News Minoria (Dangen + Momodora devs) - releasing August 27

[prudis]

DANGEN | Minoria

Ink and blood stain the streets of Ramezia. Witches must burn and sins must be judged. Venture forth as Sister Semilla to burn down the pillars of heresy in Minoria, an action-platformer by Bombservice, creators of Momodora.

Minoria is the latest and most ambitious game from Bombservice, and a spiritual sequel to the Momodora series, from the same studio. Fans of Momodora will find familiar aspects in the design and gameplay elements, as they master the ins-and-outs of parries, dodges, and a variety of different spells. The presentation has evolved to an HD format, with aesthetics mixing 2D hand-painted backgrounds and cel-shaded characters.

The story takes place during the fourth Witch War. It is a time of fanatical religious fervor. The Sacred Office, a powerful organization leading an Inquisition against heresy, purges the sinners who threaten humanity. Those responsible for conducting a mysterious ceremony that contradicts the rules of the Church are labeled “witches.”

Set forth with Sisters Semilla and Fran, missionaries in the Church’s service, on their journey to thwart the witches’ ceremony and protect the common-folk from heresy that endangers the status quo.

・A powerful fantasy story inspired by the history of medieval Europe
・A unique visual aesthetic combining hand-painted 2D art with cel-shading
・Fluid controls encouraging careful engagement and patient play
・Offensive combat enabling players to crush enemies with a mix of swordplay and spells
・Defensive options including dodge-rolls and parries
・A leveling system that helps players adjust their character to their desired difficulty

Minoria is the latest and most ambitious game from Bombservice, and a spiritual sequel to the Momodora series, from the same studio.

Hello there! I’m rdein, the creator and director of Minoria.
First of all, I’d like to share my excitement in announcing this project. This is a universe I care a lot for, from the setting to the characters, and it’s been a lot of fun to explore and develop its concepts during the process of game development.
For the first time in many years, I started a game project set in a new universe. It felt like a breath of fresh air for me. With that said, Minoria does contain some similarities with my previous projects (especially Momodora’s latest installment, Reverie Under the Moonlight).

I am proud of what we’ve been making for Minoria, and I hope you will enjoy the story and characters I’ve prepared this time around!

Howdy folks, Dan here from Dangen Entertainment. It’s been hard patiently waiting for the announcement of Minoria, knowing what an amazing game it’s going to be. It combines everything I love about the Momodora games with stronger emphasis on a solemn story. I love how Bombservice is approaching the visuals this time around too--it’s a unique take that looks beautiful and shows another evolutionary step in the team’s development experience, just as previous titles have.

This game is extraordinary. A must-play if you’ve got an appetite for action-platformers like I do.

 

[Deleted member 113]

Looks great!

Dangen has been building a catalogue with some quality indie games.

 

[Pranooy]

Was looking forward to it, since i learned about it a week or two ago. Bought it just now and hyped to play it when i'm back home.

Way too many great indie titles out recently and no fucking time to play.

 

[uraizen]

Let me know what the combat is like. That can make or break a game for me and the gifs look bitchin'.

 

[prudis]

oh lol , its already out i guess

 

[prudis]

 

[Li Kao]

I just played the first three Momodora, loved them. Totally plan to play Reverie then Minoria, and what I will say won't change that, but... man I don't like the new art direction

 

[d00d3n]

I have played for a couple of hours at this point. It seems like a quality metroidvania with soulslike combat, but some aspects are annoying me.

Picked up items, opened doors and map clearing progress are only saved at save points, so you are heavily incentivized for backtracking to a save point every time you have accomplished something. It doesn't help that save points are quite far apart, that ordinary enemies can kill you quite easily and that various mini-boss encounters tend to show up without any notice. At this point I have lost progress several times by randomly stumbling into dangerous situations, which has been much less fun than in a Dark Souls game due to the non-persistence of items, shortcuts and map clearing progress after death. The only sane way to tackle the game seems to be with a tedious and cowardly playstyle.

The graphics look nice, but I get quite a bit of lag when playing on my overpowered PC (9900k, 2080 Ti). I am sure that this will be fixed with patches down the line, or it may be some issue related to running in high resolutions (I have been playing in 4k on my tv). One very specific nitpick related to graphics is that the locked gates that close off different parts of the map do not indicate which key is needed to open them, which results in unnecessary trial and error busy work when trying every key you get at every door.

The combat system is quite good. You have to manage light attacks, special attacks, parrying and dodging in the usual soulslike fashion. I think this is the strength of the game, but the points listed above detract from the fun of combat somewhat.

I am curious to play more of the game, but I currently think it falls short of Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight quite a bit.

 

[Li Kao]

Thanks for your detailed feedback !

 

[Durante]

Thanks for the impressions!

I'm currently at a conference but would really love to try this. Maybe I'll try running it on this laptop. I'm not too concerned if it falls a bit short of RutM, that was my GotY after all so it's hard to live up to that

 

[Durante]

I played it for a bit over hour -- on a Laptop, in 720p, with a single joycon as the controller -- I like it a lot so far!

 

[lashman]

I played it for a bit over hour -- on a Laptop, in 720p, with a single joycon as the controller -- I like it a lot so far!

that's good to hear!

 

[Durante]

I finished the game, and wrote a Steam review for it:

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 patters 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.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I just bought Minoria and I can't wait to start it!