Anibabe!

To preface, I have read EVERY story(guess I’m the real loser here) and for the most part I’d say that this app does what it wants to and does it well enough that I do not have many complaints. The only complaints I DO have are ones that I truly hope that the developers listen to, as I at least think I have some ground to speak up as I’ve put in the effort of reading every story that is on this application. UI, art, ability to gain currency through ads and all that stuff is great. No issues there. The major issue I have is with some of the stories and the choices they force you to make are quite often bad. If you are not willing to spend gems the choice you are left with will quite often make you feel like garbage. One example is that you let one of the girl’s father die and force her to deal with it. Pretty scummy. Makes me feel like the devs are fishing for money. Changing them to a less polarizing outcome would feel much better. The only other thing is that I don’t think that final chapters of stories should have a premium choice. Other than that, it’s a great app, one that is unique and I quite rather enjoy :)

To start, I do have to say that the artwork and stories that I’ve read are amazing. The plots are well thought out and engaging and the characters are likable. However, that being said, the gem costs are extortionate. A single story has about three premium choices per chapter, about fifteen chapters per story, and each choice costs around thirty gems. Since you can’t earn any aside from surveys, and even they are hit or miss as to eligibility and functionality, that means that the cost comes out of pocket. 30 times 3 times 15 is 1,350 gems. The best deal to get gems in those quantities is $100 for 1500. And that’s only one story. Since there are about three love interests per story, you could just be a jerk two thirds of the time and be able to make the premium choices for just one girl at the $40 level. Needless to say, this is ridiculous. I would almost rather have a system that unlocked all choices for an individual game or a subscription system. Yes, you might make less in the short term, but I bet more players would stick around in the long term, as well as rate the game higher.

Overall, I think it’s a good app/game. Great art styles, engaging enough storytelling, and just overall fun. But, as some people have already commented, the rubies system is a bit over the top. I understand the need for exclusive content (since the rubies choices don’t affect the story you play through), and the app has to make money some sort of way (although free apps receive some money, albeit pennies, per each download), but it’s just too much. Sure, they give you some opportunities to earn free rubies through points, but there too little in between. It’s already tough having a 2-3 ticket maximum and tickets taking multiple hours to reset, but the high price of premium choices and the exclusivity of earning rubies stack up too. At the very least, give us a “prize” for completing each story, 10-20 rubies or just 3 tickets (plus, allow us to have more than 3 in a storage or something. I had 2/3 and finished the daily mission, only to receive 2 tickets, but since that would go over the limit, I only got 1. It didn’t even show me what the prize was gonna be until I opened it). The only bugs I found was that the backlog would be completely blank sometimes, plus in the Mafia story, one of the girls (I think the rival Mafia girl) would literally have no eyes (like a slug) whenever she would blink, and hold that blink for an entire line of dialogue, it’s horrifying to see.