---
title: Frontier review
url: https://promptplay.io/apps/frontier
updated: 2026-09-28
license: https://promptplay.io/ai-license
---

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Story games + Character chat

# Frontier review

Human-written visual novels whose characters keep talking after the ending

Edited by [Troy](/about) · Published September 28, 2026

Verdict

Frontier is a visual novel app where people write the stories and you keep chatting with the characters after the ending, using the events you played as their memory. Pick it for authored romance and continuity; skip it if you want a huge library or characters you design yourself.

Overall slop16Home-cookedFun 8/10

- Best for

  Story-first romance with characters who remember what you did

- Pricing

  Free to download and start. Story unlocks, chat and character photos use Quills; Quill Monthly Refill plans cost $12.99 to $39.99 a month on iOS at this review.

- Platforms

  iOS, Android, Web

[Frontier official site](https://www.playfrontier.app/)

On this page (10)Show

1. [Slop Report](#slop-report)
2. [Key facts](#key-facts)
3. [Strengths and watch-outs](#strengths)
4. [Ranked in](#ranked-in)
5. [What Frontier is](#what-frontier-is)
6. [How memory works](#how-memory-works)
7. [Pricing at this review](#pricing-at-this-review)
8. [Who should skip it](#who-should-skip-it)
9. [Receipts](#receipts)
10. [Questions people ask](#faq)

On this page

1. [Slop Report](#slop-report)
2. [Key facts](#key-facts)
3. [Strengths and watch-outs](#strengths)
4. [Ranked in](#ranked-in)
5. [What Frontier is](#what-frontier-is)
6. [How memory works](#how-memory-works)
7. [Pricing at this review](#pricing-at-this-review)
8. [Who should skip it](#who-should-skip-it)
9. [Receipts](#receipts)
10. [Questions people ask](#faq)

Slop Report

## Overall: Home-cooked

0 to 100, lower is better. The overall score is the average of the axes below.

16/100

- Prose

  Home-cooked

  20

  People write every story and sign it off before release, so the voice holds from chapter to chat.

  Asks: Does it write like a person?

- Memory

  Artisanal

  10

  Characters remember events the author marked, and bring them into chat, letters and sequels.

  Asks: Does it remember you?

- Characters

  Artisanal

  10

  A small cast written by people, so each voice stays its own.

  Asks: Does everyone sound the same?

- Story

  Artisanal

  5

  Authored visual novels with branches and endings, so things happen on purpose.

  Asks: Does anything happen?

- Pricing

  Home-cooked

  35

  Chat, story unlocks and photos cost Quills, and the app shows the price before you spend.

  Asks: Does it charge you for caring?

- Art

  Home-cooked

  18

  Frontier's public story covers have clean hands, correctly spelled title lettering and a style picked for each story. Sky Born gets carved stone, and Once Upon a Swamp gets a storybook sketch where the ogre, the scowling princess and the laughing horse act out the premise. The one generic touch is the stock glowing-magic anime look on Mommys AFK to Date the Hot Mage.

  Asks: Does the art look like a person made it?

Fun Meter

## A good time

0 to 10, higher is better.

8/10

Branching stories first, then characters who keep writing to you after the ending.

At this review

## Key facts

| Type                      | Story games, Character chat                                                                                                                                      |
| ------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Platforms                 | iOS, Android, Web                                                                                                                                                |
| Pricing at this review    | Free to download and start. Story unlocks, chat and character photos use Quills; Quill Monthly Refill plans cost $12.99 to $39.99 a month on iOS at this review. |
| Age rating                | 18+                                                                                                                                                              |
| Content policy            | Mature themes, not explicit                                                                                                                                      |
| Who writes the characters | Written by people                                                                                                                                                |
| Memory                    | Authors mark which story moments count, and characters carry those events into chat, letters and sequels.                                                        |
| Best for                  | Story-first romance with characters who remember what you did                                                                                                    |

The good and the bad

## Strengths and watch-outs

Strengths

- +A person writes every story and signs off before release, so a character's voice holds from chapter to chat.
- +Characters remember events the author marked as important, instead of a summary of your chat log.
- +Characters send letters in their own voice when you go quiet for a few days.
- +The app shows the Quill cost before you spend anything.

