Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery vs My Shelf: My Choice, My Episode
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is a story-driven, “choose your own adventure”-like, adventure-RPG where you get to attend the renowned School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Featuring a whole new storyline but with many familiar characters, you'll get to learn how to cast spells and brew potions, make new friends (and rivals) along the way, and get drawn to the many mysteries that the ancient school hides within its depths. The game even backs up your own adventures with an intriguing story about your missing brother who apparently was expelled as he had broken school rules when he was searching for the fabled Cursed Vaults.The gameplay is pretty casual and straightforward for the most part - as long as you have enough energy points, you can complete actions, tasks, and subsequently quests. However, it's unfortunate that the game doesn't use a more reflex-based gameplay during intense scenes that obviously call for more rapid actions. This is the only thing that truly breaks the immersion of the game.
Nevertheless, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is still a very well-made game and it is worth playing for the visuals, the experience of being an "actual" Hogwarts student, and the mystery-infused storyline. The game is free to play and is available on both Android and iOS.
My Shelf: My Choice, My Episode
My Shelf: My Choice, My Episode is a mobile game that is quite similar to Episodes or Choices where you'll get to "experience" various stories and influence how the story goes by picking dialogue choices or making important appearance-based decisions based on what you wear and how you look. Whether you like the idea of engaging in high school drama or fall for a mysterious yet suave vampire, this game has all of these stories and more! New chapters and stories are also added on a weekly basis, so you'll definitely have enough stories to read and enjoy.Unlike the other story apps though, My Shelf doesn't seem to have a section that allows players to create their own stories. Maybe this is a feature that will be added in later down the road. After all, the game already has all the elements in place for such a feature.
So, overall, My Shelf: My Choice, My Episode is a pretty decent alternative to games like Episodes or Choices despite lacking a pretty key feature which allows players to create their own stories and share them with the community.