- May 15, 2021
- 1,604
- 3,647
After more than a year, the final chapter of Mythos: Book One is out!
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Recommending Story-first games
- Thread starter jufot
- Start date
Even though the ride is over I'm still calling you jufot nelson
- Nov 20, 2018
- 281
- 360
So I finished Mythos, after last having played it back when it was only 3 episodes.
I... can't quite say it met my expectations. The writing is the same as it has been, but the whole story sort of gave me this "promo issue for a series" thing, sort of like a comic book where there's just a lot of hits, winks and nudges towards larger things in universe, but not much *actually* happens plot wise and none of the characters have any meaningful development (that I noticed). Episodes 1-2 are setup, episode 3-4 is just bumbling about with a twist that uproots the entire plot and 5 is 90% fake endings.
And the endings, well the fake ones annoyed me for 2 reasons - it was a colossal waste of time (but that's really up to dev on what they spend it on) and more importantly, I didn't see *any* indication of the guilt of the actual culprit, to the point I skipped almost 1/3 of the ending thinking it was another fake one. It's not really a true mystery when you get no clues to actually solving it and are just along for the ride. Adding the dart toss option felt somewhat like lampshading the quality of writing where none of the options there really made sense.
So, it works as a setup for a better story in the world, but I do wish book 2 gets some *actual* plot and character conflict and development that isn't off-screen.
I... can't quite say it met my expectations. The writing is the same as it has been, but the whole story sort of gave me this "promo issue for a series" thing, sort of like a comic book where there's just a lot of hits, winks and nudges towards larger things in universe, but not much *actually* happens plot wise and none of the characters have any meaningful development (that I noticed). Episodes 1-2 are setup, episode 3-4 is just bumbling about with a twist that uproots the entire plot and 5 is 90% fake endings.
And the endings, well the fake ones annoyed me for 2 reasons - it was a colossal waste of time (but that's really up to dev on what they spend it on) and more importantly, I didn't see *any* indication of the guilt of the actual culprit, to the point I skipped almost 1/3 of the ending thinking it was another fake one. It's not really a true mystery when you get no clues to actually solving it and are just along for the ride. Adding the dart toss option felt somewhat like lampshading the quality of writing where none of the options there really made sense.
So, it works as a setup for a better story in the world, but I do wish book 2 gets some *actual* plot and character conflict and development that isn't off-screen.
- Nov 24, 2018
- 1,078
- 5,322
I haven't played Mythos, so I don't have a horse in this race. But this line makes me think of Agatha Christie, who was infamous for writing Mysteries that you couldn't solve because she gave her detective critical information that you didn't get.
Tlaero
- Nov 20, 2018
- 281
- 360
Yeah I totally see what you're saying, but in this case it wasn't even that characters had some kind of information that the player didn't have, it was more like they just made a wild guess and it just happened to be correct. Or rather, you're presented with more than 10 options and eventually you whittle it down to the correct one.
A lot of the details that the game gives you end up being nothing but fluff exposition and there's nothing that I noticed that can be considered as a conclusive *hint* in favour of villain being who they are. (Overall worldbuilding is great though. It's a game that's worth checking out imo)
I would be completely fine with having a guess at the villain and finding out I was wrong, but it was more like nobody had any motive or reason that wasn't extremely far fetched or equally unlikely.
Also I don't think it's quite fair to compare books and interactive fiction in that regard. A very infamous example of egregious misdirect that comes to my mind when dealing with mystery in interactive fiction is "Heavy Rain", a "Saw" like kindapping story where you literally control the serial killer and can see his thoughts yet somehow they appear completely normal to you just to avoid spoiling the plot sooner.
- Feb 11, 2018
- 217
- 396
While I am a lot more positive than you are when it comes to ther earlier episodes (I still believe Mythos stands out as a quality product), i was also disappointed with the endings. Throwing in a bunch of fake endings made it feel like it wasn't real. "Didn't like this ending? Try that one!" It's breaking the fourth wall in a way that removes my emotional connection to the characters in the story.
Going Agatha Christie on us, with a solution that we couldn't have known as readers, was no issue to me, though. I'm fine with Mr Poirot explaining the murder to me, as long as the journey up to that point has been enjoyable.
- May 15, 2021
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This was a very disappointing end to a previous favourite of mine. When the last chapter ended with the corkboard where everyone could legitimately be a suspect, I was really excited. Finally, someone who could write a proper whodunnit that couldn't be meta-gamed.
Well... Turns out, all the meta-gaming rules still apply:
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I skipped more than half of the "endings" and I struggle to understand spending more than a year on an update where 90% of it is narratively irrelevant "hahaha jokes, memes!" fluffery. And after all that, it doesn't resolve anything and just leaves it up in the air for a sequel.
Oh, well...
