Any good mobile RPGs out there?

Ports and emulators aside - is there anything good to play on your phone?

Depends what you're looking for and what phone.

Are you looking for dungeon crawlers? Try Legend of Grimrock (iOS only), Questlord, The Wizard's Grave, The Quest, Undercroft, Bard's Tale

Survival based? A Dark Room

Do you want a meaty story/party based RPG? Baldur's Gate games, Icewind Dale

Do you prefer a turn-based cyberpunk RPG? Try the Shadowrun series.

Sci-Fi squad based strategy with RPG elements? XCOM.

Some epic mobile-only RPGs? Try the Ravensword or Aralon series of games.

If you have an Android phone, try getting Dosbox Turbo and playing the old classics.

Want a very simple but fun party based RPG? Try the Gurk series.

How about WoW style MMO? Order and Chaos games.

Diablo style clones? Try Dungeon Hunter series, or even Acrance Legends / Pocket Legends.

A good mobile Roguelike? Pixel Dungeon

Something uniquely mobile? Infinity Blade series

RPG style endless runner? One Epic Knight

If you're really adventurous, download MUDRammer and play one of the epic MUDs out there.

Tons. Caddy mentioned most. The ones I've personally played and enjoyed were Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate 1/2, Icewind Dale, The Quest, Oubliette, Nethack, Avadon: The Black Fortress, Avernum: Escape From the Pit, The Iceblink Engine modules, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI (good port), the Kemco RPGs (simpler games but fun) and I know I'm forgetting some.

If you mess with MS-DOS emulation that opens up a ton of CRPG-esque games to play. There are also other ways to get games like Arcanum, Fallout 1/2, Diablo II and others playing well on a tablet. Wide world of opportunities.

But if you just want to buy something and not mess around too much, peep the first list I posted.

Can't you play KotOR on ipad as well?

Originally Posted by purpleblob
Can't you play KotOR on ipad as well?

I was going to put that in, but I don't know if he would consider that a port.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Avadon: The Black Fortress, Avernum: Escape From the Pit

Yes! Totally forgot about Avernum and Avadon.

Forgot all about KOTOR! I played the Android version a bunch and it's a great port.

Knights of Pen and Paper +1 is cool. I.e. the first game.

And I'd recommend emulation. At least PSP, PS1 and Nintendo DS. Lots and lots of RPG gems to be had there.

Originally Posted by Caddy
Yes! Totally forgot about Avernum and Avadon.

Just keep in mind Jeff doesn't support them now. Not sure the whole story but on newer versions of Android they may be somewhat broken or have bugs. Make sure you research that if you get them. If they're even still for sale. I played them both and they worked fine.

Yeah, I did mention "Ports and emulators aside" in the initial post, and that is most of what you guys are listing. There are definatly great games to enjoy on your phone (thanks for providing a good list of those), but few of those are exclusives. And honestly, most of the games you list are much more enjoyable on the PC.

I guess RPGs just don't fare well enough on mobile phones to be developed exclusively for it, due to somewhat of a niche market and just not being a great fit with relatively small screens and short gaming sessions.

Originally Posted by Sneaky_seal
Yeah, I did mention "Ports and emulators aside" in the initial post, and that is most of what you guys are listing. There are definatly great games to enjoy on your phone (thanks for providing a good list of those), but few of those are exclusives. And honestly, most of the games you list are much more enjoyable on the PC.

I guess RPGs just don't fare well enough on mobile phones to be developed exclusively for it, due to somewhat of a niche market and just not being a great fit with relatively small screens and short gaming sessions.

Pretty much anything will play better on PC. The only exception to this i've seen is Infinity Blade (which is basically Fruit Ninja: The RPG), and XCOM, which works exceptionally well on a touch interface.

Because really, people play RPGs on mobile, because they don't have access to a PC (or console).

I play on tablet because I like laying in bed and chilling while playing something. I think a few RPGs are better with the touch interface as well.

