Sometimes, you just got to dig deep down to realize what really matters.


The real treasure was all the holes we made along the way

My time with Mina the Hollower has been a fruitful one thus far, though I think this definitely falls under the umbrella of thought that says “got a good feeling” emblazoned across it, as the first time I saw an early impression of Mina, I was blown away by just about every aspect of the games design; not that it was necessarily doing anything new per se, but all of the familiar elements that were amalgamating together to give us something grand had me totally moonshot for my first crack at the title.



Based on my first couple of outings writing about Mina, I am likely to say the phrase “plays like Link’s Awakening” at least a couple of times before this piece’s end, as Mina has an astonishing number of similarities in how the game plays, much in the vein of reference to the Zelda game with the same name. That citation is not some kind of developer assassination nor immodesty of slight: Mina feeling that way doesn’t come off as garish in anyway, and due to developer Yacht Club Games past outing with Shovel Knight, you can tell their “imitation is the greatest form of flattery approach” comes from an earnest place of respect, as the recreation of beloved properties, and the metaphysics that made them, is only made possible with a ridiculous amount of time invested into playing those games, followed by a meticulous amount of follow through of blood, sweat, and tears to get everything exactly so after the fact, with their the passion projects feeling like they’ve been encoded with love from top to bottom.



Though, rest assured, Yacht Club Games didn’t just rerelease their version of Link’s Awakening and call it a day, they hybridized Mina with Souls DNA as well, so that the combat is as daunting as you’d find in a similar title, with over the top bosses, and grit your teeth combat where one mistake can cost you dearly. All of this ridiculous intensity, but packed into an absurdly cute 8-bit aesthetic, complimentary with catchy chiptune music, simplistic controls, and old school vibes galore.



Interestingly enough, while there is plenty to discuss concerning worthwhile bits of retro goodness involving Mina, I was just thinking to myself how more companies would benefit not from remaking old titles, but demaking them, for a load of what I think are obvious reasons a plenty. Tons of untapped novelty, that’s for sure, and I feel as if the demakes themselves would be less resource intensive, as the game coming out of it is one of a far less demanding nature then the original it is based off of. When you combine this with the notion of using modern day quality of life measures, but remixing them back into a game from a generation already gone past, and even adding newer tendencies from modern day gaming into an old school design lexicon, the possibilities seem endless in terms of experimentation.



Even though the word “Hollower” is right there in the games name, you’d likely not be far off from making a common mistake, in underestimating the relevant worth of the vocation, as being a Hollower, and all hollowing related activities, play a shockingly large role in most of the games dimensions. From backround story and relevant lore, to gameplay mechanics, to navigation and engaging in combat, hollowing truly is the main hook of the game. A great example of something I’ve talked about before, with the notion of Theory vs Execution, where a developer might have a greater gameplay idea in mind, making the theory sound, but then the implementation, the execution as it were, falls flat on its face. Not the case with Mina, as both the hypothetical of hollowing matches the reality, and goes to show you how something so small can have such a great impact on a game overall.

One of the biggest problems the hollowing solves is varying up combat encounters, as the old school Zelda like approach, while awesome in many ways, never found a successful methodology in implementing greater depths to its combat system. This made for some fairly rudimentary back and forth, where the player usually either just needed a certain piece of equipment to gain an advantage, or to awkwardly jam themselves in a blind spot, in an effort to shank any poor bastard enemy before they could respond. With hollowing, and in conjunction to Mina’s Souls like combat approach, one is able to better navigate the intensity of any battlefield, by burrowing underground in a mere instant, and then dodge their way across the screen, evading attacks with relative ease, and all the while repositioning yourself for a better mode of attack. Not only does it work effortlessly in creating a better sense of mobility within any combat arena, but it really opens up the options for dynamic dueling, as you have so many different angles and strats with which to unpack where hollowing is concerned.

While Mina is able to jump as a regular ability, she can also use her hollowing ability to get some extra air, as one tends to move faster when they hollow, which means upon ejecting yourself from the soil, you do so with enough force to send you flying, enabling one to travel greater distances with a well timed emergence from the ground. The hollowing kind of acts as a run button, too, as you do travel faster when underground, so if you’re anything like me, you’ll kind of get into a rhythm where more often than not, it feels like you’re spending more time submerged in dirt then open air, which doesn’t feel disorienting, as the screen stays focused on the same area as it was before, you’re just underneath and in the thick of it all.

Mina ends up feeling incomplete without the daring use of her hollowing abilities, and for good reasons; with just a simple push of a button, the game is immediately elevated, while simultaneously forcing you underground at the same time, in order to create gameplay that is layered in ways most games only ever teasingly muse as much is possible. Even now, with as much as I’ve gone on about hollowing, I feel as if I’ve only scratched the surface, with even more functionality quietly awaiting me, as Mina’s adventure continues to develop.

Until next time.

–Pashford