The Daring Mermaid Expedition

Peak

Let me begin by saying that I love Choice of Games and have bought over thirty of their games. With that being said, this is the only one which I consider absolutely not worth the money. It seems to have fallen short of the quality of most of the other stories. *Spoiler warning for anyone who actually cares about anything that happens in this. The writing is rushed and often childish - and not in a good way. I read another Choice of Games story, Sixth Grade Detective, which obviously involved young characters and an elementary school setting, but which was many times more interesting and well-written than this one. For being such purportedly legendary creatures, the mermaids are found with little difficulty by the MC, which removes the satisfaction that comes from me actually having to figure anything out. There are some strange twists of phrase, such as: “She has turned a blazing red color, very like the hide of the crimson cave shark” “The crew don't much care for kids like you” I would look for more examples, but I can’t be bothered. It also feels like your choices don’t matter, since I’ve gotten the same ending three times regardless of the decisions I make. Plus there is only one love interest option. The other characters are unremarkable and underdeveloped. Crazy-mermaid-man and disapproving-fiancée-lady (I forgot their names because I didn’t have any reason to care about them) just had an unrealistic and rather juvenile relationship. The child whose name I also forgot is mostly just annoying. And the story completely skips over the part where MC trains with their mentor, thereby removing a great opportunity for character development and actual romantic progression. Likewise, the game doesn’t expand on any sort of culture that the mermaids have. There’s no reason for me to care about helping them conceal their presence from the Society at all. Honestly, if the mermaids are dumb enough to make a game out of biting some random schmuck, they deserve to be caught. That’s just natural selection. Mostly, I’m mad because the first two chapters actually seemed decent and encouraged me to spend my money to read the rest, which was a complete letdown. In my opinion, don’t waste your money, because this app is definitely not worth it. There are plenty of other excellent Choice of Games stories out there where your choices and stats actually matter and which are so much more engaging and entertaining.