Tablet/Android is not really as developed as a console yet. I use mine as an ultimate emulator machine. It's like having a 8" 1080p HD version of a PSP or something (which are more like 5" 720p screens, etc.), with every console under the sun + MS-DOS emulation, etc.. I also play PC ports on tablet and have enjoyed a bunch of those, too.

But for Android exclusives, nah. That's not really there yet.

Good answers. I would add 7 mages, that one really surprised me.

I tried 7 Mages quickly and I believe I got a refund. It seemed really clunky and ran poorly. For a simple yet fun and addictive Android-exclusive first-person 'crawler, try Dungeon Hero.

Also, that Exiled Kingdoms game seemed pretty promising. It's actually an open-world-ish CRPG-style game. Android exclusive. Seemed to have some interesting elements, if a bit lighter than a meaty PCRPG. It's also an ARPG. But might be worth looking into.

I recall a couple fun Android exclusive roguelikes, too. Nothing too serious but were fun. Endless Depths was one of them. Have to look on my tablet again and see what else.

Iceblink Mini is worth it, too. Still have to play more modules but it's a turn-based CRPG engine with modules on Android. Of course the PC versions are more loaded engine-wise, but still worth a look on Android.

One of my all time favorites that I've never seen mentioned is LostStar Tactics. It's a fairly deep older tactical RPG where you recruit from a very diverse range of characters with different abilities and your main character builds his powers by assembling a deck of cards that each represent different abilities. It's one of the few mobile RPGs that I've really enjoyed, and it's quite challenging on hard. It's technically IPhone only though, it works find on my Ipad, but you won't find it on a default search with one.

Originally Posted by fadedc
One of my all time favorites that I've never seen mentioned is LostStar Tactics. It's a fairly deep older tactical RPG where you recruit from a very diverse range of characters with different abilities and your main character builds his powers by assembling a deck of cards that each represent different abilities. It's one of the few mobile RPGs that I've really enjoyed, and it's quite challenging on hard. It's technically IPhone only though, it works find on my Ipad, but you won't find it on a default search with one.

Sounds great, other than the Iphone only part. Reminds me of that Mistwalker puzzle RPG. It's called Terra Battle. Pretty clever RPG that fuses puzzle elements and cards.

I really hope that more developers focus on Android in the future. The platform is great for CRPGs. I love playing the Infinity Engine games and the CRPG PC ports on my tablet. The Planescape Torment port is quality even if I would have done the UI differently and utilized more of the native Android screen features.

And I would say to anyone considering mobile RPG gaming to not sleep on emulation. My tablet is basically the ultimate handheld gaming device. There are hundreds of RPG gems on various systems that can be emulated on a good tablet, including MS-DOS. It's pretty neat playing Master of Magic on a tablet.

9th Dawn and its sequels are good mobile RPGs.
I am a sucker for retro looking RPG games so they easily my favorite.

Pixel Dungeons and any of its iterations on the Play Store are also a good time waster.

I heard positive reviews about Eternium, Egglia, and Wayward Souls. Haven't got the time to check them out though.

There's The Shadow Sun By Ossian Studios. It is not amazing, but decent and probably the closest you'll find to a CRPG exclusively released on mobile.

I love the art in Wayward Souls. It's very SNES, 16-bit style. But the gameplay itself is rather… meh. Ranged combat felt unfinished, so they only real way to play is using melee combat. And combat is all there is, not much story to speak of. It's a rogue-like with some light story.

Originally Posted by daveyd
There's The Shadow Sun By Ossian Studios. It is not amazing, but decent and probably the closest you'll find to a CRPG exclusively released on mobile.

That was my thought as well … looking at my 'games' page on my iPad, I see four things:
1. Ports (BG, XCOM, Grimrock, KOTOR, etc)
2. The Shadow Sun
3. The Quest (and expansions)
4. Spiderweb games … Avadon in particular was developed in a context including iPad gaming, so I don't really count those as ports.

Most everything else is throwaway, IMO.