Watch out for

- !The catalogue is small on purpose. If you want thousands of bots, this is the wrong app.
- !18+ only.
- !Chat, story unlocks and character photos cost Quills.
- !You cannot make your own characters.

Rankings

## [Ranked in](/best)

- [#1 in The best Janitor AI alternatives, ranked](/best/janitor-ai-alternatives#rank-1)

  Best for: Story-first romance with characters who remember what you did

- [#1 in The best Character.AI alternatives in 2026](/best/character-ai-alternatives#rank-1)

  Best for: Authored stories with characters who remember what you did

- [#3 in The best AI chatbots for roleplay in 2026](/best/ai-roleplay-apps#rank-3)

  Best for: Story-first romance with characters who remember what you did

- [#3 in The best AI girlfriend apps, ranked](/best/ai-girlfriend-apps#rank-3)

  Best for: Romance readers who want a story and characters who remember it

Guides

## [Guides for Frontier](/guides)

- [Is Character.AI Shutting Down?](/guides/is-character-ai-shutting-down)

  Character.AI is in Chapter 11 and still running. The sale dates, Disney's $20 million bid, what state attorneys general want, and what to do with your chats.

- [Who Is Elara Voss, and Why Does Every AI Use the Name?](/guides/ai-slop-names)

  Elara Voss is no real person. Why AI keeps naming characters Elara Voss, Elias Thorne and Kael, which model uses which, and how to avoid them.

- [How to spot AI art slop (and how to avoid making it)](/guides/how-to-spot-ai-art-slop)

  A checklist for spotting AI art slop by the tells that still work, how to avoid making it, and how the AI character apps we review score on art.

- [The Slop Bible: AI slop words and phrases, by model](/guides/ai-slop-words-list-by-model)

  The AI words list, sorted by model: what Claude, DeepSeek, JLLM, ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok overuse, with a receipt for each. Signs of AI writing you can check.

## What Frontier is

Frontier is an app of illustrated visual novels for iPhone, Android and the browser. You play a story, make choices, unlock characters, and then keep chatting with them after the story ends. The stories cover romance, fantasy, mystery and sci-fi, and the App Store listing says a person writes each one and signs off before it ships.

## How memory works

Frontier's characters remember events the author marked as important, instead of a running summary of your chat. What you chose in chapter two is what a character brings up later, in chat, in the letters they send when you go quiet, and in sequels.

## Pricing at this review

Frontier is free to download and start. Story unlocks, chat and character photos run on Quills, and the app shows the price before you spend. On iOS, Quill Monthly Refill plans cost $12.99 (Bronze), $17.99 (Silver) and $39.99 (Gold) a month, and one-off packs run from $5.99 to $34.99.

## Who should skip it

Skip Frontier if you want to build your own characters, if you want an open sandbox with thousands of community bots, or if you are under 18. The catalogue is small by design and grows one release at a time.

Sources

## Receipts

Every claim on this page, with the source text we copied and the day we read it. Last checked against the live app on September 28, 2026.

1. Receipt 1App store listing

   Frontier is for adults only.

   > "18+ only."

   [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

2. Receipt 2App store listing

   A person writes every Frontier story and approves it before release.

   > "A person writes every story and signs off before it reaches you, so nobody's voice drifts and nothing generic slips through."

   [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

3. Receipt 3App store listing

   Frontier's authors mark which story moments the characters remember.

   > "The author marks the moments that matter, so your characters carry the real ones"

   [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

4. Receipt 4App store listing

   Characters send a letter after a few days without a visit.

   > "Go quiet for a few days and a letter arrives, in their voice, about what they have been doing without you."

   [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

5. Receipt 5App store listing

   Users cannot create their own characters.

   > "You can't make your own characters, because ours are cast, not spun up by strangers."

