Comparison

怨念 vs POOLS™

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

怨念

Embark on a chilling horror adventure set in a mysterious school at the bottom of a dam. Solve puzzles and evade spirits in a game of hide-and-seek with a tragic ghost. Uncover the shocking truth behind the school's secrets.

Highlights
  • Horror adventure gameplay
  • Mysterious school setting
  • Ghost encounters
  • Hide-and-seek mechanics
  • Story progression
  • Simple controls
Read full description

今年、最強で最恐のホラーアプリが堂々登場…! ▼△▼△▼△▼注意▼△▼△▼△▼ このアプリでは不気味な現象が起こります。 (お祓い済) 心臓の弱い方、臆病者の方はプレイしないことを オススメします。 このアプリで起こったことに対して、弊社は一切 責任を負いません。予めご了承ください。 ▼△▼△▼△▼ストーリー▼△▼△▼△▼△ ダム底に突如現れた、あるはずのない学校。 そこに居合わせた1人の少年は、引き寄せられる かのようにその学校へと入っていった。 ぬかるんだ床、じっとりとした空気。。 中を進んでいくと次第に目の前がゆがみはじめた。 「…?!」 現れたのは1人の少女の霊。 その少女は悲しそうな声で少年に呟いた。 「サガ…シテ…」 少年はこの学校の謎を解き明かすべく、不気味な 学校で霊との戦慄な「かくれんぼ」を始めるのであった。 衝撃のクライマックス、驚愕の真相。 アナタは決してこの「結末」から逃れられない…。 ▼△▼△▼△▼遊び方▼△▼△▼△▼ 遊び方はとてもシンプル。 ◯溜まってくるカラスをフリックで排除しよう ◯トイレ内にゲットした遊具を投げ入れよう。 この2つをやるだけで、ストーリーはどんどん展開されて いきます。 やりこんでいくと新しい場所に行けるようになり、違う操作も 出てくるので、アナタを退屈にさせません…。 SNSへシェアすることで、ストーリー展開を早める事もできます。 せっかちなアナタにはぴったりですね…。 ▼△▼△▼△▼△▼△▼△▼△▼△▼△▼ これからはじまる体験はキミだけが真実の鍵を握ります。 必ず、この謎と恐怖に耐え、クリアしてみてくださいね…。

About

POOLS™

This app offers a slow, reflective, and immersive experience focused on exploration and atmosphere. It evokes feelings of unease and curiosity through its unique environments, inspired by liminal spaces and internet phenomena. Discover changing worlds and subtle narratives without traditional gameplay mechanics.

Highlights
  • Slow, reflective exploration
  • Atmospheric and immersive environments
  • Inspired by liminal spaces
  • Unfolding narrative through exploration
  • Six distinct chapters
  • Unique sound design
Features
Read full description

Explore, admire and listen. That’s it. Uncanny. Relaxing. Unnerving. Eerie. Immersive. POOLS isn’t a traditional game. it’s slow, reflective, and intentionally uneventful, perhaps a bit like virtual museum. So take your time. Breathe. POOLS unfolds slowly, rewarding patience and quiet attention. No monsters chasing you or jumping at your screen. Yet it can feel oppressive at times by invoking quiet fears of getting lost, the dark, tight spaces and the strange beauty of liminal space architecture. There's no typical story. But as you explore and advance further, you start to notice that the game's world changes around you, deeper you go… Rooms look and feel… different. Base game features six chapters, each lasting 10-30 minutes. Inspired by the internet phenomena Liminal spaces, Found footage and The Backrooms, especially the Poolrooms concept. One of the original artists behind the Poolrooms concept is Jared Pike.

Screenshots

怨念4 screens
POOLS™4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: 怨念 at none against POOLS™'s 1. 怨念 also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 80%) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.6). POOLS™'s advantage is ratings volume (1.7K vs 3) and update cadence (monthly vs every 5 months). On price, rating, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. POOLS™ sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. 怨念 asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for 怨念 against 4.5 for POOLS™. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: POOLS™ has 1.7K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of 怨念's written reviews are positive against 80% of POOLS™'s.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

怨念 ships an update every 5 months, POOLS™ monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
怨念 versus POOLS™: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter怨念POOLS™
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (3 ratings) — better4.5 (1.7K ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better79.5% of reviews
Number of ratings31.7K — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS8.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size71 MB1.9 GB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperNANO Media Inc.Tensori

Customer experience

怨念

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

POOLS™

All ratings1,738 ratings
Positive88.0%
Neutral3.2%
Negative8.7%
Written reviews630 reviews
Positive79.5%
Neutral6.3%
Negative14.1%

Bugs and requests

怨念

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

POOLS™

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Unable to move on iPad Pro
  • Glitches reported

Requested features

3 requests
  • Expand to different Backrooms-inspired themes
  • Add a multiplayer mode
  • Introduce more interactive elements (e.g., monsters, items to discover)

In-app purchases

None

怨念

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

POOLS™

One-time1
  • POOLS: Full Game$9.99

Questions

Is 怨念 free?
怨念 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is POOLS™ free?
POOLS™ is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, 怨念 or POOLS™?
怨念 is rated higher. 怨念 averages 4.7 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while POOLS™ averages 4.5 from 1.7K ratings.
Do 怨念 or POOLS™ have ads?
Neither 怨念 nor POOLS™ shows ads.
Which is updated more often, 怨念 or POOLS™?
怨念 ships an update every 5 months, and POOLS™ monthly. Most recently, 怨念 was updated on October 24, 2026 and POOLS™ on October 25, 2026.

Other comparisons