When a princess’s fiancé goes missing, she begs the sea witch for help. Only problem, the sea witch might have unwittingly been responsible for his disappearance by freeing a siren. Can the sea witch find the siren and set right what she’s done wrong?
That’s right, it’s another evil magic seductress woman story. For those of you unfamiliar with Greek Mythology, sirens were women who sang to sailors and bewitched them so badly that they would sail to their deaths. In this version, the siren uses her magical voice to control the men of the town similar to how Poison Ivy uses her pheromones. Personally, I hate this trope. Not only does it villainize women comfortable with their sexuality, but it takes what is essentially rape and sexualizes it. One example, other than the previously mentioned Poison Ivy, is in Agents of SHIELD, an Asgardian named Lorelai used her magic to bewitch men into becoming her servants. Sif, the Asgardian sent to capture her, justifies it by saying that men are weaker willed, which is why they are affected but it’s still rape. One man abandoned his newly made wife under Lorelai’s influence and another man killed his girlfriend under the same magical influence, something they would never do if their minds were intact. However, it can be done well, such as with Poison Ivy who has more character to her than being a simple vixen. Also with Kilgrave, a man who can make people follow his every command and enjoy it, but he’s not only given more depth, the horror his power causes on the innocent is not glossed over. Yet I will admit that there does seem to be some hinted depth with this siren character from what little I’ve seen. Perhaps, if the game does not acknowledge the obvious rape, they will at least develop the villain.
Other than that, there are some intriguing factors of the storyline. Not only does the story borrow from Greek Mythology, but it also borrowed elements from the fairy tale, The Little Mermaid. A woman confined to the sea asks the sea witch to give her legs to meet the prince. Only, in this version, the woman is the siren in the game and she’s stolen a prince away from his loving princess. It’s a nice twist with the sea witch being the hero and the mermaid being the villain.
Game play is that of your typical hidden object, with you collecting various items that are needed to advance throughout the game. Some items require you to go through a hidden object puzzle, collecting a bunch of useless junk until you get the item you want. There are times when you’ll have to play a mini game in order to advance through the story and you might have to backtrack but, thankfully, you have a map that can transport you to the very place that you need to get to.
This game is intriguing, despite the evil seductress cliché. I might buy the full version when it comes out.
