‘Pocket RPG’ Perfectly Fuses RPG & Dual-Stick Slash ‘em Mayhem

[Editor's Note: This review was written on July 14, 2011, pre-dating the launch of our News section on August 29, 2011. It is being re-published so it can be properly archived in the News section.] We’ve never been huge fans of role playing games (RPG) with the exception of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP which we awarded our highest rating, five stars. The pace of RPGs have always felt a little bit too slow and packed more with enchantment than excitement. It was with some trepidation we decided to download Pocket RPG but did so having been wholly impressed with Gears from the same app maker, Crescent Moon Games. Boy, aren’t we glad we did. Pocket RPG fuses RPG and dual-stick slash ‘em mayhem to create a super fun game that is also visually beautiful. Players begin by choosing one of three warriors: Blade Master, Dark Ranger and Battle Mage. The Blade Master wields two weapons at once to clear a path with their destructive force. The Dark Ranger is an archer who creates swiss cheese of any enemies who stand in his arrows‘ paths. The Battle Mage is a sorceress who controls the natural elements to inflict damage and death upon her enemies.

As with any RPG, you explore everything around you to get coins and special items. In this game’s case, you smash all chests, breakables, trees, etc. to find treasure. Skill points earned through leveling up can be spent on learning new skills. Gold collected can be spent on training in new weaponry. You can’t take items or experience from quest to quest but all the weapons for which you’ve been trained will be scattered and usable throughout your journey. All the skills learned allow you to quickly become powerful again. Each quest is filled with different enemy foot soldiers, bosses and special missions. For instance, you will face blob-like, square sponge-like and tree trunk-like creatures who come at you in swarms. You will also confront big armored ogres wielding powerful axes who are defeated by taking advantage of your relative faster speed. To complicate matters, you will be asked in some instances to protect an ancient relic while fending off the foot soldiers and ogres. Assuming you get passed all of this, a confrontation with a boss awaits. Your character is controlled via a dual stick system. The left stick controls your character’s movement while the right stick controls your weapon. Weapons and capabilities are accumulated throughout the game and can be exchanged and sold. The graphics in this game are superb which doesn’t come as a surprise after playing Gears which included beautiful and colorful 3D graphics. The same high quality graphics that took our breath away in Gears are integrated in Pocket RPG. So not only is this game awesome to play but its also got great eye candy.

Pocket RPG is a superb game taking the best elements of a dungeon crawling RPG and supercharging it with dual stick hack and slash action. We highly recommend picking up Pocket RPG. Read our other app reviews by clicking here. AppPicker Rating: 5 / 5 Stars App Store link: Pocket RPG (Universal) & Pocket RPG for iPhone (iPhone) Other apps by Crescent Moon Games