Sorcery! vs Serania
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sorcery!
Embark on an epic four-part adventure across a land filled with monsters, traps, and magic. Make thousands of choices that dynamically rewrite your story and engage in unique touch-based sword duels. Master 48 magic spells with wondrous effects to shape your journey.
- Hand-drawn 3D world map
- Thousands of interactive choices
- Dynamically rewritten story
- Unique touch-based sword dueling
- 48 magic spells with story effects
- Outwit monsters with weaknesses
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An epic four-part adventure through a land of monsters, traps, and magic. Start your story here! FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY! *** Rock Paper Shotgun Best RPG of 2016 *** "You should choose to own this adventure" -- Eurogamer "Inkle's adaptation of Sorcery! takes the genre to a whole new level" -- Kotaku "This is some of 2013′s best interactive storytelling" -- IGN UK "Beautifully realised ... this gripping tale has us well and truly hooked" -- Pocket Gamer (Gold Award) "Incredibly impressed" -- Touch Arcade Top 10 Best Mobile Games of 2013, Mashable.com Top 20 of 2013, Touch Arcade Top 25 of 2013, Gamezebo + Plot your own journey across a hand-drawn 3D world map + Fully interactive story, with 1000s of choices + The story is rewritten on the fly based on how you play + Unique touch-based sword-duelling, with procedurally-generated descriptions of the action + Adapted from the best-selling gamebook series by legendary game designer Steve Jackson + Outwit monsters by learning their weaknesses and tells + 48 magic spells to master, with weird and wonderful effects that change the story "Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time writing a review when I should really just be pointing at a game and demanding that people play it. This is one of those times. Steve Jackson's Sorcery! is an absolutely marvellous fantasy storybook adventure. Lushly illustrated and expertly told, it should not be missed by anyone even remotely interested in the genre." -- Gamezebo "Let’s not mince words here... Sorcery’s unique blend of tabletop-like roleplaying (including an incredible combat system quite unlike anything I’ve seen before), and elaborate branching pathways with custom scripts preserving the feeling of Steve Jackson’s work make me now want to… no, HAVE TO acquire an iOS device" - Just Press Start From legendary designer Steve Jackson, co-founder of Lionhead Studios (with Peter Molyneux), and Fighting Fantasy and Games Workshop (with Ian Livingstone); and inkle, the studio behind the award-winning, App Store featured Frankenstein, Sorcery! is an interactive adventure like never before. The app uses inklewriter technology to tell your journey in real-time, shaping the story around your choices. The text itself changes based on how you play and what you do, and in combat, the action is description on the fly based on how you play. Featuring original illustrations by John Blanche, new character art by Eddie Sharam (DC Comics), an interactive map by Mike Schley (Wizards of the Coast) and music by David Wise (Donkey Kong Country). "The Shamutanti Hills" is Part 1 of 4. Part 2, "Kharé: Cityport of Traps", is out now, and will load all of your completed Part 1 games to continue your adventure. Part 3 is coming later this year (but while you wait, check out our new game, 80 DAYS).
Serania
Embark on a text-based role-playing adventure to uncover your past and escape pursuers. Make choices, explore a fantasy world, and engage in combat and skill development. The first part of the story is free to play.
- Engaging fantasy story with choices
- Explore a detailed story world
- Interact with characters
- Complete missions and improve skills
- Manage inventory and combat
- Uncover ancestral truth
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Escape the Blackblades and search for answers about your mysterious past in this new, fresh take on the text-based role playing genre. You can play the first 1/4 of the game for free. If the game is for you, you can buy access to the full story. FEATURES: * An engaging fantasy story, where you choose what to do * Freely explore the world of the story * Meet and interact with other characters * Go on missions, improve your skills, and fight deadly battles * Manage your inventory, use items, buy, sell or use in combat * Follow the clues and find out the truth about your ancestry! AWARDS: Best Narrative - Silver Winner NYX Game Awards 2021 Best Storytelling - Silver Winner NYX Game Awards 2021 PRESS: “... a stunningly well-written and enthralling text adventure.” - GameBookNews "Serania: Path of the Scion is a Must Play if You Like Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Books" - GameSpew "Serania – Path of the Scion excels as an engaging narrative experience that you can enjoy anytime, anywhere, with a streamlined interface that seamlessly integrates all aspects of the game naturally." - IndieHive
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Serania at Free against Sorcery!'s $4.99. Serania also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 6 weeks) and review sentiment (83% vs 73%). Sorcery!'s advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and chart position (#102 vs unranked). On rating, ratings volume, 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
Serania is free to download; Sorcery! costs $4.99 up front. Serania sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Sorcery! asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Sorcery! against 4.6 for Serania. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 188 and 157 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 73% of Sorcery!'s written reviews are positive against 83% of Serania's.
Sorcery! ships an update every 6 weeks, Serania every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sorcery! | Serania |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (188 ratings) | 4.6 (157 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 72.8% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 188 — better | 157 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #102 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 9.3 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 166 MB | 110 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | inkle | Peter Ravnholt |
Customer experience
Sorcery!
Serania
User reviews
Sorcery!
From 188 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Immersive story and gameplay
- 🎨 Beautiful artwork and illustrations
- 🔮 Unique spell casting mechanics
- 🗺️ Interactive map and world exploration
- 🔁 High replay value with multiple paths
Room to improve
- ⏱️ Short gameplay for the price
- 💰 Expensive for a partial story
- 🔁 Rewind feature cheapens decisions
- 🤔 Simplistic combat system
Serania
From 157 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great story and narrative
- 👍 Immersive and engaging gameplay
- 👍 Excellent voiceover support
- 👍 Good value for money
- 👍 Innovative text-based adventure
Room to improve
- 😞 Combat mechanics are frustrating
- 😞 Combat is too luck-based
- 😞 Final boss is too difficult/impossible
- 😞 Limited choices feel arbitrary
- 😞 Story can feel contrived
Bugs and requests
Sorcery!
Reported bugs
2 issues- Occasional crashes reported
- Compatibility issues on older devices
Requested features
4 requests- Longer and more expansive story
- Multiple save slots
- Deeper RPG mechanics
- Improved combat with dice rolls
Serania
Reported bugs
10 issues- Combat options disappear
- Enemies can dodge while 'paralyzed'
- Life doesn't fully restore upon leveling up
- Stuck in temple ruins without a boat option
- Final boss is impossible to hit/beat
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- Choices are arbitrary, leading to death and reverting to checkpoint
- Constant misses in combat, reliant on RNG
- Difficulty spikes significantly at the end
- Hint doesn't provide enough information for progression
- Continue button sometimes delayed with voiceover
Requested features
19 requests- Add a dodge button
- Add a defense button
- Add more combat options (e.g., quick thrust, sideways cut)
- Fix bug with disappearing combat options
- Make the next game free
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- Add more choices to the story
- Add a boat option for crossing the lake
- Create a Serania part two
- Allow revival in the story
- Add more sound effects for combat
- Expand the story after claiming the throne
- Add a freeplay or challenge mode after main story
- Add hidden areas with new enemies/weapons
- Implement New Game + with increased difficulty
- Add a gender option other than man and woman
- Loop music tracks and add more scene-specific music
- Add a map for better navigation
- Make the full story free
- Allow watching ads to progress instead of paying
In-app purchases
Sorcery!
No in-app purchases
Serania
- Access to the full story$3.99









