A week ago, we had no idea whether Mina the Hollower would make its spring 2026 release window. Now, we not only know when it’s coming out, but also that some outlets have spent some time with the final build of the game. And it sounds like 29th May can’t come soon enough.
While we weren’t lucky enough to go hands-on, we’re living vicariously through other people’s impressions, almost all of which are extremely positive. They have been basically since the first PAX and GDC demos, so we shouldn’t be surprised, but Yacht Club Games has clearly spent some time fine-tuning every single aspect of the mouse-starring adventure.
Some of the most-common comparisons for Mina have been the top-down Zelda games, but our friends at IGN have brought in another point-of-reference: FromSoftware’s Bloodborne.
“[The Duchess] fight encapsulates Mina — punishing at first, but only until you get the rhythm down, and then deeply empowering. During my preview, I repeatedly lost and reclaimed thousands of bones (like gold from Shovel Knight, souls from Hollow Knight or Dark Souls, etc.), grinning with each new mechanic discovered or hidden side area uncovered along the way to the next big leveling milestone.”
ShackNews also echoes the sentiment,bringing up Demon’s Souls of all games, but they focused on the number of improvements they spotted as they reexplored dungeons available in previous demos:
“Some of the improvements I saw along the way were the proper intro to the quest, battling my way into Ossex from the beach, as well as weapon selection. I thought I’d be running a whip until I found some subweapons alla Castlevania, so color me delighted when I got the selection of the Nightstar whip, the Whisper and Vesper daggers, and the Blaststrike Maul at the beginning. It felt like picking Pokemon, but for an action game…”
Instead of a traditional preview, MinnMax invited Kyle Boseman to run a familiar Game Informer format, where he asks Yacht Club Games’ Alec Faulkner 93 rapid-fire questions. So if you want to know how the team decides which animals gets pants, what weapon might be the most-underloved, and how many bosses there are, well, that’s the video for you:
Noisy Pixel talks about how they were caught off guard multiple times during the opening hours — in a good way — commenting on how “freeform” the game feels.
“This lack of railroading is a rather stark departure from the linearity of Shovel Knight, demonstrating undeniable confidence in this team’s entirely fresh approach. The Zelda comparisons are understandable here, yet Mina is much more about mastering the intricacies of movement and platforming, especially when contending with enemies.”
Last up, we have Kinda Funny Games who spoke about their time with Mina the Hollower so far on their weekly podcast. It’s another set of glowing opinions from the trio here, so tuck in:
Of course, none of these are full reviews, which will come closer to the game’s release date, but everything sounds extremely good right now.
It’s great news for a game that’s been in development for a long time, and with that 120fps boost on Switch 2, it’ll be beautiful on the newest console. And don’t worry, if the Souls-comparisons have you worried, then there are difficulty modifiers.
