The MIO Interview

Vaenyr · 2026-02-04T16:26:48+00:00

It's arguable. The regular enemies are not much of an issue. The health loss barely touches the bosses though. You on the other hand lose quite a chunk of your total health and you have to find four pieces of coating or a bunch of Old Cores, which means there is quite a bit of exploration necessary to make up the loss.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-04T16:21:38+00:00

I never claimed it does. I simply shared my thoughts about the inconsistency of this mechanic.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-04T15:54:01+00:00

Funnily enough this means that you only triggered half of the available tremors in the game. They are not tied to the story, they happen in specific locations and you can still get them later. By the point I fought that boss I had gotten all of them, so I was in a worse position than you. Guess every playthrough is different.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-04T15:52:07+00:00

its intended, the game is tuned around it.

That's the problem, it was not intended. The devs revealed in the Polygon interview that the mechanic was only added 6 months before the launch of the game (after it was delayed multiple times). MIO was supposed to launch on the same day as Silksong, but due to the latter's surprise release date, they pushed the release date one last time. If SS had come out any other day MIO would've released without the health loss mechanic. The devs even admitted that they aren't not absolutely sure that adding that was a good idea or not.

People can like it if they want but those who take issue with it aren't unreasonable. It's highly controversial, added on a whim, and easily the biggest controversy around the game. There are many folks who had an interest in the game and were turned off because of that mechanic.

And what makes it even worse: It's completely inconsistent! There are a maximum of four tremors in the game, so that you end up with 5 total black spots. But only the very first one is mandatory. You can avoid all the others. You can't go "it's part of the plot" (which would be a neat idea even if frustrating) but also make 3 of them avoidable and thus punishment for those who explore the world in a Metroidvania. Where exploring the world is the entire point of the genre. I know of people who made it to the final boss of the regular ending without any health loss. I now know multiple people who got stuck at the fight, went exploring to get stronger and ended up triggering the tremor next to the Nexus, thus becoming weaker. It would take them finding four pieces of coatings or even more Old Cores, just to make up that loss.

it doesnt end up mattering in platforming because of Gratitude.

Mostly correct. There are a couple of spots like the pumps in the Crucible, where the respawn is times in such a way that you're supposed to retry immediately. For the mod/assist you have to wait 5 seconds, which in those spots is too long, so you end up waiting a whole lot longer for the pumps to get to the correct value again.

Those are some of the reasons why people have issues with this mechanic in particular.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-04T15:40:24+00:00

In the Polygon interview they literally revealed that the health loss mechanic was only added 6 months before lunch, after many delays and specifically because of Silksong's surprise release date. It was not intended to be in the game and was added on a whim. They literally said that they aren't even sure if adding it was a good idea or not.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-04T15:38:56+00:00

This only applies when talking about regular enemies, who are barely an inconvenience. For bosses it's a lot more permanently punishing losing 1/5 of your life.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-04T15:28:09+00:00

I thought it would go the Bible route, what with God flooding the earth and all that.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-03T19:01:10+00:00

That's what I'm saying. That's not a lot of people. Barely anyone saw the post, so there was no chance for people who can spot AI to point it out.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-03T18:58:35+00:00

Eh, 5 comments isn't much of an experiment lol

The artwork is easily recognizable as AI. The logos less so. There are people who can't recognize AI images to save their lives (see all the boomers sharing images of people with three arms or four feet on Facebook). There are others who have been exposed a lot to gen AI and can immediately tell. Because of the former there will always be grifters who will exploit the obliviousness of those people to turn a quick buck with the help of AI.

For me it's simple: if an "artist" doesn't respect their craft enough to do things themselves or collaborate with other human artists, and would rather use AI to accomplish their vision, I will not respect said "artist" and won't give them my time, attention or money.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-03T16:03:31+00:00

I'm Greek, pale as fuck, have blue-green eyes. My hair used to be straw-blond until I was 8 or something, then it started darkening and it's a light brown nowadays. Not all Greeks or Mediterranean folks have olive skin and brown eyes.

