'MIO: Memories in Orbit' Game Review: A Memorable Experience
When I saw the trailer for MIO: Memories in Orbit for the first time, I immediately clocked influences from Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest--two games, along with their sequels (Hollow Knight: Silksong and Ori and the Will of the Wisps), I hold in the highest regard. That led to MIO landing atop my “Top 5 Games” releasing in January. Having now played it for 20-plus hours, I can confirm it deserved that placement.
In MIO, you control a small robot of the same name tasked with reactivating the caretakers of a massive spacefaring ark known as The Vessel before everything shuts down. Each of these units, known as Pearls, is given an anatomical name: The Blood, The Hand, The Eye, and so on. As you’d suspect, it all connects back to The Spine, which serves as the central hub and de facto home base for your exploration.
Initially, you’ll only have access to a slingshot-like function called the hairpin, where the tendrils on your head can reach out and grab objects or enemies and use them to propel you. As with any Metroidvania, this will grant access to certain areas, but you’ll need to discover new abilities to access unreachable areas. Along the way you’ll acquire the ability to sail, slowing your fall and elongating jumps, a dodge, and a very cool looking spider-like skill that’ll let you cling to and crawl across walls.
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It’s within designing its map to make you utilize this set of tools that MIO does its best work, mixing and matching to create complex tests of your dexterity. There’s loads of trial-and-error baked into level design, so be prepared for some frustration as you’re tasked with stringing together one precision move after another—double jump to a wall, cling to it, climb over the sawblades, let go, spring off an enemy, slingshot over carnivorous grass, hit another foe, and continue on for another dozen steps before landing safely. You’ll think you landed the hit to recharge the energy required to power your core abilities, only to find out moments later you somehow missed it—and then you fall helplessly to your death, sent back to the start, costing you a hit point.
The good news is that the platforming here is more like a puzzle, and once you figure out the approach and timing, it becomes exponentially easier to do it again. Sure, you’ll still mistime a jump or misjudge an angle, but repeating solutions were not a significant obstacle.
It also helps that the world of MIO is beautifully crafted. There’s tremendous variety from one area of The Vessel to another, and it makes the repeated backtracking feel less like a chore. The soundtrack is also very good, doing more than its share of setting the melancholy mood as you explore this lovely but dying ship.
On the combat side, things aren’t as engaging. You begin the game with a three-hit combo, and you end the game with a three-hit combo. Enemy variety is modest, and they seemed to fall into one of two camps for me: non-threatening cannon fodder and incredibly annoying, cheap-feeling foes (most notably a robot with a long, scorpion-like tail that can literally hit you when the enemy isn’t even on your screen).
Thankfully, as pedestrian as the rank-and-file enemies are, the bosses fare much better. It’s in these moments where the game most feels like Hollow Knight, though most of them don’t rise to the difficulty level of Team Cherry’s masterpiece. To me, that’s just fine. Not every boss fight needs to require 50-plus attempts to defeat them.
Even within that, however, there are plenty of challenging bosses to encounter, and the game mixes in terrain-based obstacles to overcome as well, such as fighting on slippery ice or having wind blow you around, making you adapt to survive.
While your combat options are limited, MIO does feature modifiers akin to charms in Hollow Knight, ranging from basics like seeing your own health bar and making recharge stations free to more specialized changes. Each requires a set number of boxes from your matrix, which can be expanded by purchasing upgrades using the in-game currency. That currency can also be used to buy additional modifiers, though most are found while exploring The Vessel, and health upgrades (also found via exploration).
Health is actually my biggest point of contention with the game’s design. Developer Douze Dixièmes has several scripted moments within the game where Mio will collapse to the ground, and when she gets up, she’ll lose a hit point...permanently. It’s hard to overstate how unfair and counterintuitive this feels. You spend time collecting or buying health fragments only to have the game arbitrarily take it away from you. I get that it’s supposed to push the narrative forward, but as a game mechanic I don’t like it at all.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are the game’s assists. Although MIO has no difficulty settings, it has three options that can be activated to help mitigate the challenge. One allows you to create an additional hit point if you remain on solid ground for a few seconds, which is good for platforming. Another makes all non-boss enemies docile unless you attack them. The last whittles away boss health on failed attempts, meaning each subsequent fight will be slightly easier. It’s a really smart way to offer help and make the game more accessible.
Final Score: 8/10
With its excellent presentation, tight platforming, and memorable boss battles, MIO: Memories in Orbit is able to overcome lackluster combat and a dubious design choice to deliver dozens of hours of Metroidvania goodness.