What genre would the "Choose your own story" mobile games fall under?

Question

I keep seeing adverts for games like Choices and Episode. I was wondering what genre these would fall under? I assume it is RPG, the Wikipedia definition for RPG seems to be quite liberal:

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.

The definition I have heard for RPG in the context of video games is often more strict, such as having an inventory, weapon slots, etc.

Answer 1

I would say those games fall under the category of Visual Novels.

The Wikipedia article is actually quite interesting, because there's a paragraph about Visual Novel elements in an RPG.

Overall, I would say that Choices and Episode are just Visual Novels, but something like Kai Chronicles is a Visual Novel with RPG elements, as it fits your description (Inventory, Weapon slots, Stats, etc.).

Answer 2

Episodic Visual Novels in their gameplay.

Now, one thing to note is that video game genres are not strict "one or another", more like a wibbly-wobbly mess of terms. The games you referred to are mostly Visual Novels, but also contain some elements of RPGs, but they lack what one would traditionally consider RPG gameplay, that is to say free form action. Instead, much like in Visual Novels, you read events until you arrive at a "story junction" and select a path (option) to progress down to.