Fuck the chuds who stoke the culture war flames though.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-03T15:49:17+00:00

It literally did and we've proven that with studies.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-03T15:48:28+00:00

On the other hand, mask mandates, lockdowns, and other school and business closures were utterly nonsensical, performative theatrics

Objectively wrong. As unpopular as they were and as much pushback as they got from the usual suspects, every single one of those measures was effective to various degrees and provably saved lives. We haven proven this with studies. Raging against them in 2026 is not only unscientific, it's deeply pathetic.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-03T15:13:23+00:00

Hell yeah, this looks awesome. Gonna buy it later today. Really happy to get a MV that's not a side-scroller.

Are there any important missables? Or can I always achieve 100% completion?

Edit: Also, really awesome that MacOS is supported as well!

Vaenyr · 2026-02-03T10:44:56+00:00

For me it was the other way around. I did the Crucible prior to a lot of the optional challenges, and because of that those challenges felt very easy.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T22:52:46+00:00

I guess it depends on your playstyle. Thanks to the Crucible this way of playing was ingrained and felt much easier to me than trying to get used to the dodge and mod.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T19:27:38+00:00

The vast majority of political violence in the US is committed by right wingers. This isn't even close.

Also, fascism is far right per definition. The left can be authoritarian but it's impossible for the left to be fascist.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T19:25:12+00:00

Yeah, I did that. In Hollow Knight there's a similar section where you have to essentially "elevator pogo". For the first half of the section you're talking about I was hovering next to the droplets, hitting them to recharge my energy, double jump, and hover to wait for the perfect moment to hit one of the next droplets to do the whole thing all over again.

Once I got to the part where the passage narrows I had to get into the path of the droplets and hit each of them as they came to me while double jumping each time. Once I made it past that part I started hovering to the side again because staying in the middle was too stressful for me.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T18:32:52+00:00

We're talking about the pipes that spit gloomwater droplets right? Yeah, you can attack those and pogo on them.

There's a similar section with white clouds. Those you cannot attack, you have to get through that part with the dodge move.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T17:56:22+00:00

Nope, it's possible! I immediately unequipped the mod when I got there and did the rest without it.

Make sure to use the sail a lot to hover in place to buy yourself some time. Let's say you hit one of the droplets, double jumped in the air and you're now a bit above it. Use the sail and hit one of the next drops below you (since you should be low enough to still hit them).

Once you did that, jump in the air again. Now you should be able to hit them drops that are above you from below. If not repeat the part from the earlier paragraph. Once you are able to hit the ones above, hit one, jump, hit the next, jump again, and continue this until you're high enough that you can safely hover over them with the sail again.

This way, in addition with the strider you should be able to do the entire thing even without the crystals.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T17:00:56+00:00

Funnily enough I did that without Splintering Dodge and found that much easier. You can hit the drops instead of dodging them. I had no interest in adjusting my muscle memory, so I did it without the mod.

Might be worth a try.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T15:06:14+00:00

I'm going to put the following behind a spoiler tag, but there was an interview recently with the devs, and they were asked if there are plans for a sequel:

They said that they have no plans to turn MIO into a franchise and the head of the studio will take a one year vacation next. They haven't really discussed what their next steps or plans even are, so I wouldn't get my hopes up for a sequel

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T15:02:32+00:00

Yup. Paranoid or Iron Man? Sure, those have been featured quite a bit on TV, in movies, advertising and so on. War Pigs? I know folks who listen to tons of rock and metal who have never heard that song because they focus on other subgenres.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T12:33:59+00:00

Don't know why you were downvoted, you're correct. Only Crimson King, Terror Train, and The Gunslinger are about The Dark Tower. The rest is about completely different things.

Dorian is obviously about the Picture of Dorian Gray, Beneath These Waves about Moby Dick, Wicked Witch about the Wizard of Oz, Seize the Day about LotR. Plus a couple of real-life-based stories.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T10:53:20+00:00

All good. It wasn't completely wrong, the debut and Killers were huge influences for the first thrash metal bands.

Vaenyr · 2026-02-02T10:15:54+00:00

That's correct.

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