Sorcery! 3 vs Serania
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sorcery! 3
Embark on an epic adventure through a cursed wilderness filled with monsters, traps, and magic. Explore freely, make thousands of choices that shape your story, and master new spells. This interactive fiction game offers a unique experience with dynamic time travel elements.
- Explore freely through a dynamic world
- Alter the world with time beacons
- Thousands of choices that shape your adventure
- Thirty new enemies with unique strategies
- Discover new spells and master magic
- Play the game of bluff and deceit, Swindlestones
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An epic adventure through a cursed wilderness of monsters, traps and magic. Begin your journey here! (Parts 1 and 2 not required.) *** Rock Paper Shotgun best RPG of 2016 *** "Sorcery! 3 is unlike anything you’ve ever played. Its mix of puzzle-solving, combat, and choose-your-own-adventure stylings have created a unique form of entertainment that I cannot wait to get back into" - Pocket Tactics, 5/5 "An amazing adventure... easily the biggest and most satisfying gamebook ever released on iOS" - TouchArcade, 5/5 "[One] of 2015’s best iPhone games", TIME magazine "This dragon-centric chapter of Sorcery! 3 does a fantastic job of keeping things dynamic and interesting, and better yet, its new puzzle-like aspect gives it the kind of magical, surprise-filled, combat-related fun fantasy fans live for." - Examiner.com, 5/5 "Sorcery! 3 demonstrates just how wonderful interactive fiction can be." - 148apps + Explore everywhere - move freely through the world, any way you want, creating your own unique story + New time beacons allow you to alter the world dynamically - travel through the present, or into the past, or mix the two + Thousands of choices - all are remembered, and shape your adventure + Thirty new enemies, including seven deadly serpents, each with their own strategies - and weaknesses + Adapted from the best-selling gamebook series by legendary game designer Steve Jackson + Swindlestones is back! The game of bluff and deceit is back, with new, smarter, opponents + New spells to discover and new magic to master + Five Gods, all with different quirks and powers + Start your adventure here, or load your characters and choices from Part 2 + New music from "80 Days" composer Laurence Chapman + Two new 3D hand-drawn maps to explore by Mike Schley "A seminal moment in interactive fiction" - Gamezebo "A vast and engaging third chapter that expands brilliantly on the first two" - PocketGamer (Gold award) The land of Kakhabad is a wilderness - a ruined desert, a tangled forest, cruel mountains and fissures, all guarded by seven fearsome serpents. But you must cross this land if you are to reach Mampang and the Crown of Kings. Rely on your wits or fight your way through - play with honour, or lie, cheat and steal - the choices are all yours. From the creators of TIME's Game of the Year 2014, "80 Days", comes the third instalment in the acclaimed Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series. An interactive story told through thousands of choices, all of which are remembered, where no two adventures are the same. Adapted and expanded from the million-selling gamebook series by legendary game designer Steve Jackson, co-founder of Lionhead Studios (with Peter Molyneux) and co-creator of Fighting Fantasy and Games Workshop (with Ian Livingstone). Using inkle's unique inklewriter technology, the story is written in real-time, built around your choices and actions. Praise for the Sorcery! series: * "I love this app... better than any gamebook ever was in your head when you were a kid" - 5/5, Interactive Fiction of the Year, Pocket Tactics * Top 20 Mobile Game of 2013, Touch Arcade * Top 25 Mobile Game of 2013 Gamezebo * Gold Award, Pocket Gamer * "Some of 2013's best interactive storytelling" - IGN * "inkle's adaptation of Sorcery! takes the genre to a whole new level" - Kotaku
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! 3's $4.99. Serania also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 5 weeks). Sorcery! 3's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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! 3 costs $4.99 up front. Serania sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Sorcery! 3 asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Sorcery! 3 against 4.6 for Serania. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 77 and 157 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of Sorcery! 3's written reviews are positive against 83% of Serania's.
Sorcery! 3 ships an update every 5 weeks, Serania every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sorcery! 3 | Serania |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (77 ratings) — better | 4.6 (157 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 75.9% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 77 | 157 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 9.3 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 321 MB | 110 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | inkle | Peter Ravnholt |
Customer experience
Sorcery! 3
Serania
User reviews
Sorcery! 3
From 77 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Outstanding game
- 👍 Unique and well-made series
- 👍 Captivating and engaging story
- 👍 Immersive and thought-provoking
- 👍 Memorable characters and lore
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 🤔 Frustrating moments due to randomness
- 🤔 Lack of clear direction at times
- 🤔 Monotonous exploration in later stages
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! 3
Reported bugs
3 issues- Bugs with certain encounters and items
- Crashes on older devices
- Issues with accessing certain areas
Requested features
3 requests- Additional game modes or variants
- Improved navigation and UI
- Ability to save the fractured world
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! 3
No in-app purchases
Serania
- Access to the full story$3.99