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- Nov 1, 2020
- 99
- 100
Maybe should remove abandoned games from the list ?I'm interested in games where the story takes precedence over everything else. My personal criteria are:
Also, since some people clearly can't play nice and/or are seriously disturbed, here are some additional criteria for this thread. Please don't bring up any such games.
- Well-designed, internally consistent, coherent story with a beginning and an end - i.e. no games where the devs make shit up as they go along.
- Characters that are actual human beings, with lives, personalities and interests outside the MC.
- Sex scenes should serve the plot, not vice versa. If there is no story-relevant reason for a scene, it shouldn't be there.
- No Engrish. Non-native speakers are fine (I am one), but the dev should at least use Grammarly or LanguageTool.
- No cheap tropes (e.g. every woman lusts after the MC's magical dick).
Make a comment if you can think of others that fit the criteria. We're a friendly bunch here
- No sexualization of minors. No games that have - or should have - loli/shota tags.
- No non-consensual sexual violence intended for titillation.
Games I've already played that - IMHO - mostly fit the above criteria, in alphabetical order: (last updated March 2025)
- Acting Lessons
- A Father's Sins
- Along The Edge
- Alpha Omega
- The Artist
- A Long Journey
- Ashes of War
- A Summer's End
- The Bite: Revenant
- Best Friends
- Blackberry Honey
- Bride of a Dead God
- Callisto
- Camp Klondike
- Cardinal Cross
- Chrome Lifelines
- Corporate Culture
- Deviancy
- Divergence: Beyond the Singularity
- Dreamy Planet
- Elsaverse games (Omnibus first, followed by Nightmares, Transitions, Chasing Beth, and Gemini)
- Elvensang
- The End of an Actress
- The Entrepreneur
- Fragile Feelings
- Halfway House
- Hillside
- Intertwined
- Isabella - Chasing Shadows
- Leaving DNA
- Life Changes for Keeley
- Mad World
- The Missing Part
- Mythos: Book One
- No Expectation
- Nothing is Forever
- Oathbreaker
- Oathbreaker 2
- Occultus: Daughter of Darkness
- One Day at a Time
- One Night Stand
- Penny for Your Thoughts
- Price of Power
- Rebirth
- Reluctant Archon
- The Rest of Our Lives
- Reunion
- Rivers of Astrum
- Salome's Kiss
- Seers Isle
- Sigh of the Abyss
- Shards of the Past
- Short Sad Stories
- The Silver Lining
- Simple Beginnings
- Sorcerer
- Strangers on Paper
- Summer's Gone
- Terminus Reach: Sentinel
- Three Rules of Life
- The Warrior's Heart
- Toro 7
- Zero End
- Zia
- Nov 1, 2020
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By the way I'm surprised Heart Of The Woods isn't on the list, I finished it in the summer, but the story is still in my head.
- May 15, 2021
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Only games I've played, enjoyed, and think that match the criteria are added to the list. I haven't played this one, but from a quick look, it seems to be a fluffy/cutesy anime romance, which isn't usually my thing.
I'm glad you liked it, though! People make lots of great recommendations on this thread, the list doesn't really matter all that much
- Oct 20, 2022
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I don't think that's necessary because the dev can either come back or someone can play it since it's recommended and be inspired to make their own story.
- Aug 15, 2023
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Maybe this gets answered in previous pages and I missed it... but have you tried Heavy Five or Light of My Life? Both excellent story games, H5 has more "game play" elements, while LoML is 100% story game.
H5 is in a "waiting for chapter five" to drop pattern, which should be any day now... while LoML is damn near done.
jufot
Could you recommend which games on your list have the best (in your opinion) story/writing, while at the same time having good sexual content?
The same question goes to anyone else who played the majority of the games on the list.
Thanks!
--
Going a bit further, it would be great if there was a tiered list of all these story-first games, with every game rated on two separate accounts: how good is the story/writing and how good is the sexual content. But that's probably too much work...
Could you recommend which games on your list have the best (in your opinion) story/writing, while at the same time having good sexual content?
The same question goes to anyone else who played the majority of the games on the list.
Thanks!
--
Going a bit further, it would be great if there was a tiered list of all these story-first games, with every game rated on two separate accounts: how good is the story/writing and how good is the sexual content. But that's probably too much work...
- May 15, 2021
- 1,604
- 3,647
I've tried Heavy Five on several occasions and bounced off each time. It has far too much gameplay, and it's all very obscure. When your early-chapters game has a 45-page walkthrough that explicitly doesn't cover everything, I'll wish you good luck and move on
Light of My Life is incest and I'm not into that.
- Feb 11, 2018
- 217
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You can find a compilation of all games that have ever been mentioned in this thread here (or its prettier pure-html counterpart
You must be registered to see the links
). There you can also see if a game thread is marked Completed or Abandoned.I also got a new potential candidate for the mighty list . Game's called High Desire
A bit of an oddity if you ask me, it's like the polar opposite to something like Race of life... There are 4 things in particular who stood out to me.
