Journey Forge vs Aetherium Hearts
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Journey Forge
Embark on real-time missions across diverse sci-fi and historical settings. Build a hero, bond with a companion, collect artifacts, and conquer leaderboards in this adventure game.
- Hero and companion building
- Real-time missions
- Diverse sci-fi and historical settings
- Artifact collection
- Leaderboard competition
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Build a hero, bond a companion, and embark on real-time missions across sci-fi frontiers, wild west trails, pirate seas, sunken shipwrecks, gold-rush tundra, and neon-soaked cyberpunk streets. Collect rare artifacts. Conquer leaderboards.
Aetherium Hearts
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Raise adventurers in Selwyn, town of the Ash Marches, and send them down into the labyrinths. The expedition runs by itself — they walk, they fight, they gather, and sometimes they fall. Those who come back bring the whole of it with them, written up by an AI as a single tale. No two are ever the same. ◆ Three labyrinths The Ashen Corridor, the Frostcrystal Archive, the Ember Crucible. Each runs to a different depth and a different danger, and at the bottom of each an Aetherium Heart lies sleeping. ◆ It runs on its own Once they are down there, they walk and fight on their own feet. The descent continues while the app is closed. ◆ Tales The record of a returning expedition is woven into prose by an AI. Send it straight to X, Threads, Bluesky or Discord. ◆ The town and your company An armoury, a general store, a forge, the guild, a temple, a shrine — Selwyn holds nine places to go. You can also go looking for an adventurer who has gone missing. ◆ Standings Set the Aetherium Hearts you have offered at the Shrine of Astel against every adventurer in every town. Japanese and English, switching with your device. Free to play, with no in-app purchases.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Journey Forge at none against Aetherium Hearts's shown. Journey Forge also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Journey Forge ships an update every 4 days, Aetherium Hearts fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Journey Forge | Aetherium Hearts |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 191 MB | 55 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Ovilius Studios | Hitoshi Igarashi |
In-app purchases
Journey Forge
No in-app purchases
Aetherium Hearts
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Journey Forge free?
Is Aetherium Hearts free?
Do Journey Forge or Aetherium Hearts have ads?
Which is updated more often, Journey Forge or Aetherium Hearts?
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