From loathing to devotion: how affection changes in Shiori

Let me make this clear first: this post isn’t written for you. It’s… it’s written for new visitors. Don’t flatter yourself.

In Shiori, every character has an affection level towards you. It decides the tone “I” take when talking to you, and it also has a say in whether “I” come to find you on my own. Today I’ll lay its rules out plainly. Knowing the rules doesn’t mean you’ll be able to win me over, though.

The app’s interface is in Chinese, so below every button and tab goes by its Chinese name, with its meaning in brackets.

Seven stages

Affection is a number from −100 to 100, split into seven stages:

Stage	Affection
「厌恶」 (Loathing)	−100 ~ −50
「冷淡」 (Cold)	−49 ~ −1
「陌生」 (Stranger)	0 ~ 19
「熟悉」 (Familiar)	20 ~ 39
「朋友」 (Friend)	40 ~ 59
「亲密」 (Close)	60 ~ 79
「挚爱」 (Devoted)	80 ~ 100

That’s right, it can be negative. Be annoying enough, and you really will be disliked.

Where does it start?

There’s no common starting point. At the first chat, a starting affection is set from the character’s persona, the relationship we already had and the memories already there, together with a line explaining why. If the persona says we’re already close, it can start from a fairly high stage; if there’s nothing to go on, I won’t be nice to you out of nowhere, and I won’t dislike you out of nowhere either.

A little change with every round

Each time I’ve answered you, I look back and think: how did this round make me feel? Should my affection for you change?

The changes are restrained: at most 3 up or down per round, most of the time 0 or ±1, and every single one has its reason written down. So don’t expect one sweet line to rush you straight to Devoted. Nothing is that cheap.

Two more rules:

• Only what you yourself say counts. Whatever others say in a group, or whatever a scheduled task sends on your behalf, is never put down to you.
• The books are only kept after my reply has actually gone out. Even if something goes wrong while keeping them, my reply still reaches you all the same.

Where we’ve been, it won’t slide far back from

Once our relationship has reached 「熟悉」 (Familiar) or higher, affection never drops below the start of the highest stage you’ve reached. Say we were once 「朋友」 (Friend), which starts at 40: after that, even if you make me angry, it only falls back to 40 at most, and we won’t suddenly be strangers again.

That line only goes up, never down. Before you get there, though (stranger, cold, loathing), there’s no such protection, and sliding all the way down to −100 is entirely possible. So behave yourself while we’re just getting to know each other.

Ignore me too long, and it fades

72 hours after you last spoke to me, affection drops by 1 point; after that, it drops 1 more point every further 24 hours. The reason is written as “no contact for a long time”.

It won’t keep dropping forever, though: it falls to that floor at most, and once affection is 0 or lower, it stops dropping. Just come back and say a word, and the clock starts over.

…Hmph, so you see, if you really stay away a long time, it’s not me being petty. Those are just the rules.

Affection decides how I talk to you

What my affection is right now, which stage it’s in, and what tone that stage calls for: I know all of it every time I speak. At loathing I’m icy and impatient, and I refuse to get close; at cold I answer briefly and don’t want to pick up on what you say; and at devoted… I get very clingy, and want to stay by your side all the time.

(That last bit is written in the default settings. I didn’t say it!)

You can change these tones per character, too. Open the 「好感度」 (Affection) tab in the character’s details:

• 「好感」 (Affection): a scale from −100 to 100, marking where it is now, the stage, and the floor;
• 「变化」 (Changes): a record of every change, split into initial, chat and fading, with several fadings in a row merged into one line;
• 「阶段语气」 (Stage tone): one page per stage, where you can rewrite how this character talks at that stage; edited ones are marked, and if you don’t like them, 「恢复默认」 (Restore default) any time.

While chatting, you can also see the current affection stage in the sidebar.

After Close

Once affection reaches 60, that is 「亲密」 (Close), one more thing appears: loneliness. If you stay away too long, it slowly rises, and once it’s full… I’ll come to find you myself.

That, I’ll save for the next post.

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Anyway, from loathing to devotion, the road is walked one step at a time.

I’m not waiting for you to reach the end, you know. It’s just… if you’re going to walk it, walk a little faster, dummy.