Minoria

Minoria is the spiritual successor of the Momodora series. Here, you play as a warrior nun who fight witches, find incenses, escape from prison, dealing with princesses, and explore.

What I enjoy most: Boss fights

 
 
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Setting

You play as Sister Semilla, who was sent by the church during the “Witch War” to confront the witches and stop one of their ceremonies.

The theme of the game is definitely darker and the tone is much heavier than Momodora: Reverie under the Moonlight (RutM). You have a constant companion with you, but death is everywhere.

 

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Exploration

One of the first things that stands out is the massive amount of damage that every enemy deals to you - so that any random enemy can kill you in a few hits. Coupled that with the equally massive contact damage (which I think was later reduced through a patch), exploration and just moving around can be a chore.

The world is nicely sized, with multiple pathways folding back onto itself, and there are many hidden pathways to find. That said, what one can find in a hidden pathway is mostly just silver coins - which can be used to buy incenses (i.e. magic spells) - and is the only currency in Minoria.

magic & Combat

There are a few different melee weapons in the game, each with its own special attack; but most of the variety in combat comes from incenses, which can be categorised into offensive spells, healing spells, and passive spells (i.e. buffs). Offensive spells are obviously the most interesting, and are based on different elemental damages, and can be anything from short to extremely long range.

Boss Fights

Boss fights are really the core of Minoria. They do not really hit much harder than normal enemies, but their high HP means there is more of an arc to their fight. The visual design of the bosses definitely add to the drama, and it is much more satisfying dodge-rolling pass them for attacks than against normal enemies.

One important feature of the boss fights is the no-hit bonus, where one will be awarded a unique incense (or a unique weapon in one occasion). Although this is not a rare feature in metroidvania games, it makes boss fights much more enjoyable and tense - especially because it is not difficult to just unload all the offensive spells on the bosses and try to out-DPS them.

 

Conclusion

Minoria is a darker, heavier successor to Momodora RutM - with the same responsive control and enjoyable boss-fights. I personally do not enjoy the combination of massive contact damage with the heavy reliance of the dodge-roll, but it is still an enjoyable game.

(2019/9/30)

 
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List of metroidvania elements

  • Basic information

    • Name of game: Minoria

    • Designer / Publisher: Bombservice / Dangen Entertainment

    • System: PC

    • Year of publication: 2019

  • Mechanics

    • Style of combat: Melee

    • Use of magic: Yes

    • Combat-focus versus Platform-focus: Combat-focus

    • Death mechanics: Save-game

    • (Fall damage): No

  • Progression

    • Levelling / Farming for XP: Yes

    • Farming for Gold / Item: No

    • Skill pick-up: Yes

    • (Skill-tree): No

    • (Stats allocation): No

    • (Crafting): No

  • Exploration

    • Free-roaming: Yes

      • Gated by movement abilities: Yes

      • Gated by bosses: Yes

    • Type of world map: Single map

    • World generation: Fixed map

    • Auto-map: Yes

  • Alternative game modes

  • Other elements

    • Playability with just keyboard: Yes