![]() ![]() I found the mace to be a classic nod to Castlevania, an all-around weapon with solid damage and range, while the daggers had the neat ability to be thrown as projectiles, though I found it tricky to retrieve them in tight spots. Mina had access to a swinging chained mace called Nightstar, a destructive hammer named the Blaststrike Maul, and a swift pair of daggers Whisper and Vesper. One main feature on display in this demo were the three starter weapons, which was a stretch goal in the Kickstarter campaign. Dig them an early grave Collect enough bones and you can upgrade Mina's base stats. Admittedly, that was tough given the time constraints, but I made sure to play the demo more than once. Fighting enemies, some of which are faster than Mina, without getting damaged requires proper planning and not speeding through each screen too quickly. Our protagonist’s signature ability allows her to dig underneath the ground (without needing a shovel at all) and then pop up to burrow beneath obstacles, pick up boulders, or perform a boosted leap over gaps. The 15-minute demo I played at the Day of the Devs booth mainly expanded on what we already know about Mina the Hollower. In fact, reading through the comments for the game’s Kickstarter, the developers humorously responded to a fan question by saying it didn’t want to add the Pizza Cutter weapon because it didn’t want to rip-off Bloodborne 100%, but “maybe just 60%.” This goes to show that they’re fully aware of where the game is going, and really, having it be compared to Bloodborne is hardly a bad thing. More than flesh and BloodborneĪpparently, when you aim to create a spiritual successor to Shovel Knight by blending the gothic horror of Castlevania and the swift action of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, you get something close to a cool demake of Bloodborne. ![]() But from what it has shown so far, its progress is already impressive. Even today, despite showing off a short hands-on demo of the game at GDC 2023, the game still doesn’t have a firm release date. Since then, Yacht Club Games has been rather quiet as it focuses on making Mina the Hollower as polished as it can be. Only asking for $300,000 for its initial goal, it finished with more than four times that amount with $1.23 million, smashing the majority of its stretch goals. Other games have aspired to be 2D Soulslikes before, but Mina is playing to the strengths of a lot of different genre conventions, and comes across as totally original as a result.It’s been a little over a year since Yacht Club Games, the developer of the incredible Shovel Knight, announced Mina the Hollower and its accompanying Kickstarter campaign. I didn’t experience much of the story, but I’m told that Mina borrows a lot of Bloodborne’s Lovecraftian themes too. You first have to deal damage to earn back segments of your health bar, and only once you’ve built the meter back up can you consume a potion to heal yourself. Further, you can’t just heal Mina by drinking potions. Shovel Knight has a similar death mechanic, but the risk/reward of hoarding bones to spend on incremental stat increases feels decidedly soulslike. Mina has a single-resource economy, bones, for purchasing items and buying upgrade points whenever she levels up, and if you die you lose everything you’ve collected until you get revenge on the monster that killed you. The developer assisting my gameplay session mentioned Bloodborne early on, and the longer I played, the more apparent the similarities became. There’s RPG-like progression too, which brings us to Mina the Hollower’s other big influence: Bloodborne. If there’s one thing Yacht Club knows how to do it’s build an entire game around an exceptional mechanic. There’s a rhythm to borrowing, again just like using Shovel Knight’s sword to bounce, that’s simple to understand yet offers infinite complexity. Burrowing increases movement speed, and upon exiting Mina flings herself forward farther and faster than she can with a normal jump. It is effectively a dodge that gives Mina i-frames while she dives, but it also allows her to traverse under barriers and walls to find secrets and explore dungeons. Just like Shovel Knight’s shovel, the burrow ability is both a platforming and combat mechanic. I don’t know why Yacht Club has such a hard-on for digging, but I’m glad it does because it’s a fantastic mechanic. A Hollower is someone that has been trained in the art of burrowing, and one of Mina’s abilities is to dive under the ground and pop out behind her enemies a la Bugs Bunny. ![]() Link’s Awakening is a good starting point for understanding Mina the Hollower, but it’s not the sole inspiration, and in fact Mina seems to be just as much inspired by Shovel Knight himself. Related: Amanda The Adventurer Will Ruin Your Childhood ![]()
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