Ronin [Bulwark Studios] - $0.99

Endless Runners don’t usually stay on my iDevice’s for extended periods of time. There’s not many that really keep the gameplay interesting enough, or have that special little hook that keeps me coming back to them over and over again. I will say that there are a few that will never leave my device; Polara, Cuddle Bears, Solipskier and Ski Safari are just a few. Well, luckily, there are still developers out there pushing the fun factor of Endless Runners to new heights. Case and point; Bulwark Studios, and the title, Ronin.

Ronin is simple, to say the least. But along with it’s simplicity, there are great leveling up, experience, score multiplier, objective and skill systems that keep the game insanely addictive. Starting off, you’re given one skill, the ability to turn into a wolf, allowing you to zing past enemies and further your distance. Along with this, you’re able to swipe up to jump, swipe down to slide and swipe right to bring out your katana and do some damage. You’re also able to use your sword while in the air, and while sliding.  

On top of this, there are 5 enemies. That’s right. 5. And that’s all the game needs. Two of the enemies can be dispatched simply by slashing at them while your character is automatically running along the path, those these two enemies are not exactly the same. One will come charging at you once you‘re within a certain distance of him, while the other sits and waits for you to come to them. This leaves 3 other enemies which you’ll need to dodge their attacks before taking out. One is an archer that will fire one arrow at you that you’ll need to dodge either by jumping over, or sliding under, before attacking. Another is a high level samurai that you’ll need to slide into and attack from below in order to take out, and the last enemy you’ll encounter is a large fellow that smashes the ground, sending a shockwave towards you which you’ll need to jump over, taking him out before you land and carry on your merry way. What makes the game challenging is the way that these enemies are mixed and shuffled together, resulting in you maybe having to jump over an arrow and then take out two basic enemies before encountering the archer, followed by the high level samurai, which you’ll need to quickly slide into afterwards. 

While doing all of this, you’ll need to be collecting orbs which will charge your skill bar at the bottom of the screen. Once you have collected enough orbs, you can use your skill by double tapping anywhere on the screen. The game is also split up into sections by objectives. You may need to free some innocent and captured townsfolk by slicing at the baskets they’ve been enclosed in, or to avoid the blackened orbs that will deduct from your score and take away collected orbs from your skill bar. You might also just need to collect a shopkeepers missing sake bottles or make it through a section without having any skills activated. 

As you level up, you’ll be awarded skill points which you can use to unlock various skills and perks. Among them, the already mentioned wolf skill, a daze skill that makes some enemies incapacitated, extra HP and more. There are also some skills which are upgradeable, making them more powerful, and allowing for you to make it further and score bigger. Also growing as you level up will be your reputation. This is where the score multiplier comes into play. As your reputation goes up, so will your score multiplier. However, you’ll only be able to enable the score multiplier if you disable some of your skills. Some skills will take away up to 2x from your multiplier, while others only .5x. As you level up, you’ll be able to pick skills while still keeping a multiplier active, but the only way to truly score big is to disable all of your earned skills and activate your full multiplier. This means playing through the game with only 2 hit points, and no active skills. 

The graphics and animations in Ronin are top notch, and with the beautifully crafted background moving at just the right speed to give you a true sense of progressing through the world, combined with all of the skills, multipliers, and objectives, it all comes together perfectly to provide an outstanding gameplay experience. The background music is also a huge plus for the game, adding to the feel and atmosphere of Ronin’s world. GameCenter is also supported with 3 leaderboards, one for your Best Distance, one for your Total Distance and one for your Highest Score. There are also 30 hard to complete achievements that will keep completionists on their toes and busy for a while. Lastly, the game includes iCloud support which seamlessly transfers data between devices, and gives players 3 separate save slots so that more than one person in your household can enjoy Ronin from start to 100% completion, and then some. 

