Mio: Memories In Orbit – For a genre there are so many successful names that define this genre such as Castlevania, Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Ori, Dead Cells… has left a very large shadow that is difficult to overcome.

If the reader has “plowed” Hollow Knight: Silksong last year and are excitedly looking for a new similar game, let's try it out with MarkGame. Mio: Memories In Orbit with lots of promise to follow!

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“BREEZE” RENEWS THE OLD GENRE

Playing the role of a tiny robot named Mio, players are awakened with a simple mission to fix the “world” of Mio: Memories In Orbit – a ship, but this ship is not like a machine: it has emotions, a heart, eyes, senses like a living body and a long story waiting for you to discover.

Mio: Memories In Orbit Do not put too much emphasis on familiar mechanisms such as double jumping, climbing/climbing walls, pogo… These mechanisms are still present in the game, but the frequency of using them is not too much, but requires the player to combine with “new techniques” that will be “unlocked” gradually during Mio's adventure.

Mio has a special hair, this hair can do many things from “punching”, to clinging to walls, to shooting tentacles to help Mio move through many different types of terrain.

At first glance, these mechanisms are not “new” in terms of form, nor are they as complicated as they are Hollow Knight: Silksong But the way it is deployed during flying and jumping in the game brings many very clear differences.

In just a short movement sequence, the player needs to combine: jump, air attack, double jump, slow landing, pogo, stick to the ceiling, hook shot, avoid obstacles and land in the right position of the lever to continue coordinating the combo move (as above) in the next segment but with a different order, with different fast and slow speeds.

This mechanism is a bit DIFFICULT: difficult to get used to, difficult to master, and the challenges the game poses are also difficult, especially near the end of the game. Not to the same extent as Path of Pain's Hollow Knightbut enough to make even experienced players “hot”.

Even during combat, the movement mechanism of Mio: Memories In Orbit also really creates a very different rhythm of play.

Mio does not deal damage when performing pogo (hopscotch on the enemy's head) but only counts as a normal jump. Instead, players who want to maintain an aerial combo need to jump + hit the target at the same time as in Devil May Cry (but slower), combined with shooting hooks and rushing at opponents and running… hiding using the ceiling, really brings a very different fighting rhythm but is still very exciting and thrilling!

In addition to bringing a new movement mechanic based on Mio's hair, Mio: Memories In Orbit Also thoroughly learned the mechanism of upgrading characters with special “charms”. Hollow Knight.

Instead of offering a linear power upgrade mechanism based on leveling up, upgrading weapons or increasing skill points, Mio: Memories In Orbit introduced Mod mechanism. Each Mod in Mio: Memories In Orbit Depending on the effect, it will take up a different number of empty slots, and with the amount of empty slots available, players need to consider and think about which upgrades to use to be more suitable in each specific case.

This means that Mio, even though at the end of the game, will still be a weak and fragile character, but in exchange for longer endurance, free healing, and earning more money dropped from enemies. Or in the case of encountering a boss, a “build Mod” that focuses on fighting with high damage, continuous healing when performing combos and even “reading” the opponent's health will definitely be a reasonable choice!

Not every boss has the same way of dealing with it, so finding Mods, upgrading the number of cells, and using these Mods in appropriate “build” ways also requires players to invest in calculations, not everything that increases damage or health is “stuffed” into the body.

And a “revolutionary” mechanism point that perhaps the writer has to “thank God” because it appeared in a Metroidvania game: the enemy only deals damage to the player when performing an attack!

It sounds funny, but honestly, just by “touching” an enemy, regardless of whether they are performing attacks or applying effects or not, the player will still be “hit” with damage like most other Metroidvania games on the market, making the writer frustrated. Especially with games with bad boss designs like Silksong. And Mio: Memories In Orbit did what other games of the same genre should have done a long time ago.

You will no longer have to be afraid of “bumping into” any enemy inside Mio: Memories In Orbit when they are not in attack mode, thereby increasing their initiative in approaching the target much more. Just look at the enemy's attacks, learn how they give signals and moves, and you can grasp the secret of victory.

This feature/mechanism does not make the game easier, but on the contrary, it allows players to boldly perform more flexible moves in combat. In return, the difficulty in battles will be compensated by the design of the enemy's moves.

