It's peak!?

It seems like every May or so there's an indie game that comes out of nowhere and blows everyone away. 2024 was Animal Well, 2025 was Blue Prince... is Mina the Hollower this year's indie game of the summer??

I might not pick this up immediately tomorrow, but rather save it for when I'm in one of my regular desparate-for-more-Zelda moods. So, within the next week, probably.

I have hesitancy after that demo, but I'm excited to pick this up tomorrow nonetheless.

I’ve been looking forward to this game for so long. Shovel Knight is one of my favorite new franchises and if, Mina is anywhere near as good, I’m in for a great time. From what I’ve been reading and seeing, it looks like they hit it out of the park again.

I thought it came out today and I literally went into the eShop to buy it but it seems it actually comes out tomorrow. I wonder if it’s midnight or noon.

Update: It’s midnight. Just bought it and downloaded. About to play.

@Secret_Tunnel I wouldn't say a game from the devs of Shovel Knight came out of nowhere though, it's been NWs most wanted eShop game for the last 2 years!

I’ll be getting this for sure but man the demo was challenging. Gonna have to dust off my gamer skills to be ready for the full game.

@Zero

This is true!

@DrFinkelstein
Yeah, I have kind of a weird back-and-forth on this one. I thought Shovel Knight was pretty great overall, was looking forward to Mina for a while, but then the demo soured me a bit. I finished it and I liked the challenge level, but something about it just wasn't clicking in the way I'd hoped? Not sure; maybe I was expecting more of a Link's Awakening style of progression or world design. It just didn't draw me in the way I'd hoped.

Even so, the good reviews have my attention. So I dunno what to think; I'd like to hear some impressions on the final product from people who weren't blown away by the demo.

This game is haaaaard. I was dying so much. I went into it without knowing much about the mechanics cause I just wanted to discover everything by myself. It ended up being very frustrating at the beginning, but then very rewarding once I realized how the systems work. And, once I realized 3 things: 1) Defeating enemies gives you bones, not just picking up bones 2) that I could go back to the Underlabs to replenish my health, 3) doing so respawns enemies, I realized I could just farm bones and buy upgrades to make my life easier.

I played about 30 minutes of this last night. So it's a Soulslike, eh?

...it's kind of lame how genre titles in the games industry use the names of other games. And it's also lame that every action game gets called a Soulslike now. But come on, it's got a gothic setting and a corpse run mechanic!

I didn't find it any harder than any other NES game for that first little section. I think I died twice. Still, it's more combat-focused than I'd expect from a game which takes such clear inspiration from the Gameboy Zeldas, so I get the misalignment with people ITT's expectations. I'm curious how it'll evolve as I play more.

Hinph said:

I have a friend who is mad about this series, and I'm very happy for people like him to have received a numbered sequel all of these years later that actually lives up to that honor... unlike something like Sonic The Hedgehog 4 (Do you know you're supposed to capitalize the The since it's a proper noun? I still feel weird about doing that every time even though Sega in the 90's told me to).

I thought our database entry had a typo, but technically it's the eShop who's wrong...!

Okay, I played another 2 or 3 hours of this today. It seems to be the Elden Ring/Silksong style of game that uses difficulty to make the world feel hostile, to contextualize the RPG economy, and to give the player a feeling of accomplishment, as opposed to the game being difficult as a consequence of some underlying interesting system that needs to be expressed that way.

I know there are modifiers I can use to lower the difficulty, but A. I resent having to design my own game, and B. I don't see the point of pantomiming through a trivialized version of the game in the first place. Better to shrug and say it's not for me.

I just put maybe a couple hours into it so far and I have to say the more I play it, the more I dig it. Pun intended.

For those on the fence- it is rather difficult. Not just even the combat, but just like, figuring out where to go? I don’t know if that is good or bad, but I do think they could’ve directed you a little better. So while I appreciate how hands off it is, I wish it was maybe a little more hands on at the beginning.

You really should not skip any of the dialogue, because there doesn’t seem to be anything in your pause screen to indicate where you need to go next. The devs also proudly admitted there was no maps, which…in a game like this, I question that notion so far.

