IGN has published a review of Mina the Hollower, the retro RPG from Yacht Club Games, and the verdict is that the studio’s latest throwback is anything but gentle. The game opens by dropping the player into a hostile world with no obvious path forward, where roaming enemies can kill you in just a few hits no matter which direction you choose.
That first hour sets the tone for what follows. Mina the Hollower is built around the Tenebrous Isles, a completely open world centered on the village of Ossex, and it pushes players through four initial dungeons as they explore. IGN describes it as a tough-as-nails adventure gorgeously done up in the style of the Game Boy Color’s best, a look and feel that gives the game its identity before the combat does.
The design is a deliberate collage. IGN says the game borrows The Legend of Zelda’s open-world structure, adds a healthy amount of Castlevania’s horror setting and haunting chiptunes, and layers in a surprising dose of FromSoft’s Souls games through its combat and progression. The outlet also points to Link’s Awakening from 1993 as part of the Zelda lineage that Mina the Hollower is tapping into, which places the new release squarely in a long tradition of handheld adventure games that reward curiosity and punish mistakes.
That lineage matters because Yacht Club Games is no stranger to retro tributes. The studio built its name on the Shovel Knight series, which drew heavily from NES-era classics such as Mega Man, and Mina the Hollower continues that same interest in old hardware aesthetics without simply repeating them. Here, the studio is aiming for a broader mix: gothic fantasy, magically infused steampunk tech, and a world that feels more dangerous the farther the player goes.
The tension in the review is clear. Mina the Hollower wants the freedom of an open world, but it also wants the pressure of a punishing action game, and those goals can work against each other if the balance slips. IGN’s account suggests that the game’s challenge is not decorative; it is central to how the world is meant to be read, with the lack of an obvious “correct” path becoming part of the experience rather than a flaw to be ignored.
That makes the Mina the Hollower release date more than a launch-window question. The game is arriving as a rare retro RPG that is trying to stitch together Zelda’s exploration, Castlevania’s atmosphere and Souls-style combat into one package, and the review suggests it does so with confidence. If the final experience matches the opening hour, Yacht Club Games is not just revisiting old influences. It is using them to build a game that expects players to be brave enough to get lost in it.
