It’s been far too long since ‘Arc the Lad: End of Darkness’ effectively brought the franchise to a screeching halt on the PlayStation 2 in 2005, and although the Arc series as a whole has never brought the kind of mass acclaim that other venerable RPG franchises have, it’s been time wasted for those who got to experience its other entries. Now, a mere 16 years later for those in the west, the series is seeing an attempted resurgence on mobile.
Warlords is in many ways a good example of how far mobile games have come. A hex-based Strategy game with RPG elements that would once have been small a sprite-based 2D title that in the modern market is a huge, sprawling 3D feast for the eyes.
Most Card based RPGs are light on the RPG and heavy on the card game mechanics. Lost Portal bucks the trend in this regard by providing the player with a meaty RPG experience and world to explore.
Enyo is the name of a lesser-known Greek Goddess of war, sometimes portrayed as an aspect of Ares and responsible for the sacking of cities and the fall of culture. This mobile title puts you in her sandals as you hook, jump and shield bash your way to victory.
Social RPGs don’t get any more social than Unison League. It’s one step away from being an MMORPG in many ways. Developed by the studio Perfect Game, it’s an extremely streamlined game of battling, loot collection and playing dress up with your avatar.
Starting life as a short-lived premium purchase on the iStore, Mighty Match relaunched under the ‘Playmium’ model being championed by Gigataur and for the moment remains the only entry in their inventive ‘free to play forever’ scheme to include RPG mechanics.
The original Mine Quest from Tapps Games was a small but somewhat addictive little hybrid of Clicker and RPG that was something of a guilty pleasure. It wasn’t a very long game, but it somehow managed to squeeze a whole lot of exploration into a tiny file size. Its sequel seeks to outdo the original in every way but expanding on the experience exponentially.
Dead Shell is the newest game to come out of HeroCraft, the studio that brought us ‘Dark Ages’, ‘Tempest’ and ‘Alchemic Maze’. Their first attempt at a RogueLike, this game falls more sincerely into the sub-category of RogueLight, but makes up for what it loses in challenge with an insanely brilliant premise and gameplay hook.
Pokemon GO started life as a well thought out and genuinely funny April fool’s joke on the part of Google, in which it suggested that they’d partnered with Nintendo and Game Freak to bring a plugin to Google Maps that allowed people to travel to locations and capture Pokemon onto their mobiles from their natural habitats. It’s been quite a while since that video did the rounds, and now Niantic Inc, makers of ‘Ingress’, have attempted to bring that video into reality.
When a game has a title like ‘Super Awesome RPG’ then it’s already setting certain expectations. You’re looking for a game that’s self aware, fast paced and possibly a little bit 90s, but more importantly it’s a statement that needs to be lived up to. Is Super Awesome RPG super awesome?
