Emberfall Saga

Emberfall Saga is the kind of RPG that respects your time without watering itself down. You build a party of four from a roster of distinct characters, each with their own reason for joining you, and the writing is good enough that I actually cared when one of them got sidelined halfway through act two. Combat is turn-based with a small twist: positioning on a grid matters, so a weak character in the right spot can turn a fight around.

Progression is where it really shines. Instead of dumping stat points, you unlock branching abilities that change how a character plays, and respeccing is cheap enough that you're encouraged to try weird builds. I spent a whole evening just rebuilding my healer into something that could tank, and the game let me.

The touch controls are clean and the auto-battle option is there for the grindy stretches without ever feeling mandatory. If you want a real RPG on your phone, this is one of the best we've played this year.

What we liked

• Writing that makes you care about the party
• Flexible, forgiving build system
• Grid combat that's easy to learn, hard to master