[[{“value”:”
Mina the Hollower reviews are out, and they are glowing. Yacht Club’s long-awaited successor to Shovel Knight has already garnered loads of praise for how it fuses old and new design sensibilities. But if you’re anything like me, you may lament that its combat is very difficult and inspired by the souls-like genre. If you aren’t especially keen on souls-like games, that may feel intimidating, even if you’re otherwise attracted to its Game Boy Zelda aesthetic and general vibe.
Having reviewed the game, I am here to tell you: It is fine; you can do this.
I’m speaking from experience here. I love the Game Boy era of Zelda games. Link’s Awakening may be one of my most-played games of all time. But I’ve never really gotten into souls-likes, and their notorious difficulty has always pushed me away. I’ve dabbled in some, and put a few dozen hours into Elden Ring since its more open structure felt more inviting. But I eventually hit a wall with it too, and so to this day I haven’t actually finished a souls-like game. Despite all this, I loved Mina the Hollower, and I think there’s a good chance that you will too.
For one, Mina the Hollower is inspired by souls-like challenge, and it carries forward some elements like limited healing, runbacks between your safe zones, and the penalty of losing your currency if you can’t earn it back by defeating the threat that felled you. But this is all presented in a wrapper that is familiar for fans of classic Zelda games. Mina is much more dextrous than Link ever was. Learning when and how to burrow and release into a jump is an important skill for both platforming and combat challenges. But that’s a new twist on familiar trappings. For those who have played Link’s Awakening or the Oracle games, the fundamental mechanics here will feel very familiar and inviting.
This is also an open world, so if you’re struggling in one direction, you can always go in another. The world will drop clues about the intended path, but there’s no reason you can’t spend time unlocking secrets, finding new Trinkets, or grinding for bones to buy equipment and upgrade Mina. I spent an hour or so over-leveling Mina before venturing out to find the first dungeon, and it felt perfectly doable to me.
Finally, if you’re ever truly stuck, Mina the Hollower has gobs of Modifiers that you can turn on to edit the game to your liking. Many of them can tweak the difficulty, and crucially, they’re very specialized to particular pain points you might be experiencing. Does combat seem a little too fast-paced for your reaction time? You can turn down the game speed. Are you getting hit when trying to break a healing vial? You can make that function quicker. These fine-toothed adjustments are on top of others that you might expect, like turning enemy damage down or Mina’s damage up. Enabling some of these Modifiers will turn off progress for the game’s Feats system, but other than that there are no restrictions to making the game as easy as you wish.
With all that, you should go in confident that you can complete the game. And you should, especially if you’re a Zelda fan. Mina the Hollower has some of the best classic Zelda-like puzzle design, so it’s worth seeing the adventure all the way through to the end. Try it out, see how the difficulty feels, and then grind or turn on Modifiers as needed to make it into a satisfying challenge level for you. You’ll be rewarded with an excellent adventure and one of the year’s best games.
“}]]
[[{“value”:”Mina the Hollower reviews are out, and they are glowing. Yacht Club’s long-awaited successor to Shovel Knight has already garnered loads of praise for how it fuses old and new design sensibilities. But if you’re anything like me, you may lament that its combat is very difficult and inspired by the souls-like genre. If you aren’t especially keen on souls-like games, that may feel intimidating, even if you’re otherwise attracted to its Game Boy Zelda aesthetic and general vibe.
Having reviewed the game, I am here to tell you: It is fine; you can do this.
I’m speaking from experience here. I love the Game Boy era of Zelda games. Link’s Awakening may be one of my most-played games of all time. But I’ve never really gotten into souls-likes, and their notorious difficulty has always pushed me away. I’ve dabbled in some, and put a few dozen hours into Elden Ring since its more open structure felt more inviting. But I eventually hit a wall with it too, and so to this day I haven’t actually finished a souls-like game. Despite all this, I loved Mina the Hollower, and I think there’s a good chance that you will too.
For one, Mina the Hollower is inspired by souls-like challenge, and it carries forward some elements like limited healing, runbacks between your safe zones, and the penalty of losing your currency if you can’t earn it back by defeating the threat that felled you. But this is all presented in a wrapper that is familiar for fans of classic Zelda games. Mina is much more dextrous than Link ever was. Learning when and how to burrow and release into a jump is an important skill for both platforming and combat challenges. But that’s a new twist on familiar trappings. For those who have played Link’s Awakening or the Oracle games, the fundamental mechanics here will feel very familiar and inviting.
This is also an open world, so if you’re struggling in one direction, you can always go in another. The world will drop clues about the intended path, but there’s no reason you can’t spend time unlocking secrets, finding new Trinkets, or grinding for bones to buy equipment and upgrade Mina. I spent an hour or so over-leveling Mina before venturing out to find the first dungeon, and it felt perfectly doable to me.
Finally, if you’re ever truly stuck, Mina the Hollower has gobs of Modifiers that you can turn on to edit the game to your liking. Many of them can tweak the difficulty, and crucially, they’re very specialized to particular pain points you might be experiencing. Does combat seem a little too fast-paced for your reaction time? You can turn down the game speed. Are you getting hit when trying to break a healing vial? You can make that function quicker. These fine-toothed adjustments are on top of others that you might expect, like turning enemy damage down or Mina’s damage up. Enabling some of these Modifiers will turn off progress for the game’s Feats system, but other than that there are no restrictions to making the game as easy as you wish.
With all that, you should go in confident that you can complete the game. And you should, especially if you’re a Zelda fan. Mina the Hollower has some of the best classic Zelda-like puzzle design, so it’s worth seeing the adventure all the way through to the end. Try it out, see how the difficulty feels, and then grind or turn on Modifiers as needed to make it into a satisfying challenge level for you. You’ll be rewarded with an excellent adventure and one of the year’s best games.”}]] Read More GameSpot – All Content
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