Mio: Memories in Orbit

What is it about French indie developers these days? Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, The Rogue Prince of Persia, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, and the success story Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 all come from French studios. Now comes Mio: Memories in Orbit, developed by the small indie studio Douze Dixièmes on the outskirts of Paris, and it's a truly excellent Metroidvania that stands up to comparison with the greats of the genre.

Mio: Memories in Orbit takes place in/on something called "The Vessel", which is apparently a kind of "spaceship". The ship's five AI guardians, known as Pearls (The Eye, The Spine, The Blood, The Hand, and The Breath), have suddenly stopped working. As the small humanoid robot Mio, you must now find your way around the enormous spaceship, which contains a large city, lush nature, a large clock tower, and many other things, in an attempt to restore the spaceship's memory by finding and reactivating the five Pearls, which prevent a complete shutdown.

Mio: Memories in Orbit is a surprisingly well-functioning Metroidvania, where it does a lot of things right and even has a few new and interesting mechanics. The game is inspired by Japanese filmmaker and animator Hayao Miyazaki, the French animated film Ernest & Celestine, and the science-fiction novel Hyperion. It also draws inspiration from Metroidvania classics such as Ori and the Blind Forest and Hollow Knight - and you can tell. In a good way, mind you.

Mio: Memories in Orbit ticks all the right Metroidvania boxes; there is precise platforming, challenging enemies, lots of exploration, and many new abilities that you gain access to throughout the game, which, quite classically, gives you access to more and more of the large map. It's all spiced up with tough boss fights (I had to try some of the bosses 40-50 times before I could defeat them), so it has everything you'd expect from a Metroidvania and it feels really good to play.

The little robot Mio has a kind of "hair" or "thin glowing tentacles" on its head, which seem alive and can be used as small grappling arms. They can be used to press buttons, grab enemies, grab floating grapple points around the game world, and a lot more (I don't want to reveal too much here). The special thing is that these little grappling arms only work if you have enough energy, and you get energy by either touching the ground for a short period of time or by hitting some flowers (the aggressive kind) that are filled with energy and located in strategic places in the environment.

There are several sequences where you have to swing yourself along the grab points with pixel-precise jumps, hanging in the air, hitting the flowers to recharge your energy, swinging further, recharging your energy again so you can swing yourself to safety. Later in the game, there will also be other ways to move (such as floating) that use the same energy. It may sound rather mundane, but the movement system works really well and it changes the way you play a Metroidvania game a little.

During the game, you gain access to 35 modifiers, all of which give Mio new abilities. In addition to these, there are seven special modifiers that offer advantages, but also have a downside. All these modifiers fill a varying number of slots in an Allocation Matrix, which has a total of 198 slots, and these are continuously unlocked for more of them, so the more slots you activate in this matrix, the more modifiers you can use.

The difficulty level in Mio: Memories in Orbit is medium to high. Certain areas require very precise jumps combined with various button presses as described above, and on top of this, there are often enemies, both on the ground and in the air, which can make it quite challenging. Not to mention the bosses, which vary from downright easy to extremely difficult.

However, the game offers several options for adjusting the difficulty level, including activating "Eroded Bosses," which causes the bosses' health to decrease very slowly each time you are defeated by them, thereby increasing your chances of defeating them each time you try. There is also "Pacifist," which prevents enemies from attacking Mio until Mio attacks them first (this is useful if you just want to explore), and "Ground Healing," which heals a small amount of Mio's energy if you touch the ground for five consecutive seconds. It's worth mentioning that all these helpful functions are optional, so if you want a really tough challenge, you can simply choose not to activate them in the game menu.

The game's visuals are the kind that look much better in motion than in static screenshots. Douze Dixièmes does not use Unreal Engine or Unity, as they have built their own game engine, which is quite impressive for an indie developer. The visuals resemble a living cartoon painted with watercolours, so don't be fooled by these screenshots as it looks much better in motion.

The sound effects are fine, well-balanced, and fit well with the game's visuals. The real highlight on the audio side, however, is the soundtrack, written by French composer, musician, and producer Nicolas Gueguen, and what he delivers here is absolutely fabulous. The electronic tracks fit the game perfectly and sound like something Daft Punk and Norwegian band Röyksopp could have come up with, while at other times, there are completely silent piano tracks with a quiet choir over the top or completely silent ambient music that just lies there and fills the background. It's a really nice soundtrack, and if you want a taste, you can listen to one of the tracks from the beginning of the game below.

Fans of the Metroidvania genre have been spoiled in 2025 with Hollow Knight: Silksong, but 2026 is also off to a strong start on that front. There's not much bad to say about Mio: Memories in Orbit, because it works really well, it plays well, it feels good, and it seems really well thought out too. It does a lot of things right and ticks all the important Metroidvania boxes, while at the same time adding something new to how such a game should be put together. If I had to point out one thing, I would have liked to see a few more enemy types but that's really the only thing of significance, because I think the rest fits together really well. If we were to give it the highest score, we would probably have liked to see a little more innovation in the gameplay that could have really moved the genre forward, but that said, I would like to emphasise that Mio: Memories in Orbit is a really successful game.

If you want to experience a Metroidvania with a slightly more forgiving difficulty level, without being easy in any way, then I highly recommend checking out Mio: Memories of Orbit. The game is sold at a very reasonable price of £15 and will also be available on Game Pass on the day of release, so it's hard to find an excuse not to give this game a chance.

Mio: Memories of Orbit gets 2026 off to a really good start, and if this is the standard for the year, then I'm looking forward to what's to come.