(Mythic Ocean review, crossposted from our Dreamwidth blog)

This is technically "complete" in that we have been through one cycle and seen an ending and credits. We are absolutely not done with this, though.

Mythic Ocean was one of the many entries on this year's Wholesome Direct, and was one of the major standouts for us. As the game begins, the world ends. You awake in an ocean with no memories, and your guide/mentor figure explains what's going on: A new world must be created, and one of the gods in this ocean must be the one to do it.

What unfolds from there can best be described as a mixture between a visual novel and an oceanic first-person exploration game like Endless Ocean or ABZU: you travel around each area talking to NPCs and looking for secret hidden collectibles, and when you find one of the actual gods, you converse, befriend, and influence them through your choices and actions. At the end of the game, one of the gods ascends and remakes the world in their image, and the player is treated to an epilogue based on both who the new creator is and what sort of lessons they learned from you during their time in the ocean. This makes every choice meaningful not just in the sense of befriending and smoothing things over with everyone, but also in their cosmic implications.

For example, the Twins are lonely and looking for someone to play with. Amar is a joyous and friendly and playful sort (almost to a fault for irresponsibility and Hakuna Matata reasons, which is another thing to consider and perhaps influence if you can) and would love to play with them, but there's a problem. Amar is... creative in his play, doing things like challenging the Twins to a race and then taking a secret shortcut to win, or controlling the direction of the game through Calvinball-esque recreating the rules on a whim. In the Twins' eyes, Amar is a dirty cheater and an all-around jerk. In Amar's eyes, the Twins are way too stuck up on the rules presented to them and need to think outside the box. Talking to the Twins, you can advise them either to tell Amar how they feel and ask him to please cut it out and play fair, or to get creative and beat Amar at his own game by cheating right back. How things unfold from here is a twofold question: One, how will this decision affect how each of them feel about you and about each other, and things like friendship levels that will ultimately effect who the new creator will be? Can you get them to improve their relations with each other and with you? And two, if either Amar or the Twins happen to be the ones to make the new world, what sort of lessons will they take from this when it comes time for them to shape and control their new society?

The characterization is outstanding, and each of the gods is incredibly endearing in their own ways. The way things unfold can get deeply emotional at parts. This is the second game we've ever played in which we had to do the "Star Billions Walk"--a term xyzzysqrl coined (after the first one to do it) for a game with a dilemma of a choice that makes you just... put the controller down and walk around the room and think about it for a while, because fuck. That's a testament to how strong a sense of connection this game can build between you and everyone in it, and how deeply it can make you care and worry about whether solving a crisis in this way might hurt that god or so forth.

In the end, we followed our heart and it... was a disaster, I'm not going to lie. I tried to influence things toward one particular god getting chosen but it ended up being another despite my efforts, and said other... really, really had not learned the right lessons to be in control of something like a new world, so the epilogue was generally full of horror and devastation. However, rather than being discouraged, this just makes me want to go back and try again. New Game Plus mode is essentially a baked-in part of the plot: It's directly stated that this cycle of destruction and recreation and memory wipes has been happening for ages and will continue to keep happening. The world that ended in the prologue of the second cycle is the world that was created in the epilogue of the first (and honestly, good riddance to that one; it... really did not turn out as planned.) Now we shall teach and interact with the gods all over again, and I will try to learn from my mistakes, to do better this time, both for their personal relationships and for the world one of them will create.

This game is beautiful, both in the sense of emotional meaning and heartfelt impact and in the sense of its lovely oceanic visuals and absolutely incredible soundtrack. It uses its presentation (you start out not knowing or remembering anything, only to be told not to worry about it because this "happens every time" and is "part of the arrangement") to create a sense of wonder and apprehension, a feeling of wanting to know what's behind the curtain but being afraid to ask about things you won't be able to un-see, things that might change your perception of everything. I can tell this is going to be one of those games that will invoke that "I wish we could play it again for the first time" feeling (you know the one,) to the point that I actually held back on learning more about the main character's past even when presented with the option because I want to preserve the mystery, at least for a little while longer. Maybe next cycle, or the one after. We'll see.

It also has a decently-sized free demo, so not only can I not say enough positive things about this game, but I can also push it on everyone we know. Seriously. This was and still is incredible. We will very happily continue the cycle, and you can more than likely look forward to seeing this one pop up a lot in our year-end awards.