Mina the Hollower

Picked up this game on sale for like 15 dollars and it is seriously one of the best games I've played. So many secrets and tough boss fight, platforming is brutal, also the soundtrack is really amazing. 10/10 game loved every minute of it.

Rat butts for everyone!

Enjoyed the game up to the final boss, just poorly balanced overall.

这游戏真的是又臭又香。

I have very mixed feelings about this game. Overall it was fairly enjoyable but several of the systems the game included felt half baked or almost useless. The trinkets can turn a boss from borderline impossible into a complete pushover which leads to some awkward balancing situations.

in the isles, straight hollowing it

I ended up enjoying this game immensely. My favourite part is that you can tailor the experience to whatever you're feeling like. Too hard? there are several optioons to ease the challenge. Too easy? you can alter it to make it as tough as you want. Or change the game in weird and funky ways. Then when the credits roll, there are so many more options that unlock. I also liked that it feels oldschool, but it also feels like a unique game in its own right, not just a copy. Good job devs!

신문 보면 어디로 가야 할지 알려주거든요? 제발 게임이 가라는 곳부터 가세요. 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발 제발

Does the gameboy style very well. I also love how open the world is, you can go straight to the more difficult areas (I went straight to Septemburg, Crow Town in particular is brutal) and I really do enjoy the challenge. This game is not easy which is a good thing. As a fan of old school 2D Zelda such as Link's Awakening and The Oracle Games I am having fun.

Mina the Hollower is a creative, engaging, and thoroughly well crafted game from start to finish. Achieved 1 run with 100% completion in about 31 hours (a good 4 of those might be from leaving it on, though.) Graphically taking the style of GBA or perhaps SNES, it manages to have a retro feel with excellent pixel art backgrounds and simple but lovable character designs. Songs are consistently groovy and do a great job having rich memorable songs using that old synth style. The story is fine, much like an early Zelda title you really just get the "stop bad guy and achieve task" to move you around the world with a couple of thoroughly predictable plot twists. The gameplay of Mina is, of course, the focal point. Mina is a great embodiment of how I like difficulty in my games. In my mind, difficulty is not something that exists for the hell of it. If a game is incredibly hard or punishing for the sake of being hard, that feels like a waste of my time as the player. I don't want to spend 3 hours beating a boss because they gave it a huge health pool or instakill attacks or made it unreasonably fast. Good difficulty in a game serves to task the player with finding new creative ways to solve the problem. The difficulty forces the player to learn and engage with the mechanics of the game to fully appreciate the depth of gameplay. Mina does this very well. The game gives you 5 weapons, 60 trinkets (equipable items), 15 sidearms, and various other upgrades and abilities along the way. Nearly every difficult situation you are put in can be aided by learning to use these tools effectively. Of course the majority of the game is exploring the world to find these tools, so it's entirely possible that you may not have the ideal tool when you need it. This is the necessary downside of the open world non-linear game that Mina is. This, however, makes exploration very satisfying and valuable, as each new area might have a tool that solves a problem you had somewhere else. The weapons and sidearms are mostly very satisfying to use with a few exceptions (there are some clunky sidearms I would never consider using and I really don't like the blaster primary). Combat is engaging and satisfying with the unique hollowing mechanic acting like a fun deviation from the standard dodge roll. Bosses are generally fun and engaging, again with a handful that fell flat (that stupid moth lady...) and the final boss was incredibly well designed. Small demerits for the following: - Some weapons and sidearms feel gimmicky and useless - Some bosses and enemies can be frustrating to fight (usually really fast ones that just run at you). As some other reviews have pointed out, the map design and enemy placement sometimes feel designed to torture, and that makes me sad. - The game would benefit a ton from an actual map. Not like the world map, but a real map. Hollow Knight does this incredibly well by having a rich map that still hides a lot of secrets. - I got 100% collectibles in my first run, and some of those secrets are ridiculous. There are a good handful of collectibles that I simply never would've found without looking it up. - While I like the idea, I personally really disliked the generator climb sections. The 3d effect and forced upward climb were confusing and didn't add anything to the gameplay. Overall a solid 9/10. Glad to see Yacht Club breaking free of the infinite Shovel Knight curse and making an absolute banger. All achievements looks like hell and I will probably not be doing it any time soon.