![]() ![]() I didn’t experience much of the story, but I’m told that Mina borrows a lot of Bloodborne’s Lovecraftian themes too. You first have to deal damage to earn back segments of your health bar, and only once you’ve built the meter back up can you consume a potion to heal yourself. Further, you can’t just heal Mina by drinking potions. Shovel Knight has a similar death mechanic, but the risk/reward of hoarding bones to spend on incremental stat increases feels decidedly soulslike. Mina has a single-resource economy, bones, for purchasing items and buying upgrade points whenever she levels up, and if you die you lose everything you’ve collected until you get revenge on the monster that killed you. The developer assisting my gameplay session mentioned Bloodborne early on, and the longer I played, the more apparent the similarities became. There’s RPG-like progression too, which brings us to Mina the Hollower’s other big influence: Bloodborne. If there’s one thing Yacht Club knows how to do it’s build an entire game around an exceptional mechanic. There’s a rhythm to borrowing, again just like using Shovel Knight’s sword to bounce, that’s simple to understand yet offers infinite complexity. ![]() Burrowing increases movement speed, and upon exiting Mina flings herself forward farther and faster than she can with a normal jump. It is effectively a dodge that gives Mina i-frames while she dives, but it also allows her to traverse under barriers and walls to find secrets and explore dungeons. Just like Shovel Knight’s shovel, the burrow ability is both a platforming and combat mechanic. I don’t know why Yacht Club has such a hard-on for digging, but I’m glad it does because it’s a fantastic mechanic. A Hollower is someone that has been trained in the art of burrowing, and one of Mina’s abilities is to dive under the ground and pop out behind her enemies a la Bugs Bunny. Link’s Awakening is a good starting point for understanding Mina the Hollower, but it’s not the sole inspiration, and in fact Mina seems to be just as much inspired by Shovel Knight himself. Related: Amanda The Adventurer Will Ruin Your Childhood ![]()
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