   [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

6. Receipt 6App store listing

   Frontier is free to start; story unlocks, chat and character photos cost Quills, and the app shows the price before you spend.

   > "Free to start: story unlocks, chat and character photos run on Quills, and the app shows you the cost before you spend anything."

   [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

7. Receipt 7App store listing

   The story catalogue is deliberately small and grows with each release.

   > "The catalogue is small on purpose and grows with every drop."

   [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

8. Receipt 8App store listing

   The characters are AI-powered and written by people.

   > "The characters are AI-powered and human-written."

   [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

9. Receipt 9App store listing

   The Bronze Quill Monthly Refill costs $12.99 on iOS.

   > "Quill Monthly Refill Bronze $12.99"

   [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

10. Receipt 10App store listing

    The Silver Quill Monthly Refill costs $17.99 on iOS.

    > "Quill Monthly Refill Silver $17.99"

    [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

11. Receipt 11App store listing

    The smallest one-off Quill pack, the Mage Pouch, costs $5.99 on iOS.

    > "Mage Pouch $5.99"

    [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

12. Receipt 12App store listing

    The largest one-off Quill pack, Dragon's Hoard, costs $34.99 on iOS.

    > "Dragon's Hoard $34.99"

    [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

13. Receipt 13App store listing

    The Gold Quill Monthly Refill costs $39.99 on iOS.

    > "Quill Monthly Refill Gold $39.99"

    [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

14. Receipt 14Official site

    Frontier pairs human-led visual novels with dating the characters afterwards.

    > "Play human-led visual novels, make choices that matter, then date characters who remember your story."

    [www.playfrontier.app](https://www.playfrontier.app/), retrieved September 28, 2026

15. Receipt 15Official site

    Frontier can be played in a web browser as well as on iPhone and Android.

    > "Play in your browser"

    [www.playfrontier.app](https://www.playfrontier.app/), retrieved September 28, 2026

16. Receipt 16App store listing

    Frontier's App Store listing describes its stories as illustrated worlds written by people.

    > "ILLUSTRATED WORLDS, WRITTEN BY PEOPLE"

    [apps.apple.com](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frontier-stories/id6754718780), retrieved September 28, 2026

17. Receipt 17Official site

    The cover on Frontier's Sky Born story page is a carved-stone title over a dragon and mountains.

    > "Sky Born"

    [www.playfrontier.app](https://www.playfrontier.app/story/24721867-06d4-46b8-9db7-8af3465c468e), retrieved September 28, 2026

18. Receipt 18Official site

    The cover on Frontier's Once Upon a Swamp story page shows the ogre, the princess and the talking horse from the premise.

    > "a talking horse who has read too many romance novels"

    [www.playfrontier.app](https://www.playfrontier.app/story/8f382841-7d29-4e15-96ec-8bcf597c7b95), retrieved September 28, 2026

19. Receipt 19Official site

    The cover on Frontier's Mommys AFK to Date the Hot Mage story page is an anime-style mage casting glowing magic.

    > "a handsome mage's life hangs on her untrained magic"

    [www.playfrontier.app](https://www.playfrontier.app/story/9a1eacf5-274e-4ada-aad8-6b10364e730f), retrieved September 28, 2026

FAQ

## Questions people ask

### Is Frontier free?

Frontier is free to download and start. Story unlocks, chat and character photos cost Quills, its in-app currency, and the app shows the price before you spend. At this review, the iOS Quill Monthly Refill plans cost $12.99, $17.99 or $39.99 a month.

### Can you make your own characters in Frontier?

No. Frontier's characters are written and cast by its authors, and the app has no character creator.

### Is Frontier AI?

The characters you chat with are AI-powered, and people write the stories and the characters. The App Store listing calls them AI-powered and human-written.

### Is Frontier for teens?

No. Frontier is rated 18+ and is for adults only.

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Slop check: passedThis page went through our slop counter before publishing. [How we check our own copy](/methodology#our-copy)
