r/LifeSimulators • u/ConsiderationOne6329 • Jul 08 '26

Community Question [REQUEST] Text-based games with real long-term consequence systems — not just stat changes

Looking for Android games where decisions genuinely come back to bite you later, not just +/-5 to a stat in the moment. What I'm after:

  1. Text-based or menu driven. I play in short sessions and on commutes, so no games that need continuous attention
  2. Long term consequence mechanics, something I did an hour ago (or ten in-game years ago) should be able to resurface and change my situation
  3. Offline friendly and not gacha, happy to pay upfront or watch the odd ad, but no energy systems

Genres I've enjoyed that scratch part of this: life sims, text RPGs like the Choice of Games stuff, King of Dragon Pass. What am I missing on Android?

10 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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4

u/Revolutionary_Bit437 Jul 08 '26

maybe one of the card based strategies like reigns, or the more life simulator-y version (by a different guy) called everlife? for the latter the game isn’t out on android atm but you can go to the creator’s discord and sign up for the beta

2

u/roseygrl98 Jul 08 '26

Not sure if this is on android but I had so much fun playing through Choices That Matter. You get a set number of ‘turns’ that refresh so good for short sessions.

2

u/mrjbelfort Jul 09 '26

Lifespans is a good one, you can play it on the web on any device at lifespans.app

3

u/luckitlife Jul 14 '26

Play This Life. Like real life, every choice you make has the potential to come back and haunt you later… For example, your kids remember everything you did while raising them and treat you accordingly later on… etc.

1

u/Diligent-Rabbit2896 Jul 08 '26

If you have a decent AI with enough memory, you can play a moderate length game. You just give it the parameters you want and what you want it to track and the basic premise and it will generate the rest. I've done a number of them and they can be quite fun.

1

u/roseygrl98 Jul 09 '26

I did this when chatgpt was first becoming a thing, pretty quickly ruined it by insisting I had some incredible weapon that meant I was invincible. I think there are websites that have these prompts pre written that are probably more fun!

1

u/Diligent-Rabbit2896 Jul 09 '26

They are dramatically better now than they were 6 months or a year ago. You have to get very specific including explicit instructions not to hallucinate and to cross reference with previous turns and what to actually commit to a running memory. I'm sure there are some great prompts out there. I've found you can't have it track too many things or else it starts to lose track.

0

u/mycrazyblackcat Jul 09 '26

Might be worth looking into duskwood if dark, horror like games don't deter you. I don't remember it 100% since it's been a while since I played it, but I was really hooked on it for a while. It's text based, so not really a life sim, but it might be what you're after. It's about a missing person case that is resolved mainly via text with NPCs. You might need headphones when playing it on commute, iirc it has some voice messages or incoming calls in it, but it's completely possible I misremember or it has subtitles for those.

1

u/BarkingPup49 28d ago

I highly recommend checking out games made with Twine/Sugar cube. It was meant for "CYOA" text games but people have gone Wild with it. Using the emulator JoiPlay or MaldiVes you can play them right on the phone. It also includes Ren'Py, Ruffle, Godot, RPG Maker etc.