The sea holds secrets in Mythic Ocean, a narrative-based adventure RPG game developed by Paralune and published by Nakana.io. Players have the ability to explore a vast aquatic world broken up by unique biomes, as they search to find answers about their own past while building relationships with characters living around the map. Every choice has weight in Mythic Ocean, with each decision affecting the outcome of the game.
Mythic Ocean's story begins with the main character wandering through a mysterious tower. After stepping out under a beautiful, nebulous sky, they are sucked into a vast underwater world with no memory of what came before. With the help of the all-knowing eel Elil, players learn this isn't the first time they have come to this place and they have a mission to go and find the world-building gods scattered throughout the vast ocean. There are five gods to meet and get to know, and each has a set of struggles that will be tackled throughout the course of the story.
Mythic Ocean's narrative progresses depending on player choices when interacting with each of the gods. By helping them make good choices, the bonds between the character and the god deepen. However, if bad choices are encouraged, or the needs of certain gods are ignored, this negatively impacts the relationship and causes the god to become distrusting. At the end of the cycle, whichever god the player has built the strongest relationship with will earn the Power of Creation, and build a new world. The new world can be harmonious or steeped in chaos depending on the player's actions before granting the Power of Creation.
To explore the biomes of the ocean, the player swims through each area. They can interact with fish and sea creatures living together with the gods. Instead of tools or resources, players will need to search out glowing orbs of light in each area and collect Pages from the libraries within them. These documents give hints of the previous world that was created and are the player's only tether to their life before the ocean. The light orbs can be found floating behind rocks, or require short puzzles to gain access to, like touching a dolphin's nose while it is in motion, or investigating clues given by the local aquatic wildlife.
While exploring the biomes is exciting during the first few visits to each god, traveling long distances can quickly become boring and tedious. Thankfully, Mythic Ocean includes a teleportation system to speed up travel. Once players have spoken to and progressed the story for each character, their icon will appear on the face of the teleportation system, which can be accessed by hitting "Y". The teleportation system makes later gameplay smooth and easy, as traveling between gods frequently to fulfill requests and progress storylines becomes a staple action.
The biggest setback for the Nintendo Switch version of Mythic Ocean is its controls. While swimming through open spaces isn't terrible, navigating through rocks and tunnels can be a struggle, as the character doesn't seem to quite line up with the direction they are being steered towards. This is especially frustrating when attempting to interact with characters or Pages. Getting close enough to interact with objects can be difficult, as it is easy to shoot past the desired location, or float up or down instead of moving directly forward. An update to fine-tune the swimming controls would greatly improve the ability to interact with the environment, and make gameplay more immersive.
Because of the way choices affect the outcome of the story, Mythic Ocean is highly replayable. This narrative-style game is excellent for fans of immersive visual novels, or those who enjoy the risk of choices impacting gameplay. Mythic Ocean is a high-stakes game without the need for combat or skill-trees to help players become invested in the world, and despite the issues with controls, is an engaging and magical adventure.
Mythic Ocean is available now on the PC and will be released on the Nintendo Switch on July 2nd. A Nintendo Switch code was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.