Especially the bosses are done extremely well by Douze Dixièmes, very diverse in appearance design, many difficult moves with many different fighting stages forcing players to “learn” by trying and dying many times to be able to overcome.

The bosses are made extremely well by Douze Dixièmes, very diverse in appearance design, many difficult moves with many different fighting stages.

Rustic BEAUTY

Mio: Memories In Orbit very beautiful with scenes that are both magnificent, poetic, and colorful with lines depicted like a comic book but painted with watercolor strokes, both traditional and modern.

Douze Dixièmes didn't try to create models filled with millions of poly details or cram in lots of flashy but heavy effects, but simply chose to go with a much more refined style, reminiscent of the famous Moebius painting style. The basic, simple but figurative designs serve the purpose of telling stories well with images and diverse colors that every time you step foot in them, they bring indescribable emotions to the player.

Players will certainly be amazed by the colorful sparkle of the hanging garden called “Heaven”, with an “innocent” spirit when conversing with NPCs here. Players will also surely be overwhelmed by the magnificence of the urban center of Metropolis, with modern skyscrapers but bringing a very lonely, cold and apologetic feeling, when it is covered with a cold layer of ice and snow.

Players will also feel the tension and suffocation as they gradually venture into deeper levels of the world. Mio: Memories In Orbit like poisonous swamps and factories full of fire, red-hot steel and dozens of deadly traps.

Emotions during the adventure are also well exploited by the game when combining graphics, game rhythm and background music with many narrative influences, evoking depth and sadness.

World of Mio: Memories In Orbit Built extremely meticulously and surprisingly. They are not too lively but are very methodically organized, with specific subdivisions playing different but closely complementary roles in operation and map design, forcing players to constantly travel through these areas without getting lost even without using the location mod. Then when the whole is opened, new facts will also be revealed right in the map.

World of Mio: Memories In Orbit Built extremely meticulously and surprisingly. They are not too lively but very organized

NPCs in the game also play a very important role, not only in telling stories but also as effective guides and they are also expressed naturally with their own stories, rather than “feeding” the players.

When you solve the problem you encounter, it is also the end of the story that the NPC is talking about even though they are not really the same story, as well as opening up… a dozen more information to continue telling the story that happened in your world. Mio: Memories In Orbit.

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NEW, GOOD, BUT NOT EXCELLENT ENOUGH!

Mio: Memories In Orbit is a game that surprised the writer with its quality, invested in designing eye-catching graphics, a plot worth pondering, good background music and many new gameplay improvements. But somewhere there are still a few “grits” that cause the game to be misjudged with the potential it has.

Mio: Memories In Orbit got off to a very, very slow start. The game pace is slow, average, with little climax during the first half of the game, players will be very “chill” and… lack the motivation to explore because the game offers few hints, some designs are a bit “imprisoned” due to limitations in movement skills, not allowing movement between save points.

The early game challenges are also relatively easy, with few challenges, so they easily bring the feeling of a “B-grade game”. Only in the second half of the game does the difficulty suddenly increase at a very tense pace, especially with the continuous chase scenes.

The lack of balance in this design makes experienced players in this genre find the game a bit boring and lacking in challenges, even though they have reached the halfway point and soon… quit the game, while gamers new to Metroidvania will be a bit “overwhelmed” with the sudden increase in difficulty and need a lot of perseverance to conquer, dying over and over again.

As for me, I don't like the way the game uses hair to fight, it's a bit different from normal fighting, because the player cannot determine the distance that Mio's hair attacks can reach.

For example, in a combo chain of three consecutive moves, all three have different attack distances. The first attack is very far, but the second attack is shorter, while the last attack is as far as the first attack. Similarly, the jumping attack from below also has a different damage distance than the pogo attack from above… And this is really frustrating in many cases where the player is “encircled” by dozens of enemies, or while flying and jumping requires combining attacks to restore energy.

Another failing point of Mio: Memories In Orbit The animation is not really good, it has no power and also lacks weight, it feels like everything in the game is very light and lacking in finality.

If you are a player who likes to be strong and determined in battle scenes Mio: Memories In Orbit not really met.

If you are a player who likes to be strong and determined in battle scenes Mio: Memories In Orbit not really met