So this all is really good. It’s entertaining, has good twists, and the storylines are great. The thing that I’ve been noticing lately, though, is that it’s really pay to win. In one of the stories, you can’t even complement a character without it being stuck behind a paywall. Besides that, even having one ounce of spice costs a lot. There are about 30 pay things PER CHAPTER in many stories. Even though the storyline is great even without the paid options, something’s behind the paywall are unnecessary. For example, in one story I was playing, an item you needed to have so you didn’t die was behind the paywall. In the same story, a really big piece of lore was beneath a paywall as well. I would get having spice behind a paywall, maybe even some very small parts of lore that you end up finding out one way or another. But this game hid a really big piece of lore that was crucial to the plot and story. I really wish they could down the prices a big because for a spicy option, it is 16-30 hearts. This is about 180 dollars per chapter (maybe even more) if you paid for all the exclusive options like giving a character a hug. Over all, good game and a great app to pass time with (especially as a book lover!!) But, I would definitely prefer if it wasn’t so dang expensive.

The fact that your daily rewards expire if you don’t use them fast enough is ridiculous, the level of pay to play is extremely exploitative. Not even being able to take the time to save up sapphires when some things cost 500 makes checking in daily pretty pointless. I want to support other artists as much as the next person, but the way they approach hearts and unlocking things us very discouraging. They don’t get you far and are very expensive. You shouldn’t need 20 bucks worth of hearts every chapter to unlock everything. Fosters a very unwelcoming atmosphere, as I’m certain a lot of the people paying over and over are probably quite young, so it feels gross. The arcana at least let you keep your daily coins forever. Should definitely consider doing the one time fee to unlock full stories like visual novels and games on steam more often. Disappointing, but I can go without since they obviously only want you reading if you’re willing to give a ton of money, which not everyone has. Which of course you can play without paying at all, but obviously the best stuff people play for are behind a paywall, so that’s a pretty disingenuous response I see parroted in all the reviews saying the same as me. You’re not supposed to complain because it’s in the support of artists, but there has to be a middle ground. If you don’t want to share your full stories with people who can’t afford to pay, you should really try to just release them as a full game with a one time cost. Oh well.

So originally I had a 5 star review but there is a lot to improve still with this app that I hope the developers see and take note of because i know im not the only one.To start, i love the sapphire feature that has been added since I first came to the app. They have changed it a few times, trying to balance it where you can earn enough to actually unlock good scenes but also encourages you to engage with new stories even more now. Which I find wonderful for creators. The problem is however that creators get absolutely nothing from sapphire unlocks. It would be nice if the app could put in an optional section to watch ads to earn sapphires maybe so that both the app and creators could earn a cut from ad revenue.My other really big gripe with the app right now is how much AI content has infiltrated the app. It’s really saddening as an artist to see more and more of these stories with low quality content showing up and being pushed. Even if they say it’s only the artwork, how can I trust they aren’t using ai for the writing as well? There are so many ethical concerns by allowing such content on the app. Now I’m not saying remove them all immediately, but at the very least it would be nice to have a button that filters it out. Please do better Dorian. I know you guys are trying and you listen because otherwise you would never have added sapphires 🙏

So I haven’t played dorian for very long but I’m starting to get genuinely irritated. I get that hearts are a way to support creators but that being said this game is just way too expensive. It’s 7 dollars for a 51 hearts pack, which seems like it would be a good deal, except for the fact that each heart choice is about 30-40 hearts. And the fact that you can’t really progress in the story without picking heart choices is extremely unfair. It seems like dorian is blocking its own success while also making the game miserable for lower income players. If heart choices costed less, say 15-20, people would pick more heart choices, unlock more scenes, be more invested in the story, and buy more hearts because of how far in the game it would take them. With the current prices of heart choices and the lackluster scenes that come with them, playing the game just doesn’t seem worth it. And also, there’s another option to gain gems, but this doesn’t really work because of the insane amount of gems you need to gather, and the fact that by the time you think have enough gems, they’ve most likely already disappeared. I don’t know if this has only happened to me, but this week I racked up 300 gems and was waiting for the last day so I could have enough, only to log back in to see my gems at zero. (Please give my gems back, I literally waited for so long to have enough😭) Moral of the story, the gameplay is fine, but it’s just way too expensive.