Have you ever forgotten where you are when you wake up, just to remember a few minutes later? Have you ever forgotten who you are and needed to save everyone? No, well Mio from MIO: Memories in Orbit, had to do all that the moment she woke up.  MIO: Memories in Orbit is the most recent metroidvania to be released this year and it hopes to be one of the greats. Unfortunately this game has so many issues that it prevents me from truly enjoying it.

The moment you start the game, you’re placed in a dream-like area to get used to the controls. The issue is that you aren’t given any idea what the controls are. If you aren’t adapted to gaming you aren’t going to know how to play. They could have easily had a prompt that stated what the controls do and when to use them. The controls themselves are simple and responsive. You have your double jump and your basic attack and the dream level does allow you to get used to the controls in a safe environment.

When the main game starts, you wake up in a space station that has seen better days. Something destroyed the station and it’s your job to figure out what or who exactly did it and to save any survivors. All without knowing who exactly you are. This is actually a very good concept in my opinion and makes you feel worried about all of your friends or even if you have friends to worry about. You really get the feeling of uncertainty as you explore and see the carnage. Now only if you knew where you had to go in the first place.

As you are exploring around, there is nothing telling you where you have to go and you are guaranteed to get lost. It took me forever just to find the first mission to get started, then took me longer to find the correct room to continue the quest. There isn’t even a map to give you an idea on where you need to go. While you’re going to find NPCs that will tell you what you will need to do and the name of the room you need to go to, they won’t tell you which way to go. A simple arrow or a discrete marker telling you that you’re in the right place would have gone a long way to improve the game. While the game has save points they are so spaced out that if you die, you will have to replay a lot just to get another chance at what killed you. 

This game has special upgrades that will help you during your adventure, from seeing the enemy health to increasing your damage output. These upgrades aren’t like upgrades from other games. These are more of a customization than a straight up power up. You have only a set amount of points to use to equip your upgrades. If you want to see your enemy’s health, you might have to unequip your own health bar or decrease the amount of hits you can do for a combo. This allows you to customize your play style so multiply playthroughs are different each time. The big issue however is that, you can only equip them at the save points and like i stated earlier they are few and are too spaced out. You have to defeat enemies to get enough currency to purchase upgrades, but when you finally get enough to purchase them, you then have to find the nearest save point and it is not always close to the workshop and of course you run the risk of dying trying to get to the save point and having to do it all over again.

The game doesn’t have much narration and leaves some things unanswered. While having a mystery can add to a game’s atmosphere, it can also leave people frustrated that the questions they want answered are just forgotten. I will say the game is beautiful. The water colors make the world feel mysterious yet magical, despite most of the world being mechanical. This was definitely one of the most great looking games out there this year so far.

In conclusion, MIO: Memories in Orbit, while easy to play and with a beautiful art style, has a lot of problems preventing it from being one of the best. With lack of direction, poor save point locations and unanswered questions, this is a game that I can’t recommend to true gamers. 

Score: 5 out 10

Reviewed on PlayStation 5