Mythic Manor V0.21
After twenty something years living with your mother, a new life in the city awaits you. A building full of hot girls. Your godmother Esther offers you housing in the city. That’s how this game starts out - a steaming pile of horniness that eventually grows into mythical backstories. You gawk over your roommates, spy on them and eventually, experience near-mythical awakening. So how is your mana production, handsome?
STORY
Mythic Manor offers you multiple development years worth of stories, over 150+ events and 10+ love interests. It is a long game, so take your time with it. The premise is simple - your mom’s friend offers safe housing to mythical people. As a half-mythical, you’re welcomed to help your mom’s friend build a better home. This game ends up being a corruption simulator mostly, where you help women discover their own sexuality. It focuses on several stories all bound by one ‘house’ narrative to keep things connected.
The game starts off stereotypical enough, but the story really drags in the middle part of the game. You will be grinding a lot of events with lewd suggestions, but little actual sexual content. When that sexual content finally shows, it depends per character if the events are actually worth it. Sex during events often feel stale due to the similar ‘mMmM… Oo-Ooh..’ writing. It almost seems all the women develop an adoration complex the moment you touch their private parts. The story would do well to explain that choice, although at the end the developer hints at your aura influencing all women.
That third part is where the game picks up. Deeper storyline events for multiple characters where you get to know more about their background and events change their affection towards you. Seems like the developer initially wanted a harem game, then decided to focus on lewd sexual content and eventually got bored - changing gears in order to deepen backstories. Pacing is a real problem in this game and you will have to endure until the end to get the full enjoyment for your efforts.
Personally I feel as if the characters’ backstories should have been reflected into their responses and sexual exploration far more. One girl is sexually free but uncomfortable around love, another is super shy but a complete cumriver when unlocked, third is emotionally challenged but has knowledge about sex. It would work so well with their backstory if their responses always reflected their sexual attraction. The third part tries to mend a lot of this by having women tell you they were ‘conflicted about their own desires’, but it eventually comes off as lazy design in the second part.
The game changes when you realize what ‘Mythic’ actually means. You collect a group of friends who all have their own Mythic form, often derived from fantasy lore or the animal kingdom. It seldom goes full furry, but it does open up fantasy encounters that give this game a remarkable, distinct concept and appeal. There’s nothing like growing wings, fangs, a tail or a cock that will make you ask questions.
With so much content, not everything can be of high quality. While I would have liked the game to be shorter with more quality encounters, the overall feeling is impressive. The dev could have easily cut over 20%-25% of the game and it would maybe even be a better experience in a shorter time. By the end of v0.21, it almost feels like you’re playing a different game. That’s both a feat and a worrying development. If you’re looking for just sex, this might be the version where you lose interest as the game seems to pick up with backstories now.
PRESENTATION
For a 2018 game, the game has a recognizable aesthetic that developed into an entire world. While the hint system might not always be good enough, it is amazing how much the developer is pushing out of Ren’py. In 2024 the game could benefit from a few UI design upgrades - but it still works well enough to be useful. While render quality might leave something to be desired, the sheer amount of content will make you immerse in New Lark City.
Animations aren’t always fluid, sound design is mostly forgotten and the women almost have an anime-like behavior to them. If that doesn’t bother you, you should play this. Most of the poses are good enough and while camera angles on sex shots aren’t always the best, it’s enough because of the sheer volume of them. Sex scenes drag out due to the overly moany dialog, but luckily you can skip if you’re not feeling it.
Special mention should go into the Mythic looks of the races inside the game. I got quite fatigued with another young lewd girl trying to get naked for me until their Mythic forms started showing. The mythic backstories are easily the best part about this game and all effort should go into exploring those designs. It might off-put the vanilla crowd, but it helps make the game a remarkable sight.
If you treat Mythic Manor like an older game filled to the brim with content, you will have proper expectations for how the game will look and feel. If you give it the time it requires, there is a lot to uncover and enjoy in this game.
GAMEPLAY
Mythic Manor is a sandbox game, which means you start events based on place and time. There’s an entire city with over 20 locations for you to explore and to witness events in - New Lark City really has a lot to offer. You will have to earn money by writing articles or finding additional funds elsewhere. That money is used to buy presents for your friends, help out your landlady or just to help people along. There is quite some grind required to progress, but luckily the game comes with cheat codes that allow you to skip parts of the grind you really don’t feel like doing. Use them well before you get bored.
The puzzle element is to figure out which women are best to meet at which times in order to progress the story. You get choices within the events, but outside of the big choices it’s mostly used to customize the event. It helps to diversify the experiences between women as there are a lot of similar scenes, but eventually the similarities will hit. Paired with the grind (which is removable, thankfully), this game shines in the first and the third part.
With over 20+ locations and this many pursuable characters, it is an absolute feat this game even works in the way it does. Whether it’s messing with the computer, figure out which item to use where or looking in all places to find where the next event starts - there are many hours of gameplay within this game if you’re up for the grind and can sit through the slow parts.
OVERALL
Mythic Manor is a multi-year love letter to the AVN community. While partly unfocused, this game showcases how filled a sandbox AVN can be. The recent updates have been refocusing the game into quality story experience and while sex takes a backseat, it really helps the story of the game. If you’re into raising a group of women who are at your feet as you help them sexually develop together, this is your game. Just make sure you know it’s a big time investment.
8/10, so a 4/5 for F95.