As featured in the August Issue of Mage Magazine, Jordan reviews Mina the Hollower, the latest title from Yacht Club Games. 

Shovel Knight became an instant favourite of mine when it released in 2014. That it became expanded with three additional campaigns made for an incredible drip feed of NES-inspired content. When it all wrapped up the King Knight DLC, thoughts turned to what would be next for Yacht Club Games, and it was both a delight but also no surprise at all that their next game would have a similar retro flavour. Enter Mina the Hollower, a top-down adventure Metroidvania in the vein of Game Boy mainstay Link’s Awakening. Getting a taste of the game at PAX West a few years ago, I knew Yacht Club had something special on their hands once again. I’m thrilled to say that the long awaited release has finally come, and Mina’s journey is all that I could have asked for.

I have to admit that I ended up rushing through the game, mostly because I played for long sessions and focused on a more critical path. This isn’t to say I wasn’t enjoying myself or that I didn’t want to be thorough; on the contrary, I had a blast the whole time and explored off the beaten path regularly. Seeing folks share their thoughts and screenshots on social media has made me realize how much I missed the first time through, but this mostly makes me excited to eventually replay Mina sometime down the line. My main takeaway from my sub 40% on items collected is that the world of Tenebrous Isle is remarkably dense and thoughtfully curated.

Mina the Hollower has incredible gameplay feel, from the stabbing double daggers and Castlevania-esque whip, to Mina’s signature burrowing ability that allows her to speed up, dig beneath danger, and clear hurdles when she springs from the ground. Moving around, especially while burrowed, works so well, but it’s a mechanic that keeps encountering new hurdles and situations, keeping mastery at arm’s length. Burrowing under glass, ice, and water makes for a slightly different challenge, which forces you to keep learning and upgrading your understanding of how to control Mina. It doesn’t hurt that the boss encounters are multifaceted and a total joy to experience, even when some of them are sure to take a few tries or more.

Every section of the map is populated with the game’s colourful cast, leading each of the main areas and attached dungeon to have its own distinct flavour. The combination of gameplay and narrative aspects working in tandem to lend each separate physical space of Tenebrous Isle is what ultimately showcases the benefit of Mina’s extra development time. I love how every dungeon is preceded by a town or other exterior space that adds both character and characters, and the subgoal of finding/unlocking the train station fast travel point (not to mention the system itself, serves as another worthwhile divergence from the critical path.

I would be remiss not to shout out the absolutely stellar sound effects and music, which changes with each area of the game and fits them so perfectly. In the week that I spent with Mina the Hollower and the days following, I found myself humming these earworms to myself without even realizing where they had come from; when I figured out this puzzle, the soundtrack on YouTube promptly entered my driving playlist rotation. The way in which the various tunes and sounds both evoke the 8-bit era and reach amazingly modern chiptune highs is a testament to the impact of Mina’s audio experience on how deeply enjoyable the whole game is.

One of the moments that stands out from me is the comedown after all the epic bosses you take on, where Mina has to scale a giant generator to repair it. Enter a mini game in which Mina scampers vertically up the screen as a wave of electricity chases you up, not to mention a healthy smattering of enemies intent on halting your ascension. At the top, Mina stops to catch her breath at accomplishing a major mission objective and writes or reads a letter before falling asleep from exhaustion. These events make the character of Mina feel more real and the world more lived in. Mina requires sleep, she reads and writes like we do, and she can take a moment to gauge the heaviness and consequences of her actions. And then just like that, you slip into a pipe or other apparatus and make for the next generator tower and a new biome and new set of challenges.

Mina largely eschews a traditional map like you would see in Link’s Awakening or Super Metroid in favour of world design and a light hint system that takes the form of collectable newspapers. After finishing a tower, returning to the hub town of Ossex offers both a chance to shop and upgrade Mina’s stats and kit, but also an opportunity to consult the latest newspaper for tips on where to head next. Even without the hint help, the world is largely open to you, and it’s really how much punishment you can tolerate that guides your decision-making. Like some RPGs tend to do, the harder enemies act like sign posts telling you whether to stay or go, but having played the recent demo and earlier builds at two different PAX West events, I found myself not struggling much to make meaningful progress each time I sat down with the game. Normally, I would religiously check a game’s map to see what I was missing; never referring to a map in Mina the Hollower meant a much more brisk and deftly paced experience for me.

Unbelievably high hopes were had for games like Silksong and Mina the Hollower, and fortunately for us, both of them lived up to–and even exceeded–these lofty expectations. As the former was firmly in my game of the year bracket last year, so too will the latter be in this year’s conversation for me. While I expected to spend more time on Tenebrous Isle, I walked away beyond satisfied with my time, and with a profound sense of the love and care that went into the game’s design. I can’t wait to revisit Mina’s story to blaze a new path through it, and to try weapons and trinkets unexplored on my maiden voyage. Just like I could revisit the world of Shovel Knight through its added campaigns, so too can I look forward to pushing over the stones I left unturned when I next boot up Mina the Hollower. The once hollow part of my heart that long awaited this release is now full, and I couldn’t be happier.

Review Score