Minoria from DANGEN Entertainment and Bombservice is a new challenging Metroidvania on PS4. Learn more in our Minoria review!
Minoria from DANGEN Entertainment and Bombservice is the spiritual successor to the games in the Momodora series. I previously got a chance to review Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight on PlayStation 4, and I enjoyed what said Metroidvania had to offer, so I was definitely up for seeing what Brazilian indie Bombservice set out to do with Minoria on Sony’s current-gen home console.
This new adventure places you in the role of Sister Semilla, who must complete a very special task: burn all of the witches, who must pay for their sins. Minoria takes place during the fourth Witch War, and the Secret Order is leading a literal witch hunt, aiming to purge the sinners from this world. Because of this, Sister Semilla and Sister Fran, who are at the Church’s service, venture forth to bring down all of the witches they will battle in their journey. Do you have what it takes to defeat even those who used to be allies?
You will move around with the left analog stick or the D-Pad, jumping with the X button and attacking with the Square button. The Circle button is for dodging when moving. If you press it when you’re standing still, then Semilla will parry incoming attacks. You can interact with other characters or things by pressing up. You will collect special incenses as you explore each area that Minoria has to offer – as well as from defeating bosses without receiving any damage. You can cycle between them with the L2 and R2 buttons, using them by pressing the Triangle button. You can chat with your companion by pressing the R1 button. Since this is a Metroidvania, checking your map will be very important, and you can do so by pressing the L1 button.
To record your progress, you will need to find the safe areas that contain ink bottles you can use to write about your journey. Interacting with ink bottles will also help you recover all of your health while also restoring your incense. You should always make the most of the ink bottles you find, making a note of where they are in the areas you’ve automatically added to your map so that you can save the progress you’ve made, healing your wounds to stay alive in this harsh new world.
The incense that you can find in Minoria will be of two varieties: incense that needs to be equipped in one of the three available slots so that you can use them with the Triangle button, and incense that can be equipped in one of two available slots so that they provide you with passive abilities. If you find more of one type of incense that is already in your inventory, this will increase the overall total times you can use it. This will be very important for the healing incense that can help you recover some of your lost hit points, and when you combine with a specific passive incense, you’ll gain a second and change of invincibility right after healing! You can also collect silver coins in the game, which you can use to purchase additional incense types for a greater variety to configure your loadout.
Enemies will come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, and you’ll need to pay attention to each one so that you can learn more about their movement and attack patterns. Some might move slowly but have a long-range attack they can use to make energy shoot out of the ground. Others might be small and not have many hit points, but will be able to unleash attacks that can deal a considerable amount of damage with every. Never underestimate your enemies, especially when they attack you in groups!
As you explore each of the areas in your ever-growing map, you will end up finding each of the witches that oppose what the Secret Order and the Church are trying to do. The first witch you will face in the game will be more of a tutorial fight that will allow you to learn all of the basics as you run, jump, roll, and parry to find the right window of opportunity to attack. For the second witch boss, you will experience a good jump in overall difficulty, but as long as you pay attention to its patterns, you’ll be able to succeed – or at least learn something about that witch so that you can beat it during your second or third try after you reload from your last save!
Minoria will challenge you with a full trophy list with a Platinum that won’t be easy to obtain. Your first trophy will be for saving Princess Amelia from a group of evil witches. After this, you will get trophies for beating the different bosses in the game, for obtaining one particular incense, for collecting 20 silver coins, finding all of the hidden archives, defeating a total of 1,000 enemies and witches, and for beating a boss without taking any damage. There’s also a pair of trophies that are mutually exclusive, but if you, say, backup your save before making said choice…
Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight was a lot of fun on PlayStation 4, and Minoria from Bombservice and DANGEN Entertainment takes what the previous game had to offer and expands on it. On top of this, we get a gorgeous looking HD presentation with hand-drawn assets, a soundtrack that does a great job of complementing the visuals, which makes it very easy to recommend you get this one on PS4. Minoria is out now for $19.99.
Disclaimer
This Minoria review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by DANGEN Entertainment.