With Ronin priced at only $0.99, being Universal and void of IAPs, giving everyone a level playing field on the leaderboards, not only is the game a steal, it’s a real rarity in the AppStore these days. Bulwark is on hand as well, responding to player feedback and issues on their Twitter and Facebook pages, as well as on the Touch Arcade forums. If you’re a fan of runners, Ronin is one game you need to get. The game also contains enough skill based gameplay to keep veterans of the genre busy for hours on end while still remaining simple enough to entertain even the most casual gamers. With there being not one thing that I can negatively say about Ronin, it’s an incredibly easy game to recommend and we’ll definitely be keeping our eyes on Bulwark Studios, and hope to see a lot more from this insanely talented developer down the road. 

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DemonSouls [Lakoo] - $1.99

It really feels like we’ve been reviewing quite a few RPGs lately. Maybe it just feels that way because I’ve gone back and re-played through Chrono Trigger, Vay, Symphony of Eternity, Fantasy Chronicle, Eve of the Genesis and Osiris Legends recently, also while playing through Lunar Silver Star Story and Dragon Knight 4. Well, another one caught my eye this week, Lakoo’s Demon Souls (not to be confused with the PS3 title, Demon’s Souls), and I couldn’t help but jump on it. Am I happy I did? Well, once I put my Pokemon hat on, yes, I am. 

Starting the game up, it’s clear that DemonSouls very story driven. There are tons of story sequences, though you're able to fast forward through them. You take control of Thunder, a young fisherman/hunter who’s overly confident and dreams of bigger and better things. Living with a young women, River and her grandpa, Thunder helps to provide the village with fish and help out whenever he can. While out helping another village member, Thunder comes across a dragon and a mysterious man who gives Thunder the power to control the souls of demons with a demon soul jar in order to defeat the dragon. Cheesy? Yes, you could say that, but it makes for some pretty interesting gameplay. Once you have the demon soul jar, you’re able to capture enemies within the game by getting their HP down to a certain amount. Once you do, an icon pops up and you can then capture and use them in the future. 

DemonSouls is pretty much like your typical Action RPG. After going through story sections and while finishing quests and objectives, you’ll be mashing away on the attack button and using spells (or your captured demon’s in this case) to clear out monsters and raise your level. The controls in DemonSouls could use some tweaking. At the moment, there’s only 4 directional movement, up, down, left and right, and really, I can’t stress this enough; Once you’ve played a game like Crimsonheart, with it’s 360 degree movement, anything but just feels clunky. It doesn’t help that the game has a low frame-rate, adding to the jerkiness of the movement. With the 4 directional movement, you’re given one button for attacking and actions, with 4 icons around it which you’ll able to use to summon demons. An icon for capturing enemies appears only when you’re able to capture an enemy, and appears above the uppermost summoning icon. 

In the top left, your character’s HP, MP and XP are all gauged. Tapping on this takes you into the game’s menus where you’re able to allocate your earned points for leveling up, equip Thunder, use potions, go through your captured demon souls, merge items, forge items, go through your journal, check out the map and enter the settings menu, save, load, view the help file, check our your achievements or exit to the main menu. 

The demon capturing and forging systems are a bit of a saving grace for the game. Once you capture an enemy, you’re able to equip it and use it’s powers in battle. You can also sell these enemies at shops, or use them in conjunction with weapons to forge stronger weapons. There is also a pretty shallow elemental system, with enemies having either Fire, Water or Wood elemental bonds, and using opposite elemental weapons against them helps in defeating them quicker. With the game’s enemy capturing system, there’s pretty much always a new enemy to try and capture and use as one of your own, mixing in a sort of Pokemon-esque system to the hack-n-slash action. You’re also able to collect soulstones which let you create demons, though these are few and far between, and if you don’t save them, you might wind up having to purchase them via IAP if you’re wanting a new monster later on in the game. 

The graphics are decent enough, though there are items in the world that are outlined in blue, or that just don’t look like they fit within the area you’re in, and as mentioned already, the frame-rate does add some jerkiness to the movement, but it’s nothing as bad as Legend of Master 3, where the whole screen jerks when you move. The animations are designed nicely, but it would have been great to have more attacking animations included. The story is translated very well, but unfortunately, the text does sometimes reach beyond the screen, leaving the players to try and fill in a couple of words every now and again. On top of all of this, the music, though fitting for the game, isn’t looped correctly, and can be kind of distracting. 

