There are very few people in the world who do not have a smart phone. There are even fewer people of that number who aren’t playing some sort of mobile games on said smart phone. Mobile gaming is the way of the future and it is no longer being held back by gimmicks of the past. People are playing games, developers are putting together million dollar ideas, and the industry is flourishing. With the market saturated by independent games and huge blockbuster titles, mobile games have to fight for any bit of spotlight. Over the past month there have been two mobile RPG games that have ascended to the top of the pile.
The first game that has become popular on the mobile iOS and Google Play store is ‘Tales of Rays’. As an extension of the ‘Tales Of…’ series, ‘Tales of Rays’ brings fans back into the middle of an action packed RPG that blends gorgeous animation, strong storylines, and mobile friendly gameplay mechanics. This free to play game has a script written by Takumi Yajima of the ‘Tales of Symphonia’ game while revolving around a pair of new main characters: Mileena and Ix. One of the greatest draws to the game is the fact that you get to suit up as some of the most popular characters from the older titles — including Luke, Lloyd, Yuri as well as Repede. Most of the game is spent enhancing your character, earning gems, and searching for treasure in a simple and streamlined story mode.
Not all games on the app market are great AND free. ‘Egglia: Legend of Redcap’ is a nice change of pace from the typical free mobile RPG. This beautiful game looks a lot like the ‘Mana’ titles many are familiar with on their more conventional handhelds. The cost for the title is just $9.99 but this results in a much tighter experience that moves away from the ‘freemium’ game modes many fans are used to. Featuring a combat system like ‘Final Fantasy Tactics’, ‘Egglia: Legend of Redcap’ offers users a tight experience that incorporates a little bit of everything from the RPG world. There is a deep story where players hunt down eggs, level up characters, and expand their own primary village. This is largely a single player experience though a connection is always required to the internet in order to play the game. ‘Egglia’ could be the next great RPG franchise and it has been born on the smart phone.
