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Mina the Hollower is very visually similar to classic Game Boy and Game Boy Color Zelda games like Link’s Awakening and the Oracle duology. But mechanically it’s significantly different, and Yacht Club discovered the distinction ran the risk of confusing players when it started putting the game in front of playtesters. As a result, it had to find clever ways to send a signal to players about this game’s different expectations.
In an interview with GameSpot, Yacht Club’s David D’Angelo said that players often expected Zelda-like progression, including specialized equipment to solve puzzles. That isn’t really how Mina works, however–the world is wide open, and you can go (mostly) anywhere you want right from the start.
“The biggest thing we were worried about is that in a lot of ways it’s not like a Zelda game in that you’re not getting the Hookshot to cross the pit,” D’Angelo explained. “One of the very common things that people ran into in our playtesting, people would get to the water area in the game and they would say, ‘I can’t go here. I don’t have the flippers.'”
Nox’s Bayou is the second major dungeon in the game, according to the recommended order. But Mina never gains the ability to swim through the water, and instead, you’re meant to learn that your burrowing ability allows you to jump across the gaps of deep water. Yacht Club’s solution? To get you stuck on purpose. Sink or swim, so to speak.
“The way we solved that was we made you get locked in that area so you eventually had to figure out that it was the burrowing mechanic to get you through the water,” D’Angelo said.
It was especially important to get this message across to players early, he said, because the difficulty level of areas is not scaled to the player’s level. If you venture into an area of the map intended for later, you’ll hit an “enormous” difficulty spike. The studio didn’t want people finding themselves in situations where it’s simply not fun because they wandered away from the second dungeon, only to hit an even more difficult challenge.
On top of teaching players that they can navigate without Zelda-like equipment, Yacht Club made sure to build in plenty of exit ramps. So if you do wander into an area that’s too tough, or just need to take a break, it’s not that difficult to find your way back to safety where you can shop for equipment, look for other secrets, or level up Mina.
“But at the same time, that is, I think, part of the experience we wanted,” he said. “We definitely wanted it to have the old-school game Zelda feel where it’s like you do get frustrated. You do get frustrated and have to overcome it.”
Frustration hasn’t stopped Mina the Hollower from being the top-rated game of 2026 on Metacritic so far. But if you’re stuck, be sure to check out our Guides Hub.
