Recent reviews by Dean Cornshaft

I am here to heartily recommend Geo Mythica! It was extremely appealing to me on multiple fronts:
* I enjoy retro-styled games, and the 8-bit styled graphics really worked for me
* I love both JRPGs and action RPGs - this one definitely trends more toward the JRPG side of things, but like the description states, you can definitely play it more action-y with the hotkeys. I tended toward more menu-based combat but used hotkey combat for a handful of skills that I leaned on.
* I'm a geography nerd and having a game set in an explorable real-world Earth was sweet.
* My overall playtime was right at 15 hours with all achievements.

GAMEPLAY
There's really a ton to love about the gameplay in Geo Mythica. Combat is kind of a real-time-with-pause setup and it's done really well. Battles are quick and flow nicely - I wish the gif in the Battle section of the game description on Steam was at a more appropriate framerate, because it never stuttered the way that gif might make it seem. I played the entire game on Steam Deck and it ran 100% perfectly. All the characters felt really viable in combat, I ended up using all but one of the available character choices regularly throughout the game.

Leveling up and getting new equipment always felt meaningful, which I appreciate in a game. Each level up also gets you a Talent Point (TP) to spend on upgrading a character's stats or skills, and the customizable options are great and similarly meaningful to character performance. You're free to respect your TP at any time, and it was never a chore to do so given that the system wasn't overcomplicated. At the same time, even though it was easy to respec, I didn't personally find the need to be constantly re-shuffling my TP, which I liked.

I found the story and characters enjoyable. Nothing world-shatteringly novel - I think the best thing the game did was keep you on your toes with regards to the antagonists. The characters were written in such a way that they all had their own voice, which I liked.

Game difficulty was just right for me. I played on the normal difficulty (of note - the descriptions of the different difficulties made me laugh) and it worked well for me - it was maybe a bit too easy in the early going, but there were two challenge dungeons later on that were really tough and made me work (these were instances where I was re-shuffling my TP, and I found it very satisfying when my new reconfiguration helped me beat those dungeons).

This might not seem like a huge deal, but the quality of the menus really stood out. They're very intuitive to use and they do a really great job of saving you button presses. Fans of old NES or Game Boy RPGs might remember frustration with poor menu design and responsiveness, and there's none of that here. The polish of these menus combined with the snappiness of a modern system is really satisfying. Again, not a huge deal, but representative of the polish put into the game.

MUSIC AND SOUND
The soundtrack is really good! Extremely old school NES feel that classic game nerds will love. My personal favorite track was Liliana's theme. Composers did a great job matching tracks with music styles from the countries you explored.

REPLAYABILITY
Hard to say! I plan on replaying it at some point because I'm very interested in the harder difficulty setting, and the 15 hour playtime is right in my wheelhouse. There is also an item you can get really early on that provides some neat behind-the-scenes info about the development of the game, but its location isn't signposted until close to the end, and I'd be interested in replaying to make better use of said item.

All in all I had a great time. Congrats to the devs on their great work!

This game is well-polished, captures a perfect retro vibe, has a soundtrack that absolutely slaps, is respectful of your time as a gamer, and most importantly extremely fun. Give it a shot! Don't sleep on the story, either - there is a lot of lore in bookshelves and in recordings and the world feels really well-created as a result.

I finished this up and then immediately started a second file because A) I wanted to get the last achievement and B) I wasn't ready for it to be over yet!

Short but sweet! Great precise controls and a joy to play. Lots to find and REALLY good speedrunning opportunities!

I really enjoyed this game! Great characters and soundtrack, and the gameplay was really fun and well-executed - think of a much more strategic and interesting version of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. The story was kind of cliched, but it is driven by the characters, which is a positive in my book. Looking forward to replaying!

Duh.

Buy this. Even though the sale is over.