I saw someone say that Minoria is only 2-3 hours long, but the only way I can see that being true is if you’re rushing it and already know where everything is. Another person said 4-5 hours, which is at least slightly more accurate, but I’m 5 hours in and things are only beginning to feel like they’re wrapping up. It’s looking like 5½ hours is about where it lands when you check rooms for secrets and otherwise go out of your way to explore. Minoria‘s story has become increasingly interesting despite one of its two competiting factions very clearly being in the wrong, while the difficulty has all but vanished; it’s still possible to get killed in a couple of hits, but I’m finishing most bosses off on my first attempt. Those that manage to kill me while I’m learning their attack patterns go down on the second attempt. I haven’t even done any grinding since that nun fight earlier. The difficulty is all over the place, though I do prefer games that begin hard and later empower you over those that do the opposite.

Anyway, I recently obtained a new power that allows you to perform a slashing horizontal strike in midair. It’s looking like this is going to be more of a platforming thing than a combat thing, but it’s performed by tapping the dodge/parry button twice in midair, which is something my muscle memory keeps having me do in the middle of fights anyway. That reflex will finally be good for inflicting some extra damage.

I was right on the money with the 5½ playtime estimate but missed out on a bunch of secrets because I wasn’t sure which direction was forward. On the bright side, you’re able to reload your save at the very end and continue exploring (though you apparently can’t make a different ending choice without starting a new game), and a post-credits message suggests that new areas of the library have become available. That’s something I’m going to have to check out. Also, I love Minoria‘s credits. Games that do something creative in place of a boring text crawl are the best.

The library does indeed get expanded when you beat the game. There’s an optional boss there who you can challenge, an extra portal that allows you to warp around quickly, and you can also keep your equipment and level and dive into a harder New Game + mode. Minoria appears to have two endings (which one you get depends on your choices after the last boss rather than your actions leading up to that point), which serves as an excuse to give New Game + a whirl. First, though, I want to get my level so absurdly high that I can tear through every encounter like wet tissue paper, and this area in Mercy Cellar right next to the warp point is ideal for quickly grinding oodles of experience. I’m also making an effort to collect every one of Minoria‘s 40 silver coins and 30 archive entries before moving on, and a couple of coins are proving elusive.

Minoria was recently patched to version 1.02, and the developer has really been making an effort to fix up every little thing. Case in point: I updated the game on my “B” computer and it no longer freezes when entering the cutscene that leads to the library. Old computers, rejoice!

Seeing as how I was able to take down NG+ bosses in 10-20 seconds because of how much damage I was doing after the grinding, I challenged myself to beat them all without taking any damage. This actually earns you new Incense (and one boss gives you a sword), which is pretty cool. I’ve also received the second ending and found one or two hidden-ish scenes/areas. The ending you get determines the credits song and art you see, and I really like that. By all accounts, I’ve been done with Minoria for a couple of hours; my level is currently maxed out at 99, every boss has been beaten without taking damage, and I’ve seen both endings. There are some items in my inventory and littered throughout the world that don’t serve an obvious purpose, however, and so I’ve spent a lot of time wandering around in the hopes of stumbling upon some kind of super-secret third ending that incorporates all of these elements. Also, when the library is expanded after beating the game, the developers hang around like in Chrono games’ developer endings, and one of them says something about it being possible to obtain higher than 100% map completion.

After digging into the save game data and messing with values, though, I have no idea what that means. There’s no map completion percentage that’s ever visible, and if there are extra items, they can’t be materialized by messing with the save game data. The only other thing I can think of is to beat every boss using nothing but parries so that your kills are all self-defense, but that’s such a daunting proposition with such a slim chance of leading to a secret that I’m throwing in the towel. Still, I’ve come to really enjoy Minoria now that I have the timing and movement down.

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