How Mina the Hollower Makes a New Stew with Familiar Ingredients

How Mina the Hollower Makes a New Stew with Familiar Ingredients

The texture's a bit odd at first, but you learn to love it.

All glory to the humble field mouse: the runner, the tunneler, the nibbler, the rodent-flavored McNugget that every species of raptor loves to sink its talons into. It's common to see mice anthropomorphized as heroes who use wits, speed, and sometimes legendary weapons to take down threats much bigger and fiercer than them. See every other mouse hero in the late Brain Jaques' Redwall book series. The little ones' tenacity in the face of such huge obstacles is guaranteed to getcha in the heartstrings, every single time.

When Yacht Club Games introduced us to Mina the Hollower in 2022, she instantly became everyone's friend. What's not to adore about a soft white mouse in a Spartan-red cloak who is capable of slicing through gothic monsters with a repertoire of Castlevania-style weapons? A lot, as it turns out. Mina the Hollower might look like a simple pastiche of action adventure games that came before it, but the chunky ingredients blend into a very palatable (and challenging!) treat.

Mina the Hollower's tributes to its inspiration start with its intro movie, which pays homage to the glorious PC Engine CD-powered intro movie for 1993's Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. Mina's whip further confirms that the Belmont family's DNA is all over her game. (Ew.) But wait! Those Game Boy Color-ass graphics! That top-down view! Surely Mina the Hollower is actually a tribute to 1998's The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX! And, oh, wait! Mina the Hollower is also stomp-you-on-your-privates hard! And there's a gameplay loop here that's not unlike the campfires in Elden Ring and the SoulsBourne games! So it's another Soulslike, correct? ("Oh God, please tell me it's not another Soulslike," moans 50% of planet earth.)

Well, yes, but mostly no. Mina the Hollower takes little bits from Zelda, from Castlevania, and from Soulslikes, and then it brews its very own product. Mina's tunneling mechanic, a.k.a. "Hollowing," is the Dark Souls dodge roll gone a little crazy. When you start Mina the Hollower, you can expect to get your mousey little backside kicked to paste more than once. But the frustration is quickly overcome by curiosity about what comes next in Mina's adventure to restore the monster-repelling beacons across the land. Yes, the beacons that are totally legit and not at all problematic like the Dragoon-bat who is an obvious stand-in for Final Fantasy IV's Kain Highwind tells you. Stupid traitor. What does he know?

It's not long before Mina's hollowing, leaping, and stabbing/whipping/crushing turns into a deeply satisfying chain of finger-motions that hijacks your muscle fibers when you try to play another game. Try loading up something like Pokopia after playing Mina the Hollower for hours. You're guaranteed to try hollowing Ditto at least once. How many games force you to rewire your hand-eye coordination to such a thorough degree? Not many!

Mina the Hollower requires more precision than Zelda, and it requires dexterity like Castlevania. The old ones, without the metroid-inspired bits. But unlike Dark Souls, it's quite forgiving. When Mina accesses one of her hidey-holes, she not only restores her health and plasma, she also resets the enemies she killed before she entered her burrow. That said, killing enemies yields bones, which goes back into powering up Mina through equipment purchases and permanent stat boosts. If you feel a need to grind, it's easy to do. There are also myriad trinkets to compliment your gameplay style and make the journey easier for you and Mina.

And when all else fails and you're just ready to move on with your life, Yacht Club Games included tons of options for people who want to tailor their own experience. This has been regarded as a very bad move by some of the world's biggest weirdos, but their opinions are irrelevant noise and God said you should always enjoy games however you like. It's in the Bible somewhere.

Whatever you think Mina the Hollower is, you might be surprised when you come away with some brand-new realizations about the little mouse. She's a brand-new hero with a new style, and she's capable of standing on her two tiny pink feet by herself, thank you very much.