The 5 Best Original RPGs for Your Mobile Phone

Any role-playing game nerd worth their save files will tell you: we’re creatures of habit, so it’s easy to run around in a geeky flap of excitement when classic RPGs get ported to mobile devices and forget about all the new games that are worth our attention. If you dream about saving the world with a rag-tag group of unlikely adventurers, grinding for levels, and upgrading your stats, these games are for you, my friend.

Avadon: The Black Fortress by Spiderweb Software

($9.99USD, demos available, also for PC, Mac, and Linux)

Available in Google Play and App Store

Spiderweb Software has been around for a long, long time, and the fact that they make classic isometric RPGs with literally dozens and dozens of hours of play time is sort of shocking when you consider that the whole company consists of two people.

Avadon: The Black Fortress is old-school in every sense of the word, combining deep, strategic turn-based battle and open-world exploration that doesn’t hold your hand much like early Ultima games. You control a hero who’s a member of an organization created to keep the peace between five nations. But, as you soon discover: at the legendary Black Fortress, power is for sale, and politics can get you killed…

Cthulhu Saves the World by Zeboyd Games

($1.99USD, also for Windows PCs)

Available in Google Play and App Store

RPGs are sort of ridiculous. I know it. You know it. And Zeboyd Games definitely knows it, which is why this very retro-looking turn-based RPG so effortlessly skewers all the tropes and weirdness of the genre while at the same time celebrating them.

You play as Cthulhu (yes, the Cthulhu), out to save the world from an ancient evil… so he can destroy it himself! The look and play is decidedly console-classic, and with tongue firmly planted in cheek, it’s impossible not to grow to love Cthulhu as a sullen anti-hero who adventures with his excitable groupie sidekicks. According to a review from Jay is Games: “It’s funny, yes, but it’s also a game that leaves you with a smile on your lips and a warm feeling in your heart.”

Ittle Dew by Ludosity

($5.00USD, also for PC, Mac, and Linux)

Available in Google Play and App Store

Colourful, sassy, and unapologetically weird are just a few words that describe this vibrant action-RPG adventure. The game follows the barefoot adventuress Ittle Dew and her, um, liquid-lunch-having magical flying fox Tippsie, who must escape from the island they’ve been shipwrecked on. 

The game plays much like classic Zelda, with a top-down style and simple yet challenging combat, but also places a big emphasis on puzzle solving, too. Throw in some seriously bizarre enemies, collectible cards, secrets, and more, and you have a real winner for fans of comedic fantasy adventure.

Adventure Bar Story by Rideon Japan

($2.99USD)

Available in Google Play and App Store.

Take the typical JRPG formula of random battles and fantasy heroes, and then throw in a whole lot of Harvest Moon-esque cooking and ingredient gathering,and you’ll have something a lot like Rideo Japan’s Adventure Bar Story, which is all about a young girl trying to save her struggling family restaurant.

While you’ll need to find ingredients in dungeons and battle monsters with your party, you’ll also need to discover and cook over four hundred different recipes and manage your bar back at home. Though the writing is a little simple, Adventure Bar Story‘s addictive, clever premise and cheerful narrative makes it both easy to pick up, and hard to put down.

Fairune by Urara-Works

(Free!)

Available in Google Play and App Store

If you want to go really, really old-school, you can’t go wrong with Urara-Works’ Fairune, which is an action-RPG with a big focus on puzzling that follows you, a young girl, as you try to recover three magical artifacts and seal away the monsters plaguing the world. The art is done by Skipmore, who lends a very NES-ish pixel style to the game, a feeling reinforced by the minimalistic text and dungeon-crawling with adorable (but vicious!) monsters.

This is the sort of game that just puts you in a good mood while you play it, and it manages to offer challenging puzzles too. Its low, low price of free just is the cherry on top.