Talking about Mina the Hollower, Yacht Club's next digging-adjacent adventure!

[Lokii]

I stuck to magnet, shoes, glove, spider, and lightning grip for my primary build but found myself swapping in iron lung and funnel for endgame bosses pretty regularly. The one that does explosions when you pop out of the ground also saw a lot of use in the midgame.

 

[Exposition Owl]

I guess I’ll buck this thread’s consensus and say that I really liked this, maybe even more than Shovel Knight (and I was a big fan of Shovel Knight). First and foremost, for me it really delivered on the promise that came through in the very first trailer: mixing Castlevania and Zelda. As it turned out, the particular mixture was a Zelda-style map full of secrets combined with a Castlevania-style emphasis on sheer traversal, but with a fast, fun movement system that brought something different to both. The bosses all seemed well designed to me: hard but not unfairly so, and again both Zelda-like and Castlevania-ish. In both fighting and platforming, Mina felt to me like a tough game that rewards mastery, but that also doesn’t expect perfection from the player. There are always tools you can use to give yourself a cushion or recover from mistakes. I also really enjoyed how different the game felt with each of the weapons—I think I used all of them pretty heavily except for the shield. I probably would have had even more fun if I’d engaged more with the various sidearms, but I mostly stuck with the Drill Driver for its traversal benefits.

Finally, I thought Mina really brought Yacht Club’s skill at character design and writing into the spotlight. My wife likes to say that the Zelda series is only partly about defeating evil but mostly about Enabling Weird Dudes, and Mina has Weird Dudes in spades. That really struck me since I started playing Mina right after finishing the demo for The Adventures of Elliott, whose NPCs were all fairly normal people with relatively generic problems. Finally, I really appreciated the ending. It’s refreshingly different to see a game acknowledge that toppling the Big Bad Evil Guy who rules the land doesn’t cause a peaceful and just society to spring into being automagically. “The People” might even mostly agree with the BBEG’s short-sighted, self-serving beliefs! In the end, Mina has to content herself with knowing that she did the best she could with the limited options available to her, even if the “victory” at the end feels ambiguous.

 

[lincolnic]

Finally, I really appreciated the ending

Yeah, I haven't really touched on this but I also appreciated the ending. I was honestly taken aback when I saw it -- in a good way -- since I can't really think of another game I've played that did anything like it.

 

[WildcatJF]

I finished this today. Still ruminating on my thoughts, but I think it's a great game that, for me at least, didn't quite click on a mechanical level for me to love it the same as Shovel Knight. And that's OK! I'm glad Yacht Club was finally free to explore a new genre and world with Mina, and I enjoyed it a lot despite not loving the burrowing/jump button combination (which is my biggest quibble).

 

[ohman]

I had a good time with it. And once I switched off damage from pits and switched on fast healing in the options I had a great time. I had one set of trinkets that I ran for exploration and one for bosses I was having trouble with, that had all the extra damage trinkets. I also rarely used sidearms other than the mist jar and never really experimented with any weapons other than the whip. I really appreciate how many options there are to find something that suits you.

 

[Purple]

Whether or not it mechanically works like a corpse run, it is certainly presented like one with the ominous Recover X spark! screen after you die so I think causing 4-so to be anxious and annoyed is by design. I don’t mind it myself as I use it as a little push to keep exploring in a given direction and cut down on the aimless wandering, but I get why someone would find it bothersome.

I mean, it's basically a psychological trap to keep you invested, sure, but it's like the "final form" of Sephiroth in FF7. Realistically once you have 2 or 3 sparks the chances of you ever seeing the game over screen becomes practically zero. Unless you do something deeply reckless like me and check out this here "Mina's Grave" thing the second you get spark #3. But mostly it's just a mechanic that straight up does not work the way people assume it works because they didn't read the description and played too many Souls-likes.

People keep mentioning a trinket that let's you get a lot of bones, and I think I know where you get it, but the NPC's flavor text said something about paying bones back, so I didn't bother accepting her offer. Pay you back? Yeah, nah, I'm good.

OK see, when you equip it, you get a guaranteed like... 50-100 bones per kill on the enemies right outside town, 600 or so from late-game ones. So it REALLY pays for itself stupid-quick. It's the one thing I never once even considered unequipping.

 

[Voncaster]

Exploring load out
Extra long burrowing
Burrowing bile (damage on burrowing path)
Fast drinking potion
Ring Buoy*
Spider Webs*
High Jump Shoes*

*I really hated losing progress due to falling in pits.

Boss load out
Extra long burrowing
Burrowing bile (damage on burrowing path)
Fast drinking potion
Bonnet (high damage on low life)
Shock damage randomly (real good with daggers)
Corpse flies (when you score hits it creates flies; protection around you)

 

[Sarge]

I should have done the shock damage thing, seems like something that would have really upped my damage output.

 

[Voncaster]

I think its random per hit and since daggers are ultra fast you get more chances to do shock damage. I think.

I did like customizing Mina with Trinkets! There is probably an optimal build, but it seems like there is room for a lot of good builds which makes it fun and room for people to have success using different avenues.

 

[Kalir]

I still really like the typed damage immunity trinkets; that was a favorite of the design in Shovel Knight Dig.