Don’t Die, Minerva! Is a fun little rogue-like shooter game with easy to pick up mechanics and a progression system that will keep you coming back for more every time you get a little bit further. Even though the game is still in the early stages of development, I still enjoyed my time with it.
Gameplay
Just as the title suggests, Don’t Die, Minerva! has you assume the roll of Minerva, a creepy girl armed with a flashlight, in order to explore and conquer a haunted hotel full of ghosts and ghoulies. Your flashlight is your main weapon. Shine its light on your enemies to deal heavy damage to the many creeps who are aggressively attempting to add you to their permanent guest list. Minerva also has an arsenal of helpful companions from a monkey that acts like a turret and lobs bananas at any enemy in range to a furious feline that follows Minerva around and attacks anything that gets too close to her.
Every procedurally-generated floor of this hotel acts as a level with a Boss Room, Secret Treasure Room, and an Alter, which can teleport Minerva to a shop where she can buy temporary and permanent upgrades. The goal in Don’t Die, Minerva! Is to get as far as fast as possible without losing your health. Because if Minerva loses, you have to start all over again from floor one.
Mechanics
Every enemy ghost popped in Don’t Die, Minerva! will drop coins Minerva can use to buy temporary upgrades in the form of new flashlights, gear, and augments. Along with the enemies, Minerva can also destroy objects in her environment to uncover secret coins, augments and gems, which can be used at the Alter’s secret shop to purchase permanent upgrades like Health, hidden abilities, and even fast travel options. As Minerva grows in strength, so too does her foes. Each enemy type has a different type of attack. Bats will fly around and shotgun spectral fireballs. Bedsheet ghosts will rattle off an endless barrage of bullets while reapers rush in for a charged melee strike all aiming to take down Minerva’s health to zero so that she too can join their spooky party. But this little girl won’t go down without a fight. Aside from her quick dodge roll, all of Minerva’s gear from her flashlight to the shoes she wears can be augmented with several elemental gems that give her a powerful edge against her foes. Between her flashlight and companion, these elemental augments can set up some impressive combos. My favorite so far is giving my cat the ability to freeze enemies in a group while I come in with my electrified Flashlight and deal some explosive area damage.
Aesthetics & Sound
With Don’t Die, Minerva! Still in its beta stages of development the aesthetics are still subject to change and improvements. However, for the time being they serve their purpose. Minerva is a pleasantly creepy little girl who will break the silence of exploring the hotel by humming a tune that always puts me on edge whenever I hear it. The music does a good job blending into the background and you don’t notice it very much, yet it creates a quiet angst that fills the hotel with an otherworldly aura that makes you question why you’re here in the first place. Its when the music picks up when you enter a new room and start fighting the ghosts that you actually feel a bit of relief and remember, “Oh yeah, it’s just a game.”
Summary
Don’t Die, Minerva! is a fun little Bullet Hell roguelike to pass the time by. I found it incredibly easy to hop in and out of the game during my free time and was always excited to see how far I would get this time around. Each level offers a nice variety of traps and ever-scaling enemies with newer augments of their own, but nothing ever seems to be impossible to overcome, which will keep you coming back for more. This is a title to keep your eye on if you like good, casual grindy fun. So good luck. Have Fun. Don’t Suck, & Don’t Die, Minerva!
Check Out the Don’t Die, Minerva! Video:
For more information, please visit: http://xaviant.com/
As the (self-proclaimed) King of Casuals, I'm always seeking out new titles to play and experience across all platforms. Eventually, I have ambitions to take the many different styles of this medium to create titles that will wow the masses in fresh, innovative ways.
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