Oedipus Dating Sim

The name made me laugh. How the hell do you turn Oedipus into a dating sim? For those who don't know, dating sims are... well, how to describe them. Basically they were invented in Japan, and they all seem to follow this basic formula, you meet a bunch of people and you pick one or more and try to woo them with gifts, or by making conversation and choosing enough “correct” dialogue answers. Then at the end of the game you win the happy ending if you have a high enough love meter with whoever the lucky person is. They're quite basic, often sexist, and I've never found one that I enjoyed. But I do try to keep an open mind about them, because I like the idea of a game that's about something as nice as love. And I don't think that they inherently have to be bad games.

Not that I was expecting this to be the dating sim that finally impressed me. But I thought, they're trying something different, something a bit daring, let's see what it's like. Plus it was like three bucks.

The story goes that you're Oedipus. You've just killed your father unwittingly, and you are approached by Dionysus, the only Greek god with his own television show. He tells you that Jocasta is your mother and offers you a way out of your fate. Star in his game show where you must woo several contestants, one of which is Jocasta. But their identities will be hidden from you, so there is a chance that you'll still unknowingly end up with your mother.

But once the weird premise is explained and the game actually starts, the boredom begins. Talking to the bachelorettes feels more like being at a job interview, if the job position was to be a philosopher. They all require alcohol and gifts to continue conversation, and there are two ways to get money. One is by working, which is accompanied by a very basic and repetitive mini game. The other way is to gamble, which will lose you all your money unless you just wait until you're feeling lucky (play enough times and it'll just happen) and then you can safely gamble and triple all your money. So once you've discovered how gambling works, money is no object at all.

At one point a security guard arrests you for being naked (since you're an ancient Greek) and allows you to take an ancient Greek language test to prove you're who you say you are. The test is a real test of your ancient Greek though, so you have to learn it, and not in a clever fun way. There's a huge list, like over a hundred words, and you're expected to memorise at least some of it. I did not, but I bribed my way through.

In the end, I was glad the game was over, which is a pretty bad sign. It took me about an hour. I think the problem is the game is basically a joke, but it doesn't have the humour to back it up. In fact, a lot of the dialogue with the bachelorettes wasn't even trying to be funny. It was like the game forgot it was supposed to be a parody. So sadly, I can't recommend this game to anyone, not even people who really like ancient Greece, or dating sims, or weird indie games. 1/5 stars from me.