Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight was my game of the year, so -- to me -- a game billed as its spiritual successor has a lot to live up to.

Minoria maintains many of the strengths of its predecessor: its pacing is impeccable with continuous exploration and meaningful progression throughout the ~7 hours playtime; both combat and traversal mechanics feel great; the souls-like balance of high damage output with limited healing/spells/consumables restored at save points keeps the tension up; and the game maintains a great consistent atmosphere throughout.

The most obvious change is the presentation: instead of the pixel art of its predecessor, Minoria opts for a more unique high-res style that combines flat-shaded 3D models for characters with painted backgrounds. In general, I'm always in favor of indie games experimenting with more than just pixel art -- I have nothing against it but it does get somewhat stale. In this particular case, the new style works out well overall, with a few remaining ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. For one, the animations aren't quite at the level of its predecessor (which featured some of the best sprite animations in any game of its kind), at least not consistently, and for another, the graphical effects sometimes make it hard to read the action and enemy tells.

Beyond this (needlessly controversial) presentation aspect, there are some ways in which I feel the game improves on its predecessor, and one where I feel it struggles. Let's get the latter out of the way first: some of the boss patterns seem too easy to abuse with rolling. Maybe I just didn't notice and it was similar in RutM, but in any case, quite a few of Minoria's boss battles can be reduced to just alternatingly hitting and rolling past the enemy. On the other hand, the setting and characters feel more well-developed than in any previous game by the developer, and this helps create a further incentive for exploration to discover more about them and it.

All in all, while I'd perhaps not quite put it at the same (extremely high) level I'd place RutM, Minoria is a fantastic addition to the metroidvania action platformer genre and a game that everyone interested in it should play.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight was my game of the year, so -- to me -- a game billed as its spiritual successor has a lot to live up to. Minoria maintains many of the strengths of its predecessor: its pacing is impeccable with continuous exploration and meaningful progression throughout the ~7 hours playtime; both combat and traversal mechanics feel great; the souls-like balance of high damage output with limited healing/spells/consumables restored at save points keeps the tension up; and the game maintains a great consistent atmosphere throughout. The most obvious change is the presentation: instead of the pixel art of its predecessor, Minoria opts for a more unique high-res style that combines flat-shaded 3D models for characters with painted backgrounds. In general, I'm always in favor of indie games experimenting with more than just pixel art -- I have nothing against it but it does get somewhat stale. In this particular case, the new style works out well overall, with a few remaining niggles. For one, the animations aren't quite at the level of its predecessor (which featured some of the best sprite animations in any game of its kind), at least not consistently, and for another, the graphical effects sometimes make it hard to read the action and enemy tells. Beyond this (needlessly controversial) presentation aspect, there are some ways in which I feel the game improves on its predecessor, and one where I feel it struggles. Let's get the latter out of the way first: some of the boss patterns seem too easy to abuse with rolling. Maybe I just didn't notice and it was similar in RutM, but in any case, quite a few of Minoria's boss battles can be reduced to just alternatingly hitting and rolling past the enemy. On the other hand, the setting and characters feel more well-developed than in any previous game by the developer, and this helps create a further incentive for exploration to discover more about them and it. All in all, while I'd perhaps not quite put it at the same (extremely high) level I'd place RutM, Minoria is a fantastic addition to the metroidvania action platformer genre and a game that everyone interested in it should play.