2D action RPGs are always a popular genre. People (myself included) love the simplicity of fighting, looting, leveling, upgrading and crafting. BeerDeer wants to offer players more than that, hence the creation of Nyrthos. It’s still every bit all of those things I’ve mentioned, but it adds a new element to the mix: player influence. It’s not something as pedestrian as choosing from a dialog bog and seeing a good or bad event unfold, however.

In Nyrthos, the exploration of the world and availability of new areas is driven by the player base. One example given is that there might be a broken bridge that can be fixed once enough wood is gathered. If enough players decide to commit to the cause, the bridge will be repaired and the area beyond accessible to everyone. Similarly, players can found and manage their own village. They have a great deal of influence on the game world, and thanks to that the possibilities are practically endless.

Nyrthos will be entering open beta in the very near future (Q1, 2012), and anyone interested in taking a look can sign up on the official website. Pricing and release info are still non-existent at this point, which is to be expected, but we’ll do our best to keep everyone up-to-date.

Dungeon crawlers as a genre have certainly seen much success over the years, but that doesn’t mean that everyone loves them. It takes a certain kind of mentality to find joy in gathering tons of loot through repetitious fighting in order to fight stronger things (repetitiously) for better loot. Now assuming there was something else added to the proceedings to keep things from feeling less monotonous, something like that could draw in a bit more of a crowd. That is to say, draw in even more of a crowd. And what usually sells like crazy regardless of medium or platform? Humor.

With that in mind (I think), Ayopa Games and Drowning Monkeys have decided to unleash Dungeon Crawlers on an unsuspecting App Store. The game itself is a combination of more typical dungeon crawlers with multi-floored dungeons, loot and experience grinding and turn-based strategy RPGs. Players will control a team of four adventurers (an alchemist, priest, barbarian, and dwarven warrior) over the course of five chapters, each with their own distinct environments. They’ll also be going toe-to-toe with plenty of nasty monsters as they scrounge for stuff.

Dungeon Crawlers is slated for a January 26th release. A universal release, might I add. For a special “introductory price” of $1.99 no less.

Ash was one of the first RPGs I downloaded when I was a new initiate to the wonders of iOS gaming. I recall being thoroughly impressed by the quality. Well, that quality just got a boost. The original game was released with graphics licensed from RPG Maker, but SRRN Games has replaced all of it with totally original artwork. The new style shares a few basic similarities with the older one, but overall it’s a huge visual change. Especially the character portraits.

Another less obvious but still notable change has to do with the random encounters. One of the game’s initial shortcomings was that there were just so freaking many of them it kind of made getting from point A to point B a pain. This has been rebalanced, so now random encounters are a bit less frequent. They’ll still happen, and they’re still essential to not being caught in a boss battle with one’s pants down, but the decrease will go a long way to making the game more accessible and overall more fun.

Last and most important, Ash is getting an 80% prince drop for the holidays. What was once a great RPG that could be had for $4.99 is now a great RPG made slightly greater and available for a buck. One dollar. $0.99. I’d gladly recommend this game to any RPG fans at $5, but $1? That’s, like, “don’t even think about it just buy it” pricing. So yeah; don’t even think about it, just buy it.

$0.99

Ash

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-07-19 :: Category: Games

Japan is a hotbed for RPG games that are both intriguing in gameplay and sexy in design. Now, there’s one more that has been ported across the Pacific. Japan-based mobile gaming company KEMCO recently announced that its RPG Eve of the Genesis is now available in English on the US app store. To celebrate, they’ve reduced the price 67 percent to $2.99 for a limited time.

As for gameplay, gamers are introduced to ancient times in the Empire of Gadalia, a powerful state who controls the land and is run by mechanical beings. There’s a bit of a Terminator flare to it as these mechanical beings are masked in the form of men and they have the humans under their control. After a battle royale and 2,000 years later, the humans are still under the machines control and it’s up to the player to discover and unlock the key to freeing the enslaved population.

$0.99

$8.99

RPG イブオブザジェネシス

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-02-18 :: Category: Games

When most people see or hear the name Digital Tales, they most likely associate it with Ducati Challenge for iOS. That, or they can click those links to see what I’m talking about because they also might be totally lost at this point. Regardless, there’s going to be a new iPhone/iPad game for folks to think about when their name comes up: Battleloot Adventure.

Aside from just being an awesome name to begin with, it’s looking like a pretty awesome game to boot. Players get to build and manage their own band of fantasy archetypes as they wander throughout “Kameloot” (ha!) and the surrounding countryside. Each adventurer has their own abilities and gain experience individually. Similarly, lots of gear can be found/earned and thrown on them for various bonuses. But while I’m admittedly a sucker for customization options (party, character, skill or otherwise) and I’m really digging the stylish cartoon visuals, I’m really intrigued by the combat system which looks like a hybrid of traditional turn-based RPG trappings and reflex-based arcade action. Tapping characters and enemies to select and attack respectively is relatively standard, but I’m curious to see how the more “twitchy” actions like assists (tap a second character while attacking) and blocking (tap the targeted character during an enemy’s attack) pan out.

There don’t seem to be any specifics regarding price just yet, but Battleloot Adventure is set to release on the App Store in February. It’s a few months off, but I’m certainly looking forward to it.

