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Comment on Mina The Hollower Is Now Metacritic's Highest-Rated Game Of 2026

I’ve played around 7 hours since release, it’s really good! It’s literally Castlevania x Zelda, taking so much inspiration from both for its mechanics and themes. The art and music is just chef’s kiss. Everything about the game is full of charm.

Fair warning though, the game is pretty tough. Not “NES Castlevania” levels of hard, but you will die a lot. The game has a ton of modifiers that can make the game easier if you need them though. In fact, it has a ton of modifiers that can even make the game harder for challenge runs or wackier modifiers for future playthroughs. So cool. I’ll definitely be playing through again once I’m done with it.

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brsrklf@jlai.lu ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The beginning is especially tough, when you don’t have a ton of options yet and every mistake is punished quite harshly.

The Castlevania inspiration is definitely there in the fact that Mina is kind of slow, her weapons have very constrained damage areas (while some enemies have very annoying move patterns) and every miscalculated attack or jump locks you into a dangerous move. Dodging in general is not easy.

Once you get used to it, it’s great though. After a first game in which I died and lost exp way too many times, I just tried restarting from the beginning. I almost breezed through the parts that gave me so much trouble, didn’t drop any bone for a while and levelled up a lot before reaching the same point.

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addie@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Enjoying it greatly so far - the difficulty level seems calibrated to ‘brutal’ but everything about it scream polish and perfection.

I find it hard to believe that some of the platforming sections are intended to be as difficult as they are. If there’s nothing to attack, you can’t heal, and you take a tonne of damage from falling off. Even with the life ring accessory, it’s still wicked in places. Not so bad once you’re able to equip a few more items and have some extra sparks, but at the beginning of the game, oof.

Some of the bosses having very random attacks is a bit unpleasant, too. If they keep busting out screen-fillers that are very hard to avoid, there’s not much you can do, especially as some of them can finish you in a couple of hits.

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- popcar2@piefed.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  A lot of the optional areas are very tough, and I agree they can be rough at the start of the game. Once you start having a lot of trinkets though, it gets marginally easier. Some trinkets even let you brute force harder platforming sections of the game - like one that lets you just tank lightning damage.
  
  Many platforming sections do have yellow flowers though which let you heal up though. Be sure to keep those for when you’re low and not just pick them up when you’re full.
  
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