Basic Info:

• Name: Mina the Hollower
• Developer: Yacht Club Games
• Publisher: Yacht Club Games
• Release Date: 5/28/2026
• Genre (Per Steam): Action, Adventure
• Cost (I Paid): $20 USD
  • At time of purchase, this was the full retail price
• Platforms I Played On: PC, Steam Deck (digital distribution)
• Released On: Windows, Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, PS5, XBox Series S/X

Gameplay

I started playing “Mina The Hollower” (henceforth, Mina) more-or-less on release day because Yacht Club Games published one of my favorite games of all time: Shovel Knight. Given that the latter was released over a decade ago (June 2014), my anticipation for the game was through the roof. Would Yacht Club produce another all-timer? In my mind, the answer was not preordained. The developer has continued making games over the last decade, producing both gems beloved by all (the “DLC” to Shovel Knight that now exists under the banner of: Treasure Trove) and rocks destined to be loved by far fewer (Shovel Knight: Dig).

My initial impression of the game was less about its quality and more about its difficulty. For the first six hours or so, I suffered because of the game’s difficulty. This is where I experienced the majority of my deaths, and where I considered extreme action: either using the game’s “modifiers” to make it easier or taking a break from the game (tantamount to dropping it, as I rarely return to games for re-play). In the end, I didn’t take either path. What did I do instead? I started grinding! After grinding for a few levels (and more than a few trinkets and upgrades), the game felt much more manageable and fun.

Grinding helped me get over the game’s difficulty by improving my stats. I did more damage, could survive more hits, and had more options around play style because I had more weapons and trinkets unlocked. Grinding ALSO helped me get to grips with the game’s mechanics. I was able to approach the game in a more relaxed way because a single hit didn’t mulch 1/3+ of my health bar. In the end, did the game get easier, or did I just get better at it? I think it’s a bit of both. As a quick aside: my thanks to the author of the guide I used who pointed out that the best place to grind in the early portions of the game is northeast of Ossex on the way to Queensbury Crypt, by the knights and spear-throwing enemies.

There was another reason I didn’t end up using modifiers. While the cynical might argue that they, “don’t want to design the game for the developers,” I didn’t feel that way. Instead, while modifiers can make the game easier (or harder, or weirder), most remove the ability to unlock feats (achievements) while playing on a given file. Though Yacht Club provides a list of modifiers that would remove the ability to unlock feats, virtually all of them made the game harder or weirder. I was hopeful that an “easier” modifier could balance out a “harder” modifier and still allow for achievement unlocks, but, alas, that does not seem to be the case. Ultimately, while I can appreciate the sheer variety of modifiers, I didn’t end up using any of them.

Thankfully, modifiers are not the only way that a player can modify their experience with the game. Aside from grinding, Mina lets you skip some of its most difficult challenges through a shop that allows for the purchase of the rewards of those challenges (Panino’s shop, to be specific). You can also “pawn off” trinkets and power-ups you’re not using at Pawnty’s to get some quick cash (or to make the game more difficult). Just as the modifiers allow players to customize their experience before even starting the game, these features allow further customization over the course of playing the game.

I’ve mentioned the game’s difficulty and some of the ways players can modify their experience with it. What’s it actually like to play, though? Shovel Knight took inspiration from Ducktales for its core mechanic (in this case, bouncing on enemies to defeat them). By contrast, I’m not sure if I could point to a single game to encapsulate Mina. I think its closest comparison for moment-to-moment gameplay would be the Game Boy Color Legend of Zelda title: Link’s Awakening, as both are action-focused and use a ¾ isometric perspective. I’d point to Zelda 2: Link’s Adventure (NES) for a parallel leveling mechanic, and A Link Between Worlds (3DS) for the player’s ability to explore the “dungeons” in any order (save the final dungeon, which is always last).

The “mini games” (ring dive, racing, and, “wrecker,” where you destroy a car) all feel like they could have been pulled from a Legend of Zelda title, too. The same goes for the fishing mini-game, though the act of fishing is more about the game’s combat than its own bespoke set of mechanics (a la the “Stardew Valley” fishing game). Basically, you pull a fish up, fight it as needed, collect a trophy of its defeat, and repeat until you have “caught” all of the fish. To the rod’s credit, however, it’s surprisingly versatile outside of the minigame. It can pull Mina to enemies, for example, and produce rafts she can stand on (though it can only do the latter after it has been upgraded). With all of that said, I think it’s obvious that Mina shares a lot of DNA with the Legend of Zelda series! It’s not the only inspiration for gameplay / mechanics Mina draws from, however.

