We dig deep into why the latest top-down adventure from Yacht Club Games presents one of the most alluring pixelated locations of modern times.17:00, 29 May 2026Mina the Hollower's Tenebrous Isle is a deeply mysterious location that begs to be explored and offers up countless ways to want to do so.‌We hear and read about them time and time again… A new indie game inspired by FromSoftware’s string of punishing soulslikes, but offering up some sort of new twist. In the case of Mina the Hollower, though, the allure of the world it presents runs much deeper than just having to push past an incredibly high bar of difficulty. Enemies will certainly kick your ass, and it can definitely feel draining to lose all your Bones in an area you only just about managed to reach after several attempts.‌And yet, for as much as said bouts sometimes make me want to force a first through my Nintendo Switch 2 screen, another aspect Mina pulls from the likes of Bloodborne and Elden Ring always brings me back, and that is one of the most intriguing worlds I’ve ever had the joy of exploring, Tenebrous Isle.‌Much more than a simple riff on The Legend of Zelda’s Hyrule or any other location you’d find on NES or Game Boy during the height of the 8-bit era, Tenebrous Isle is absolutely sprawling - to the point of intimidation, in some ways. Size alone isn’t enough to make a location impressive, however, and so developer Yacht Club Games has been careful to fill it with all kinds of quirky characters, unique ways to get around, and, perhaps most importantly, all kinds of hidden secrets and Easter Eggs.Core to this is Mina’s ability to burrow under the Earth. Stone wall in the way of your planned route? Dig deep and around it. Line of intimidating soldiers obstructing the path ahead? Get underground and pass them by. It’s while engaging in the game’s core mechanic in such ways that the true magic of Tenebrous Isle comes alive. Especially when you accidentally burrow into a secret area.‌The game’s built-in Trinket system - gameplay modifying collectibles, essentially - only helps encourage this kind of curiosity. Encouraging me to look around and poke away at the game’s main six areas more than I otherwise would, exotic Trinkets I’ve found so far include the Spike Spurs that let you walk on spikes and take less damage and the self-explanatory Iron Lung that allows Mina to stay burrowed or longer.All six areas are absolutely brimming with such gadgets (if you know where to look) and all six can handily be explored in any order. It’s this design choice that further instils a similar sense of wonder I felt when first roaming the cobbled streets of Yarnham in Bloodborne.Dig deepPrior to firing up Mina the Hollower this week, and even while playing through its original demo focussed on the opening several months ago, I had no idea that I’d be let so much off the leash so early on. And, speaking honestly, I think it’s a tact that works both for and against the game.‌Having an entire cursed island to explore before you with very little direction is a tad overwhelming, dare I say, and it did result in me bumping all around the central town hub of Ossex for the better part of an hour until I found a vein of Tenebrous I could burrow and fight may way down. Even then, that Yacht Club Games places such trust in players that they’ll eventually find their own path is indicative of Mina the Hollower’s exploratory brilliance.Rather than rush out a review full of half-formed thoughts in time for an arbitrary embargo, early on I knew that Mina the Hollower was a special enough game that I’d want to take my time with it. So far, Tenebrous Isle’s willingness to let you explore and always reward your need to do so via trinkets, a fight against a sentient house, or whatever may lurk around the corner of the next area I investigate, is the thing that’s most stuck with me.Article continues belowMina the Hollower can in fact be categorised as The Legend of Zelda meets Bloodborne as many expected, then. Just not always for the reasons you probably assumed.Mina the Hollower is available now on PS5, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch.