Myths are 100% True

An extremely fun, fast paced platformer that takes from damn near everything ever made in some way. I've been a fan of Leather since 2014, and this game feels like a celebration of everything he loves and has interest in more than any of his other games. Best described as "a terminally online slavic man's adventure through Top 10 Scariest Moments In Non-Horror Games."

This gets a hesitant yes out of me. I've been debating for like 10 minutes whether to say I would or wouldn't recommend the game, so that should probably indicate to you my feelings on this game. This game has a lot going for it - the artstyle is really charming, the music is fantastic, the movement feels really fun to play around with, it's a perfectly decent platformer. But if there's two major things that I think hold this game back and prevent it from being higher on my preference list, it's the writing, and how it plays loosey-goosey with its theme. The writing is... hard to get through. While some of the minor characters get different ways of speaking, so much of the cast feel like they talk in the exact same way, and that way is "huh, well that just happened." I find nothing wrong with comedy by juxtaposing the fantastical with the mundane, but when _every_ dialog involves someone pointing out the suspension of disbelief and going "wow how weird is that" it becomes grating. "Yes, game, I _was_ trying to ignore how odd this aspect is. I was doing it to enjoy you more. Can you please get off of me." I started appreciating the few characters who were bold in how exaggerated they were when hlev kept swatting away their attempts at theatrics. It's not to say that the comedy here is _all bad_, little touches like the extra text in some levels or the ability to set your own billboards is really fun, and this writing was getting a chuckle out of me initially. But there's only _so many_ times I can sequentially read deadpan before I start losing the plot. Secondly, I think the idea of "myths" here is really underutilized? Other than maybe _three_ references I managed to get (smilecat, illuminati enemy, and the constant name-dropping of the mothman), it doesn't feel like this game is really about photographing myths. Sure, I have a camera, and the enemies are called myths, but nothing about them rings to me as a cryptid or creature of some sort. Some of them are just Guys with Bats, or Large Guys With Bats, or LeatherIceCream Throwing Glasses At Me. The camera itself is just a standard damage-dealing item and doesn't feel like... well, a camera. The moment I can destroy things with the camera rather than just photographing them, it doesn't feel like I'm a photographer to me, I feel like I'm a hitman with a very square rifle. and an orange hat. Still, I find this game to be super charming (everyone on the dev team has the chops to prove they can pump out stuff that sticks in your head for years), but it _juuuust_ misses the mark on being a game I'd actively tell people to play. I haven't finished playing yet, and might update this review once I do, but I still plan on finishing the game all the way through. As a first title this is not half bad, (even not as a first title this is pretty good,) and I do hope to see you guys put out something else.