VN Talk: Pre-Odyssey: Odysseus, Penelope, and her Ducks

In which I talk (write) about visual novels from a storytelling perspective...

Platform: Windows (also on Mac and Android)
Release: 2022

When I saw this lovely gem I knew I needed to play it. I was a huge Greek mythology buff when I was in school and Pre-Odyssey: Odysseus, Penelope, and her Ducks is a light-hearted take on how Odysseus and Penelope met, with one significant alteration to the story: Penelope can communicate with ducks. In fact she's surrounded by enough of them everyday that she's a little ostracized by other people for being "the duck girl."

Penelope is the protagonist of Pre-Odyssey, and despite being a Spartan princess, she's highly relatable, especially through the expressive portraits the game uses. She's socially awkward, gets easily flustered, but isn't above "looking respectfully" at the nearly naked Odysseus when he's about to race her father for the right to marry her. (Seriously, the camera in that scene does such a good job conveying her gaze. Rather than the usual pan up, it also goes side to side and zooms in and out. I about died.)

This is a new game that just came out of this year's NaNoRenO 2022 game jam, so just so you know, spoilers ahead. I mean, this is based on mythology, so what happens in terms of broad strokes isn't really a spoiler, but if you want to know how the ducks fit into all this, maybe that's a spoiler to you?

Because Penelope is the quirky princess of her family, she spends most of her time by herself, even after the palace fills up with all of her cousin Helen's suitors. Odysseus, who is staying as one of those suitors, spots her outside with all her duck friends and finds himself intrigued by this odd girl. At the same time, Penelope sees him and the ducks encourage her to talk to him.

What follows is a sweet story of Penelope finding someone who is comfortable with the fact she's "the duck girl" and since this is a game, the player can choose how she falls in love with Odysseus. The ducks, though seemingly an odd addition to a story based in mythology, serve as welcome comic relief and a way for Penelope and Odysseus to voice their thoughts when no one else is around them. The ducks are ready listeners and often happy to participate in any necessary shenanigans. And Odysseus, bless him, tries to be a good friend to the ducks, though he clearly can't understand a word they're saying.

That's really the most endearing aspect of him. Odysseus can't understand the ducks, but his interaction with them is more than just humoring Penelope. He recognizes they're an important part of her life and doesn't try to displace them. He's not jealous at all. They're her friends so he tries to join in as limited as his ability is. It's not hard to see why Penelope would fall for him.

Though it's possible to get a bittersweet friendship ending where Penelope never reveals her feelings, it's pretty clear that's not the route the player is intended to go. Certainly the ducks are more than willing to give her the side-eye for backing down.

Unfortunately the game loses a little of its sweetness in the game's mid-section where the main story branch happens. There are two happy endings to Pre-Odyssey, and while both are satisfying, one of them takes a stab at being a little more thorough and Penelope gets to be more proactive, and the other involves the funniest duck scene in the game. Which one you get depends on when Penelope comes to terms with her feelings for Odysseus. It's kind of a weird line to tread because she needs to protest that her father is separating them, but also refuse to take Odysseus's hand when he offers it.

As a result I think it's less likely a player will get the more thorough ending, but if they do, Penelope does not end up with a confession scene prior to Odysseus asking her father for her hand in marriage.

Though Odysseus was never a serious suitor for Helen (even in the mythology) there needs to be a reason for him to broker the deal that solves Helen's suitor problem; that a bunch of Greek kings and princes might get royally pissed off and start a war against whoever finally marries her. And part of that deal is that Odysseus steps away from the pursuit of Helen and marries Penelope instead.

In the game, Penelope is Icarius's favorite daughter and regardless of being "the duck girl," she's also a Spartan princess. Traditionally men marry into the Spartan royal family, meaning that marrying her would put Odysseus in contention for the Spartan throne (since it's shared between Helen and Penelope's fathers) rather than ruling over backwater Ithaca. But we know Odysseus isn't interested in that and wants to take her to his island, which he's quite proud of. He doesn't want the Spartan throne.

Pre-Odyssey leverages a lesser known myth involving the fact that Icarius just really doesn't want to let go of his daughter. Though in the game Icarius specifically calls out Odysseus as being conniving and filling his daughter's head full of lies, we get the impression that no man would be good enough for his daughter.

