Minoria

Even though Minoria does little to distinguish itself from similar titles, it remains a fairly satisfying playthrough. Lasting 5-8 hours, its campaign tells a largely forgettable narrative, but the action segments are enjoyable and the boss fights quite thrilling. A lackluster leveling up system means you won’t ever really feel all that strong; maybe the issue is that even the most basic of enemies are incredibly dangerous at all times. Fortunately, retrying after death is decently quick, and checkpoints that save your progres and refill your incense charges aren’t uncommon. Even though it’s not a must-own title, Minoria is quite competent and will likely appeal to fans of the genre, in particular those who enjoyed its predecessor, Momodora.

Minoria is a metroidvania-type of game that encourages the player to explore and which benefits from having a good combat system. At the same time, it feels it could have gone much further in its ambition, and its rather short length and repetitive settings, a certain lack of orientation when it comes to the exploration, and the lack of attention dedicated to the other characters make this a game that doesn't clearly standout amid its peers, even if it gets part of the job right.

Minoria is excellent, but it's also very limited. It's beautiful, the action is solid for the most part, and there are plenty of intriguing ideas running behind it. The game's problem is that it deserved a bigger vision than the modest execution, and while that is a much more preferable problem than the other way around (too much ambition for too little means), it still means that Minoria will be forgotten well before it deserves to be.

Minoria readily services its fanbase and does make a great first impression. The extras thrown in - including some weapons which directly link to those other Momodora games - are decent bonuses, but the core gameplay will leave neophytes wanting. It’s easy enough to complete, and includes some challenge variations that extend its value, but it’s hard to put Minoria ahead of the vast collection of superior metroidvanias in the Switch library on offer at comparable price.