That being said, the game for me so far has just been figuring out where to go and what to look for. It’s a new language for me because the game doesn’t really feel like it plays like anything else. It’s Shovel Knight Dark Souls Zelda Castlevania, for lack of a better comparison. I’m figuring out what to look for, how to interact with certain things, etc. THAT has been a joy. But, it does feel retro to a fault, where you might be having some issues reading what you can interact with on the screen. If you’re okay with that, I think you’ll love it.

I’m itching to get back to it, if that means anything. Also? If anyone has enabled HDR and is wondering why it’s dim- it looks like brightness is set to 50 in the options. With HDR on, you can crank it up to 100 and it looks SUPER punchy. Wish we had this with the NSO retro games!

As a quick update, for those worried about difficulty- there seem to be a lot of assist style options in the menu. There are ways to modify damage taken, game speed, etc. It doesn't sound unlike the accessibility options in Celeste. So, you CAN play this game with a bit of an easier time- so as long as you're willing to forgo the acquiring of Feats, which are this game's version of Achievements.

Also regarding the difficulty- this game really does want you to start mastering Mina's moveset pretty early on, in a way that Shovel Knight never did. I would probably agree with critics that the game demands too much of the player right out of the gate. There probably should've been a longer segment where you're taking out one-hit enemies, and using optional items to bypass certain obstacles.

That being said, I will say this: Once you start figuring out how Mina moves, how to use items to bypass certain areas, etc, it is incredibly satisfying. It kind of feels a little like Breath of the Wild in that regard. It takes a while to understand the language of the game, and it can be frustrating, but once you *get it*, you can start making progress, and it feels not just good, but addicting. I cannot wait to get back to it tonight.

I can see this game turning off the crowd that disliked Metroid Dread for its difficulty. It's just kind of a game that requires you to master the moveset of the main character in order to succeed. So if you're not up to burrowing around, getting the edge on enemies, knowing WHEN to use your health vials, etc, then this may not be the game for you.

But if you enjoy a retro challenge, health and checkpoint management, and environment observation, I think you're in for a real treat.

Basically this game is like, if Dark Souls, Link's Awakening, Classic-Castlevania, Shovel Knight, and Mole Mania had a baby. If that sounds interesting to you, definitely check it out. $20 makes it a no brainer for anyone remotely interested in these kinds of games.

@PogueSquadron

Yeah, the $20 price tag makes it an easy sell for me. I'd buy garbage games back in the day for that price, because why not.

Plus anything Castlevania-adjacent has my attention.

I bounced off Silksong despite -l o v i n g- the challenge of Hollow Knight so I wasn't feeling super receptive towards Mina - but hey ho, I bought this on Steam today. Good to see Yacht Club Games do well.

Maybe I'm more comfortable playing hard games on a close up monitor screen instead of a tv? I played the original Hollow Knight on PC, but Silksong on a TV. So um... this could be eyesight related. : p

Come to think of it I did 120+ runs of Gungeon, docked on Switch before I tried it wearing my glasses and then hit the ending almost straight away.

#oldpeopleproblems

DrFinkelstein said:

I have hesitancy after that demo, but I'm excited to pick this up tomorrow nonetheless.

I've put in at least 10 hours in and I'm having a really great time. It's tough but I've always been able to get over my challenges. My one main gripe is that I do wish a more nuanced map existed or could be obtained. I don't get to play so frequently that I'll remember every path or region.

@DrFinkelstein

A recent IGN podcast interview revealed that the developers purposely did not include a detailed map.

Because reasons.

Honestly, at first I didn’t like the idea of having no detailed map, but I’m also not sure a) if I feel like I need one, and b) if a detailed map would be far too complicated to make given how many tunnels and whatnot there are. I wonder if they tried and realized it was kind of just a confusing mess of breakouts and small rooms that don’t really fit on a map.

I made my way to what I think was my fourth spark tower and the boss before it was hard but also so damn fun. It took maybe four or five sparks before I realized what item/weapon combo worked best for me. It was a new duo that I hadn't been playing with and I dug it!

It was in the Astral section of the game. The boss was the Congealed. The fact that there were multiple phases to him too had surprised me and delighted me more than frustrated.

The area it took to get to the tower was probably my favorite so far as well. Great fun.

sirmastersephiroth said:

I realized I could just farm bones and buy upgrades to make my life easier.

Any particular area you prefer for that?