When I first saw MIO: Memories in Orbit at Summer Game Fest 2025, I thought I knew what I was getting: another Metroidvania in an already crowded genre, probably robots, and platforming that would scratch the Hollow Knight itch while we wait for Silksong. Maybe it would capture some of the existential weight of Nine Sols, with its questions about consciousness and artificial beings. I was wrong—beautifully, wonderfully wrong. What I discovered in the demo transcended its familiar framework. MIO: Memories in Orbit isn’t just another entry in the Metroidvania catalog; it’s a meditation on consciousness, identity, and what it means to exist in a world where the line between organic and artificial has blurred beyond recognition. If Hollow Knight explores the weight of duty and sacrifice, and Nine Sols grapples with the price of immortality and transcendence, then MIO asks perhaps the most fundamental question of all: what makes a soul?