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I finished Mina the Hollower 100%! (Plus short review) (thelemmy.club)
submitted 5 hours ago by popcar2@piefed.ca to c/games@lemmy.world
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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!

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[-] grinning_serpent@lemmy.world 5 points 2 hours ago

The whip feels really weak to me. Being limited to attacking in 4 directions while enemies can approach from 8 is really limiting and the upgrade to deal more damage on a tip-hit was depressingly minor. I think I should have just put the 2000 bones towards another base attack upgrade.

Skill issue, I'm sure, but the hammer seems to be by far the strongest and overall best weapon.

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Other than Castlevania itself where it's the only main weapon, when are video game whips actually good? 🤷‍♂️

[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 2 points 13 minutes ago

Dead cells

[-] popcar2@piefed.ca 2 points 1 hour ago

The whip was my most used weapon in the game lol. The tip damage looks minor but it stacks up and manages to kill enemies with less hits, like an enemy that takes 3 hits would often take 2.

The whip works very much like the older Castlevania games, aside from positioning you can also jump, start attacking, then adjust your position in the air. You'll still be attacking in the direction you started in.

[-] Ankkuli@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 hours ago

It’s a hard game so it’s a skip from me.

[-] terranoid@lemmy.cafe 9 points 5 hours ago

The no map bit was intimidating at first, but then it started to feel like the maps were just designed so well you had to progress

[-] Jax@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I think Mina was fun, right up until it isn't. It seems clear to me that they needed 6 more months to polish, considering the sections that actually made it into the Orrery and the final dungeon.

Fun game, until it isn't — and the final boss is a distinct meh.

[-] popcar2@piefed.ca 2 points 3 hours ago

Which sections specifically? I didn't have any issues with the orrery or the final dungeon. I'm guessing the autoscroller before the final boss?

[-] Jax@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

The black hole sections just aren't fun, I think the Orrery was fine outside of the sections that force you to work around using black holes. Like the experience was night and day, every other section was a cakewalk until black holes. The cultists were fun, but then the final boss of the area you sort of just hit it til it dies.

The manor I'm having major difficulties simply remembering, the garden shortcut (the one that requires you to carry a statue head and jump on moving platforms while hitting switches) was so distinctly not fun that it almost made me quit the game. The shadow section with the lightning rods felt very cheap. The first half of the final boss being simon says and the second half having the tower minigame setting... idk it just did not hit for me.

I did genuinely enjoy the game up until the Orrery, though.

Edit: oh, and Wallower's simply negating half of the games challenging platform sections leads me to think that they simply weren't designed with the player's real movement in mind.

[-] popcar2@piefed.ca 3 points 2 hours ago

Honestly kinda surprised that you disliked it, Orrery is one of my favorite areas and the black holes didn't give me much trouble. The trinket you get from the race ghost made the platforming sections way easier for me.

As for the manor, it's not my favorite area but I still enjoyed it. It gets hard, no doubt. Those moustraps hurt a lot, but I never found it annoying. In fact, I kinda liked the Hyrule castle-esque massive dungeon they had going on, it was a big culmination of all these different mechanics you went through.

I kinda get what you mean by the final boss though. He was alright but there are tons of better bosses. I'm still kinda surprised there would be people that didn't like the Orrery though, it's one of the most creative levels ever.

[-] Jax@sh.itjust.works 2 points 50 minutes ago* (last edited 45 minutes ago)

Those moustraps hurt a lot, but I never found it annoying.

This is what I mean with Wallower's, they simply weren't annoying for me because I practically skipped the sections where they were relevant. Much of the game past finding Wallower's is like this. This factor is actually the biggest detractor for the game imo, it was like they added the item with absolutely 0 mitigation for how it would interact with what they'd already made.

Also I did not complete the racing ghosts challenge, but looking at the trinket; it is yet another trinket that should just be an upgrade you can't miss (the movement is not good enough to warrant the race in the first place, let alone one of the best movement upgrades being tied behind it). Wallower's should be an upgrade, Iron Lung should be an upgrade, like half the trinkets should either be upgrades or should be baked into other trinkets.

I think the game is a solid 7/7.5 out of 10 — certainly a platform for the devs to push off of. MtH2 might be god tier, they certainly have the potential.

Edit: I should say, I did like the Orrery until the black hole sections. I think it's a great location up until that point.

[-] popcar2@piefed.ca 3 points 35 minutes ago* (last edited 35 minutes ago)

Hard disagree, honestly. A lot of trinkets are very powerful and let you break the game which make great rewards for exploration and finishing side content. There are a lot of very powerful trinkets that by the end game you can have a vastly different builds, I don't think they should be base abilities. Stacking trinkets is part of the fun.

[-] Jax@sh.itjust.works 1 points 19 minutes ago* (last edited 18 minutes ago)

Wallower's quite literally breaks over half the game's platforming sections. You simply do not need to interact with most of the ice platforming sections. Either it, and these other trinkets, shouldn't be in the game or the devs didn't know what they were doing.

[-] mintiefresh@piefed.ca 5 points 4 hours ago

Awesome review. Thanks for that.

I shall now add this to my wishlist :)

[-] Kojichan@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

WaAaaaaaannntt!

Thanks for the hype. :)

[-] yakko@feddit.uk 4 points 5 hours ago

Can't believe how good this game looks. Can't wait to finish building my new PC so I can get into this.

this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2026
110 points (97.4% liked)

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