Uncover the Mystery
Romance and mystery go hand in hand in the otome game Touch to Fate by the prolific developer StoryTaco. Assist Devon University as a recommended student searching for the truth behind your parents’ death. Along the way, you’ll meet and romance Saint Devon, Sian Lee, Theodor Westmoreland and Bright Somerset. Fall in love with them and solve the mystery.
How Free is Free-to-Play?
Touch to Fate consists of fifteen chapters, two dates and five critical moments, with eleven story cutscenes and eight different endings. The decisions you make affect the favorability you have with each character and, consequentially, the ending. But even with the several dialogue options and the eight endings, the story never strays much. Regardless of the route you take, the only changes are the dates and the endings. If you haven’t unlocked the dates, only the endings will differ.
However, not unlocking the dates, clothing items, gifts and all the dialogue options locks you into the bad ending. You can only unlock the dates by purchasing the respective character costumes, meaning you’ll have to grind. This means spending several rounds repeating the same story to get enough diamonds to make one minuscule change.
If you remain free-to-play, you’ll have to pay diamonds for absolutely everything. Let me tell you, it is expensive. The currency you get doesn’t keep pace with what you need to unlock content to keep it interesting, and you’ll never properly finish the game without spending money. Touch to Fate tries to hook you and then softly force you to spend your money to unlock the content. That’s the only way to have the authentic otome experience. Otherwise, you must go through the story an absurd number of times to purchase one date. You’ll also spend more time watching ads than in the story itself.
A Touch of the Past
An aspect I liked is that the game displays your favorite boy in the main lobby. You can dress them with whatever you’ve purchased for them, giving you a favorability bonus. Meanwhile, you can access the Case Files to keep up with the unlocked clues and scenes. There is also a Private Room where you can give them gifts.
I must say I enjoyed the story. While predictable, it still manages to trap you. It reads like one of those Wattpad stories that, while not particularly good, were still addictive. Even the odd, poorly translated writing gives you the nostalgic feeling of being thirteen and consuming self-inserts written by other teenagers. However, you’ll be over it after the third replay.
In summary, Touch to Fate has a decent story with good, albeit stereotypical, characters and pretty art. However, it’s only worth it if you’re willing to spend a good amount of money to unlock the content. The overall experience would improve if Touch to Fate were a little more generous with diamonds or if the scenes were less expensive. As it stands now, you can really feel the thirst for money.
Hardcore?
No.
I really wanted to like Touch to Fate, mostly out of nostalgia, but the more I played, the more I felt preyed upon.
