Comparison

ForestLibrary vs Tidegate

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

Head to head
About

ForestLibrary

Explore a mysterious forest library to uncover its hidden secrets. This casual escape game offers a charming atmosphere, helpful hints, and an auto-save feature for a relaxed puzzle-solving experience. Discover clues, use items, and combine them to progress through the game.

Highlights
  • Cute and charming atmosphere
  • Beginner-friendly escape game
  • In-game hints and answers
  • Auto-save progress
  • Item combination and usage
  • In-game camera function
Features
Read full description

A mysterious library in the forest used by the forest's inhabitants. There are rumors that there is a secret place deep inside. Let's find out what this secret place could be. [Features] ◆The cute atmosphere makes it fun for both men and women. ◆Even beginners to escape games can play it casually. ◆Don't worry if you get stuck because there are hints and answers. ◆Your progress is auto-saved so you can progress little by little. ◆This is an escape game that you can play for free until the end. [How to play] ◆Use the input device to find clues somewhere and release them. ◆Sometimes you may need to use items. ◆Tap the selected item to enlarge it. ◆You may also combine items together. ◆Use the in-game camera function to save locations that will give you hints for solving the puzzle. ◆When you get stuck, you can see the next hint or answer by pressing the light bulb button. [NAZOKOI] We mainly create puzzles and escape games. If you thought it was fun, please try our other apps.

About

Tidegate

Explore a hand-painted island mystery where the tide is your only control. Manipulate water levels to uncover hidden paths, solve environmental puzzles, and piece together the story of vanished island keepers. Enjoy a no-pressure, offline experience with a unique cross-scene reasoning mechanic.

Highlights
  • Tidal control mechanic
  • Hand-painted 2.5D dioramas
  • Environmental puzzles
  • No combat or timers
  • In-game hint journal
  • Offline play
Features
Read full description

Tidegate is a quiet, hand-painted island mystery you play with one strange control: the tide. You wash ashore on Brenn Hollow, a tidal island whose keepers vanished mid-ritual. The moon no longer moves the water — a great brass orrery in the lighthouse does, and it is jammed between phases. Turn it, and the whole island re-floods or drains at once. Low tide and high tide are two different islands sharing one map. A TIDE YOU CONTROL Five tide stops reshape every scene at the same time. Dead low bares the causeway and the mud flat; spring high floats rafts and barrels along the old channels and drowns the paths you knew. Some clues read only at exactly the middle stop. You stop thinking scene-by-scene and start reading the island as one great machine — that cross-scene reasoning is the whole feeling this game is built around. HAND-PAINTED 2.5D DIORAMAS Each scene is a set of painted planes at real depth in front of a moving camera, so the world has parallax and weight. The water is a true plane that slides into the scene as the tide rises, swallowing the deeper ground first — the signature mechanic is legible at a glance. POINT-AND-CLICK, NO PRESSURE No combat. No death. No timers. Just observation, memory and a handful of genuinely clever puzzles: a drowned carillon whose bells only sing at the waterline, a message walked into the mud years ago that you read by lantern-light at the right tide, a barrel-post you route by setting four sluice gates along the water-road, and a cove that runs backwards. In the tradition of classic point-and-click and Myst-like island mysteries. THE KEEPER'S ALMANAC A journal that quietly collects the letters and tide-charts you find, and writes gentle, in-fiction hints in its margins once you have been stuck a while — never spoilers before then. FREE, AND HONEST ABOUT IT - Play all of District 1 (Harrow Reach) free, including lighting its beacon. - Invite a friend from the title screen and you both get promo credits toward unlocking the island. - Plays in English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, 日本語, Nederlands, Polski and Português. - 100% offline. No account, no sign-up, no cloud, no ads, no tracking. The whole island lives on your device. UNLOCK TIDEGATE (OPTIONAL) One unlock opens the rest of Brenn Hollow: Cannery Rows, the drowned Chapel Shoals, Lighthouse Point, the Tidegate finale, and the Almanac's plain-spoken hint tier. It is one-time and permanent — no subscription, nothing renews — and restores on a new device. The free reach stays free, forever. Terms of Service: https://adelyons.com/apps/tidegate/terms.html EULA: https://adelyons.com/apps/tidegate/eula.html Privacy Policy: https://adelyons.com/apps/tidegate/privacy.html Wash ashore, and set the tide right. Questions or ideas? dev@adelyons.com

Screenshots

ForestLibrary4 screens
Tidegate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Tidegate at none against ForestLibrary's shown. ForestLibrary's advantage is ratings volume (49 vs 1) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 10 days). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. ForestLibrary sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Tidegate sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for ForestLibrary against 5.0 for Tidegate. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ForestLibrary has 49 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ForestLibrary ships an update every 3 days, Tidegate every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
ForestLibrary versus Tidegate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterForestLibraryTidegate
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (49 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings49 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 10 days
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size207 MB27 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAkina KubotaAdelyons Software LLC

Customer experience

ForestLibrary

All ratings40 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Tidegate

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

ForestLibrary

One-time3
  • AdBlock1$0.49
  • AdBlock2$1.99
  • AdBlock3$2.99
1 purchases

Tidegate

One-time1
  • Unlock Tidegate$9.99

Questions

Is ForestLibrary free?
ForestLibrary is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tidegate free?
Tidegate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ForestLibrary or Tidegate?
Tidegate is rated higher. ForestLibrary averages 4.9 out of 5 from 49 ratings, while Tidegate averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do ForestLibrary or Tidegate have ads?
ForestLibrary shows ads; Tidegate does not.
Which is updated more often, ForestLibrary or Tidegate?
ForestLibrary ships an update every 3 days, and Tidegate every 10 days. Most recently, ForestLibrary was updated on October 24, 2026 and Tidegate on October 8, 2026.

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