Poverty in Mina the Hollower

It’s pretty obvious from the get-go that Mina the Hollower has stuff to say about wealth inequality. I’m only a third of the way through, so I can’t say where exactly it’s going. The town the game plays in is at a turning point. But the way the inhabitants of the main town are portrayed and the ambiguity of Mina’s perceived main antagonist makes it clear the direction the mayor wants to take it, probably isn’t a good one.

Your quest of restoring electricity benefits and gets support by the high society. On the other hand, there’s a district with many beggar NPCs that ask the player for money. If you choose to do so some of them reward you with valuable information on how to access restricted areas or how to solve smaller puzzles. This could be read in a bad way in which the player only helps these characters to get a reward. The more charitable interpretation is that they know their environment like no one else. The wealthier NPCs that strut around rarely have to share anything useful. That’s only one of multiple symptoms that this town has problems. As outsiders who just came to the city we can’t really determine how it’s come to this though.

I’m actually way more invested in the story than I initially anticipated. You fear what is going to happen if you succeed in your quest. And although the signs are obviously there, Mina trusts her old friend and insists on following this path. There isn’t a ton of time spent on it and it’s mostly in the background. But this discrepancy between player and player character makes it engaging throughout the game and keeps you guessing where it’s going to go wrong.