Mina the Hollower is a game about mistakes and discovery — at least that’s what it has been for me. I’ve made plenty of mistakes during my 10+ hours of playtime across three different save files. Anytime I feel stuck or ready to quit, that’s when the discovery begins. I discover a new area and the world starts to open up.

Mina the Hollower is a retro-style, action adventure game created by Yacht Club Games (creators of all things Shovel Knight). The gameplay is heavily inspired by the classic The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. The game boasts a gothic art style like a Castlevania game made for the Game Boy Color.

My first big mistake in Mina the Hollower was choosing the Blaststrike Maul (or big hammer) as my starting weapon. I spent over three hours dying against basic enemies since this weapon is all powerful, but way too slow. This made me create a second save file using the Whisper and Vesper (or twin daggers). The daggers were much quicker, but made for close combat. I kept dying.

The main problem I ran into in both of these early save files was that I am sometimes a very stupid gamer. I don’t see what’s right in front of me. I walked up to two guards who told me, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS” or something like that. Instead of trying to burrow past them — the obvious choice — I just went away. I tried to make my way through burning buildings, and died too many times fighting enemies I wasn’t yet ready for.

It wasn’t until I started my third save file with the Nightstar (or crushing mace affixed to a flexible chain). It’s very much an Indiana Jones-like whip. This is when I started to understand Mina the Hollower a lot better. When I came to the “YOU SHALL NOT PASS” guards this time around, I tried burrowing for some reason and it actually worked. The fires were put out, and the world was open to explore.

I’m now over ten hours into my Nightstar save file (entitled INDY) and I’ve done quite a bit, but there’s still so much more to do in this game. I constantly find myself aimlessly wandering around this world, mostly through previously explored zones. There’s no interactive map in Mina the Hollower (at least not yet for me), so I must explore by memory.

I’m positive I have spent less than 50% of my time making real progress. Most of my time is spent on silly deaths or re-exploration. Anytime I find a big moment, I die so many times on my way to that moment, losing all of my bones on the way to the bigger moment.

Finding a new area to explore is always exhilarating and rewarding. I get to collect fresh bones and sparks, instead of more joules to refill my sidearm. Anytime I keep finding joules, I know that I’ve “Been there, done that!”

More Stupidity

Last week, I found myself surrounded by deep waters. I was stuck (or I thought I was) because I hadn’t lowered a nearby rope before jumping down into this area. A large frog creature gave me a jug and told me to fill it by killing fifty enemy creatures.

I had one creature to fight nearby and an Underlab (or save point). Anytime you save in an Underlab, defeated enemy creatures are resurrected. I proceeded to kill this one enemy creature over-and-over again — fifty times!

Next, I went back to the large frog and had to fight him. I defeated him in one try (GO ME!), but the trinket he left me was not helpful for swimming in deep waters. After defeating him, I learned that I was capable of swimming the whole time. I could just burrow into the deep waters and launch onto nearby land masses.

I spent fifty kills on this one creature, when I could have been exploring this whole area. I did complete the challenge I was given by the large frog, but I completed it my way.

Why Do I Love This Game?

I’ve spent so much of my time lost and confused with Mina the Hollower, but I still love this game for some odd reason.

It’s the art style, attention to detail, the burrowing and unique mechanics, the music. The colors and overall aesthetic excite me. It’s so nice to see this old school style on the larger Nintendo Switch 2 screen, and even more so on my large 4K TV. The menu contains so many details, but is laid out in such a simple way.

Yacht Club Games knows how to make something beautiful, cute, and punishing. When it comes to the game design of Mina the Hollower, this is such an evolution on the Shovel Knight game design, while both of these games could have come out of the retro era.

They have even included a full in-game manual that feels like reading a game booklet that came with those classic games of the past. 

I think Mina the Hollower will end up on my list of indie/retro games that I truly adore, but will most likely never finish. Games like Shovel Knight (with all the extra DLC), Hollow Knight, and many other games not dealing with Knights.

Mina the Hollower is making me feel like a kid gamer again. I’m aimlessly exploring and trying to figure it out all on my own. As a kid gamer, I remember renting a game and bringing it home, not knowing anything about it. I’d either have a great time and make progress before returning the game to the rental store, or I’d have a terrible weekend getting stuck somewhere.

Today, anytime I get stuck in a game I can just Google for help, or jump into online guides. Maybe it’s the old school look and feel, but I don’t want to look it up for Mina the Hollower. I just want to explore and figure it out.