Bustories

About

Bustories is a single player survival simulation game. It was developed by Nikita P. and was released on April 19, 2018. It received neutral reviews from players.

A small visual novel about bus trips and conversation with different companions, whom you see for the first and last time in your life.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

57%

Audience ScoreBased on 51 reviews

music4 positive mentions

Unique and interesting concept about conversations with strangers during a bus trip.
Charming and relatable characters delivering a variety of life stories, some touching or funny.
Relaxing and immersive experience with atmospheric music and simple, clean art style.

Poor English translation with many grammatical errors that affect story comprehension.
Gameplay is very simple and sometimes feels pointless, with limited player interaction and mechanics.
Game is very short and repetitive with little content, making it not worth full price.

story
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
60%
20%
The story features charming, relatable characters with individual tales, creating an engaging conversational experience that encourages player co-creation. However, it lacks a compelling overarching plot or background for the main character, leading to a sense of missing depth and content. Additionally, inconsistencies in writing quality and a lack of impactful narrative development diminish its overall storytelling appeal.
- “The characters are charming and relatable, and the storyline is surprisingly engaging.”
- “While it may seem as if you just need to sit out someone until the next bus stop, in actuality each character will have to finish their story before you get at the next stop.”
- “Oh my, how does it even differ from plot holes I complain so much recently? At least we know that the main character is appealing enough to attract so many different passengers willing to share their stories to make that trip less boring.”
- “No interesting plot or unexpected turns of events.”
- “If you actually only had until the next bus stop to finish a story, there'd be a lot more to this game and I could overlook the bad translation, but together they make this a game I cannot in good faith recommend.”
- “They used big words which made you think at first this might be a good little mini story game, but after a while poorly written sentences would appear and words that don't even exist.”
graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The graphics receive mixed feedback, with some praising the clean, cute art style and unique character designs, while others criticize the low-quality, simplistic visuals and lack of resolution or customization options, making it feel underwhelming for a PC game. Overall, the visual presentation sets the mood well but may not meet all players' expectations for graphical quality.
- “Graphics create the right mood.”
- “The art style is absolutely stunning, and the music sets the perfect mood.”
- “The art style is clean and cute.”
- “There's no options to change the resolution for the game or customize the graphics settings.”
- “There's no way for gamers to try to improve the low quality graphics.”
- “The game features somewhat lazy, simplistic 2D/MS-Paint graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low-effort flash/browser games.”
gameplay
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The gameplay centers around managing hunger, thirst, and interacting with dialogue while driving, but it is generally perceived as simple, repetitive, and somewhat forced. Many find the mechanics unengaging and feel they fail to add meaningful challenge or depth, resulting in a tedious experience.
- “The gameplay requires you to monitor your thirst and hunger levels constantly.”
- “It's a very unusual gameplay style where you literally need to talk to different people while driving.”
- “Each time you click to progress a line of dialogue, the hunger and thirst meters decrease, adding a strategic layer.”
- “Most boring game I've ever played in my entire life - the premise is just outrageously boring with no mechanics that encourage you to pay attention to the dialogue or the game for more than 30 seconds - 0/10 don't waste money on this.”
- “However, the story was whatever and the fact that it's impossible to lose to the mechanics unless you forget about them entirely makes them feel useless.”
- “However, the gameplay is quite simple, and some choices feel limited.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
16%
17%
The music in the game receives mixed feedback, with some users appreciating the cool, varied soundtracks that set a perfect, relaxing mood and allow for personal choice, while others find it boring or less engaging compared to other aspects of gameplay.
- “The art style is absolutely stunning, and the music sets the perfect mood.”
- “Also, it's a great feature that we can choose music ourselves, like in a real journey.”
- “The game has decent graphics and a soundtrack with various tunes to pick from (or mute), and each character you encounter is unique.”
- “Boring music, forced gameplay (you have to buy food and drinks and go to toilet xd).”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is varied, featuring a mix of funny, touching, and eccentric stories that add a life-like quality to the experience. While some humorous moments stand out, others may feel less engaging or boring.
- “This game is funny to complete.”
- “While playing, we have the opportunity to learn lots of various stories—short but touching, heartbreaking, funny, unexpected, weird, eccentric—in general, very life-like.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers a range of short, life-like stories that evoke a variety of emotions, from humor to heartbreak. The storytelling, often seen through the innocent perspective of a child, creates a deeply emotional and memorable experience.
- “While playing, we have the opportunity to learn lots of various stories—short but touching, heartbreaking, funny, unexpected, weird, eccentric—in general, very life-like.”
- “The first story told by an innocent kindergarten kid left me very emotional, but overall I enjoyed that trip a lot.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers a unique bus travel simulation enriched by memorable companions and engaging, atmospheric storytelling.
- “An interesting bus travel simulator with unique companions and atmospheric stories.”