12. mina the hollower
it took me a long time to finish mina the hollower. i was really into hyrule warriors. but i liked a lot of things about it.
mina's weak bit is its storytelling. i do not very well understand the character of mina nor do i understand the sequence of events that led the story - a series of failures leading towards a "well i guess this is better than the alternative" sort of ending. it feels like any of these things could've been avoided if the central character was just a little little little bit more morally inquisitive, which is an issue for a character who is defined, in what little definition she has, by ethics and intelligence.
mina's strong bit is everything else.
the combat. it's good! she feels good to be, and the largely static (in my experience!) enemy difficulty creates a smooth downward slope of difficulty where you'll actually find the game getting easier as you progress, as you level up mina and your own mechanical fluency. it's fun to dig around, and in combat the need to jump before a dig creates a very deep experience out of some very simple mechanics. more and more action games these days are reactive; wait for an enemy to swing, then get out of the way. mina, by contrast, is predictive: anticipate the swing, and take evasion action preemptively. if you wait for confirmation of the swing to get out of there, you'll get clipped during the pre-dig jump. it sounds tricky, but it comes naturally once you've gotten your teeth kicked in a few times, probably during the first dungeon. once you get a groove going, the only thing that'll test your mettle will be the platforming.
i don't think i've played a top-down platformer this mechanically engaging, frankly, ever. it's a miracle that mina gets this so right considering what a rare combination "top-down platformer" it is, and make no mistake, mina is not pulling any of its punches as a platformer to account for its camera. the game's simpler platforming challenges are all ready properly difficult and fun, but as you progress deeper into it, you'll find several sequels' worth of interesting twists on the core mechanics and stroke-of-genius gimmicks. mina isn't content to simply be an impossible success story - and seriously, think, what other top-down platformers can you recall that are any good? - but goes the extra mile in rethinking its mobility from every angle. i can't think of a single twist on the platforming that isn't already in the game, but i guess that's why yacht club games are the pros and i'm just morgan.
mina the hollower is gigantic. early frustrations getting lost were worth it for a world that i can picture, even months later, so clearly in my head. i know where each major location is, and the interconnectedness of those areas...sorry to so wantonly invoke her name, but it's that dark souls 1 shit. what pulls it all together is the fast travel system, which is actually 3 separate fast travel systems overlapping, which are actually 1 fast travel system. the tubes and the mirror and the train can be used in conjunction to get basically anywhere, and the game takes just long enough to introduce each to you so as to not be overwhelming. identifying where you need to go and using all 3 of the game's fast travels to get there creates a feeling i've not felt in any other game, but it's a bit like being on the subway and realizing you don't need your phone to know what transfers you need to take.
mina's ruthlessly retro exterior hides a game that is actually full of friction-eliminating quality of life features...eventually. one of mina's best tricks is making you pay for or otherwise unlock the things we take for granted in other games today. every time you die, your lose your sidearm and have to go track down another one in the world somewhere. unless you buy the upgrade to your base that lets you store one. speaking of the sidearms, the blue goop you need to use them also drops on death, but you can buy the goop-shower that refills back at your base so you can easily top up every time you head out. the fact that these upgrades still require the slightest bit of mechanical interaction from the player makes them feel like actual tangible rewards, as opposed to just grinding for a bit to buy easy mode. get lost a lot? buy the map, and later the checklist of secrets you still have to find on the journey towards 100%. the fact that all of these basic-seeming features are locked away from you in exchange for capital synthesizes well with the game's narrative themes as well.
my favorite thing about mina the hollower is that it's actually a bit of a an imm sim. mina overworld is populated with scant few "puzzles," focusing instead on "problems." a puzzle has a solution. a problem is just a problem. there is no "correct" as to how to cross a given pit in mina, nor a "correct" way to circumnavigate a barrier. the game just offers a wide range of movement tools and gameplay-changing badges and trusts players to figure it out. the interactivity and capacity for emergent behavior present in this game punches so far above its weight that i do believe it elevates what indie games can be capable of as a whole.
so yeah, i really enjoyed it. glad it sold well and yacht club will probably get to keep making more games.