Mythic Ocean is a hidden gem of a game that features great stories, unique characters, and some humor as well. Your actions also have drastic consequences on the ending.
Type: Single-player
Genre: Branching Narrative,
Adventure, Exploration
Developer: Paralune LLC
Publisher: Paralune LLC
Release date: 09 Jan, 2020
Intro
Mythic Ocean is an indie first person adventure game with a pretty unique premise. You play the role of an intermediary who must talk with 5 unique gods in order to select the next god to create the world. It’s an interesting concept and deals in world creation mythology, themes of loss, the gods’ purpose, and many other rather heavy topics. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, do continue on with the review.
Story and Characters
Mythic Ocean’s story is actually split into numerous smaller stories called Fables. These stories usually intertwine each of the Gods’ stories and often determine how each views the other. Each of the Gods’ viewpoints can be influenced by the dialogue choices that you choose. Some have good outcomes while others might turn out to be more detrimental to their development as a god. Your choices also have an impact on which god is chosen as the creator of the new world but who is picked fluctuates constantly as the story progresses.
Since this game relies on multiple choices, the game has a multitude of possible endings as well. When I got my first ending I was quite surprised at how drastically my choices affected the ending. What started as a pretty good ending quickly devolved into utter chaos and an evil god wound up taking control and the mortals were forced to eek out an existence among the stars until the end of the world. Was quite surprising, and just shows how your choices can have dire consequences.
The gods that you meet include Amar, who looks like a cross between a ferret and maybe a centipede?. There’s also a set of twins named Estri and Kestri, who come from a palace far, far away. A rather cute larvae named Lutra who has an insatiable hunger. A scientist named Alethea who is convinced that they’re living in a false world and is trying to discover a way out of it. And finally, a being hidden in the depths of the oceans named Gnosis who is biding his time to uncover memories that he has lost.
There are also tons of fish and other sea creatures throughout each area of the game that you can converse with as well, many of which have humorous things to say.
Exploration and Areas
The world of Mythic Ocean is split up into various sections. These sections each have their godly “ruler” so to speak, and you can converse with them in their dens to continue the story.
The sections include the Eel Kingdom, which is home to an Eel named Elil who isn’t a God but acts as your guide when the game begins and offers opinions on some of the actions you take in the game. He also has his own back story but I won’t spoil it for you. The Kelp Forest is where Amar makes his home and it’s filled with a variety of different fish. Amar is a party God and likes to spend his time partying whenever possible. The Midsea is home to Alethea and her lab where she spends much of her time researching the ocean. The Coral Reef is home to the twins Estri and Kestri who spend much of their time viewing a palace using an object they keep hidden. The Moss Cavern is home to the Larvae Lutra who spends his time feasting on plants. Finally, The Deep Sea is where Gnosis makes his home and he doesn’t do a whole lot besides biding his time.
Much of the game revolves around exploration but you also have access to a teleporter device which grants you quick access to each of the Gods in the ocean. There are hidden portals which grant you access to a library of unknown origin where you receive pages which fill in some details about each of the rulers. There’s a ton of them to discover but finding them proved pretty challenging. There’s not much else you can do besides talk to the various ocean creatures but this game’s main focus is its stories.
Verdict
Overall, Mythic Ocean was a thoroughly enjoyable adventure. It’s a shorter adventure, clocking in at around 3-5 hours for your first playthrough, but it’s got a lot of replay value due to how many choices and endings there are. I also loved the fact that the choices weren’t just superficial and had pretty drastic, and ultimately, surprising effects on the ending of the game. Definitely didn’t see the planet devouring coming. If you’re in the market for a new adventure game with some uniqueness, and isn’t too long, then I highly recommend Mythic Ocean, it’s definitely a unique one and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I’m going to Save this one, well worth a playthrough or two.
