Don’t Die, Minerva! is a cutesy Rogue-like with some dark undertones mixed in with some bullet hell for good measure. You control the main protagonist, Minerva, on her quest to venture throughout a haunted mansion on behalf of a beheaded ghost butler. Armed with a trusty flashlight (Luigi’s Mansion vibes) and some stuffed, plushy friends, you clear floor after floor fighting ghouls, bats and monsters of every kind.
The cartoonish graphics and simply game play hide deep mechanics based on equipping the proper loadout to maximize the right elemental bonuses and stats to work in perfect harmony. Health comes very sparingly so it’s vital that you can clear each floor as quickly as possible, lowering the chance for you to take damage and end your journey prematurely.
The controls are tight and intuitive, while game play on normal is deceptively hard. It’s quite easy to wipe out early on in the game if you let your attention on the game slip even a little.
The game is early access but it feels smooth and more content should be added as it nears it’s official release, including additional biomes, enemies, items, and more. Look forward to it!
Ducky Obrien 