Gearburn’s Pick: Best RPG’s for the iPhone, iPad

Games on the iPhone and iPad are challenging traditional handheld gaming systems such as the Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita.

One of the reasons for this is that they offer instant gaming gratification and inherently low-cost gaming titles — most games are generally priced under US$1. The Apple devices own most genres, neatly encompassing shooters, driving sims, fighters and role-playing games into its catalogues. Sure, Skyrim may be light-years away from appearing on the iDevices, but these games are ideal time wasters with hours of fun to be had. What then are the dominant RPG’s on the iPhone and iPad? Here’s our pick.

100 Rogues –- US$2.99

One of the finest games in the iTunes catalogue is 100 Rogues, a simple dungeon crawler you can sink five minutes into, only to lift your head from the iPhone and find that hours have gone by. At its simplest, 100 Rogues is the very essence of RPG’s, diluted into a 21^st century mishmash of pokey graphics, Nintendo-era music and streamlined controls. Its humour is master class, subtly referencing bygone titles and current events. Thanks to an endless stream of updates, 100 Rogues only improves with age.

Final Fantasy III — US$15.99

This is a port of a 2006 Nintendo DS title, itself ported from the classic 1990 Super Nintendo title. And it’s never looked better than it does on the iPhone and iPad. This is not a game to whip out on the train and enjoy five minutes of fun. Final Fantasy III is a long and involved quest which deserves a concentrated time to wring the best out of it. Four youths, crystals, fancy-free adventuring and the touch of genius is what Square Enix brings to the table. The new and exclusive quicksave option ensures that the game can be picked up from any point in its storied adventure. This is a hallmark of Japanese adventuring.

Sacred Odyssey — Free

One of the best (and free) iPhone/iPad exclusives around, Sacred Odyssey is a masterful game, evoking the very best of classic titles to create something magical. The game is very much in the vein of The Legend of Zelda but manages to distance itself with its oddball plot and console-like controls. How Gameloft managed to squeeze this much adventuring into a 400Mb game is beyond me. The world of Sacred Odyssey slowly unravels itself as you gain better weaponry and skillsets. For a Western-RPG, it defies expectations. Note that it costs US$6.99 to unlock the game Only the download, and a small portion of the game remains free. Freemium at its very best, or worst?

Chaos Rings — US$12.99

It’s easy to knock Final Fantasy-like games for the derivative, batshit crazy games which they are. Chaos Rings knows this, and runs with it. Graphics are spectacular and on iPad, the game shines with a level of gloss common on high-end gaming consoles. Chaos Rings is also sprawling and massive. The amount of content in this one title alone is mind-boggling. Thousands of boss battles, an endless amount of items and limitless customisation possibilities has rocketed this beauty of a game into the hearts of minds of iDevice gamers across the world.

Zenonia — US$0.99

There are three Zenonia’s but for my money, the first is still the best. 16-bit graphics and chiptune music propels the adventure in a predictable, yet oddly soothing direction which encourages grinding, grinding and more grinding to level-up and advance to the next area. The game is a warm embrace from the 1990’s and all the more successful for it. And for under three dollars, you can enjoy a trilogy of RPG goodness.