Guide to Role-Playing Games for Mobile

Guide to Role-Playing Games for Mobile
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RPGs on Mobile Phones?

Believe it or not, role playing games or RPGs are among the most popular type of game among mobile phone users. Between the iPhone and Android platforms there are hundreds of titles available, largely fantasy-based, but often featuring aspects of other popular themes and genres.

There are different ways of using a mobile for playing RPGs. The most obvious is of course to choose from the vast selection of available titles, but you don’t have to stick with standard games. For instance, you might be looking for a way of making table top role play games easier, and there are various applications for iPhone that make Dungeons & Dragons a little more straightforward, particularly if you can’t find any paper or a pencil.

For a quirkier RPG experience, meanwhile, you might want to turn your entire life into a target-based set of achievements!

Themed RPGs on iPhone

It’s fair to say that the majority of mobile RPGs can be found on the iPhone. As a result you will find a vast selection of games from many different themes or genres. Some of these are naturally not so good, but there are plenty of alternatives that are enjoyable and engaging, just like any good game should be.

Whether you want to engage in war or piracy, become a ninja or wander through medieval lands, there is an iPhone RPG for you. There are even role-playing games for fans of vampires and fashionistas, not to mention games with a mafia theme.

Top RPG Reviews

Specific games tend to draw attention to themselves, particularly when they’re good! Titles such as Zenonia 3 and True Blood Vampire III have a great following and a good reputation – hardly surprising when they’re sequels to long-running games series. Indeed, the best RPGs do tend to retain a loyal following thanks to sequels or sharing developers, and this is something that has translated to mobile role-play gaming.

The flexibility of mobile gaming is compelling, however, resulting in the release of free RPGs, something that would otherwise be impossible without the advantage of in-game purchases and is still unheard of on desktop computers.

Text-Based RPGs

Back in the old days of computing, RPGs were text-based. If you were lucky there was a vector graphic illustration that took a while to load but on the whole the world created by the role-playing game stayed in your head by way of an on-screen description, much like the traditional table top RPG.

While RPGs on computers migrated into point and click adventures (such as the original Secret of Monkey Island) and eventually into the mouse and keyboard controlled games we know and love today, there is still a market for text-based RPGs.

With a text-based RPG, the game can focus on the story rather than graphics. Obviously the user interface is completely different, but it’s a popular way of playing this type of game and is certainly worth trying!

RPGs on Other Platforms

Most of what we’ve featured so far has been on the iPhone, but there are role-playing games available on other mobile platforms too! For instance, Android has such a great selection that you could find at least ten decent RPGs to choose from, while Windows Phone 7 has a small but growing selection.

Elsewhere, the old Windows Mobile platform was lucky enough to receive a release of the first Zenonia game, while Shadow of Legend is a fascinating Windows Mobile/Windows desktop crossover. In some ways this can be treated as a forerunner of some of the plans that Microsoft has in store for Xbox LIVE arcade integration on Windows Phone…

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