Finally finished everything in the game! Unless something incredible comes out of nowhere, this is my game of the year.
Short Review
Mina the Hollower is a retro top-down adventure game, it's a mix between Zelda, Castlevania, and Bloodborne - with references to all three in particular.
The game is just fantastic all around. The combat is tight, the music and art are incredible, and the horror atmosphere of the whole world is just amazing. The game has hands-down some of the best level and world design you'll see in games, it's so full of secrets and shortcuts and manages to feel huge and fun to explore without being too confusing. The game also boldly does not have a map, but it does guide you in the general directions you need to go.
You will get lost, especially at the start, but you'll slowly have a grasp of how the whole world connects as you play. The biggest issue people have is the game's difficulty, but I can say that the game gets easier as you keep playing and explore. After the first area or two, you'll start stacking trinkets that make life a whole lot easier, even in late-game areas. There are some really good trinkets near the start of the game that are easily missable, so be sure to look around - don't try brute forcing the game!
I also want to add that the game has toooons of modifiers that you can enable on your save file. Some make the game easier, some make the game harder, some are weird and let you break the game (like a super high jump modifier) as well as a lot of visual stuff. The good stuff though is unlocked after beating the game, there are crazy modifiers like a built-in randomizer, or a modifier that removes RPG mechanics and equalizes difficulty, or one that mirrors the world... The game is built from the ground up to be replayed in many different ways and has built-in challenge runs. If you're into these things, you can keep coming back to the game and play it for a loooooooong time. I'm already getting ready for New Game+ before doing any of the crazier ones.
That's pretty much it. It's such a great game. Go play it!
I'm in the endgame area (manor) with like 90% completion. Can't be assed to do some of challenges (like fishing).
I like the game a lot, and love the pixel art, but the game lacks some tightness in some areas. The platforming, esp. big jumps and flying enemies, is frustrating a lot of the time. Lots of me not knowing where exactly I am or hoe I'm going to move.
There's also a bit of a muscle memory problem for me, with how I kept thinking things would be grid-based, due to the world, but I'd often think I was line up with foes, only for my weapons to squeak right past them.
My last complaint is purely a me problem, but I hate charge weapons, which the game seems to use a lot of innthe various upgrades. I ended uo using basically only daggers, as all the other weapons just feel so shitty to me.
Biggest complaint, only thing that's more than a quibble, is I really didn't like the inclusion of both vague region order and the souls-dropping mechanic. Dropping your money on death punishes poking into places to look around, drawing you forward into challenges repeatedly. First area I beat, I was like, 'fuck, that was hard. Does it escalate from here?!?' Spoilered myself, only to learn I had just done the 3rd area, and the doing 1 then 2, they were easy enough with all my upgrades to kind of kill the fun. Really soured the whole first half of the game for me, and it feels solvable bt either having some clearer guidance on intended region order, or dumping the (imo unnecessary) 'souls' mechanic.
Still, all of those above frustrations didn't ruin it for me, and I'd still give it a 8.5 out of 10 maybe.
That last paragraph is basically how Dark Souls 1 went for me. Everyone laughs “git gud” anytime a complaint is related to difficulty, but I am adamant that drop-on-death does NOT fit exploration-based games well. It was fine in Shovel Knight because you’re making linear progress, and it’s just a dare to do better than before.
Tunic basically took it out late in development - having you drop a measly 20 gold - and Another Crab’s Treasure added multiple accessibility options to either grab your current loss or disable the system, and both games are easily my favorite Soulslikes.
Yeah, my favorite soulslike by far is Sekiro, which is mostly linear. Hollow Knight and Silksong are also fantastic, but I felt there, too, the 'souls' mechanic is kind of just unnecessary.
That's rough, but the game does generally guide you to the right order. NPCs in the town lead you to the crypt, and the newspaper always points you to the next area. When you beat the crypt, it tells you to go to Nox's Bayou, then Septemburg, etc.
The order is also listed in the in-game manual, but the game never really tells you it's there...
I picked up on the townsfolk talking about the crypt, but its a very weak hint for 'you should go here first', when there's townfolk complaining about all sort of issues. I had loosely had the crypt in mind, as I was exploring, but I never found it before getting pulled forward by the Spark dropping into Septembersburg, and I just figured 'if the game didn't want me here, then it shouldn't be possible to be here'. Which, I think is a natural assumption, considering how Zelda coded the game is visually and mechanically.
Its just, the game isn't structurally a zelda game, so that was a bad assumption on my part. I just wish there was a bit more communication, that the game is structurally Elden Ring, not Oracle of Ages.
One of the first things I stumbled into in Septembersburg is the Wallower section, which lent itself well to the (incorrect) assumption that Trinkets are going to be a way the game mechanically gates sections (a la classic Zelda)
Edit to add: I still think Mina is a great game. But I think it fails in setting tone and expectations properly, for how it wants you to approach it. My favorite game of all time is La-Mulana, which is unflinchingly retro and cryptic. But I feel like it does a better job of communicating that. I've seen people say "don't be fooled by its appearance, Mina isn't Zelda, its Bloodborne", which I think is very true, and that I would have enjoyed the game more had I went in with that perspective, instead of stumbling upon it.