A Wise Use of Time Reviews

This game had an exciting and interesting story while many of the choices were impactful, and only a few felt forced or railroaded, but these were few and far between. As such, I liked the game enough to play through it twice, and the lovely romances enhanced the experience further. (8/10)

Nearly every chapter in this story begins with a summary of all the things your character has done since the preceding chapter (while you had no choice in the matter). And surprise, the character's behavior is completely at odds with the choices you made previously. I kept choosing low key options preferring discretion, only to be told how, in space between the chapters, my character had used his power to fight crime, or saved someone who was about to be injured, or skipped out without paying a bill. It was so disjointed, considering that when I had the opportunity to make similar choices, I had chosen the opposite behaviors. Either let the player direct the character's behavior or you do it. A mix of both leads to inconsistency.

I'm surprised by the amount of positive reviews, as this is one of the weakest CoGs I've ever played. The plot lost me very quickly, at some points it moves way too fast to be enjoyable, at others it drags terribly. At least one really impactful choice is taken away from player (basically games decides for you, even if you disagree and then criticize you for decision, that wasn't really yours to begin with). It opens up really strong, but then gets worse with every minute. Also, writing (especially during first interactions with your roommates) goes to "obvious and bad exposition" territory. Sadly, I cannot recommend it.

I personally loved this game, every choice and action I took felt like it had some long term meaning. Interesting romance system that I still haven't fully explored after several playthroughs. I would reccomend this game, especially while its on sale, to anyone with the patience to read pages of text. 8/10 as far as text based CYOA games go.

I have to say, I'm relitively surprised by this title. I've never played an interactive novel before this one, and I'm deffinetly trying more soon. I got about four hours out of a single playthrough, and I rather enjoyed the story. It's a very interesting take on the ability to stop time, and it seems to me that it can go in a number of ways. I didn't get a whole lot of the romance, but maybe that's because I didn't try as much for a single character. One point I enjoyed was the character creation, and generally being able to create a believable backstory and feel like a full-fledged person. I'd also like to touch on the actions you can take: they're fun. I honestly couldn't help but indulge my inner kleptomaniac and swipe some things while time was frozen, and it was fun. I whole heartedly recomend this to fans of powers, and the idea of a regular person getting the ability to stop time.

It's rather short, compared to my favorites from "Choice of Games" and a bit too fast-paced. Never once had a feeling that choices or stats actually changed anything (except for relationship, obviously). But it is an overall nice story. Grab it if you like a nice read, but don't expect anything amazing like the, I dare say, masterpieces that "Champion of Gods" and "Samurai of Hyuga" were.

I'll preface this review by saying I love the "choice of games" series and CYOA novels in general. As a standalone CYOA game, I believe that it performs admirably especially when accompanied by a suitable youtube mix (I recommend most epic music ever by HDSounDI). While as a whole, the text was uniformly above average, there were certain sections where I thought that the choices presented and the outcome that results were disjointed or even directly contrary to what I chose. These moments only occured twice, yet it was the first time I've ever encountered an event like that in any of the choice of games series. When comparing this title to previous choice of games I couldn't help but to feel a little disappointed. While the obnoxious use of weird pronouns evident in the previous title "Versus: The lost ones" was not present, the choices presented seemed less meaningful. Directly prior to playing this I played "Choice of the Deathless" and when I finished that, I felt a deep sense of contentment; a belief that the choices I made in the novel shaped how the story unfolded. Sadly, I did not experience anything similar to that when I finished this interactive novel. In fact, I had barely any sense of closure from finishing this, which makes a certain degree of sense due to it being the beginning of a new series but was still quite disappointing. Due to my profound love of this genre, I would still recommend this game, yet if you are just getting into the choice of series, I would advise you to play choice of robots or choice of deathless first as they are much stronger novels. Following that I would play the greek hero story, then Versus and the heroes rise trilogy. Once you finish those and are still aching for more, there are a variety of text adventures on their website which can be bought easily using google wallet. Basically, what I'm saying is play their other games first, and if you need more then come back and buy this. TLDR: Yes, but only if you are a veteran to the Choice of games series. Otherwise go buy choice of deathless or choice of robots. They are much better uses of your money and time.

I usually like these types of games but this one just completely disconnected for me early on. After you have been introduced to your powers suddenly your just forced to tell your room mates about it because "It could strain your relationship in the long run if you didnt, you dont have any choice" Yes lets tell my impulsive room mate with a gambling addiction that I can stop time. That will never end poorly. YES I HAVE A CHOICE DONT TELL THEM. I found it very very hard to continue after that.

I chose not to tell my roommates about my powers. Then the game was like, "At first you didn't want to tell them, but they pressed the issue, and you gave in and told them." Obnoxious, but tolerable. Later, another character criticized me for telling them, saying that I had put myself in danger. Fuck that. I get that Illusion of Choice is sometimes the most practical way to go in games, although a Choice of Games game has less excuse to use it. But if you're going to force me down a path, don't try to make me feel bad about taking that path. If you do, I'm going to avoid that path the only way I can - putting down your game and never playing it again.

It's rather short and there are so many different ways to learn the same story elements, it feels like choices aren't as important as in the other "choice of" games. I felt a lot less involved with characters and the story than normal, and things just felt rushed. It's not a bad game, but it might be among the weakest "choice of" games I've played, so I can't recommend it unless you've finished all their other games, and just "need" to play a new one.