Episode and 3 other addictive visual novel games
Episode is everyone's favorite guilty pleasure at the moment, raking in thousands of reviews and around 10 million downloads on Android alone. It's a choose your own adventure game with a few official romance stories to play through and thousands more created by fans. Its easy storybuilding platform makes it an accessible way to publish your own creations and try out others -- a rarity on mobile that is proving to be very succesful. If you're looking for something equally fluffy and just as addictive, try one of these other visual novels!
Choices: Stories You Play
FREE!
Choices is similar to Episode in the sheer number of adventures available, but it also tends to offer more variety in terms of genre. Rather than spicy romance or college drama, Choices also dabbles in high fantasy and criminal investigations, if those sorts of stories should better suit. The stories are written by a dedicated and experienced team, with new adventures released regularly.
Mystic Messenger
FREE!
Mystic Messenger is a cool twist on the romance visual novel. The game acts like a messaging client like What's App. You accidentally find yourself in a top secret club full of handsome Korean men, so of course you're going to have to befriend and date one of them. Listen to phone calls and answer texts to move the story forward.
This is a full 3DS and Vita game that's been brought to mobile, so you'll have to pay for episodes eventually, but it's well worth it. Hakuoki tells the tale of a coterie of samurai with ties to something dangerous and supernatural. It's a well-woven tale that offers an intriguing window into Japanese history during the late Edo period. Excellent artwork and interesting characters complete the package.
Mobile is becoming a larger platform for storytelling games like these. It will be exciting to see more arriving on iOS and Android following the sweeping success of Episode. For now, though, these four games will provide you with hours of entertainment.
What are your favorite visual novels on mobile? Let us know in the comments!