Mythmatch offers so much more than you’d ever expect. This cross between a merger game and an RPG has so many elements and surprises, all within a completely delightful, combat-free game about Greek mythology, anti-capitalism and altruism.
There’s a decent chance you may not have encountered the merger genre, if you keep yourself safely away from F2P, ad-driven mobile games. Before I get too into the weeds of describing these, let me make clear that while Mythmatch borrows the genre’s mechanics, it features none of the exploitative practices: this is a premium game, no strings attached. Over there in mobile land, these games about combining objects, and then combining those resulting objects, are incredibly popular. It’s an enormously satisfying feedback loop and the games know it, monetizing your desire to keep squishing two goblins to make an orc, then two orcs to create a giant, and two giants to form a titan, and so on. The pyramid such combinations require allows designers to force players to sit through so many ads, or—you know—pay $16.99 to hurry things along. And $4.99 for that special set of merging energy. And you can skip ads for a day for just $19.99. And that $99.99 bundle has so much to offer…
Meanwhile, Mythmatch lifts that rewarding mechanic and then implements it as the means by which you complete quests in an utterly lovely RPG. It’s no mistake that this game describes itself as having an “anti-capitalist story” in which you play wannabe goddess Artemis, attempting to prove to various denizens of Mount Olympus that she deserves to be counted among their number. To achieve this, she’s required to complete certain seemingly impossible challenges, and when she fails, she’s cast to the mortal realm by a snarky Hermes. On Earth, Artemis gets to know the adults and children of a small village, realizing she can use her merging abilities to create all the tools, items, and treats these people need to enjoy their lives. And at the end of each day, she has the opportunity to return to Olympus for another attempt at completing a growing number of those challenges: each a different variation on merging minigames.
It quickly becomes obvious that life in the mortal realm is a lot more fun, not least because the challenges aren’t weighted against you. Here you’re working with the locals cooperatively to gather resources and merge them (in groups of three) to build the next tier up. A huge amount of the game is finding out what results from these trios of mergers, experimenting to find items that characters specifically need for their homes or entertainment plans. You help set up a school, provide food for a celebration, and seek out a lost toy for one of the best kid characters I’ve ever met in a game.
This involves an awful lot of organization as you are inundated by resources brought to your shelves by locals, which you can then arrange however you wish. I really enjoyed coming up with my own systems for arranging everything, such that when I added a vital third thing I could watch it merge, then merge with two others of that, then merge with two more of that, to create a brand new item. You then rush certain items off to people’s homes and their crafting tables, where they’ll make yet more items based on recipe combinations, all while delivering items to a boat for specific trades…
The more you progress, the more you gain XP which you can spend on improving your chances at those Olympian minigames, gaining better grades at each as you progress further, all as you discover…well, I’m not going to spoil it.
The result is a game that has all the compelling energy of a mobile merger game, but in something far larger and more involved. It’s a full story-driven adventure in a bright, cheerful world filled by lovely people. It’s combat-free RPG with beautiful art, lovely writing, and an awful lot more to offer should you happen to roll credits.
Mythmatch came out today, March 13, for $16 on Steam.
