Forteller 12+

Bought for Kinfire Chronicles. The acting is fantastic, ambient noise effects is engrossing and the music is beyond 5 stars.

Only issue is the app not able to back to previous selection and due to story choices and branching the app sometimes does and doesn't include options. Sometimes it takes you to the next story card automatically and other times it doesn't.

I feel the app team is perhaps overseas support team that could care less about the Forteller company.

I purchased the Above and Below narration for my daughter (6) and I to play together. The quality of the voice acting and SFX is very good. I’m a big fan. However, they skimped out on some very important parts of the narration. If you’ve every player above and below you know that each story is like a choose your own path kind of story. You could go left or you could go right. You could fight the monster or you run away. Each path has a requirement that needs to be hit in order to succeed. This narration does not provide that. My 6 year old daughter who can’t fully read yet would not be able to tell me what those requirements are. I feel like I paid for a whole pie, but a slice was taken out before I received it. And this is a very important slice.

As far as the app itself goes, it seems to be fine. Pretty simplistic. Nothing too outrageous. I’m not going to lie. I wish it had a store option so I didn’t have to return to the website to make future purchases.

We had high hopes for this app, but we were disappointed. While the production values are very high, there is a good deal too much noise compared with the voices. For older ears it can be hard to make out what the voices are saying.

We also found ourselves disappointed in the direction and the acting. The direction seems to disregard what’s written in the text. Characters who are said to “bellow” or to say something “triumphantly” talk just like all the other characters. And the acting is pretty good in the male parts, not so good in the female parts. For example, Hail is supposed to be powerful, mystical, and a bit intimidating, but she just comes off sweet and girly. I dunno if that’s the actor or the direction, but it was a real disappointment.

Finally, the technology of the app is not up to snuff. It takes 14 to 16 seconds to load an audio file. On a 2019 iPad Pro, that’s shockingly slow. Audio should load and play almost instantaneously. Moreover, the app won’t let the device go to sleep—it will happily sit on for an hour and drain the battery. And if you do tap the sleep button to put the poor iPad out of its misery, once it comes back and you’ve re-authenticated, the Forteller loses its place: instead of going on to the next clip of the scenario, it wants to replay the last one you’ve heard.

I love the concept of this app. But alas, the execution is wanting.