The game’s health mechanics most strongly remind me of Bloodborne in both aesthetic and execution. Both use vials, both can be very punishing and require timing and game knowledge to use well (ie your heal can be interrupted if you are damaged while healing), and both reward aggressive play (ie you can heal more if you hit enemies first). There are other similarities, too. Though “Mina” is nowhere near as gruesome, it can get pretty dark for its graphical fidelity; look no further than the “Bone Beach” and the Dreadworm dungeon for that. Both games also give the player flexibility in their play style: each has multiple weapons that the player can choose from (the whip, hammer, knives, etc). Also, while Bloodborne doesn’t have trinkets, it does have “trick” weapons that can add even more versatility to a given play style. Both games also have optional bosses, too. Lastly, both use a “bonfire” / safe location for the player to regroup and heal, the use of which respawns enemies.

Castlevania, and Super Castlevania IV in particular also come to mind, at least with regards to Mina’s whip, “Nightstar.” The whips in both games are remarkably similar, especially once Mina’s is fully upgraded. The “Battery Buster,” which can switch between a projectile launcher and a mace strongly reminded me of Megaman. The Hollower’s Shield, with its focus on parrying and movement, reminded me of the parry mechanics in the Soulsborne games. The ability to bounce on the shield reminded me of Super Mario Odyssey’s movement mechanics, too. I’m sure the other weapons (the dual-wielded knives and massive hammer) have similar inspirations, though none come immediately to mind for this review. Ultimately, they’re all fun in their own way, providing both unique ways to play and unique challenges.

I also appreciated the game’s looping level design. The game really reminded me of the Soulsborne series in that way; I often found myself looping back to previous locations or discovering / unlocking ways to “fast travel” around the game world via the pipes, trains, and mirrors. I also have to applaud Yacht Club Games for their ability to hide secrets. While I was able to find most on my own, a few still slipped past me. Then, when I used a guide to grab the last 5-10%, I never felt cheated. Every secret felt like something I could have found with a bit more time and attention. The Bonestone Gems in the Bone Beach dungeon were particularly tricky! Pressure to perform (whether it be due to time constraints, to avoid taking damage, or otherwise) can do wonders to keep players from finding the most diabolical secrets.

I mentioned how I struggled with the game’s difficulty at the start. How did I get along with the game after I got over the “hump” (by purchasing all the readily available upgrades, pumping up Mina’s levels, and unlocking more trinkets), though? I found it had a “U” shaped difficulty curve. It was hard in the beginning, then became easier after a fair amount of grinding. The other end of the U came from two sources. The final area of the game, the “Radiant Manor,” was easily the most challenging area of the game. It never became “rage bait,” hard, of course, but clearly it was the final area of the game for a reason. The “tower climb” before the final boss (which, in this case, I /was/ expecting, given how one also appeared in Shovel Knight) was particularly difficult. I must have died on the final screen before completing it at least five or ten times. Oof.

The other source of difficulty was the optional bosses. Some were more difficult than others, though. Many, I defeated on my first try. The one that really stood out to me was, “Evra the Undying.” That boss must have taken me about as many tries as the final tower climb (in this case, closer to 10 than to 5). I found the boss to be difficult for both its ability to chew through health like a competitive eater and just how many attacks / “adds” it could add to the battlefield at once. I won out in the end, mostly through pattern recognition, trinket selection, and having a maxed out character (ie a “10” in all stats). As a point of interest, it took more attempts to defeat Evra than it did to defeat the “final” boss or the final-final boss, which took three and one attempt(s) respectively. In other words, the difficulty curve worked about how I expected a “hard” game would. I even said, “welp, it’s time to fight god,” when fighting the “final-final boss.” If that’s not an excellent send off to a game, I don’t know what is.

Lastly, let’s talk about feats (achievements). After beating the game (including gathering all of the collectibles), I only unlocked 15 of the 50 achievements. While this number feels a bit low for the amount of time I put into the game (about 40 hours), I like that this means that I have ample reason to return to the game and try to unlock the rest. Granted, some I have no interest in. This includes a speedrunning achievement where the game must be beaten in under 4 hours and the “Below Zero” achievement where the game must be beaten with “-1% collection or less.” Even if they’re not for me, however, I’m glad that these achievements exist. I know there are plenty of gamers who love a good challenge / challenge run!

If the gameplay is an engaging mix of myriad inspirations, how does Mina’snarrative hold up? Found out in the next section, but beware heavy spoilers!

