From the moment I started Mina the Hollower, I was entranced. The presentation is just on another level. The moody, Gothic setting. The brilliant and distinctive character and enemy designs. A richly detailed game world that feels painstakingly handcrafted and steeped in lore. I knew I was in for something truly special. Really, I knew I was in for something special before even starting the game, as the developers, Yacht Club Games, have a sterling reputation in the industry, and are legendary in the indie game scene. Still, it was nice to have my assumptions about their talents reinforced upon actually beginning Mina the Hollower. Yacht Club Games still has it in spades. (There's a nice little shovel joke for you.)
On its surface, Mina the Hollower clearly pulls inspiration from the Legend of Zelda titles on the Game Boy Color, which was incredibly enticing for me, as I hold a lot of love for those games and their iconic style. Dig below that charming retro facade though, and you find a game that is much deeper and more complex than it might initially seem. The first thing that surprised me was the game's heightened base level of difficulty. In fact, Mina the Hollower features a few traits that people would most often associate with "Souls-likes", such as having to retrieve your upgrade materials from where you died. I was getting absolutely trounced by some of the early enemies, and really had to study their attack and movement patterns to gain any sort of an advantage. The ferocity and intricacies of my foes' attacks quickly taught me that this wasn't just a pure homage to those old Zelda titles, and I needed to stop trying to play like Link.
Fortunately for me, Mina is equipped to the teeth with a full-blown arsenal of weapons, gadgets and trinkets for you to experiment with and figure out your ideal playstyle. I had so much fun swapping between these creative weapons and testing out their abilities and lethality. My inner Belmont had me initially reaching for the sort of whip-adjacent flail weapon, called the Nightstar. I also greatly enjoyed using the hulking explosive hammer, the Blaststrike Maul. It felt like a weapon from the Monster Hunter franchise. Eventually, I settled on the shield weapon, called the Guardian Casket, which is easily the coolest armament in Mina's cache. With it, Mina can block attacks, slam the shield into the enemy, or even parry blows, upon which, giant zombified arms stretch out of the casket and hit enemies in front of you. Each weapon can be upgraded a couple of times, granting them additional abilities and functions. For instance, the Guardian Casket earns a new move where you can throw it like a boomerang, giving your inherently close quarters weapon some much needed range.
As you're wandering the world, Mina comes across Sidearms. These are expendable pick-ups that fill a key role in your loadout. These feel slightly more inspired by the Castlevania franchise, especially with one of the Sidearms being a massive throwing axe. If you thought that the weapons were creative, the Sidearms are even zanier. The Recall Disc, is a pocket-sized portal that you can throw out, disappear into and then the portal explodes on any nearby foes. One of the funniest Sidearms, the Iron Steed, is essentially a Victorian-era bicycle that Mina can ride on and plow into enemies in her path. The Beckoning Collar is one that I found myself using often. This item lets you summon a demon that's under your control. The demon can help attack your enemies and can also explode with the press of a button, dealing huge damage to any surrounding enemies. There are tons of different Sidearms for you to try out and see what works for your playstyle.
Trinkets are yet another crucial component of Mina's loadout. There are dozens of Trinkets scattered throughout Tenebrous Isle. Many of them can be purchased, and some of them can be found whilst exploring or earned from completing side quests. Trinkets can augment Mina's capabilities in myriad ways. They can be used to boost her stats, or allow her to avoid damage when standing on spikes or other environmental hazards, or they can grant Mina great passive boons in battle. One Trinket that I used through most of the game would summon a little critter near me as soon as I took any damage, and this creature would boost my stats for the next several seconds. There was another Trinket that I obtained from a side quest, where I found and battled this putrid, filth-covered guy and the Trinket appears to be a disgusting pile of his "filth." This Trinket grants me a handful of giant flies that help me in battle. With how much difficulty I was having in the combat, I took any opportunity I could to boost my effectiveness in battle.
Speaking of the difficulty, Mina the Hollower features a shocking number of gameplay modifiers that can alter the game's mechanics in both major and minor ways. If you want the game to challenge you even more, Yacht Club Games has you sorted. You can adjust things like how many checkpoints you encounter, how much damage Mina takes or how long you're invincible after getting hit. If you struggled with the game's combat like I did, you can soften how much damage she takes or give yourself longer windows of time that she can burrow around. You can even tweak the game's speed to be slower or faster. There are also some wacky modifiers that can change the game's color palette or make Mina jump crazy high. Obviously if you want to play the game the way that Yacht Club intended, you can play it with zero modifiers and experience the game in its natural state. I think this is a really cool way to personalize a game's difficulty. You can potentially hone in on aspects of the game that you find to be aggravating and adjust them, instead of just applying a blanket "Easy Mode" setting.
I mentioned Mina the Hollower's overall presentation at the top of the review, but I want to "dig" just a little deeper into that aspect of the game and really give the game the praise that it's due. The pixel art aesthetic is beautiful. Similar to their prior game, Shovel Knight, Yacht Club Games went for a sort of 8-bit graphical style here; again with Mina the Hollower leaning more specifically into a Game Boy Color-inspired visual palette. When a character speaks, they have this adorable little portrait down in the corner, by the dialogue box. These portraits have so much personality. I even downloaded Thorne's awesome portrait and use it as my profile picture on Steam. There are also these amazing looking sort of "micro cutscenes" when Mina reaches a new region, where you're treated to a gorgeous vignette showcasing the area. These kinds of thoughtful little touches elevated Mina the Hollower even higher for me.
The worldbuilding on display here is really interesting, and feels unlike anything else I've seen before. You'll encounter humans, all sorts of anthropomorphic animals, dwarves, ghosts, ghouls and monsters all populating the island in incredibly diverse environments and regions. There's more than a little Bloodborne influence on the dark, Gothic setting of Tenebrous Isle. Many of the regions that you trek through are quite spooky. A special shout-out to Septemburg, specifically. I absolutely love that area's autumnal theme, and the borderline horror movie plotline that unfolds during Mina's time there. There's also a mindbogglingly cool "mirror world" in the late game that totally blew my mind. This region, the Astral Orrery, looks like you're exploring some abstract, cosmic, pocket dimension that's lost somewhere out in the black void of space. There's an undeniable confidence in the fantastical, imaginative nature of Mina the Hollower's universe. I found myself totally along for the ride from the very beginning. I actually distinctly remember thinking to myself how much I wanted to experience this same exact world in a turn-based RPG with party members comprised of some these bizarre races or creatures. Keep that idea in your back pocket, Yacht Club. It could be an awesome idea for a future Mina the Hollower game.
Mina the Hollower is a triumph. Yacht Club Games have proven themselves yet again as masters of their craft. Astonishingly beautiful art, a gripping Gothic story and challenging, yet rewarding gameplay converge together in a phenomenal package. Mina the Hollower is a must-play, and with the game's breadth of difficulty customization, I truly believe everyone could and should check this game out.
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