Now, even with these little issues, DemonSouls has some interesting gameplay mixed in. The demon collecting adds a nice layer of depth the gameplay, and the story allows for multiple endings based on how you decide to interact with the other NPCs. This does help to make DemonSouls stand out in an over-saturated genre. Priced at $1.99 and being Universal, even with the 4 directional movement and slightly cheesy storyline, DemonSouls is definitely a game that fans of monster collecting and hack-n-slash gameplay should check out. Lakoo has done a great job of mixing the two genres together, and hopefully the game will get a boost in the framerate and some tweaks with the music looping in an update soon.

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Dragon Knight 4 [PNJ Inc.] - $2.99

Aside from Zelda, I was never really exposed to Action RPGs as a child. Luckily, these types of games have been flourishing on the iOS, and now-a-days we‘re able to pick from a vast array of Action RPGs in the AppStore. The newest one to hit my device? Dragon Knight 4, from PNJ. Now, I know I’ve said this before, but ever since CrimsonHeart set the standards exceptionally high for future Action RPGs on the platform, it’s been hard for me to really get into another title, but with PNJ having released quite a few nice titles in the past, I was pretty excited to dive into Dragon Knight, and so far, I’m pretty impressed with the amount of depth.

Dragon Knight 4 tells the tale of Rena, the king’s daughter, and her quest to save her family, and the land she’s never been exposed to, Eldoran. King Gestas, ruler of the nearby Keron, decided his people had lived in the shadow of Eldoran long enough, and deserved to rule over the land of Gaia where the two kingdoms were located. King Gestas couldn’t get the support of his troops or council, but came across Ide, a very powerful being, who promised King Gestas immense power and leadership over the land of Gaia. Now, the Demons and Angels from the Underworld will need to decide who to side with, and help their respective sides win the oncoming war of the land. Dragon Knight has a fairly heavy story driven adventure, with all of this happening before you even meet Rena, it expands, twists, turns and reveals itself more and more as you progress throughout the game. 

Unfortunately, the English translation isn’t all that it could be. Like most RPGs on the iOS, Dragon Knight’s story can be kind of hard to follow sometimes, and all because of grammatical errors, words that are cut to fit the screen and other translation related errors in the text. But if you’re willing to read, and re-read the dialogue, which Dragon Knight lets you do, not progressing in dialogue until you tap the screen, you should be able to have a pretty good grasp of what’s going on. If you’d rather skip the story, there is a ’Fast’ button that will hurry through all of the story segments so you can get straight to the action.

Starting the game, you’re able to choose between 4 different classes for Rena, each having different starting stats depending on what their strengths are; Black Magician, which uses the power of darkness and has high intelligence, Sword Master, which lets you wield a huge sword and start with extra strength, Sorceress, using elemental magic and starting with high intelligence and lastly, Black Smith, who wields a large hammer and is given high strength. Dexterity and Vitality are also included, and dependant on what class you choose to play with, but there’s not much difference between the classes. 

One thing that immediately grabbed me once finally getting into the gameplay was that Dragon Knight has a nice amount of depth in almost every aspect. You’re able to collect crafting papers that let you know what materials you’ll need to create equipment, and then let you craft anywhere in the world so long as you’re not fighting a boss. To help you gain the materials needed, you’re also able to disassemble equipment in our inventory that you do not need. This will give you random materials that you can use in order to craft other items, or just sell in shops for more currency. 

At first, the enemies in the game are very easy to destroy. But even if you spend time grinding and leveling up, some of the stronger enemies that are mixed in with the week ones can give you a run for your money, and you could very easily wind up dead if you’re not paying attention. Like CrimsonHeart, you’ll need to figure out how these stronger enemies attack, and exploit their weaknesses, as running straight into them, hacking and slashing away will result in a massive loss of HP. 

Along with the crafting and disassembling of items, you’re also able to equip Spirits. These are shown as wings attached to the back of your character, and help boost stats, and give perks like upping your chance to find a rare item. The spirits will also gain experience, and level up, making them stronger and add even more perks to your character. The spells you’re able to choose are all split up and different from class to class, and set up in a tree, making you level up certain spells before unlocking more. There are also passive skills that increase your stats, helping to add to the attacks, defense and magic of each character. 