Narrative

The game follows the titular Mina, who is returning to Tenebrous Isle because her invention, the Spark Generators, have gone out. She received word of this via a letter from Lionel, the current leader of the isle. Mina is initially opposed by Thorne, a character branded as revolutionary for his desire to disengage the Spark Generators. Over the course of her adventure, Mina is forced to confront the damage the Spark Generators are doing to the land. In time, she sees both the truth and the necessity of Thorne’s position. During the final confrontation (no points for guessing with who), Thorne aids Mina in defeating the big bad. (It’s Lionel. Of course it’s Lionel.) There is a price to be paid for this victory, however, and while it’s not mechanical, deactivating the Spark Generators definitely leads to a downer ending.

While the captain of the ship Mina came in on comments that she gave the island, “it’s best chance at survival,” Mina is still driven out of the Tenebrous Isle, the Hollowers’ Guild is still dismantled, and the captain of the ship she came in on is still killed. In some ways, this response to Mina’s actions makes sense. Society was just up-ended, its leader was killed, the main power source turned off, and key landmarks were destroyed (e.g. Queensbury Crypt). Of course people are responding in the extreme (rioting, fleeing, scapegoating, etc). Was this result satisfying as a player, though?

After putting about 40 hours into the game, collecting everything, defeating all the optional bosses, and really getting to know the world and inhabiting the main character, it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed that Mina didn’t get a happier ending. Also, parts of the ending felt cruel. In particular, I’m thinking of the captain’s (Cappy) demise, given how he and Mina are portrayed as close friends. Maybe the writers felt that they had to kill Cappy as a means to convey the message of the work, and/or because Mina has little in the way of an internal monologue? Maybe they felt Cappy was a target for the rage of the people of Ossex because he brought Mina to the Isle in the first place? Couldn’t Thorne have said the same thing when Mina reunites with him, though? The ending also felt cruel because the rage pointed at Mina is clearly expressed, while the benefit of turning off the Spark Generators is more ambiguous / implied.

Then again, while parts of the ending feel cruel, Mina did play a part in designing and implementing the Spark Generators, the very thing that was poisoning the land and its people. Not only that, as mentioned above, the people of Ossex (the main metropolitan hub of the game) have no reason to see Mina as a hero given that she just dramatically changed both the course of their lives and, presumably, their quality of life. Ultimately, given that she was presented with shades of gray from the beginning, it makes sense that the ending wasn’t neatly wrapped up in a bow.

What about the theme of the work? Environmentalism comes immediately to mind. It’s easy to draw parallels between the Spark Generators and fossil fuels, for example. It’s virtually impossible to ignore how Spark and the Spark Generators have changed the landscape and its people. This includes how both either directly or indirectly brought about the boss encounters of the game. This also includes how Spark Generators are clearly polluting. Examples include the flavor text about Nox’s waters “running clean,” the giant frog that goes from a humanoid standing on two legs and wearing clothes to a “regular” frog standing on four, and the Tomato Farmer (nightmare fuel).

These same shades of gray also apply to the game’s true antagonist, Lionel, even if he’s less nuanced by comparison. The subtlety comes from the fact that he is never really challenged or called out as evil by a vast majority of the cast (except, you know, by Mina and Thorne). His first interaction with Mina is when he’s opening an orphanage, even. It becomes increasingly clear he’s doing evil stuff over the course of the game, though, and anyone who’s read a story or played a game before will likely peg him as the true final villain. Still, he plays into the politics of “respectability” without really being challenged by the narrative at large. In other words, the game more or less leaves it to the player to come to the (narrative) conclusion that he’s evil. (Mechanically, he’s still the final boss.)

In the end, it’s straightforward to see how the game’s outcomes mirror, or at least mimic, some of the positions taken in the real world about fossil fuel and climate change. There are those who would seek to ban its usage, or at least greatly reduce it. There are those who would fight to see its continued use, arguing that access to it is their “right.” There are also those who are benefiting monetarily and structurally from fossil fuel’s continued use (Lionel). It’s something to chew on, and hopefully, something the player will consider even after they finish with the game.

Conclusion

I think it is safe to say that Yacht Club Games knocked it out of the park with Mina. The game brings together myriad influences to produce an experience that is both fun and engaging. The inclusion of “modifiers” and “feats” means that players of many skill levels can engage with the game. Do you want a breezy romp through an isometric 2D world? You can have that. (Granted, I’m not sure the game is narratively interesting enough to sustain a “story mode” playthrough.) Do you want a hard as nails game that will beat the piss out of you at every opportunity? You can have that too! If you like retro-inspired games that are meticulously crafted and that tell a story with high-minded themes (e.g. environmentalism and the cost of change / progress), this is definitely one to look into.