The Choices Of Priori

Wake up, get to work, and find the crack in the wall

The Choices Of Priori opens with a deliberately bleak image: you wake in an empty room, condemned to endless labour, with nothing to do but work until, eventually, a mysterious black cloth reveals a way out into a vast underground laboratory. There, a group of strange creatures called KB-Cats are quietly plotting a revolution against the money-ruled world above and below, and you're pulled into their uprising while trying to survive and uncover the truth behind it all. One Japanese-language reviewer describes discovering the game after seeing viral clips of a KB-Cat "tearing open candy wrapping" online, buying the game the moment they realised it was connected — a small but telling sign that the game's central creature designs have already developed a life of their own outside the game itself.

Writing that reviewers say actually has something to say

The strongest and most consistent praise in the review base concerns the writing. One detailed review calls the text "extremely creative," specifically praising its exploration of labour and survival as themes handled with real insight rather than the disposable, forgettable framing typical of similar indie releases. Another reviewer frames the world-building itself as "highly original," crediting the main storyline's branching structure — one central thread supported by multiple side paths — as clear and well-paced despite the scope of systems layered around it. That combination of pointed social commentary and genuinely funny, absurdist detail work — several reviewers specifically praise the game's sense of humour and "meme" sensibility — gives the writing a distinct personality that reviewers consistently credit as the game's standout strength.

A career-and-economy system with real depth

Beneath the narrative, reviewers describe a genuinely deep systemic layer: a wide range of playable jobs and careers, each with distinct strengths, a resource-and-crafting chain spanning multiple underground levels, and stat management around hunger, fatigue and luck that meaningfully affects outcomes. Several detailed reviews specifically recommend a "cleaner" career path as an efficient, low-friction way to build early wealth, while others describe more elaborate strategies involving writing and selling in-game essays, running a resale business between different markets, or grinding a specific chemistry crafting chain — the kind of detailed, community-shared strategy discussion usually reserved for much larger management or economy sims. One reviewer who logged over 300 hours specifically thanks other reviewers for sharing an efficient banking strategy that let them reach the game's highest wealth milestone without resorting to pure trash-collecting grind.

The bank-interest problem, and what it says about the game's own themes

That same banking strategy, though, points at a real tension in the design: several reviewers note that the game's premise is explicitly "work or die," yet its in-game bank offers interest rates generous enough that simply depositing a modest starting sum and waiting passively can make a character effectively wealthy without further labour at all. One reviewer lays out the exact exploit — clear the early main quest, open a bank account, deposit a few thousand, and let a character idle on a park bench for about an hour to become financially free — framing it half as a useful tip and half as an acknowledgment that it undercuts the survival pressure the writing is trying to build elsewhere. It's a minor mechanical wrinkle rather than a serious flaw, but a notable one precisely because of how directly it cuts against the game's own thematic argument about labour and exploitation.

Where new players get stuck

The clearest, most specific criticism in the review base concerns guidance. The one detailed negative review in the sample asks directly how so many reviewers have logged hundreds of hours given how weak the game's signposting is, describing getting stuck cycling in the opening room without any indication that leaving was possible, and missing an early quest trigger entirely with no clue that the window to trigger it had passed. Even enthusiastic reviewers echo a softer version of the same complaint — one admits to relying on the in-game "employee handbook" tutorial only when already stuck rather than reading it upfront, and another explicitly wishes for one-click "buy or craft maximum" options to cut down on repetitive menu navigation. For a game this systems-dense, that onboarding gap is a real access barrier for players not already inclined to consult a wiki.

Still visibly unfinished, and reviewers are fine with that

Multiple reviewers are upfront that the game is incomplete: specific map areas are explicitly marked as not yet developed, several side quests are only partially written, and the main storyline itself hasn't reached a full ending at the time of writing. Crucially, that incompleteness doesn't appear to be souring reception — reviewers consistently frame the game as already offering 20 to 30-plus hours of substantial content even in this state, and describe eagerly awaiting further updates rather than feeling shortchanged by what's missing. Achievement data, spanning 27 tracked milestones, shows a gradual rather than especially steep decline from 83.2% down to 5.3% for the rarest listed achievement, consistent with a game whose early hours are approachable while its harder or more exploration-dependent goals thin out naturally over a long, still-growing playtime curve.

Final verdict

The Choices Of Priori is a striking Early Access debut: a pixel-art survival RPG willing to use its premise to say something real about labour, debt and survival, wrapped around a genuinely deep career and crafting system that reviewers say already delivers dozens of hours of content for a modest price. Its clearest weakness is exactly the kind an early, systems-heavy release tends to have — thin, uneven guidance that leaves some players stuck through no fault of their own — and its story and map are openly unfinished. For players willing to lean on the game's own handbook and the wider community while it grows, this is an easy recommendation at NZ$14.25; players who need a game to hold their hand from the opening minutes should wait for a more complete build.