The controls in Dragon Knight are typical of Action RPGs, with a movement joystick, attack button, a section for quick select potions and spells and your menu buttons, like a quick save, quest icon, pause, and shop. The movement in Dragon Knight is great, allowing for 360 degree moves, which, after you experience it, and go back to 4 or 8 directional movement games, it’s very noticeable, and does add an extra level of smoothness to the gameplay. Dragon Knight’s shop consists of special items like revive berries, quality eggs for spirits, extra bags, treasure chests and more, all of which are only purchasable with coins, which are only available via IAP. 

The graphics are also typical of other Action RPGs; vibrant, and influenced by eastern animation. All of the women are incredibly busty and wear pretty skimpy armor with most of the men look like body builders, or covered from head to toe in evil looking armor. The special moves are bright and flashy, and the main attack animations are smooth, though there’s only one or two movements that each character will make while attacking. The equipment that your character wears will be shown in-game, which is always nice, and there’s loads of different types of enemies, all looking fairly polished. The boss designs are great, and they almost always look pretty badass. There are also quite a few different environments, helping the game not look too repetitive while button mashing your way throughout the game, which also helps. Bottom line? There’s nothing graphically that really sets Dragon Knight apart from other highly polished titles, but the graphics aren’t dull, and make the game fit in nicely with those other polished titles.

There really are only a couple of bad things that I can say about Dragon Knight 4. First, every time you start up the game, you MUST be connected to the internet, or else the game will not be verified, and you won’t be able to play. This is a big no-no, especially on mobile devices. Having the game verify your purchase the first time you play is just fine, but making the game do it every time you boot it up can be very frustrating if you don’t constantly have access to the net. Second, the game only has an iPhone/iPod build. There is no Universal or HD version, so you’ll be forced to play in 2X mode on your iPad. 

Aside from that, Dragon Knight 4 is a great story driven Action RPG that fans of the genre should enjoy. It’s fairly depthy equip, crafting, leveling up and spirit systems definitely make it a game that can suck you in, and keep you constantly looking for better items and more loot. Right now, Dragon Knight is on sale for $2.99. I’m not sure what the price will go up to once it’s launch sale it over, but considering the constant verification and lack of an HD or Universal build, it might seem slightly over-priced. However, it is pretty hard to find an Action RPG that’s as story driven as Dragon Knight, or that’s as mechanically deep, so if you’re willing to shell out a couple dollars more than you initially think you should, you’ll definitely be rewarded nicely. 

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ORC: VENGEANCE - [CHILLINGO] - $2.99

What makes a good RPG / Dungeon Crawler? If you were to ask someone like myself, who almost never plays them, it would be one that appeals to the masses in its gameplay encompassing something for everyone, not being to in depth to understand what the heck is going on, and having an even level progression and gripping storyline.

Orc: Vengeance, Chillingo's latest fledgling entry to these adventures, is something that caught my eye from its initial release, and even being somewhat adverse to the genre, I thought I would give it a go. Mind you, the last time I dug into a similar title was Aralon: Sword and Shadow. I am certainly glad that I hit that Buy and Install button!

The story of Orc is actually a worthy one, even with other reviews saying that it may fall into the cliche category, with you taking on the guise of an Orc Warchief, Rok, who's homeland clan, Argon, is threatened by the ever flourishing 'Dark One'. Your objective is to take on said damnable force and breach their stronghold head on, and put an end to this evil that was actually brought on by the now mortified humans. There are a variety of cutscenes that tell the story, but the more interesting way the chronicle is told is via strewn about books that you find similar to loot.
The graphics are gorgeous. The animations are top notch, and the backgrounds are all exquisitely detailed. The framerate never suffers, and I can definitely say this is one of the prettier games I have had the pleasure of playing while maintaining such a great framerate.