Square Enix sure knows how to keep iOS device owning RPG fans happy. Whether it’s by releasing new games like Chaos Rings or resurrecting old classics like Final Fantasy 1, 2 and 3, JRPG fans are guaranteed a good time.

Why am I explaining all this? Because Square Enix has just announced that one of the greatest RPGs of all time, Chrono Trigger, is heading to the iPhone and iPod Touch sometime before the end of the year!

For the uninformed, Chrono Trigger was a fantastic collaborative effort by the creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and creator of Dragon Quest, Yuji Horii. Originally released on the SNES, it’s a lengthy tale of time travel to all sorts of places from the Middle Ages to a post-apocalyptic future and boasts 15 different endings.

No price details or exact release date have been announced just yet but we have got some pretty screenshots to stare at in preparation.

For now, be very excited by the forthcoming release of Chrono Trigger. It’s a true classic of the genre.

Everyone’s gaga for catching and training monsters. It’s a shockingly popular genre, which makes its overall lack of representation on the App Store all the more odd. That’s not so say that no one’s ever tried, but there just aren’t that many choices at the moment. Greyhound Games, with help from ZigZaGame, is looking to do their part by releasing Dragon Island.

The overall concept of Dragon Island is as expected: capture monsters, level-up monsters, evolve and combine monsters to create new monsters and fight other monsters with said monsters. What sets it apart from the scant few other games in the genre on iOS is the use of actual time instead of energy or mana, setting a specific lineup for monsters (think “batting order”), a sprawling map full of places to explore and dungeons. The dungeons are of particular note because they’re not only randomly-generated, but can also contain special monsters, treasures, their own towns and even other dungeons.

Currently the game is about 75% complete (according to the developer), and they’re looking to the community to take it well beyond the 100% mark. They’ve set up a Kickstarter page to raise funds so that they can include more of, well, everything. More monsters, more dungeons, more items and more game in general.

What’s there is already looking really good (placeholder graphics notwithstanding). I’m particularly fond of the monster illustrations. And the thought of Roguelike dungeons in a monster-collecting rpg has me salivating something fierce. If anyone echoes my sentiment, then I urge them to look into Dragon Island. Don’t forget to take a gander at the handful of monster images (20+ out of 200) in the gallery below, either. Also, “LOL” at Unhappy Bird.

Not so long ago, Tin Man Games announced a project with 2000 AD – an announcement that would cause nerd-muscles to spasm uncontrollably in comic book/gamebook/role playing geeks all over the internet. Judge Dredd is getting his own Gamebook Adventure.

Holy crap.

There are very few details available at this time, what with it being just announced and all, but it’s going to be a Gamebook Adventure. Only set in the Judge Dredd universe and all that. So plenty of choices, equipment, branching paths, dice-oriented combat and so on. About the only specific things I do know is that it’s set to release in “Q2 2012″ for both the iPad and iPhone, and it’ll cost $4.99. There might be some kind of sale at launch if the recent release of Temple of the Spider God is any indication, but that’s pure speculation at this point.

Regardless, this is exciting news! I know I’m looking forward to a tabletop-styled quest through Mega City One. Anyone else?

I’ve no doubt that the prospect of a spellcasting form of Words With Friends is an exciting one to any sane iOS gamer. That’s just part of what SpellCraft School of Magic is hoping to offer upon its release next month.

Gamers play a young apprentice wizard at the multiverse’s most prestigious magical university in this free to play, in-app purchase supported game. The young wizard must save their teachers from the dungeons beneath the school by nursing magical plants, brewing powerful spells and doing battle with numerous monsters using strategy and cunning. It’s going to be a potent mix of Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons with a great combination of social and roleplay gaming.

40 spells in all will be offered to help players up against over 100 different monsters. Combining card gaming tropes and other causal friendly concepts sounds like a pretty cool idea so far.

We’ll be sure to keep you up on the latest on this exciting title. For now, check out the teaser trailer and screenshots below.

Hook Champ, Super QuickHook, Hook Worlds. Three games with more than a few similarities. Each one is retro-themed, predominantly features swinging on hooks, contains an absolutely fabulous selection of hats and are loads of fun. And they’re all made by the one and only Rocketcat Games.

It appears that after four games, the developer has decided to try something new. Mage Gauntlet is an action RPG inspired by a number of classic 90′s games in the same genre. Gone are the hooks and rope-swinging antics in favor of a whole lot of “hitting jerks with a sword,” and “blowing them up with spells.” It’s more than a bit of a departure, but I’m fairly certain Rocketcat is up to the task.

Players can enjoy the “festivities” over the course of a 42-level (and humorous) story mode, and then again in another 42-level Master Mode with new secrets and greater enemy numbers. Over the course of these levels, they can find and equip different gear (all of which can effect stats and abilities) and even utilize bonus-granting pets. Oh, and lots and lots of hats. 110 to be exact.

Mage Gauntlet will be hitting the App Store this Thursday, the 20th, at a discounted price of $1.99 (it’ll go up to $2.99 later). Early adopters will get the sale price as well as 8 hats from previous Rocketcat titles and a special Rocketcat pet, so long as they nab it by Sunday night.