Joe Hindy / Android Authority
We’d also like to give honorable mentions to Beamdog (Google Play), a developer with some great old school RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and others.
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Another Eden
Price: Free to play
Another Eden is one of the newer RPGs on the list. It’s written by the same guy that did Chrono Trigger and the composer is the same as well. Players traverse time to save their sister (and many other people) from a bunch of bad guys. The game world is beautifully designed and the combat mechanics are relatively simple. Plus, there are enough Chrono Trigger references to fill Guardia Castle. There are some gacha elements, hence the freemium price tag. However, the game shies away from the traditional mobile RPG design of having a ton of menus and many different events. Players are put on the campaign mode and left there upon starting the game. The combat is a little simple for our tastes, but this is easily among the best RPGs from all of 2019.
Doom & Destiny Advanced
Price: Free / $4.99
Doom and Destiny Advanced is the sequel, prequel, and reboot for the original Doom and Destiny. Its predecessor was on our list for the best RPGs for a couple of years. The game features a lot of the same characters and premise as the original but in a completely different story line (and even dimension), according to the developers. It boasts 15 hours of content with free content being added, plenty of dungeons and secrets to find, tons of monsters, and even online co-op mode. It’s a lot of game to play and it’s perfect for retro jRPG fans.
Eternium
Price: Free to play
Eternium is a free to play action RPG and one of the better ones on mobile for sure. It has some rare features like the ability to play offline, a feature few action RPGs have these days. Additionally, it has a reasonably long story, easy controls, plenty of character customization options, and a relatively light touch on the free to play aspects of the game. It hits almost all of the proper boxes and we think that contributes greatly to its longevity. This is one of the good ones.
Exiled Kingdoms
Price: Free / $4.99
Exiled Kingdoms is a single player action RPG. It’s one of the few in this genre that isn’t also a freemium game. It features a story line where you have to save the world from horrors that were leftover from a previous cataclysm. The graphics aren’t the best part of the game. However, they do get the point across and the menu system is easy enough to understand. It looks and plays a lot like older games like Diablo II or Baldur’s Gate. Like most RPGs, you’ll have to upgrade your character, complete the story, and explore the world around you to find all of the secrets. The free version gives you a fairly large trial with two character types of play with. The full version unlocks everything.
Evoland 1 and 2
Price: $2.99 and $8.49
Evoland and Evoland 2 are two very interesting games. They feature a variety of mechanics. That includes RPG, platformer, hack-and-slash, puzzle, and even some fun stuff like 3D fighter and trading card mechanics. Players traverse through the game world that frequently changes along with the game mechanics. However, its core genre is RPG. The games boast roughly 20 hours of play, offline support, hardware controller support, and more. The controls for the mini-games are a little rough around the edges and users reported some bugs. Aside from that, these games are quite good. Additionally, neither of them have in-app purcahses. Both games are also available on Google Play Pass for free.
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Fire Emblem Heroes and Dragalia Lost
Price: Free to play (each)
Fire Emblem Heroes and Dragalia Lost are two RPGs from Nintendo. Fire Emblem Heroes is a surprisingly good (and smooth) strategy RPG. Players move characters around a checkerboard-style map and attack bad guys. There is a story, gacha elements, and some social elements as well. Dragalia Lost is an action RPG with 60 voiced characters, a decent storyline and soundtrack, and a colorful game world. Dragalia Lost had a rough release, but it seems to have ironed all of those out. Nintendo makes some rock-solid mobile games and these two RPGs definitely deserve to be here.
Genshin Impact
Price: Free to play
Genshin Impact is the newest RPG on the list. It plays a lot like Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Players get access to a massive open world and you can climb and explore basically all of it. There is even a glider to cover longer distances instead of walking and climbing everywhere. The game has some minor gacha elements, but it doesn’t cause a lot of problems. The game play, story, graphics, music, and mechanics are all rock solid with phenomenal execution. There is the occasional bug, but otherwise it’s easily among the best RPGs on mobile.