The loot system is downright perfect, with the enthusiast never feeling the urge to even glance at the all to existent and optional IAP system. Each enemy you destroy drops some coins, and there are also treasure chests impeccably placed around each level. Another way to earn loot is to pick up dropped weapons from your defeated enemies, and sell them to the vendor whom you are prompted to visit upon each level completion. You can also hit the main menu at anytime, go to the vendor, and select the level you were on and you'll be returned to the last checkpoint.
The weapons and shields have the typical attributes such as speed, opposing weapon upgrade capabilities, and defense powers. The weapons are all fun and unique, and I personally thought that having the biggest, baddest weapon was the best and didn't care that it was the slowest. Their are limited inventory slots to use, which may be a put off to some, but I found the ones available to be plenty.

The leveling system is standard fare as well; attack, defense, greed (ie. coin % earned), and vengeance. Vengeance is a key component to your combat as it is limited in supply, although is replenished over time, and is what is drained when doing your advanced combat 'Skill' moves. These skills are found in chests, so it is key to explore, something I found pleasure in and I think adds to the game. You can upgrade all of the skills, everything from the blizzard slam attack to the replenish health points, and this is based on your character's current level.

The combat is awesome. The interface is made up of a tap to move system, and the combat/skills are similar in using swipes and other gestures. You are allowed up to four(4) inventory gestures; I used two combat skills, and two for health/vengeance upgrades. Some may question the use of the touch to move interface as opposed to a joypad, but I can confirm that it works fine.
Combat scenes are extraordinary. Everything stops for a second, sort of a cutscene, and you will feel your adrenaline surge until Rok bangs on his shield as if to say 'Bring it!'
The adversaries will certainly gang up and smother you if you don't keep moving, which really add to the urgency of the combat scenes. The adventure has a great sense of pacing in that you will have an insanely intense battle scene, a perfectly placed checkpoint, and then you will be allowed to explore for a while to loot and upgrade etc. I found great pleasure in not having to battle back to back, well, not until the final few chapters anyway, but that's to be expected when you're getting close to your villain.


If there is one fault of Orc, is that the foray went by all too quickly with the entire game taking me roughly 4-5 hours. I certainly think that the money spent was entirely worth it however. Those looking for an all around dungeon crawler with amazing retina visuals, fast paced combat, and great albeit not too in depth character and weapon leveling up systems will find a great time with Orc and I highly recomend it to those new to the genre, as well as to the seasoned Hack n Slash veterans.

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Master of Dungeon [Playbean] - $3.99

Ever since the release of CrimsonHeart, RPG fans have been looking for the next title to live up to the very high standards set by ANBSoft’s amazing title. Now, I won’t lie. Not one Action RPG title has made me come close to thinking of CrimsonHeart since. Until now. Playbean’s Master of Dungeon. What first brought on the memories of CrimsonHeart? The 360 degree movement. Yup, that’s really all it took. Once you play an Action RPG with 360 degree movement, all others seem stiff, and Playbean has nailed the movement, controls, and camera angles perfectly. The only question remaining; Does the rest of the game live up to the criteria of Crimsonheart? 

Master of Dungeon is a story about a place called World Tree. Light and Food is scarce, but the people of the land follow and believe in the Prophet, willing to do anything to please her. The English translation is pretty bad, and this isn’t helped by the text being broken up across lines (what a kawinkidink, just like CrimsonHeart!), but it’s understandable, and I never found myself at a loss for words not knowing what was going on in the story. Once you start you’re able to pick your class; Warrior, who has a strong physical attack with fencing skills and sword spheres, Assassin, who specializes in fist combat and is great when luck skills are increased, helping him find gold and rare item drops easier than the other classes, and the Wizard, who specializes in magic attacks and skills, and is better used at medium range instead of up close and personal.

Each different class has a different skill tree, and these skill trees are pretty extensive, offering up numerous skills to use and expand on, helping you immensely throughout the game. The skills you wind up choosing will play a major roll, effecting combat, and guiding how you control your characters from the beginning of the game. Unfortunately, the combat is not equal to CrimsonHearts. Running into a swarm of enemies and hacking and slashing your way through them will not severely drain your HP, or effectively kill you. Instead, mob management plays a roll, guiding enemies into large groups so that you can easily take them all out at once. This does, however, bring down the amount of grinding needed in order to level up, and because you’ll be leveling up fairly often, you will be spending quite a bit of time managing your skill tree. 

