This is something I’m currently writing for Introcomp this year, but let’s see how this idea fares here.
While sailing to a mysterious island, a powerful storm throws you overboard. But still… all is not lost. You wake up at the bottom of the sea, in the presence of a beautiful mermaid. To save your life, she has cast a spell on you, binding your soul to hers and making you one of the merfolk.
However, the soul bindings swing both ways. For a few hours a day, the two of you will enter human form. You can take her to the mysterious island, help her walk and discover the island’s secrets together. For the rest of the day, when the two of you are in mermaid form, she will be your guide, caring for you and taking you exploring around the ocean world.
As time passes, you can make a choice, to see if you can force the soul bindings in one way or the other. You can choose to make a new life for yourself in the depths of the ocean, bring her on land as a human forever, or find a way to be a part of both worlds.
The Mermaid’s Mystery is planned as a romance-heavy game with freeform exploration elements and an overaching narrative. You can select the gender of your character as well as your mermaid RO. There will only be one RO, but I plan to write distinct personalities and dialogue for the mermaid RO depending on their chosen gender. I will use a central hub system like my other projects, but with less focus on stats. Word count is still TBD, and probably something which I will adjust depending on interest.