Mina the Hollower

Por ay avisenle a mi carnal carlos que le cierre al gas

u get to be some kind of rodent with a massive hammer u cant complain

Game is a masterpiece, great exploration, movement, and characters.

The game looks like classic Game Boy Zelda games (Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages, and Oracle of Seasons). It has similar exploration to these games. Gameplay however also borrows elements from Souls games and is much less focused on solving puzzles using specific items and more on combat and platforming. Also, it's pretty difficult, especially at the beginning, when you don't have a lot of trinkets to make a good build + the controls sometimes feel a bit clunky due to the top-down view and attacks working only in 4 directions. If you liked Game Boy Zeldas, or metroidvania games, or souls games, it's a must-play.

Mina the Hollower is an inventive and fantastic follow-up from the makers of Shovel Knight. It combines the visual style of Link's Awakening with Souls-like action mechanics, Metroidvania maps, and a killer chiptune soundtrack from Jake Kaufman. While it is quite tough, and I think the opening couple hours are the hardest, there are dozens of accessibility and difficulty sliders and features to toggle. Since the modifiers can be engaged/disengaged at any time, the game allows the player to craft an experience that maximizes frictionless fun. In terms of "Game Genie" flexibility, I've never played anything quite like it. Plus the sprites and characters are charming. Just a great time with this one.

PEAK

Still working on the game, this is basically just a notes page that I'll update until I finish the game. Pros: - great soundtrack -interesting combat that's at least interesting to engage with -meaningful trinkets, I'm tired of the "3% more damage when Pluto's in retrograde" bonuses in other games so this is refreshing. -Bones system isn't new, but the ability to obtain more chances to get your bones back later on is a great idea. -open ended exporation is pretty good so far. Cons: I've already got a lot... -The whole game feels rather jank, with serious mechanical and visual clarity issues. -The perspective is used horribly as a whole. Enemy hitboxes are too tall across the board, this is especially awful in boss fights. I never feel confident in attacking anything from above because of this. Flying enemies are particularly bad looking, I feel like maybe their shadows should be better? -Everytime I enter a new location it takes me a solid 30 minutes before I get a grasp of what all the different tiles mean (i.e. whats a floor vs a wall vs something I can jump over vs something I can crawl under) and even after I do this game has been horrible about conveying different elevations on the same screen. -As unique as the burrowing to doge mechanic is, the more I play the more I hate it. Undoubtedly, there's a ton of room for skill expression in this, but having to basically know what's coming and dodge before hand - as opposed to being able to dodge on reaction - simply feels clunky and frustrating to play around. -Burrowing is not as useful I you would generally expect, and whether it will or won't be of use is not always obvious. You can dodge under enemies sure right? - they're a surface threat - makes sense. What about a small fire, on the surface of the ground... no. Or spikes, with the tip of the spike above the surface of the ground... no - and also you take damage. How about lightning, striking from above... also no. Some rocks you can dig under and pick up, most you can't. I imagine this list will grow. You can also jump of course, which the manual says can be used as a dodge, but this function is even less clear. I've only been able to dodge like 2 attacks max so far by jumping, and one of them literally made no sense! -Getting hit by things genuinely seems to knock you in random directions, quite often directly into the thing that just hit you. -The mechanic mentioned in the manual about being able to dig right after being hit for a quick getaway... I dunno man I have yet to see that work correctly. -The whole spark and losing bones on death mechanic is strange. Even just conceptually, what in the world does having or not having a "spark" have to do with my bones?! I understand there had to be separation from the bones themselves and the way in which you keep from losing them so that they could include the chance to have more than 1 death before you do actually lose them... but why a spark!? Also, has this game learned nothing from the, like half dozen other soulslikes that exist? Why do bosses steal the spark? going up against a hard one practically guarantees that you lose your bones because you cant get them back without beating the boss. Thats literally never how it's worked before for a reason, its dumb as hell. I guess they didn't want a surplus of attempts contributing to your level but jeez, what a genuine waste of time all those runbacks become as a result. -It takes too damn long to go back to town half the time I have excess bones I want to purchase items with rather than level. I'm mostly ok with there being no fast travel, thats how DS1 was at the start, but I ALSO dont have a map! (which may just be a me problem I admit, I could've missed it like a moron) I know DS1 also didn't have a map, but it's a hell of a lot easier to navigate a congruent 3d space than one of these maze like top down pixel art games. If there is no map, dear god the devs have seriously over-estimated their world layout, and if it's just a pain in the ass to find for no reason, I would consider this a blatant issue. Either way, I have yet to buy a single thing from the main hub and its not for a lack of wanting to. -The sidearm system is fine, but I do absolutely hate that you cant just pick one to start with every time you leave a safe area. Some of these fights and locations would be way more fun if I could pick the right tool for the job rather than be given pebbles for the umteenth time. -The healing system is another example of this game trying to have something unique going on and it just not feeling that good to play around. You can't typically just heal, you have to first hit enemies to build up the amount that will be healed, and then do the actual heal animation. I can't shake that having to engage in combat in order to heal, in order to engage in more combat, is a little bizarre. This isn't doom, and its not like bloodborne's rally system because it doesn't heal you instantly, and its not like the The Surge 2 because you aren't getting future healing through this - you're just making your current heal actually do anything. It feels like they wanted to "mix things up" without considering why every other game with this kind of healing system hasn't done this already. -Level gimmicks are oppressive, and frustrating. I've only been to 2 major areas so far and I'm already a bit fed up over this. The gimmicks are mostly fine in concept, but then it seems like they go out of their way to really bother you. The lava floor puzzles were frustratingly boring. The wind is too damn strong, and it feels janky as all hell. Why does it blow you around when underground too!? And they've clearly never played blasphemous, or they'd realize the only thing that made it reasonable in that game was the second or so pause between direction changes when the wind would die down. The lightning in that same area is atrocious. The only reason I've not lost my mind with it is because I found and purchased the trinket that gives you immunity. - I know it kinda comes with the style, but something about the visuals as a whole is just messy. I've already mentioned perspective related issues, but honestly the art is just not always the best. There's also been multiple cases of objects like barrels and boxes with weird black boxes surrounding them. - I hate that walking on stairs changes your movement speed, very minor thing, but it still annoys me, and it does nothing to convey the elevation change. Is all for now.

I like this game because it is thoughtfully designed, beautiful in art and music and narrative, and is very fun to play.