Breaking the "Choose Your Own Adventure" Standard of Making Choices

So when Fading Hearts was reviewed by Inside AX and they said Fading Hearts '[...]takes “choose your own adventure” to a whole other level.' I was very happy! Then I thought about other games that does this well. I'm taking about subverting whole multiple-choice-test style of making choices in video games.

Then I remembered one really good one. That would be Corpse Party!

As someone who also created a game that goes beyond the standard multiple-choice-test choice making, I can verify if Corpse Party did the same. And indeed it does! Want to know why? That's because the Corpse Party has implicit choice making.

What is implicit choice making? For a game it means a choice you made that you show through your actions and not outright stating it. Explicit choice making would be something like the standard multiple choices ones you get usually in video games. Implicit choice making is a choice that the player makes but can sometimes be extremely subtle.

A good example of implicit choice making in Corpse Party is when a character runs away and then BAM! Game gives you back exploration control immediately. You could follow her and talk to her or go somewhere else to explore without her. There is no multiple choice question that says "Do you want to chase after her?" I mean that would totally give it away. You just do it or you don't. But you still can hold the player accountable as they did make that choice and know it.

Then you can give the appropriate consequence to the player. Corpse Party's consequence of that was pretty good.

Don't get me wrong! Multiple-choice style is useful. It's just that you need a good mix between the two. Keeps the player on their toes.

Oh... how does Fading Hearts do it? With your everyday choices in the life-sim portion of the game. Especially with who or how you choose to spend your time. My standard line is "A normal life or a life of adventure." So you get to change the genre of the story based on what you do.