Memories in Orbit, the Hollow Knight-like game coming soon to Xbox Game Pass?

The Metroidvania genre has been on a bit of a tear since then Hollow Knightno doubt becoming as oversaturated as the ever-busy soulslike market, but MIO: Memories in Orbit can only break the mold. The flashy, dramatic and visually arresting side-scroller is slated for a release date of January 20, 2026, when it will launch daily on Xbox Game Pass.

Hollow Knight is an easy comparison to draw upon when discussing MIO: Memories in Orbitbut the upcoming game can also be compared to something similar Ori and the Blind Forest due to its emphasis on audiovisual ingenuity, semi-3D environments and agile platforming. Much like the studio's latest project, Shadowy part of me, MILLION stands out through hand-drawn, comic-book-like images and animations, which feel inspired by Moebius' work while also feeling original. In short, the game's aesthetic is complex and unique, mixing a pastel color palette with smooth animation, heavy black lines, and inventive, unusual character designs. But MIO: Memories in Orbit wants to be more than just a pretty face, and it hopes to achieve that through compelling storytelling, combat, and metroidvania principles.

What is MIO: Memories in Orbit about?

MIO: Memories in Orbit's Story

Players take on the role of MIO, a robot who has woken up on a massive spaceship called the Vessel, without any of their memories. As it turns out, the ship suffered a mysterious power outage, causing many of its core systems to stop working. MIO must make his way through the bizarre and often inexplicable ship, harness its machine inhabitants and ultimately uncover the truth behind everyone's past.

To be perfectly honest, the plot itself doesn't seem too groundbreaking at first glance. MIO: Memories in Orbit follows the ubiquitous amnesiac protagonist trope, which has long been something of a nexus for video game narrators: it's easy to implement unnatural expository dialogue, or make the player relate to the player-character, by simply giving them amnesia. Amnesia can also heighten the tension or surprise in relatively mundane scenarios, as all revelations are important to the protagonist.

This does not mean that MILLION will of course not have a good story. Developer Douze Diximes has described MIO's past as “tragic”, suggesting that there will be some real weight and impact to the story, and the fact that the main character's story is seemingly mixed in with the game's setting could make for some interesting world-building. At least, MIO: Memories in Orbit can draw on the unique strengths of a far-future, all-robot cast for valuable commentary, philosophizing, and subversive lore beats. Anyway, MILLION looks to have a lot more going for it than its history.

Of course, vague, abstract and interpretable storytelling is often par for the course with metroidvanias, so MILLIONs cliche amnesia premise might not be such a big deal.

MIO: Memories in Orbit boasts smooth, smooth gameplay

Early impressions of MIO: Memories in Orbit all focus on one corner of the gaming sandbox without fail: traversal. The game features low-gravity environments with various layered obstacles, creating a movement sandbox that is at once forgiving and disorienting. Douze Diximes aims to facilitate a kind of flow state through its movement mechanics, pushing the player to interweave abilities such as sliding, wall-running and grappling to move from point A to B quickly and efficiently.

The game's motion sandbox looks really appealing, and the previews have been mostly favorable, but there have also been some conflicting chatter. Pain points raised in previews include MIO's awkwardly slow movement speed, as well as various quirks with the grappling hook, such as inconsistent grapple point recognition. Still, drive through MILLION looks sleek and handsome and may well be one of its greatest strengths.

MIO: Memories in Orbit's Touchstones will hopefully be countered by originality and innovation

Douze Diximes has expressly named Hollow Knight, Celesteand Dead cells as comparisons with MIO: Memories in Orbitand it is not difficult to understand why. Aside from the fact that these games are almost universally praised for their combat, crossovers, or both, they're all notoriously difficult – something that MILLIONs marketing certainly hasn't been afraid to brag so far. Really, MIO: Memories in Orbit seems to lean heavily into its quasi-soullike influences, with Douze Diximes repeatedly describing it as satisfyingly challenging. According to the developer, MILLION players can expect death to be a regular part of the experience.

But MILLION promises to include other unique quirks that can set it apart from the competition. For example, it will contain a series of modifiers, which have been compared to Nier: Automatas Plug-In Chips by several previewers: players will be able to sacrifice basic functions like enemy health data for extra ability bandwidth through this system. Douze Diximes promises that this Modifiers feature, along with mechanically interesting bosses, tailored action scenes and an ever-inspiring art style, will MIO: Memories in Orbit a game worth sinking your teeth into, even for those who have already had their fill of metroidvanias over the years.