Why I'm Excited for Mina the Hollower

Generally speaking, it doesn’t take much to have me enjoying or liking a given game. I try to see the good in what I play and, for the sake of my own personal enjoyment, I have probably the lowest standards for quality among the people I know. At the same time, for me to truly love an experience, it has to go above and beyond to hit me in exactly the right way. Most of the time, I realise this has happened a few hours into my playtime, whether that means reflecting on all the incredible fun I’ve had or passing through a moment that’s filled me with emotion. For Mina the Hollower, it happened a few minutes into a half-hour slice of the title that I got to experience last year.

Mina the Hollower is an upcoming retro-styled top-down 2D action-adventure title from Yacht Club Games. You may recognise that developer from the extremely popular Shovel Knight and its spin-offs — I sure did! I’d truly wanted to get into Shovel Knight when I was younger, but I always struggled with making progress and had never quite managed to finish it. That was why Mina the Hollower was even on my radar, to begin with, and I was assuming it would be just like Shovel Knight to me: very interesting and incredibly stylish, but too difficult for me to properly enjoy without having to put in hours upon hours of practice and stressing out over my every move.

However, Mina the Hollower soon proved me wrong. I went in trying to play the way that felt most natural to me — taking each area slow and exploring as much as I could — and it felt like the game was rewarding me at every turn. You play as the titular Mina, one of several explorers known as Hollowers, and explore a variety of gothic-themed areas, defeating a plethora of spooky enemies and discovering the truth behind Tenebrous Isle’s recent loss of its power source, Spark. As a Hollower, Mina can burrow underground briefly before popping back out, which she can use to bring hidden treasure back up with her, evade nasty foes like blobs of goo or skeletons, cut around aboveground barriers like fences, or even build up speed before going for a long jump. Sometimes, this ability took a little bit of proper timing to use properly, but I found it quite easy to get the hang of and rather intuitive to boot. In moments, I was engaging with the environment in order to squeeze out every bit of hidden treasure I could find and puzzling out the perfect positions to take care of my foes with minimal risk. Even with the brief time I had with the build, I never felt like I was taking the game too slow, even if I likely could have sped through these sections with more practice.

Another large part of why the experience felt so rewarding was that there were so many hidden upgrades I could find. Even in this one portion of the game, there were a plethora of unique methods to locate these secrets, from interacting with a couple of different objects throughout the level to risking a long jump to arrive at an area with its own separate puzzle to solve. Then, thankfully, the actual rewards, usually special equipable upgrades called Trinkets, were just as varied. There were a handful of Trinkets that only boosted one of Mina’s stats, but the majority offered new ways to play. My favourite of these was an item that allowed Mina to take three steps over bottomless pits before falling, effectively extending her range of movement and becoming capable of taking major shortcuts around tough enemies. Sadly, only a handful of these upgrades could be equipped at any given time, and they could only be exchanged for different abilities in a safe little base Mina could visit throughout the level, but those limitations left me taking a more active role in using those abilities. After all, I chose them over other useful traits, so I had better utilise them to the best of my ability.

Speaking of having to make these sorts of tough choices, I’d started out with three different weapons for Mina to use but was told there would be many more options in the final game. I was tempted towards using the whip as it seemed to be the default weapon in the promotional material, and I’d assumed Mina the Hollower would be designed around using it first and foremost. However, I wound up using a pair of knives, both because I prefer speedier attacks — two knives meant twice the stabbing — and because I would then be allowed to throw one of the knives at my opponents. I am happy to say I didn’t regret my decision for a moment. Sure, my melee attacks didn’t have nearly the same level of range as my other options would’ve lent me, but throwing that knife added in a whole new element to the game. Much like the Castlevania series, there were a number of secondary weapons I could swap between throughout the level, many of which also offered ranged attacks, only with a finite number of uses. The knife, on the other hand, could be used infinitely… assuming one remembered to pick it up after tossing it. Suddenly, I was plotting out courses in my head so that I could finish off one enemy with my thrown knife and be able to rush over and grab the blade before dealing with another. Not having one of my knives was always a tough situation since my attack speed with the other knife was effectively halved, so I was constantly thinking about the risks that were in play whenever I thought to toss one of them at a stray pile of goo.

All in all, that brief portion of Mina the Hollower was a perfect experience for me to play. The pixel art was gorgeous, offering a sea of moody visuals that Mina’s very cool-looking red suit always popped out in. The music, much like in Shovel Knight, did double duty of setting that same mood while also pumping me up to push through any sections that were giving me trouble. Even all this time later, I can’t get it out of my head, not that I even wish to. In fact, I’ve gotten so excited over the game that I keep finding myself checking its Steam page to see if its release date has been set any closer than “Coming soon”.

So, why am I so excited for Mina the Hollower? It’s a gorgeous project with striking visuals. I can look forward to having multitudes of options to assist me in defeating enemies and solving puzzles. I know it will reward me for being thorough. The player character is a mouse woman with a really nice-looking red suit and coat. I already have a favourite weapon and have the option of trying even more in the future. It practically oozes quality, and Yacht Club Games has a darn good track record, so that is unlikely to slow down. I tend to try to temper my excitement down to cautious optimism for titles before they release so that I don’t put anything on a pedestal that it can’t possibly reach. Yet even with that in mind, I simply can’t help but gush about the little bit of Mina the Hollower that I have been able to enjoy and the sheer wonder that I hope to experience once it is finally ready to hit the shelves. I’m going to do my best to play it with reasonable expectations of quality, but until then, I am excited for Mina the Hollower because it feels like a perfect game for me.