Pocket Titans Review

Pocket Titans mixes a puzzle game with the kind of row and column switching seen in Candy Crush Saga and 10000000. Yet this casual puzzle gameplay is all wrapped up in the veneer of a squad-based RPG.

The way it works? Players have their squad of heroes from the various RPG archetypes: warriors, rogues, archers, et cetera. They and the enemies are on a small grid, with the ability to move an entire row or column in one's turn. Players get to make two moves to put their characters in their ideal position to attack enemies or use their character's ability. For example, warriors attack enemies nearby (and their attacks can hit all enemies in a nearby radius), archers can hit enemies either diagonally or straight away from them in their line of sight (no obstructions in the way), healers can, well, heal. As well, each class has secondary abilities that activate when they can't use their primary one. Everything happens automatically, so to learn how to play just requires learning how the various classes work, which is simple enough.

That's the fascinating thing about Pocket Titans: it's this casual RPG that I can sit back and enjoy without needing to overly stress out about the mechanics, but it still has the trappings of an RPG. There's character leveling, elemental advantages, loot to get, and more. It's just all provided in an accessible package that's easy to play. There's even a Game Center online mode.

All the character movement and actions are handled automatically once the moves are made, and the system is interesting in that it tries to go for the ideal move but it doesn't always do what the player might want, as the characters are set to use their primary ability before they use their secondary. This means that if a healer is next to an enemy that the player would like to attack, it's best to make sure their primary ability won't be activated. Of course, this is something that can be strategically exploited as well.

This is the rare game that's better on the iPhone than on the iPad: even on the old iPad 2, the art looks blurry at high resolutions and just feels too big for the screen.

I find myself just constantly enamored by Pocket Titans. Its concept is that perfect blend between being simple to pick up on while having enough complexity to be fun. The concept alone is well worth the cost.