I heard good things, so I checked them out on Google Play. Intriguing games, but wow, that monetizing model of theirs is ridiculous.
From what I’ve gathered, the best outcomes and love interest routes are locked behind premium currency.
I mean, I get that higher costs are involved, but wow. The price they’re asking for 60 gems (which is roughly equal to the cost of 3 or 4 premium choices) is roughly the same price for buying the full version of a CoG game…
Yes, I’m a huge player of Choices PB. I think it is all depend if you are more Visual than text base type…
I personally enjoy both.
Tried it, and there are several others like it. Some are not quite so egregious on their monetization models, but that is what you get when it is exclusively a phone game, because they know they can get away with it because people let them.
Much prefer the pay up front model here by CoG.
I tried Choices and it’s fun. You really don’t have to buy the premium things cause you can get the daily rewards.
I did that one a while ago. My vibe from it was that they wanted to tell good stories, but but hampered by the requirement of making money. As I learned from @jasonstevanhill, other companies, like Episode (or whatever their parent company is) have explicitly come out and said in meetings that they don’t believe having quality stories with branching is worth it.
Yeah, most of those IF games on mobile give the illusion of “CHOICE”, when in reality they are very linear stories. Your only real choice is maybe if they allow it, who you are going to romance. I have seen Porn VN’s that are made with more real choices than those IF’s.
I’ve played since summer 2016. I uninstalled the app a month ago because now they are in a never ending spiral of mediocrity and romance/sex garbage.
I could make a post of every sin they have since their golden age but I’ll do only if someone is interessed to read it
Very interested. I feel your pain
Eroges. They are called Eroges. And they happen to have pretty excellent stories too. Just because they have sex in them doesn’t mean that it’s all about it.
Choices have pretty good stories, but their monetization model is too predatory. I stopped following them after the end of their Everlasting Summer series.
I feel uncomfortable calling this game a “choice” game because in reality the choices and decisions are very limited or don’t affect the story at all.
To be clear, I didn’t say they don’t believe in “quality” stories. What I said is that they don’t believe in “branching.”
Which is to say, there may be a paragraph of different text depending on a choice, but after that branched paragraph, the game “forgets” the decision. Decisions (that you don’t pay for) have no mechanical effect on the story.
There isn’t as much branching as in COG games, and if you want to buy the game outright the monetizing is ridiculous, but The Arcana lets you get the best outcomes & all the routes for free if you’re willing to wait a bit. Plus the art is really gorgeous and I really like the love interests and story lines!
i’ve tried some but in the end that format just isn’t for me. the monetization model is…not great and the general approach to interactive storytelling is too limited for me 
i’ve probably had more fun just browsing itch.io for IF and VN than actually playing the lot of these mobile games 
COG and HG have spoiled me 
Eroges are Japanese.
American/European creators don’t call their games Eroges.
And not all are created equal, but yeah, there are several that I am backing on Patreon that have far better stories than any of those Choice games, not necessarily better than CoG games, but still some really interesting stories. There is a cyberpunk one, and a really good space setting one, where both authors have created unique and interesting world settings.
That game sounds cool, what is it?
Just because they don’t call it that doesn’t mean they’re not.
But yeah, not all are created equally. Just thought that you were generalizing all the VNs under that genre, even though no one should do that. Sorry for being aggressive, I’m just tired of seeing people call them that and think that sex’s all those VNs contains, when it usually contains much more.
Can I know their names? It sounds interesting.
They are BAD and they only have a real choice and the deep of a needle cup. They don’t have character development and absolutely all choices are created with the deliberate effort to forcing you to pay extra. Those options are the only developed the rest are Be shitty coward or pay. You romance X pay… There are incredibly more expensive like at least 3x or more if There are several paths.
For instance, a Otome game as Voltare games costs about 25 to 40 unlock all routes. With no stats no replay value and only or good end or bad per character.
And that is without using the ones that need tickets to read… So you can read x lines each day…
Sent you a private message, as I don’t want to advertise those kind of games here.
Ah, thank you.
Yeah, this is exactly where I end up on them. The pricing scheme is predatory. When I have spent the money, I’ve never enjoyed them commensurate with the price I paid.
If you’re interested in the story without having any actual choice or impact (which is what so many of these end up being IMO), just read a book. They’re way cheaper. That won’t work for folks who really like the visual aspects, but it has for me.