Black Equation
Riven Elow · 2025 · Choose Your Own Adventure, Text-Based, Interactive Fiction, Adventure, Indie
PC
1 user reviews100% · 1
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About Black Equation
A knight who falls for his enemy. A mage ready to burn herself for others. A drifter who can't stop running. 12 endings, 7 love stories, and choices that leave marks — romance that heals one character can destroy another. One playthrough won't be enough.Black Equation is a dark fantasy interactive book — a text-based narrative game where every word matters, and every silence has meaning.
About the Story
In the medieval kingdom of Highgard, the greatest threat is not monsters or ancient curses, but the king himself. A ruler who despises his own people dares to challenge fate, defy the gods, and sacrifice what is most precious to him.His goal is not salvation, but erasure — to destroy Highgard and seize the neighboring throne of Valtoria. As magic spreads like a slow poison and political intrigue tightens its grip, three lives are drawn into the coming collapse:- Yinyue — an impulsive young mage whose compassion often outweighs caution, willing to burn herself to save others.
- William — a restless young man avoiding responsibility, torn between desire and duty, drifting until choice becomes unavoidable.
- Charles — a loyal knight divided between honor and truth, quietly searching for love in a world hostile to honesty.
Gameplay & Experience
Black Equation is a pure text-based experience designed for immersion. While the narrative drives forward, your choices define what is revealed, who survives in your memory, and how the world speaks to you.- A Dark Fantasy Adventure: Deep lore, psychological depth, and atmospheric storytelling.
- Choice-Driven Narrative: Multiple endings and hidden paths that cannot be seen in a single playthrough.
- Diverse Cast: LGBTQ+ characters and relationships developed naturally within the story.
- Accessibility: Adjustable text and background colors (Dark/Light modes) for a comfortable reading experience.
A Personal Work
This story was written during a period of deep depression, not as a product, but as a lifeline. When the world felt unreachable, writing became the only language left — a way to speak honestly, quietly, and without masks.Black Equation is that conversation, transformed into a world you can enter.There is no fast action here. Only text, atmosphere, and choices. I am a solo developer, and this is a sincere, personal work — written to survive, to reflect, and to speak with the world through story rather than noise.If you enjoy interactive fiction, visual novels, and stories shaped by lived experience rather than formulas, this may become a quiet place for you — for a few evenings, or longer.What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
This negative rating is not in regards to the gameplay or story itself. It is in regards to lack of communication and how the game is being updated. I am willing to change to a positive rating if these issues are resolved. I ran into an issue with Black Equation when I was first reading it. A choice that I made seemed to bleed into a different one, causing the story to make no sense based on what I selected. I posted on the Steam discussions (linked [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/3581660/discussions/0/735910198042957605/]here[/url]) and tried emailing the developer directly about this issue. The discussion thread did not get a response and my email has not been viewed. After some radio silence, the game was suddenly patched. My save files were wiped and Black Equation now has a lot of different elements to it, including Steam achievements. I am cautious about playing it at this point due to not being able to reach the developer and being concerned another update will drop without warning. I do not want to lose my progress again, and my review might be rendered pointless if big changes occur. A lot of the notes I took for the previous version already are irrelevant. Also, th…7 found this helpful
I’m a huge fan of Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, and this game really reminded me of his storytelling style and honestly made me want to start reading books again :D The story was so well written and immersive that i didn’t even mind that it wasn’t a traditional game. It pulled me in from the first chapter and kept me hooked with its characters. I highly recommend checking this out!6 found this helpful
[OUTDATED REVIEW] Not a game, even a visual novel, just a book. An e-book with a bundled reader app, pretty much. But the book is pretty good. I liked my 10 hours with it a fair bit. Many interwoven fates and stories, juggled if not perfectly, then at least impressively well. I honestly don't think I have many, if any, complaints about the story. However, I feel the need to point out that the book's English is kind of broken at times. Wrong words and highly imaginative grammar. Usually it was easy enough to decipher, but a couple spots left me confused. Also the music did not work past the launcher, and the illustrations... weren't great. As I said, if you get this, get it just for the book. But if you like reading impressive fantasy books, perhaps you should indeed get this.
been reading this on my steam deck for a while and really enjoying it. It’s more like a graphic novel than a game, but the story and art are strong and it’s a nice quiet experience when you just want to read.
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