了, 你根本不會想再重玩, 而且NG+之後沒有新內容, 只是把敵人能力堆上去, 但嘔心的是NG+後全程幾乎變得沒有儲存點, 等於你要用有限的血水走完整個超長的區域, 也太誇張. 還有一點必需提, 就是他們在主城放了一隻NPC會把你的錢撞走, 一次就是幾百塊, 前期你也打不過他拿不回錢, 真的太嘔心. 最後是這個遊戲的community也是超級toxic. 每次搜索相關問題, 在討論區 (無論是reddit或steam) 看到其他人抱怨, 他們就會叫你覺得太難就不要玩, 一起取笑你, "ha, another one said this game is too hard" 之類, 也是很嘔心.

It's so desperate for you to love it. For those expecting Zelda, this is not a Zelda. For those expecting castlevania, this is not a castlevania. For those expecting metroid, this most definitely is not a metroid. This is a platformer. And it feels like ass to control/navigate. Playing this game is like getting kicked in the shins over and over again. I don't think I've had my character displaced this much in a game. It feels like absolute ass to do the main mechanic (burrowing/jumping). Enemies are not enemies - they are platforming obstacles. The best/fastest tactic for combat, in most situations, is to mash attack while you get hit and abuse your iframes. There's a good game here. The music is great, the pixel-work is amazing, there's tons of secrets to find. I just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate how it feels to play this game.