It's called Dangerous Fellows and it is -- also not one of my normal things -- a zombie survival game as well. It's by LucyDream which looks to be a Korean company. I'm on Episode 10 out of 25. The basic story is that you play a teenage (18?) girl. One day, some mysterious virus hits the world and you are separated from everyone you know and love. You've been surviving on your own for a while, hiding out in abandoned houses. How? Not really sure. You've got some pluck, but you also seem to fall apart pretty easily.
Then you make a trip to a grocery store to get more food and wind up being saved from zombies by a handful of handsome dudes. You know the kind, all the archetypes. The nice one, the strong/silent type, the grouch with a soft side, the sarcastic one, etc. etc. They take you back with them to the school they've been hiding out in, where there are some other people as well, including an old friend of yours and a bitchy girl that immediately takes a dislike to you and wants to kick you out for no real reason other than, I guess, there needed to be some kind of antagonist in this game other than the undead. Actually, that's probably my big complaint so far...it's supposed to be a "zombie survival" story but most of the storyline is really just about this bitchy girl Scarlet accusing you of every bad thing that happens for no apparent reason. Why bother having a supernatural life or death setting if you're not really going to utilise it?
Anyway, there are decision points where you can earn hearts with the guys. You can also "fix up the school" to earn hints, candy bars (which you can feed to a guy to earn hearts) and other stuff, or puzzle pieces (and if you complete the puzzle, you get stuff). Tickets are needed to unlock certain premium content and rubies are needed to unlock more in-depth/premium storylines/CGs. You can earn some free rubies every day.
Pros: the interface is nice, the general design is good and easy to navigate, the story itself seems mostly okay (other than I was immediately over the bitchy girl), the love interest guys are reasonably interesting. Also, there are a lot of points it lets you watch a video ad rather than having to spend rubies, like to get hints. Graphics are well done, though fairly simple. It's made in Unity.
Cons: there are times when the translation is a bit clunky (though not as terrible as some I've seen by any means) and the premium content stuff is ridiculously expensive to unlock. Like, there are three sets of clothing to buy at different times and they all cost 450 rubies and you need all three sets at different story points (from what I have gathered). Watching videos gets you maybe 15 free ones a day. I have 160 at the moment from doing standard free stuff (following on Twitter & Facebook earned you a bunch) but none of the earn massive amounts of free ones really work for me because it's very US-centric (maybe...it's weird...once I clicked it and it gave me UK-ish options, but all the other times were US ones so it seems to be something funky with the app).
I don't mind paying for content to support the developers if it is good but I'm not sure how the quality of the premium stuff is at this point and I don't want to buy any if it is crap...so I need to earn enough rubies to try out a bit first. BUT, that said, the in-app purchase for the "all-in-one package" is £25.99! I've bought entire MASSIVE otome games on Steam for a fraction of that. You can get a "one guy" package for £8.99 (which actually gives you 2 tickets, 10 hints + 450 rubies + 1,800 rubies) though you wouldn't know the appropriate place to use those things unless you use a walkthrough.
I did look for some reviews and did see one spoiler-y thing...it sounds like everyone dies in the end if you don't unlock a premium ending. Which is kinda crappy. So...I'm not sure yet. You also don't really put yourself on a "path" to any one guy as the story seems to progress the same no matter what. At least most of the decision point questions make sense and aren't the typical "no choice seems better than another" thing. Though one of the problems with this approach is that none of the guys particularly stand out either and I don't see any particular reason for her to go for one over another (sorry, I like character development in my otome....)
I'm thinking I'll probably play through all the way without buying anything first to see how it seems--and how many free rubies I can accumulate--and then I'll decide from there whether or not to actually spend any money to get a good ending. I'll update this later after I've played through.
Edit: Welllll...okay. I made it all the way through without spending anything. And the normal ending is...everyone dies. And it's pretty much the fault of the leader of the dudes (Lawrence), who is also probably behind all of the dodgy stuff that's been going on the whole time (people disappearing / being killed / etc.) And...he's one of the romanceable options? Erm...okay. Anyway, it's also the fault of the MC because she makes some ridiculous decisions--especially after she's warned by one of the people who disappears that it's probably Lawrence! And she sees him kill some random crazy non-zombie dude (saving her from him, but still).
So.
I am slowly working my way back through it to earn enough rubies to get to a good ending...probably with Ethan, as he's the character that it is easiest to get "hearts" with. That way I can check out what some of the premium stuff is...but I kinda doubt based on the default ending quality that I'll spend any actual money on this one. If it was a more reasonable price, maybe.
I did try and download another one of their games called Mystic Code which is similar in design but seems to have more content and voice acting. However, I've only made it about a chapter in because it's confusing both in interface and storyline and I dunno if I have the energy to muddle through it. Or if it would be worth it.
Will update this again if/when I finish a "good" ending.
Edit: Welp.......I finished a "good" route with the Ethan character and I use that term loosely. I did use some rubies on a couple of things to get enough "hearts" but I didn't purchase any; they were all free ones earned via the ads/daily reward. The extra bits you get (like, at one point you give him a candy bar) provides...well...not really much of anything extra. Nothing romantic, nothing dramatic. Bare minimum of additional sceneage. Nothing to write home about and nothing that really progresses the story much either. There's no hint at any point from the MC that she feels anything for any of these guys other than "oh, yay, it's good to have people around" rather than being all alone and running from zombies.
And...as for the end itself...pyscho Lawrence disappears. Everyone else dies in a wave of zombies. And you and Ethan are trapped in the school, moving ever higher up the building to try and avoid them (what you're eating to stay alive on, I have no idea, as you were low on food before). The most romantic thing that happens is the MC rests her head on his shoulder. They talk at the very end about maybe trying to make it to the safe zone and Ethan confesses he wants to keep her safe. That's it. It's quite short. So...yeah. Disappointing.
I mean, yes, I get that it's a zombie survival thing BUT it's also an otome. This is like the absolute bare minimum of romance. And, ultimately, the big enemy here isn't the zombies but a psycho dude. And the lesser evil is a bitchy blonde girl.
So I was very MEH about this and decided to look up the other endings. I thought, hey, Ethan is obviously the "intro" character as he's the easiest to get hearts for. Maybe Harry or Zion or Eugene will be better (and why you'd want to go for Lawrence, I dunno) and have a more meaty story. So....looks like everyone else dies in every other ending other than your chosen guy. And, while you might make it to the safe zone in some of them, you're always feeling guilty about the people left behind. And you never find out what happened to your friend Judy. And the romance basically is you might hug. If you do the Lawrence route, you find out he had a psycho crush on you from 2 years ago when you gave him an umbrella (wtf???). And apparently there's some sort-of alternative ending you can unlock where not everyone dies, but it doesn't actually sound any happier either.
Bleh.
I really wanted a lot more out of this one. The design is nice. The character design/art is good. Good interface/easy to understand. But the story is ultimately really lacking. It's like they didn't give it enough adventure for a survival story and there's definitely not enough romance for an otome. And it's not really a very re-playable one as the stuff you unlock really doesn't add a significant amount to the story. So this was a bust. Pity.
Edit: So, I was cleaning old games off my phone and decided to open this one up one last time and it seems that they've made some major updates, including adding the ability to text with the LIs. However, whatever else they did somehow lost all of my progress and stored stuff. :-( If it had kept all my stored items, I'd have given it another go, but I didn't want to start all over again when it was hard to tell how much difference the new stuff would make to the story. But, if someone happens to stumble across this, I guess just know that it at least appears better. So maybe it is!
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