Minoria

General Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
I recommend the game, but with caveats.
Even though it differs from the visual style of the Momodora series, I found the game itself to be very beautiful and captivated me from the beginning, but I soon realized how repetitive and boring it was becoming. The enemy variety is very small, the patterns and difficulty are ridiculously easy to learn, and there is no real challenge from the beginning to the end of the game. Practically 99% of incense is expendable (with the exception of healing ones) and the weapons that the game offers are ridiculous. There is no reason to change weapons when they all have the same damage (with the exception of one that is weaker than the others), and their attack patterns only vary 2 or 3 times. The game's music is also nothing outstanding and the level design is weak and leaves a lot to be desired.
One thing that was very evident was that they tried to put a lot of Soulslike elements into the game in a way that didn't match the style of the series (despite this being a spin-off). I feel like it was all very rushed, untested and unrefined.
It's worth noting that I started playing Minoria shortly after playing (and 100% completing) Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, so comparing both games was inevitable. While in Momodora: RUtM I enjoyed finishing the game more than once, including in Insane Mode, here there is no real incentive to finish the game a second time to get the second ending, which makes the second playthrough frustrating. The map in New Game+ starts completely open, but although this helps, there is no indication of which areas you have already passed through in this second playthrough, which ends up confusing the player a little.
Despite everything, I still recommend the game and I think it's worth at least one playthrough, as you'll hardly want to revisit the game again.

Absolutely fantastic mini-metroidvania. Movement is fluid. Bosses are challenging, but not frustrating. The music is the perfect accompaniment to a dramatic, dark religious inquisition story. Every character commits to their role in the story 110%, and there's some great dialogue between them.

Read all the lore, the notes you find, everything. They add depth to the story and nuance to the moral questions at play.

I enjoyed mixing and matching the incense to refine my approach to combat. Same with the different equippable weapons, though in most cases they felt cosmetic (which was fine with me).

The game took me about 7 hours to complete, and that included finding all the lore pages, a great deal of the secrets, and the post-game content in the Library (the tower). This was fun enough that I'll likely NewGame+ this when I'm in the mood for a quick metroidvania again.

Some people complain about the map and the inability to fast travel. Personally, I had no issues with this. I like the minimalist map, and movement is fast enough that I was able to get where I wanted to go pretty quickly, even when backtracking. If there were any quality-of-life improvements I'd like to see, they'd be the ability to scroll the map to look at sections that are farther away from where you are, and maybe color-coded sections of the map indicating which screens belong to which major areas. But again, those would be QoL improvements, and the game was still a blast without them.

Two thumbs up. If you like little action platformers, then you'll enjoy this.

Recommend to buy when the game on discount.
I have this game sit in my library for 2 years before I try. Well, I can tell you that this game is not age well for metroidvania.
Good:
Combat is ok and I like parry system.
I like art direction.
Bad:
I don't like map design. There is a lot of shortcut that once you unlock you will unlikely to use them.
The ways your character scaling.
More:
Game is short and story is predictable (both are fine for me)
In this game, both enemy and you are glasscanon but they give you a lot of healing item.

The good:
-Beauty soundtrack.
-Beauty pixel art.
-Simple gameplay.
The bad:
-It was easier for me than Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight.

The game is good. It has a simple story, simple combat, nice art style and pleasant post-classical music. Consider it a small game from a small team. Don't expect a deep twisted plot or advanced mechanics, just enjoy the ride.

Decent game, with a fairly ok progression system as far as combat leveling and damage goes, and a nigh-invincible counter attack. As a Metroidvania though, it's lacking in the platforming, puzzles and traversal mechanics. Things that I thought Momodora (the developer's other game) did much better at. Some of the regular jumping is a bit too janky for my taste. The map being excessively wide without fast travel (until you *beat* the game) is a bit of a dealbreaker. The incenses feel generally pretty underwhelming. Overall, definitely something to get on sale, but otherwise just ok.

Maybe due to the length I would say get it on a sale, but otherwise quite enjoyable. The leveling system and combat are a little odd but make sense after a bit. Youre not really supposed to tank hits so its a slight challenge but there are more than enough save points to keep the pacing feeling good. The 'parry' you get also has an insanely generous window. Would love to see a more fleshed out sequel one day.