Master of Dungeon is set up so that you’ll constantly be visiting your tiny town in-between missions, talking to the townsfolk, progressing in the story, and starting new quests. Once you have your quests, there’s one exit out of the town, and it’s straight into a dungeon. When you start, you’re only able to go into one area of the dungeon, but as you progress, more areas will be opened, and you’ll be able to transport your character to these places directly, making it easier to navigate through the seemingly endless corridors of the world. Unfortunately, there’s not much in the way of environmental changes, which does have a pretty big impact on the game. Visiting essentially the same areas over and over again filled with different enemies does get a little boring after a while. 

The graphics and animations are reminiscent of CrimsonHeart, though not as extravagant, the attacking animations do contain a lot of flare, and utilizing the strengths of each class, they really do make you feel like a badass. The movement, death, and re-appearing animations are also well done, also having animations for various impacts like confusion, poison, and more, making the gameplay pretty flashy. Along with the great music and sound effects, it does create a fairly immersive gameplay experience. 

Priced at $3.99, and being Universal, it’s not a bad game by any means, and fans of the genre will love the 360 degree movement. It is better than CrimsonHeart? No. Not really. Is it better than most of the other Action RPGs out there? Yes. Yes it is. The 360 degree movement makes a huge difference in the gameplay, and even though it’s not equal to CrimsonHeart, I don’t think players want another game that’s exactly like CH, and I’m pretty sure Playbean knows this. There’s enough similarities to keep fans of CrimsonHeart satisfied, entertained, and hooked on the game, while also having enough differences to not be just a copy. Playbean has done a fantastic job here, and with a couple tweaks, it could rank right up there with CrimsonHeart as one of the best Action RPGs available in the AppStore. 

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Slash or Die! [PNJ] - $0.99

PNJ has come out with quite a few really decent games over the last couple years. The first game I managed to grab from their studio was Terra - Eternal Chaos, an action RPG. Since then, Real Fishing 3D, Zombie Run, Block Knight! and plenty more have all graced my iDevice. But their latest title, Slash or Die, definitely has that spark that makes it stand out. And even though it’s pretty grindy, and has IAP with expensive items, it’s still a game that I’m enjoying quite a bit. 

Slash or Die has you controlling Blade, a super powered being who’s the only hope for Earth once Machines, Aliens, Ghosts and Demons start invading. There is only one gameplay mode, but you’re given an option for Hardcore Mode once you complete the game, which definitely does add to the replay value as well as the difficulty, and with 24 challenging missions, there’s enough content to keep you busy for a while.

Controls are simple; a left/right slider bar and jump + attack buttons. Your character basically stays in one spot on the screen the whole game, and the slider bar controls which way he’s facing, as well as how fast he goes. Forward increases your speed gradually over time, while facing backwards slows him down. As you make your way through each level, enemies will come at you from both sides, and you’ll often be faced with the decision to either attack an enemy in front of you, but risk a bad attack, causing the enemy to fly backwards instead of die, or maybe even miss the enemy, in order to be able to turn around and hit an enemy coming at you from behind, or turn around, and make sure you get the enemy behind you, and risk not being able to turn back around quick enough to hit the enemy in front of you. Mob control winds up being a core aspect of the gameplay. 

The graphics are top notch, looking fantastic on retina display, and the 4 environments that you’ll guide Blade through each have their own look, as well as enemies and objects. The character design is a huge plus in Slash or Die!, with 4 different enemy races, and a total of 22 separate enemies, each having their own unique way of moving and attacking. There are also various objects which Blade will need to either dodge by jumping, or slash through as he’s running through each of the levels. These various objects generally come at him quicker than the enemies, so keeping an eye out for them is a big priority. If you don’t, chances are these are what will cause most deaths. The animations are also very well done, with the running, attacking, and jumping as well as the explosions and each of the enemies attack animations all look fantastic, and definitely add to the look and the feel of the game. 

