Avernum 3: Ruined World HD, $9.99 – [News] – [Forum Thread] – For more than two decades, Spiderweb Software has been sating the hunger of gamers everywhere who craved classic, old-school style, hardcore RPGs. Lucky for us they have also been very good about bringing those experiences to the iPad over the years, where they’ve translated extremely well to the device’s large touchscreen. That’s as true as ever with their latest iPad release Avernum 3: Ruined World, which is a remake of a remake of one of Spiderweb’s earliest titles and continues the story of the first two games which have also graced the iPad. If you crave an RPG with serious meat on its bones, Avernum 3 and its predecessors should satisfy nicely. – JN

Dragalia Lost, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Dragalia Lost is something that surprised most people. Nintendo and Cygames partnered to bring out a mobile exclusive action RPG and the end result is one that is full of charm. It reminds me of 3DS and DS RPGs in a lot of ways with its characters, combat, and art style. What actually got me to continue playing it was the excellent soundtrack from DAOKO. Nintendo has been great at content updates and events on a regular basis making it hard to not play. I hope 2019 sees this expand to more countries because that is basically the biggest problem right now. -MM

Evoland 2, $4.99 – [Review] – [Game of the Week] – [Forum Thread] – The original Evoland was an ingenious trip through the history of RPGs as you began with a basic 8-bit game and as you progressed the game evolved with new technologies and visuals. It was clever, but felt more like a gimmick than a substantial game. Enter Evoland 2. The sequel takes all the potential of the original game’s concept and fleshes it out into a full-fledged and compelling experience, and also dips its toes into classic genres beyond just RPGs. The result is something that’ll tickle your nostalgia bone to no end but also feels like a fully realized experience, and the evolution gimmick is actually weaved into the game itself in a meaningful and interesting way. – JN

FINALFANTASY XV POCKET EDITION, Free – [Review] – [Game of the Week] – [Forum Thread] – In late 2016 console gamers were treated to Final Fantasy XV, the latest mainline entry in the long-running series of RPGs. This one brought a more realistic setting, an open-world style of gameplay, and a more action-oriented real-time combat system. It was quite well-received, and despite how powerful our mobile devices have become over the years, I don’t think anyone was ever expecting this one to come to mobile. Well… it did! And despite a more hardware friendly graphical style and some streamlining here and there, Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition is the full game that’s on consoles and PC with almost zero concessions. It’s remarkable, and for our money is even more enjoyable in bite-sized chunks on our mobile devices. – JN

Monster Hunter Stories, $19.99 – [Review] – [Game of the Week] – [Forum Thread] Monster Hunter Stories is a very interesting release on iOS for a variety of reasons. For one, it was published by Nintendo on the 3DS in the West and it was only available on the 3DS family of systems until the mobile port in Japan. This spinoff title in the Monster Hunter franchise is like a blend of Pokemon with Monster Hunter and the mobile version is the best way to experience it. It already looked gorgeous and played great on 3DS (it really puts the mainline Pokemon entries to shame when it comes to visuals and performance) but it is so much better on mobile with high resolution visuals. If you enjoy Monster Hunter and turn based RPGs, you need to get this. -MM

Old School RuneScape, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Originally released back in 2001, RuneScape is one of the oldest old school MMORPGs still around. It’s been updated over the years, but recently Jagex forked the game into RuneScape and a “old school" version that is as the game existed back in 2007. Old School RuneScape has absurd amounts of depth to it, but the truly radical part about the mobile port is it’s completely cross platform. You can be playing on your PC, log out, log in on your iPhone, log out, then log in on your Android tablet and all your friends, progress, and everything else is all right there. It may be an old school game, but this sort of thing feels like the future. – EH

