Mythic Ocean

This is a remarkably polished labor of love. So much care has been put into design, writing, story, and ideas. Even the gameplay, though simple, is done well. Controls are lovely and there's enough to do to keep the game from becoming too stale and repetitive within its short play length. Ultimately it is a game about ideas wrapped around dialog.

And though I enjoyed much about my time with the game, I must review it against its ambitions. It seems a lot of people really loved it, and you might, too, but I have to give it a thumbs down.

I don't think Mythic Ocean knows what it wants to be. On the one hand it reaches for depth, but its ruminations about the meaning of life and our place in the universe(s) are almost insultingly simplistic. On the other hand, it intends to be lighthearted and fun, but the main characters are one-dimensional caricatures with convoluted backstories. I had more fun with the one-liners delivered by the side-characters than with the exhausting central conversations that determine which ending one gets.

Somehow all of this meticulously crafted content is supposed to add up to the possibilities and choices that stand before humanity in shaping its world, but it's a very paltry list and the ingredients are baffling. The gods seem to have been selected from a random number generator, not an integrated pantheon. And for the life of me I don't understand why the game takes place in the ocean. My guess is that the devs took lots of different ideas for different games and characters and shoehorned them into a single concept. To their credit, the result is coherent. But it fails to add up to any impactful meaning. I guess the message is something about balancing freedom with respect for nature? I'm not sure and honestly not very interested.

If you find the game's premise and design alluring, please don't let my negative review deter you. It shouldn't take more than 4 hours to complete the game, so you can find out for yourself if it reaches what it sets out to achieve. I don't regret playing it. I just didn't get much out of it