Role-playing games have grown much in complexity and accessibility as time passed, but it does bear upon the games to accommodate the platforms through various mechanics and narrative progressions in order to make everything work. While it’s alright for PC and console RPGs to let you grind and perfect character builds, that can’t really be done with mobile platforms due to their limitations. Therefore, what is really needed is a way to make RPGs work for the mobile gamer, especially in the iOS.

Crescent Moon Games has taken that problem and formulated a simple solution by making it more hack-n-slash and casual. Pocket RPG lives up to its name by being an RPG that really fits the mobile platform. No longer is it about just going through a long and convoluted story about some kingdom or princess that needs saving or whatever silliness you might find in other RPGs. It’s now all about the action and excitement, throwing out most of the fluff and making this genre fun for portable devices.

You get to play with three unique character classes that can be played parallel to the main story. You always start at the very bottom in each random dungeon and work your way up by gaining experience as you take out enemies. While it may sound harsh, there are other popular games that have adhered to the same concept, most notably games like DotA. It takes out the need for grinding and lets you take on a more carefree approach to the game, so it can be more fun for players since they don’t care much about decisions related to their character’s future stats and skills.

This zen-type mentality also translates to other parts of the game. The hack-n-slash combat system is simple and intuitive, so all you really have to do is to take out the enemies. The dual-stick combat system is quite seamless and fluid, letting you fight in smooth transitions between enemies. You can also use your abilities using simple gestures, which means that you can still defend well enough after using a skill or casting a spell.

The world is quite customizable, especially with the loot system where you can set what can be dropped and later used. The thing about the loot system is that your items go bye-bye after every dungeon, so there’s no item hoarding that will take place here. However, it does make the game fun in its own right as you pick up a fortunate surprise of an item and use it to own everything in the dungeon. This way, you don’t take future loots for granted because you have a powerful item that you’ve been using all the time.

This game really fills in the role of a casual RPG, which is not like those that some players never get to finish due to lack of time. That’s what makes this game do well in the App Store, despite some of its faults. Putting this game out for the iPhone is a pretty sweet deal, even if players would be apprehensive about playing with a smaller screen at first.

Pocket RPG fills the niche of players that have been looking for a hack’n'slash RPG but felt as though they never had the time to complete one; fun, simple and easy to pick up and play.