[timestamp] is a running journal and reflection on the games I play, news I’ve read, and commentary on hot topics and conversations I have come across. These will be free to read online and printed in a limited monthly edition for $15/mo Patreon supporters!
Game played: Mina the Hollower (PS5)
Guess what? Time did its thing. I came back to the boss battle I was stuck on and managed to kill it in only two tries. This was a very Blaster Master-like boss, a giant brain thing, but around the room were four eyes that would appear occasionally and attack you. You could attack them and temporarily disable them, and gather some plasma if needed from doing it, but otherwise, I just ignored them. After you take out all but one weak point on the main boss, it breaks free from its chains and hops around with new attacks. This is where I was often failing, as it has a ton of health and only one weak point. I ended up using the mega buster gun for this fight instead of my hammer.
Normally, I find my niche and comfort with something and wash, rinse, repeat. I didn’t feel forced to switch, but after enough failures, I decided to try something else to mix it up, and it was worth it. The game does change a bit in how I engage with it, just from this weapon change. That’s a sign of good game design.
After this boss went down, I navigated to the final power source in the game through the mirror world. I’ve already found and entered every mirror up to this point, and I was able to find the final one to flip that last switch. I guess I could have come to this dungeon earlier, but I’m glad I saved it for the end. It was a challenge.
This area was designed in four sections, each acting as its own challenge. This wasn’t just a culmination of the game’s mechanics up to this point, but actually an introduction of some new ones. These purple voids negate the tiles they are on, being pits, but letting you ignore barriers, elevation, and more. It breaks your brain for a second, and you rethink how you navigate through spaces on the fly. There was also some rad above-ground/underground sections that test your ability to see where you can safely stand and move through sections.
A game that is still innovating this deep into it is not easy to pull off. Simple game design will just color swap enemies, give them more health and strength, and expect your growing skill curve to outgrow these adjustments. Mechanically, Mina continues to introduce traversal, battle, and support mechanics through trinkets and well-designed gating. It’s very “Metroidvania,” and a pretty complex one, at that. These developers have made some magic here. I’m over 20 hours in and still in that “discovery and wonder” phase. That is not easy to do.
I was able to fully finish that mirror dungeon, make my way back to Ossex and a unique boss battle, and then enter what I am guessing is the final dungeon. It’s already off to a pretty wild and tough start. It’s A-game time. I can tell this will be the toughest challenge yet, but at this point, I’m feeling finely tuned and ready for it.
Coming off of Elliot and the drive I have to “collect everything” and go for that platinum, I don’t feel the same here, but that’s because I haven’t been trying to read ahead or spoil anything. I’ve wanted to discover as much as I could on my own, and so many secrets and moments were that much more rewarding because I haven’t tried to make this game a checklist. I don’t think that ruined Elliot for me. I do enjoy a “100%” chase, and you’ve got to play smart to do that, but Mina has been different. It’s been a treat to play this just for what it is, and it’s been good.