1 - The overall approach to street racing
Just the way it's shown to us from that first TV news report that we get to see up until the point we're getting introduced to the team later on is just very nicely done imo. It's not soley focussed on just the racing part of it, it also a tries to look at it from different angles and different POVs.
The MC himself starts out as someone who did some legitimate track racing since he was a child, which makes it pretty easy to buy into everything that follows. Even though the whole underground racing community thingy feels more like a GTA version of it rather than the real deal, but that's ok. Kudos to how it's done regardless, which brings me to the next point.
2 - The MC
While I would agree that he comes across a bit edgy at times, more so in the 2nd half where his swear count goes up by a lot, but he stays, for the most part, away from the usual tropes concerning MC's in AVN's. He ain't a player, neither is he overly cocky or an imbecile or anything, which is something you'd usually expect in a game with this kind of premise. I liked that he's written in a consistent way and it doesn't take you long to get a feel for who he is and what he's about.
Oh, and what a lovely father he has, doesn't he?. What a piece of human trash... There's no coming back from that, ever. I would rate this game 0/5 if the MC's going to forgive him at any point in time until the day he fucking dies.... Just despicable.
3 - LIs
Without wanting to spoil too much, but usually in an AVN you're represented with mostly oversexualized LI's. Which of course makes perfectly sense in a porn game, but here it's more grounded with who they are and how they're represented. You can hook up with one or 2 of them already, but it never felt out of place or weird. If anything, with the way it's done so far, i'm more interested than usual as to how it's going to progress going forward. It's a good mixture of people you'd expect to see in such a game and some unusual ones.Same goes for the lewd scenes who're also done slightly different from the usual.
4. Music, animations, atmosphere
Not very often that I have to point out the music, but here the developer did a good job with his retro, low fi approach. A lot of scenes get elevated by it..., loved it. There's also a large amount of video animations in the game who're all done exceptionally well and do enhance the overall atmosphere of the game. The game comes across very mellow and dreamy at times.
5 - Verdict
Well, even though i'd like to go into more detail about certain, mostly smaller, things, i'm just gonna leave it here. I did call this game an oddity and that's mainly because the developer cleary did his own thing, which I apprechiate. You're probably going to be disappointed if you're looking for a new, more traditional AVN, but otherwise, check it out.
Not perfect by any means, but I really liked it.
. Game's called High DesireA bit of an oddity if you ask me, it's like the polar opposite to something like Race of life... There are 4 things in particular who stood out to me.
1 - The overall approach to street racing
Just the way it's shown to us from that first TV news report that we get to see up until the point we're getting introduced to the team later on is just very nicely done imo. It's not soley focussed on just the racing part of it, it also a tries to look at it from different angles and different POVs.
The MC himself starts out as someone who did some legitimate track racing since he was a child, which makes it pretty easy to buy into everything that follows. Even though the whole underground racing community thingy feels more like a GTA version of it rather than the real deal, but that's ok. Kudos to how it's done regardless, which brings me to the next point.
2 - The MC
While I would agree that he comes across a bit edgy at times, more so in the 2nd half where his swear count goes up by a lot, but he stays, for the most part, away from the usual tropes concerning MC's in AVN's. He ain't a player, neither is he overly cocky or an imbecile or anything, which is something you'd usually expect in a game with this kind of premise. I liked that he's written in a consistent way and it doesn't take you long to get a feel for who he is and what he's about.
Oh, and what a lovely father he has, doesn't he?. What a piece of human trash... There's no coming back from that, ever. I would rate this game 0/5 if the MC's going to forgive him at any point in time until the day he fucking dies.... Just despicable.
3 - LIs
Without wanting to spoil too much, but usually in an AVN you're represented with mostly oversexualized LI's. Which of course makes perfectly sense in a porn game, but here it's more grounded with who they are and how they're represented. You can hook up with one or 2 of them already, but it never felt out of place or weird. If anything, with the way it's done so far, i'm more interested than usual as to how it's going to progress going forward. It's a good mixture of people you'd expect to see in such a game and some unusual ones.Same goes for the lewd scenes who're also done slightly different from the usual.
4. Music, animations, atmosphere
Not very often that I have to point out the music, but here the developer did a good job with his retro, low fi approach. A lot of scenes get elevated by it..., loved it. There's also a large amount of video animations in the game who're all done exceptionally well and do enhance the overall atmosphere of the game. The game comes across very mellow and dreamy at times.
5 - Verdict
Well, even though i'd like to go into more detail about certain, mostly smaller, things, i'm just gonna leave it here. I did call this game an oddity and that's mainly because the developer cleary did his own thing, which I apprechiate. You're probably going to be disappointed if you're looking for a new, more traditional AVN, but otherwise, check it out.
Not perfect by any means, but I really liked it.
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