Pokémon Quest, Free – [Guide] – [Forum Thread] – Pokemon Quest is a weird game, but it feels like we’re inching closer and closer to having an actual real-deal classic Pokemon game on the App Store. This time around we’ve got voxel graphics with gameplay that feels a bit like an idle RPG, which makes it feel like it makes way more sense to play on mobile than its sister release on the Nintendo Switch. If you go into Pokemon Quest looking for a great idle RPG, you’ll have a good time. If you’re looking for a “full" Pokemon experience, you’re better off sticking to the classics on other platforms. -EH

Siralim 3 (Monster Taming RPG), $4.99 – [News] – [Forum Thread] – The Siralim games are some of the deepest RPGs on the App Store, and for the first two entries in the series I just couldn’t wrap my head around them. I appreciated them for what they offered, but it just didn’t seem like it was for me. When Siralim 3 launched this year, I sat down to once again give it a shot, and for whatever reason things just clicked and it became one of my most played games of the year. There is basically an endless amount of stuff to do, from diving into dungeons and fighting enemies and collecting loot and capturing monsters… the list just never ends. Siralim 3 does a good job at structuring a lot of that stuff to get you on your way, but in reality this is the type of game you could play until the end of time if you wanted. – JN

Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind, $9.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – King of Dragon Pass was one of those games that you could put on your iPad and play for eternity and Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind is a spiritual successor that’s no different. You’ll be managing a clan through the dawn of man, where you’ll need to deal with dinosaurs, make diplomatic decisions, improve your farms, and many other elements that all are go into balancing your survival. If you like games with depth, don’t miss this one. -EH

Squids Odyssey, $3.99 – [Announcement] – [Forum Thread] – Squids Odyssey is more or less a modern remake of a set of ultra-classic iOS Squids games. They’re turn-based strategic battlers where you fight using a stretch back and swing mechanic. That sort of thing has been done a bunch on the App Store in the last decade, but Squids was one of the original and still totally stands up all these years later. -EH

Stardew Valley, $4.99 – [Review] – [Game of the Week] – [Forum Thread] – Stardew Valley on Steam seemed like something I would love but as with most games on Steam, I end up dropping them in the hopes of a portable release. I eventually ended up owning Stardew on everything but the most played versions are definitely the iOS and Switch versions right now. ConcernedApe took the best of Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing, and Terraria to creat something special. If you do end up buying it, say goodbye to your free time because this is one of the rare games of the generation material for sure. -MM

Teen Titans Go! Figure, $3.99 – [Review] – [Game of the Week] – [Forum Thread] – The original Teeny Titans brought one of the best takes on a Pokemon-style RPG to the App Store when it launched a couple of years ago, and was easily among our favorite games of 2016. With the sequel, formally called Teen Titans GO! Figure, the developers have upped the ante on the already fantastic predecessor. There are new figures to collect and battle with, and you can even customize their color schemes for fun. The game world is also three times as large with two full brand new cities to play through, and a recent update brought the highly-requested feature of online battling to the mix. – JN

VALKYRIE PROFILE: LENNETH, $17.99 – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Valkyrie Profile is one of those games that can cost quite a bit of money to procure on other platforms, so it’s wonderful to see it get a more accessible release. Square Enix’s mobile ports are kind of all over the place, but this ended up being quite faithful to the PSP version it was drawn from while making a couple of sensible changes to fit mobile gaming habits. It can be a little tricky to do some of the platforming with touch controls, but outside of that, this is a fantastic version of an awesome, highly-original game. -SM

Villagers & Heroes, Free – [News] – [Forum Thread] – Full-blown MMORPGs are a rare sight in the world of mobile, and the ones that have launched have generally been specific to the mobile platform. Much like Old School Runescape, Villagers and Heroes is a full MMORPG that can be played cross-platform between iOS, Android, and desktop. This one has more of an “old school WoW" vibe and there’s no shortage of stuff to do in the games huge 3D world. As someone who could never get into an MMO myself, Villagers and Heroes was just the gateway drug to make me realize what I’d been missing all these years, and it works surprisingly well as a mobile experience. – JN