Mina the Hollower
| Mina the Hollower | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Yacht Club Games |
| Publisher(s) | Yacht Club Games |
| Composer(s) | |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | October 31, 2025 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Mina the Hollower is an upcoming action-adventure game being developed and published by Yacht Club Games. It is scheduled for release on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows. Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on October 31, 2025.[1]
Synopsis
[edit]The game revolves around Mina, a skilled inventor and "Hollower" who travels to Tenebrous Isle to discover why her Spark Generators (which she invented to power the island) have gone out.
Gameplay
[edit]
The game's main character is Mina, a genius inventor and mouse who has created advances in Spark Technology. She is a Hollower, a member of a guild dedicated to studying the Earth. She wields a whip, called the Nightstar, as a weapon, allowing her to attack in four directions. Additionally, Mina can take advantage a technique known as "Hollowing". This grants her the ability to burrow underground for a short time as a way to traverse short distances quickly and cross gaps, all while being completely invincible in the process.
Alongside her whip, Mina is able to use sidearms such as hatchets and daggers, being able to hold only one at a time. Trinkets can be equipped to provide permanent boosts to her navigational and combative abilities.[2]
The game is in a 3/4 isometric perspective, similar to Game Boy Color games such as The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages.
Story
[edit]Setting
[edit]The game takes place in a 1700s gothic horror-inspired world populated by anthropomorphic animals. It is primarily set in Tenebrous Isle, Ossex's only major city. One of the levels in the game includes Nox's Bayou, a poisonous swamp which hosts one of the generators.
Plot
[edit]Mina makes an expedition to Tenebrous Isle, home to the philanthropist Baron Lionel. Lionel acts as Mina's patron, funding her research on the isle and subsequently leading to its rapid development. Standing in her way is Thorne, a bat who served as the former head of Lionel's guard, before betraying the Baron and destroying the generators alongside his shock troopers.
Development
[edit]Mina the Hollower originally began as a side project by Yacht Club Games employee Alec Faulkner to hone his coding and artistic capabilities, and was not originally intended for commercial release. Development on the solo affair, then under the name Gothic, caught the attention of Yacht Club management, who viewed the title as a favorable pairing to the studio's flagship Shovel Knight series. On February 2, 2022, a Kickstarter campaign was launched to support development, which raised USD$1,239,584 from 21,439 backers. When including other sources of crowdfunding, the game raised over USD$1,400,000 for the studio.[2][3]
Mina the Hollower was designed to mimic the visual appearance of a Game Boy Color title. This stylistic decision was made while still a side project for Faulkner, inspired by a slew of Game Boy games he had been playing in his personal time. In an attempt to pay homage to early portable gaming and remain as authentic as possible to the original Game Boy hardware, Mina abides by the technical limitations of the Game Boy, containing no 3D assets and limiting pixel design to four colors per tile.[3] The lone exception to this philosophy is the game's widescreen resolution.
The developers' interest in scary stories and horror games, as well as creating the darker-in-tone Specter of Torment downloadable content for Shovel Knight, is what inspired them to create a darker game. The gameplay and story draws influences from such games as Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and Bloodborne. Other influences include the Disneyland rides The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.[4] The soundtrack was composed by Jake Kaufman, with two guest tracks from Yuzo Koshiro.[5]
Reception
[edit]Pre-release
[edit]Will Greenwald of PCMag called the game ambitious in a preview, comparing it to "Castlevania meets Zelda" and describing the presentation as "charming". Stating that he was "very impressed" with the game's demo, he called the mechanic of diving into the ground "unusual", but stated that he quickly got used to it as a natural part of gameplay.[6] Thomas Whitehead of Nintendo Life stated that he was ultimately "left excited" by the game after playing the demo, calling it an "excellent return" for the studio after making numerous spin-offs.[7] Alex Stadnik of Game Informer called it a "gorgeous homage".[8]
References
[edit]- ^ Romano, Sal (2025-06-06). "Mina the Hollower launches October 31". Gematsu. Retrieved 2025-06-07.
- ^ a b "Yacht Club Games Presents 2022". Yacht Club Games. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- ^ a b Van Aken, Alex (November 2022). "The Making of Mina the Hollower". Game Informer. Vol. 32, no. 351. Sunrise Publications. pp. 10–11.
- ^ Schepper, Jeremy. "Mina the Hollower: An Interview with Sandy Gordon of Yacht Club Games". Netto's Game Room. Archived from the original on 29 October 2024. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
- ^ Hagues, Alana (March 2, 2022). "Mina The Hollower's Soundtrack Gains Streets Of Rage Composer Yuzo Koshiro". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on May 20, 2022. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- ^ Parnada, Athena (February 1, 2022). "Mina the Hollower Aims for December 2023 Launch". COGConnected. Archived from the original on July 16, 2022. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
- ^ Whitehead, Thomas (February 3, 2022). "Hands On: 'Mina The Hollower' Mixes Zelda, Castlevania, And Plenty Of 'Git Gud". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on May 20, 2022. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- ^ Stadnik, Alex (February 2, 2022). "Mina the Hollower Preview". Game Informer. Archived from the original on February 3, 2022. Retrieved May 20, 2022.