Ren'Py - Abandoned - Myth Academia [v0.1] [mythacad]

I'm afraid that, for me, Myth Academia (0.1 version) misses the mark but I have to admit it is because of very personal reasons. I love mythology, I have GM'd two Scion RPG campaigns and have read and seen lots of mythology... and this game does not feel mythological at all. It feels like a random mage-school story with some renown names for NPCs. Godesses appear in the game since the start (Hecate for example) but don't feel godly at all, look pretty normal and non-imposing. There are a few strange twists (daughter of Athena? Athena is renown for being a virgin) but mostly it just feels bland and uninspired. Characters that should be bigger-than-life (Hecate, for example) feel just like ordinary plain teachers and speak like normal, act like normal and so on. None seem to be able to take into account their mythological nature, the way in which gods act and behave, and so on. Same can be said about the students, but in this case they are people from the normal world (that surprisingly accept rather quickly that they are descendants of gods... seems no atheists are around), but their personalities feel a bit generic as well. We add some pretty generic gameplay that seems ripped off of other games in the university genre and we end up with a game that misses the spot for me.

Render quality is very good though as are the few animations present. But for me, in this case, that doesn't outweight the bad things previously mentioned. And, as a small last remark, I don't understand why, in a world where gods exists, there are only greek gods... where are the romans? Persians? Japanese? Norse? Aztec? And so on.

Now that I've played it, I can say it. This game instantly went into my watch list. I am anxiously waiting for updates. Here's my review:

Story: I know this is just a Demo version but there's already something really interesting here. The story is captivating, and pretty original.

Art: Really well done. The models are very beautiful, and all the other graphics look really good.

Gameplay: The choices system seems pretty interesting to me. Several different paths to take in the near future.

This game has all the makings to be the next huge hit in here. And I really hope it does well, because I wanna know where this goes.

This game is actually enjoyable. The story reminds me a bit of Percy Jackson, but in a good way. I had doubts going in, but by the end of the release I wanted more. All in all, there is a lot here that's good and some minor negatives.

The character renders are excellent, if a bit stiff, and the setting itself is unique. The writing is decent, however there are some typos and misspellings. The characters themselves are diverse looking, but it's still too early to form much of an opinion on the girls. Most surprising to me is the size of the demo. It's roughly 45 minutes to an hour of play. Yes, there is sandbox gameplay, but this wasn't that bad or annoying. Which in itself is amazing, since I hate sandbox.

I want to rate this game a 5, but settled on a 4 since it is a first release and I did have a few nitpicks. I'm looking forward to the next release and will decide then if I back it on Patreon. If the future updates warrant it, I will come back and up the rating to a 5. Until then, give this one a try.