Mina the Hollower is the best old-school action adventure I've played in a while

Plotting aside, Mina the Hollower is full of colorful NPCs that shine through in some efficient and fun writing. While half of the characters simply act as signposts to some objective or other, the other half will pop up with non-sequiturs and turns of phrase that had me grinning all evening. And you never know when an ostensible friend might turn into a pickpocket that you need to chase down, or when that hard luck case you’re rescuing might transform into a terrifying mini-boss.

While the imposing, varied bosses are a highlight, even basic enemies rarely feel perfunctory in Mina the Hollower. They seem to take pains to stay just out of range of your weapons before darting in for their own attacks. This is a game that rewards careful positioning and patience in waiting for your own counterattack openings, and it is quick to punish players who get too mindlessly aggressive.

But it’s also a forgiving game, offering a pack full of refillable potions to restore your health (and which require landing your own attacks to get the most out of). Using those potions leaves you immobile and vulnerable for a couple of crucial seconds, though, adding a sense of risk even to a simple health restore.

If you do run into trouble with the more reflex-oriented portions of the game, Mina the Hollower is conducive to grinding through weaker enemies to earn enough in-game bones to buy a bevy of offensive and defensive upgrades. If that’s too much work, though, the options menu includes a ton of inventive modifiers to tweak the difficulty in easier, harder, or simply weirder ways.

Mapping it out

From a vibrant central town hub, Mina the Hollower’s sprawling map splits off to six highly varied dungeons, each culminating in a thrilling climb up a generator tower. Just getting to these dungeons feels like half the challenge at points, with each route requiring some intricate positional puzzle-solving to clear a path. You might find yourself escorting bombs across a swampy marsh, intentionally falling between floors, or digging under transparent, impermeable panels to find the right way through these mazes.