MIO: Memories in Orbit is a metroidvania with a beautiful, watercolor art style and an engaging sci-fi narrative. You play as a little robot named Mio aboard a massive spaceship called The Vessel that is clearly failing and falling into disrepair. There are many other bots around, and they are mostly hostile, but a few are friendly and help you piece together the story. The Vessel was meant to take a group of humans, called Travelers, to a new home world. The Travelers are nowhere to be found, and progressing reveals more details about the tragedy that has befallen the ship and its passengers.
Long story short: This game is a masterpiece of the metroidvania genre. The art and sound design are stunning. The map is huge, with surprises around every corner. Boss fights are frequent and brutal, but fair. The platforming challenges, especially toward the end of the game, are similarly punishing — but still fair. In both cases, your patience is rewarded when, after countless attempts, each time learning a bit more, you finally defeat the boss or reach the end of the platforming challenge. The best illustration of this, for me, was the battle with Sol & Vin, a double boss with incredibly powerful attacks and a long health bar. On my first attempts I was dispatched in just two hits. It seemed impossible. But, after many more attempts — and learning some helpful strategies from YouTube videos — I finally succeeded.
Hollow Knight is a well-known metroidvania masterpiece. For me, MIO: Memories in Orbit improves on it in many ways: certainly the art style and environments, and also the narrative. Hollow Knight has the edge in terms of combat mechanics (variety of attacks available to the player) but despite that, MIO‘s boss battles were every bit as satisfying, just more about learning the complex attack patterns, dodging often, and attacking at the right moments. As for platforming, MIO had its own version of Hollow Knight‘s Path of Pain in an end-game area called The Crucible.
I may just be in the afterglow of completing a really beautiful, really satisfying game, but right now MIO: Memories in Orbit ranks high among my favorite games of all time. With full acknowledgement that it was heavily inspired by Hollow Knight, I found MIO to be more compelling, more beautiful, and ultimately more satisfying. It took me more than 70 hours, but I completed this game 100% and it still left me wanting more. MIO: Memories in Orbit is an unforgettable experience for metroidvania fans.