If you're one of those who grew up on the nostalgic Choose Your Own Adventure books, you'll dig this review. These books laid the foundation for interactive stories, paving the way for the AI-infused version we have today. The question remains: would you still cheat like in the original books? You know what I'm talking about.

THE PITCH

Embark on endless adventures with Talefy, where your choices shape the story.

THE EXPERIENCE

Talefy starts with a promising introduction. You're given a brief tour of the platform, which is skippable and highlights its features. From there, you can start reading the "story of the day" by choosing your main character or even chatting with said character. You can also read stories from other authors for more traditional genres like romance and thrillers. Oddly enough, there is no horror genre. Outside of that, the interface is easy to navigate, and all your settings and options are neatly housed in a collapsable panel to the right of the screen.

Talefy flows like this: You choose your characters, and the story is generated from that character's perspective in real time. As the story unfolds, choices arise, prompting you to select from three actions to move the story along. I started with a sci-fi story about a crew aboard a ship attacked by unknown hostiles. Images that do their best to depict key moments are also generated throughout the story. You can also adjust the frequency and rendering style of those images.

One thing I found cool about choosing the different actions was the option to write your own rather than choose from a set of predetermined ones. If you stick to actions that are more in line with the story, they will play out as the story continues, but actions that are radically different will be ignored.

Another prominent feature of Talefy is the ability to create your own stories. For this, I made a sci-fi story about a black hole in the middle of a forest that mysteriously started growing big, consuming everything around it. Creating your story was simple because it's all prompt-based. You make your character and story settings and set major beats that you want to happen in the story. The AI then fills in all the gaps, crafting the story as you or others read it. Yes, you can make your stories public to others on the platform.

AUDIENCE POLL 🤔

Choose a response and catch the next issue for the results!

THE VERDICT

Reading a few of the stories tickled my nostalgia bones and brought back memories of Choose Your Own Adventure-style books. That said, I guess due to the nature of the generated stories, they feel like they go on forever—as if there is no end in sight. Between the story I created and the initial story I read, choosing different actions led me down paths that kept me going. It was like watching a movie that drags on and leaves you screaming at the screen to hurry up. Because of this, I lost interest in reading.

The quality of stories felt more in line with what you read in the young adult genre of novels. So, your mileage may vary there. Additionally, while reading the stories, the writing sometimes felt redundant in describing things that happened already. Admittedly, some aspects of Talefy are in beta, so these results aren't too surprising based on this.

Regarding subscriptions, they offer two options. You can purchase individual tokens called "Taleys" or pay monthly for a recurring stash of Taleys and access to beta features and giveaways. Taleys are what you spend to create the generations used when you create characters or images in stories. They could do a stronger job onboarding people on what and how to use Taleys.

I recommend giving this a shot if you're into young adult novels and branching stories, but the generative nature of the stories may be off-putting, as it can sometimes feel like there is no end.

Good to Know 💪 

• Read one story for free and monthly subscription

• Some features are still in beta

• Purchase tokens to generate images and characters

• Publish your own stories to the public

Product Website 👇️