Legendary Gary

Legendary Gary is an adventure game separated into two sections of gameplay. The main gameplay comprises sessions playing Legend of the Spear, which imitates the mechanics of a role-playing game. Players explore a fantasy world and engage in turn-based combat on a hexagonal grid with a party of team members. Combat involves the use of attacks to deplete enemy hit points and abilities that cost special points.

Contrary to combat in conventional turn-based role-playing games, Legend of the Spear resolves all player and enemy attacks simultaneously once committed by the player. The secondary gameplay involves the player guiding Gary's personal life outside of Legend of the Spear, making choices through dialog.

Gary is an average man who lives an unremarkable life, living with his mother and working at a supermarket. At night, he plays the role-playing game Legend of the Spear on his computer, featuring a cast of characters that resemble Gary's few friends and family members. Gary's personal life involves many difficult issues, as he confronts several crises being faced by himself and the people in his life, including his mother, his partner, and his friends. Over time, the boundaries between Gary's personal life and the world within Legend of the Spear begin to blur in complex and unexpected ways.

An announcement trailer for Legendary Gary was released by Evan Rogers on 29 November 2017. The preview received positive reception, with Robert Purchese of Eurogamer remarking that the game "looks quite good", noting "the wry tone and self-awareness, not to mention (the) synth soundtrack - keep Legendary Gary afloat."

Legendary Gary received "generally favorable" reviews from video game critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Praise was directed towards the game's narrative and the theme of interaction between fantasy and reality in the video game medium. Writing for The Sixth Axis, Steve C. stated the game posed an "original and thought provoking meditation on the ways in which real life and fantasy can become blurred," praising its "compelling" story.

Kim Snaith of GameSpew praised the "depth" of the writing, noting the game "brings up a surprising amount of philosophy that at times makes us ponder our own morals". Jake Green of Rock Paper Shotgun stated the game presented a rather touching tale about how games can offer much-needed escapism, but how ultimately, they cannot stand in for real-life relationships." Alice Bell of Video Gamer stated the narrative was "pleasantly, frighteningly familiar" and praised the realism of the writing.