If Penelope confesses earlier, most of the mid-game angst is about the two being separated (but still in contact due to passing messages through the ducks!), and it was probably the weakest segment of the game. Given that a single playthrough is only an hour long, it's not long enough to overstay its welcome, but it still felt like this part of the game didn't know whether it should be funny or dramatic and ended up being neither.

Since directly asking to marry Penelope fails, Odysseus offers to solve King Tyndareus's problem with his daughter Helen in exchange for Tyndareus talking with his brother Icarius about letting Penelope marry him. Tyndareus agrees.

If Penelope confesses later, Odysseus plans for a way to break her out of house arrest and comes up with the idea of proposing to marry her, only to spirit her away in the middle of the night while everyone is distracted. However Penelope lets him know she really does like the idea of marrying him, no fake out required, and persuades him to go ahead with his plan to win Icarius's usual challenge for any prospective suitor...

The foot race!

Because nothing says winning a woman's hand in marriage like a Greek foot race. Though the Atalanta foot race is the more famous myth, Odysseus does it for Penelope too, and Anta, the game's solo creator, has an eye for detail. Aside from all the mythological nods along the way, Anta is well aware of the fact that Greek athletics were performed naked. And this happens along the way to both endings.

Pre-Odyssey's sense of storytelling is irreverent so when Penelope goes looking for Odysseus before the race, she's a bit surprised by how she finds him, and the screen goes black. The player is allowed to choose "Cover your eyes (Censor)" or "Stare respectfully (DON'T YOU DARE CENSOR.)." Spoiler: You don't get a full nude shot, but the latter option does lead to the ogling camera I mentioned at the start of my post. Odysseus is not quite naked--yet.

I was a little, just a little, disappointed that Penelope ends up being mostly passive on the early confession route, though I was howling at the duckapocalypse, as her feathered friends call their buddies (not all the ducks in Greece, but certainly a large number of them) and blot out the sky. People begin freaking out about the bad omen, Odysseus gets a leg up on the foot race, and Penelope is completely mortified. It was great. And Odysseus wins so she gets to go off and marry him.

The later confession plotline is a little more thorough as I mentioned. Both Penelope and Odysseus go into the meaning of their names. Odysseus's name is supposed to mean "bringer of pain" and in the game he connects it to how he treats his enemies (and he's fairly justified given how he fought for his throne in the game's backstory). Penelope, on the other hand, is more famously known for meaning "weaver" as an on the nose reference for her role in The Odyssey. However (and I would not be surprised if this was the genesis of this game), it also means "duck" in ancient Greek.

They are not written identically (I couldn't resist checking), but when Penelope says she was named because she was rescued from drowning as a baby by ducks, it's believable that her father could have chosen a name derived from the word for duck.

In this route, the duckapocalypse doesn't happen, but instead Penelope helps Odysseus with his plan to drug her father, essentially giving him diarrhea during their foot race so Odysseus is able to pull into the lead and win. Of course she does this with the ducks' help, but it's nice that she escapes her room and infiltrates the race event on her own initiative.

I like that in this route, because of the name exchange and that the root word of Odysseus can mean "to receive" as well as "to bring about pain," her confirming at the end that she really does want to go with him is a bittersweet foreshadowing to the twenty years of separation they will eventually have to endure.

The end credits are quite frankly adorable, showing the birth of Telemachus and the separate journeys of Odysseus and Penelope over the course of The Iliad and The Odyssey. But though they are apart, they are accompanied by ducks.

Completing the game unlocks a lovely set of extras that go over the The Iliad and The Odyssey from the point of view of Penelope and Odysseus. It's great for those unfamiliar with or need a refresh on the original mythology, but also another way to stay with the characters a little longer. Penelope does have something to say about the fact Odysseus met quite a few women on his way home, but she doesn't get more than playfully mad, since in this universe, she had the ducks keeping tabs on him and they regularly exchanged letters so she knew what was going on.

That's probably the sweetest thing, because knowing the mythology behind these two, it's not possible to wish them a happily ever after (at least not right away), and knowing that they were still together in spirit is a welcome way to end.

(Psst. And if you look in the game folder, there's a bonus "Pre-Odyssey Tales" set of dialogue that runs through Odysseus being hauled away for the Trojan War, but as depicted by these particular incarnations of Odysseus and Penelope. It's short, but a good laugh.)