MIO: Memories In Orbit - This indie Metroidvania is criminally underrated

Just finished MIO after about 22 hours and I need to talk about this game because it's way better than I expected.

What hooked me immediately:

The art style is insane. It looks hand-drawn with this watercolor vibe, like someone's animated sketchbook came to life. I kept stopping just to look at the environments. The soundtrack is also incredible—mix of haunting vocals, synth-wave, and some Daft Punk-esque tracks that fit perfectly.

You play as MIO, a tiny robot who woke up with no memories on this massive failing space structure called The Vessel. Your job is basically to save everyone by exploring, fighting, and figuring out what happened. Pretty standard Metroidvania setup, but the execution is what matters.

The gameplay slaps:

Movement feels SO GOOD once you unlock abilities. You get a double-jump that refreshes when you attack enemies, which leads to these crazy sequences where you're bouncing off enemies mid-air without touching the ground. Later you get grappling hooks, wall-climbs, gliding—it all chains together beautifully.

The platforming gets genuinely hard. Like, I'm talking 30+ attempts on some sections. But here's the thing—it never felt unfair. Every time I failed, I knew it was because I messed up, not because the game screwed me over. When you finally nail a difficult section, it feels amazing.

Boss fights are tough but fair. They're well-designed, and the runbacks aren't terrible like some other games (cough Hollow Knight cough). You actually learn the patterns and improve instead of just getting frustrated.

What I really appreciated:

The devs included accessibility options. There's an assist where bosses get slightly weaker with each attempt, and another that slowly regenerates health when you're standing still. This doesn't make the game easy—you still need skill—but it lets you tune the difficulty to your preference. Huge props for this.

The map is massive and packed with secrets. Just when I thought I'd seen everything, I'd find another huge area. Exploration is genuinely rewarding with useful upgrades, lore items, and hidden paths everywhere.

The downsides:

The fast travel system is kind of annoying. You need to find both the checkpoint AND a hidden NPC nearby to unlock it, which led to way more backtracking than I wanted.

The map is split into upper and lower sections, and you can't fast travel between them. So you're riding this super long elevator constantly. Not game-breaking, just tedious.

The story is... okay? It's got interesting world-building and cool lore scattered around, but it doesn't quite come together by the end. The emotional beats work, but I wanted more.

Final thoughts:

If you like Metroidvanias, play this. It's up there with Hollow Knight and Ori in terms of quality. The movement system alone makes it worth playing, and the difficulty feels perfectly balanced between challenging and accessible.

It's not perfect, but it's damn close. Easily one of the best indie games I've played recently.

Rating: 9/10 - A must-play for Metroidvania fans

Worth the price? Absolutely. Took me 22 hours to beat with about 85% completion, and there's still post-game content I haven't touched.