BTS Universe Story is now available worldwide on Android and iOS, giving fans a platform to easily read, create, and share interactive stories with the members of BTS in the starring roles.
The stories found in BTS Universe Story are, essentially, visual novels. They play out through snippets of dialogue and narration, with players able to make choices at various points that affect how the rest of the story plays out. The writing is accompanied by animated character models, static backgrounds, and visual effects, that all help set the mood and tell the story.
There’s a variety of stories to read from the get-go, including an official series based on the BTS Universe / The Most Beautiful Moment in Life. There’s also an abundance of player-created stories, even on day one, covering all sorts of genres and ranging from short vignettes to multi-episode epics. There are decent search tools to help you find new stories by genre or your favourite creators, and the home screen also showcases featured stories from various creators.
There’s also a game-wide affinity system sees you building up your affinity with each BTS member at a meta level—certain choices within individual stories increases a permanent affinity stat that persists across all other stories you play. Those affinity levels can in turn affect the choices that are available in other stories, should a creator choose to lock certain choices behind a set character affinity level.
User-generated content is a big part of BTS Universe Story, with a robust set of creative tools reminiscent of Visual Novel Maker. There’s a choice of both a simple and an expert editor; the simple one gives you all the key functions like dialogue, choices, and animations, while the expert one lets you go much more in-depth with things like camera movement and scripted costume changes.
Being a free-to-play game, BTS Universe Story has its share of microtransactions. Most of the Most Beautiful Moment in Life stories are paywalled behind jewels (premium currency that you slowly earn through playing, or can just buy), with the option to buy them directly as well. There’s also a gacha system for obtaining new outfits and accessories to use in your creations (or simply admire in your collection), and some stories can have a limited number of “premium choices” that you can only select by spending jewels, if creators choose to include them.
