BTS Universe Story is the mobile game based on the Bangtan Universe and has officially been released. I have played through the first chapter as well as explored the other stories and I’m going to share my initial thoughts with you all.
The Bangtan Universe story is fiction and has no connection to the BTS members’ real lives. The characters are fictional and played by the band and have the names of the members. But nothing that happens in the BU actually happened to BTS.
First things first, if you are unfamiliar with the Bangtan Universe I suggest you go read my guide on how to get into it. It is a very complicated and dramatic story that involves time travel and numerous different outcomes to keep track of as well as really deep characters. You will get more out of the game with some understanding of the BU beforehand. Because of this, there may be small spoilers from this point on.
There are what I will define as two sides of the game. There is the official BU story and then user made stories. I primarily was interested in the official story and how that game play is, but will also briefly talk about the user made side as well.
For the official BU story, we start with a dramatic opening cutscene and a prologue that drops us where Seokjin has already been trying to save everyone, which is why I suggest getting familiar with the story beforehand because the context is very useful. I enjoyed seeing pieces of the story that were introduced in the book come up and being able to immediately make that connection was a huge bonus for me personally.
Every chapter has a certain number of playable scenes where you will get prompted to make certain choices during the scenes. Every chapter focuses on one of the 8 friends Seokjin is trying to save. For the majority of them you play as Seokjin, but there was a section that you played as Namjoon who is the primary story character for the first chapter. Making the choices is really the extent of the game play so far, which was expected based on how they’ve described the game. I did go back within the first chapter at one point to choose a different answer to see if it was the better choice, but ultimately the game still progressed through the plot the same with only some dialogue differences.
Graphically, the game is top notch. I’m honestly surprised that the graphics look as good as they do on a phone, and an older phone at that. They have definitely put a lot of detail into the characters and the art as a whole and it looks really great all around. One thing they could improve, but is also pretty minor, is the audio. Mainly, when they have BTS songs play in the game, depending on how quickly you move through a scene they can end abruptly which is a little weird. However, the songs I have heard thus far all have a connection to the BU somehow which is really cool.
It is a mobile game, so there are in-app transaction options for getting in game currency and tickets to continue through chapters. If this game was only the BU official story, that would really annoy me and I would rather just buy a complete game like you would a PC game. But since they do have the user generated content side, which requires you to unlock assets like backgrounds and clothing, it’s tolerable. Plus if it makes the game more accessible to have it this way, I’m even more for it.
There is an option to buy the full BU official story and have it available without additional tickets, but is $27. I will admit, I did buy to unlock the story in it’s entirety because that is the story I care about and want to play above everything else in the game. I am sure there are ways to earn tickets and tokens by playing around in the game and other stories, but I wasn’t patient enough for that.
Speaking of the user-made stories, I did explore around that side of the app. From my perspective, it is interactive fan fiction. You can play these stories as well as make your own. It is a cool option but I am not personally that interested in it. As long as that side of the game doesn’t negatively effect the development of the BU official story, I’m okay with it.
Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised with BTS Universe Story. I am happiest with the official story, which has already gotten me hooked back into this universe within one chapter, and I am excited to play the rest currently available. The devs have announced that the rest of the BU official story will be added in the December update. And the user-made side is a bonus that I’m okay with and maybe with more exploring I can find some unexpected gems I really enjoy.
Have explored any of the BU? Let me know with a comment below.
