Searching for the best Android story games? Though mobile gaming often markets itself to a casual audience, that doesn't mean there aren't meaningful narrative games to enjoy on the platform – whether they be ports of popular PC story games like Oxenfree or Knights of the Old Republic, or home-grown mobile originals like 80 Days, Sorcery!, and Sara is Missing.
In the end, casual gaming and narrative aren't mutually exclusive; you don't need a hundred hours to tell a good story. Found phone games, for instance, are a great example of this, creating narrative thrillers that take advantage of the platform and offer Her Story-esque detective mysteries that slowly reveal themselves.
Good mobile narrative games can be short experiences that stick with you, as with Florence, or seasonal epics like Genshin Impact, which has been telling its story for over a year and is only about a third of the way done in terms of regions. Without further ado, here are our picks for the best Android story games.
Here Are the Best Android Story Games
80 Days
Can you circumnavigate the globe in 80 days? This narrative mobile game is loosely based on Jules Verne's famous novel, Around the World in 80 Days, and puts you in the shoes of loyal butler Passepartout as he manages Phileas Fogg's journey and well-being. Choose your own route around the globe, travelling by train, airship, or even mechanical camel, as you race to meet your deadline –though be careful not to go broke before you get there.
Florence
Though it has no dialogue or speech, Florence is an excellent bite-sized narrative game about relationships and being true to yourself. Each scene relies on visual storytelling and involves solving small puzzles to move the narrative forward – but each puzzle is also telling in itself. This could be fitting shapes together to replicate chemistry on a date, or moving items off a shelf to make space for someone moving in. Florence also only lasts an hour, making it the perfect pick-up-and-play Android story game.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Many of the ideas that made Bioware's big games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age so good started with KOTOR. This Star Wars RPG is set thousands of years before the original films during a period known as the Old Republic in which a civil war between the Jedi is raging. You play as a nameless soldier tasked with finding the Jedi, Bastila Shan, but your journey also sees you explore planets across the galaxy. KOTOR not only established the extremely popular Old Republic setting, but also spawned an amazing sequel made by Obisidian, as well as arguably the best Star Wars MMO to date.
The Banner Saga
The world is ending in this Norse-themed survival game, and your only choice is to travel across the land in a caravan of survivors, looking for a place to hunker down. Along the road, you'll meet all sorts of characters, and can even recruit some of them to fight with you in turn-based combat. During your journey, you'll also be faced with tough choices, balancing the survivors you save, the supplies required to keep them fed, and ultimately which characters live and die. The Banner Saga is all about how much you're willing to sacrifice to survive, and in this sense, it's a pretty great Android story game.
Sorcery!
Based on the Steve Jackson books from the Fighting Fantasy series, Sorcery! is a choose-your-own-adventure game. Just as in the books, you decide where to go and what decisions to make, as you fight monsters, talk to strangers, and attempt to solve deadly puzzles. If the world gets the better of you, it's back to the start, but this time you're armed with the knowledge you gained from your previous run, allowing you to triumph where you previously failed. Sorcery! also features a fun spell system where you have to memorise and draw symbols, as well as a great visual style with illustrations from the original books.
Oxenfree
From the same developer as Afterparty, this choice-based narrative game sees you unwittingly open a mysterious portal while partying near an old military base on an abandoned island. With your friends in tow, you'll explore the old base's secrets and make choices using the game's branching dialogue system that affect all of you. Along with a great soundtrack and a distinctive art style, Oxenfree is a great Android story game to pass the time with.
Life is Strange
As the de facto choice-based AAA narrative game, Life is Strange has made a name for itself by putting players in difficult situations, then presenting unexpected consequences. Now, you can play the first instalment in the series on mobile. Step into the shoes of teen photographer Max Caulfield, who gains the power to rewind time as she tries to uncover the fate of a missing person and prevent a mysterious superstorm from destroying the town of Arcadia Bay. There are plenty of reasons why Life is Strange is popular, and even though the teen dialogue can be a little cringy at times, it's still one of the best story games around.
Genshin Impact
You'd be forgiven for thinking that, as a gacha game, Genshin Impact doesn't offer much in the way of story. But the RPG actually has a lot going for it narratively. Like many other live service games, Genshin is in it for the long haul, slowly unfurling a narrative as it adds new regions while Aether or Lumine continue to search for their lost sibling. In particular, Genshin Impact is all about the seven gods of Teyvat, who outlasted the others of their kind and now have to adapt to an ever-changing world while appeasing the people they rule over.
The Walking Dead: Season One
If you like narrative games, it's hard not to recommend Telltale, since the developer's releases are built upon storytelling and impactful choices. The Walking Dead: Season One is a spinoff based on the popular TV show of the same name, and it sees you surviving the zombie apocalypse as Lee Everett, a convicted criminal trying to protect a young orphan called Clementine. If you like difficult decisions and seeing them come back to bite you in the ass in unexpected ways, this is definitely the story game for you.
Sara is Missing
Found phone games are a fairly unique narrative genre for mobile. Imagine something like Her Story, as you trawl through evidence to try and discover what happened to the owner. There are a number of good ones, but Sara Is Missing is a great choice if you want a story game that's a little more unconventional and thriller-like. There are plenty of other great found phone games, including Simulacra and The Lonely Assassins (if you're a Doctor Who fan, that is).
Grand Theft Auto Trilogy
The Remastered GTA trilogy may have turned out to be a bit of a disaster, but Android still has the original versions of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas available to play if you're looking for a little nostalgia. People often forget that behind all that rampaging, Grand Theft Auto is inherently story-focused, whether it's GTA III's rise through the Liberty City underworld to get revenge, or Vice City's Scarface-inspired tale about becoming a druglord in 80s Miami. GTA's rags-to-riches narratives are still something that few games do better.
Alien: Isolation Mobile
We considered Feral's port of the 2014 survival-horror game, Alien: Isolation, to be one of the best mobile games of 2021, and that's in large part due to how faithful it remains to the original. Alien: Isolation Mobile retains the same spooky atmosphere and thrilling Dead Space-esque narrative, as you try to uncover the mysteries of Sevastopol space station, and find a way off before that pesky Xenomorph turns you into a snack. If you enjoyed the Alien films and want something with the same cinematic atmosphere, you will absolutely get a kick out of this. For our full take, see our Alien: Isolation Mobile review.
And that's our list of the best Android story games. If you enjoyed our picks, why not see some of our others? We also have lists for the best Android action games, the best free Android games, and the best Android multiplayer games. Enjoy!