With Slash or Die! priced at $0.99, and being Universal, it’s a great title for fans of runners and hack-n-slash games. With GameCenter support including 2 separate boards, one for your Stylish Points, and another for your Max Combo, along with 25 achievements to try and grab driving the replay value alongside Hardcore Mode. Slash or Die! is easily my favorite PNJ title next to Terra - Eternal Chaos, and if this is any indication of the direction PNJ is going in in the future, it’s definitely looking bright. 

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Avenger [CWA Games] - $1.99

Castlevania influenced games are basically non-existent within the AppStore, so when CWA Games (one of the biggest mobile development teams in China) released their first iOS title, Avenger, fans of the niche genre jumped at the chance to check it out. Judging from the trailer, the gameplay looks solid, but the grammar looked like it might have been translated by Google, which, if you’ve used ‘Google Translate’, you know is pretty horrendous, and for a lot of gamers, bad English translation is enough for them to stay away from a game. 

Demons have built a castle in the human world, and are trying to take it over. You’ll play as Cyprus, a prince who has the abilities to save the world. Throughout the game, you’ll be chasing the Devil Queen and searching for the Castle of Shadows. The grammar throughout the game does take away from the story, as it’s kind of hard to understand exactly what’s going on, and is made worse by how quickly the text appears and disappears during the cut scenes. 

Unlike Castlevania, there is no real exploration or backtracking, which is unfortunate. A game in the same vein as Castlevania feels kind of incomplete when it’s so linear. The combat system is fairly simple, with one button for attacking, and then two icons in between the joystick and attack+jump buttons for special attacks. You are able to execute different attacks depending on where your joystick is placed. For instance, an attack that flings you up into the air is done by holding up on the joystick and pressing the attack button, while holding back on the joystick and pressing attack will make you do a backflip attack. 

As you progress through the game, you will gain experience which upgrades both your character and your current weapon. When your character advances a level, his Hit Points, Magic/Mana Points, Attack and Defense all increase, while with a weapon, the attack power increases and you’re able to assign a special attribute, like extra attack points, more experience earned, and things of this nature, but you have to pay to ‘enchant’ your weapon. This is where most of the gold that you collect from killing demons will go. But once you enchant your weapon 3 times, it will receive a special ability, like increased agility, or increased attack strength for the first couple of hits in a new room, and more.

You will also be picking up other items as you make your way through the game. More powerful swords are awarded each time you beat a boss, HP and MP bottles will fall from treasure chests and enemies, and scrolls which send you back to Twist Space which is where you’ll be able to enter different mirrors which take you to different sections of Avenger’s world. Here, you can go to previously beaten areas, and purchase potions, weapons, and scrolls. 

Avenger’s gameplay is great for those of you looking for a Castlevania themed button masher. But the gameplay doesn’t really overshadow all of the issues. The framerate could be smoother. It’s not as bad as it looks in the trailer, but it’s not smooth by any means. Like Casltevania, you’re only able to save at certain spots throughout the game. This wouldn’t really be a bad thing, except that this is a mobile game, and for some reason, the game quits whenever your device goes into sleep mode, or you get a phone call, which means you could be loosing quite a bit of progress fairly often. 

All of this, coupled with the grammar issues makes Avenger a hard game to recommend. But with so few Castlevania inspired titles in the AppStore, it’s also hard not to recommend. If you can deal with some funky grammar, a low frame rate, and making sure that you save before taking a call or having your device go into sleep mode, Avenger is a game you should definitely check out. The graphics are fantastic, with awesome character and enemy sprites, and vibrant environments. The animations are also great, even with the low frame-rate.

Right now, Avenger is on sale for $0.99 instead of it’s normal price of $1.99. There is no online leader board or achievement support, which does take a little bit away from the game, but the game is fairly large, and side-scrolling RPG hack-n-slash games aren’t really known for their replayablity. If you’re a fan of the genre, or are looking for another title to add to the Castlevania type games on your iOS device, Avenger is a great one to own. Those of you who are very picky with your English grammar and buttery smooth frame rates might want to pass. Hopefully an HD or Universal version will be released in the near future, as playing in 2X mode on the iPad looks pretty pixilated, but considering this is the first iOS release from CWA Games, and how big they are in China with Java and Android titles, I’m putting complete faith that they will come out with an update very soon with some of these issues fixed.

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