Kemco RPGs
Price: Free / Varies / Free to play
Before Square Enix began launching ports of its classic jRPGs, there was only one really good jRPG developer on Android and that was Kemco. The studio specializes in RPGs and they currently have dozens of games in their repertoire. Some of their more popular options include Symphony or Origin, Machine Knight, Covenant of Solitude, the Alphadia saga, and many more. Most of the games cost under $5. There are even a few that are free. None of them are bad, but you may or may not like them based on your preferences. You can click the button below to view their entire collection. It’s quite large so prepare for some scrolling and some surfing. There are literally dozens of options available and most of them are pretty good.
Monster Hunter Stories
Price: Free trial / $19.99
Monster Hunter Stories was one of the best RPGs from 2018. The game is a port from the Nintendo 3DS game from 2016-17. It features turn-based mechanics, decent graphics, and a decent storyline to play through. Of course, you do still hunt, capture, and battle monsters as well. It is a port, but it actually plays pretty well for a mobile port. In addition, the game has one of the best demos we’ve ever seen. You basically play the prologue in the demo and then port the save to the main game in the premium version. The premium version is quite pricey at $19.99. However, it is a single purchase with no in-app purchases or ads.
Old School RuneScape
Price: Free / $10.99 per month / $99.99 per year
Old School RuneScape is an excellent MMORPG experience. It’s an older and more mature game than most. Thus, there are a metric boatload of quests, stories, and dungeons to tackle. Additionally, the character creation is decent and the various things you can learn make the game fun. Unlike most, this game uses a subscription method rather than a free to play scheme so you can’t buy your way to victory. However, the premium version does include extra quests, extra storage space, and more content overall. The text can be hard to read at times and the graphics won’t win any awards. However, the game is solid and plays well. There is another RuneScape Mobile (Google Play link) game available now, but it’s still in its early days.
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Postknight
Price: Free
Postknight is a unique RPG-adventure game. Players deliver packages to various places around the game world. They meet all kinds of characters and engage in a bunch of different stories. However, the developers make the game mobile friendly by making each encounter bite-size so you can play in chunks as well as longer play sessions. Each delivery garners experience points and you can even do some stuff like mix your own potions. It’s not the deepest RPG on the list, but we had a good time playing it.
Sorcery 1-4
Price: $4.99 each
Sorcery is a series of highly rated RPGs. They are pseudo-text based in nature and they have been compared to playing along with a graphic novel which is a fair assessment. It features an open world that you can explore as you see fit and you can even time travel if you want to. You’ll also be making plenty of decisions that determine how the game turns out. There is a ton of stuff to do and it’s definitely one of the more unique experiences on mobile. There are four games in total. Each one costs about $4.99 and have no in-app purchases. These games are also free with Google Play Pass.
Square Enix titles
Price: Free / Varies / Free to play
Square Enix has been working hand-over-fist to release their collection of RPGs on Android over the last few years. Fortunately, most of them are fantastic RPGs. Some of the stuff you can find is Final Fantasy I-VII (and IX), Dragon Quest I-VI (and VIII), Secret of Mana, Adventures of Mana, Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition, Chrono Trigger, and many others. They also have mobile RPG games like Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, NieR Re[in]carnation, and Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia. You can even pick up strategy RPGs like Heavenstrike Rivals and Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lion. Square Enix’s collection of RPGs is rather extensive and gets larger every year. The button below takes you to the developer page so you can browse them at your leisure. Square Enix did remove Final Fantasy V and VI in order to release remakes of them later in 2021. We’ll update the article after they launch with more details.
Summoners War
Price: Free to play
Summoners War is one of the original mobile gacha RPGs. You start with a relatively small team and work your way up to more powerful characters. The game boasts over 1,000 characters, an absolute ton of things to do, temporary events to keep things fresh in the endgame, and smooth game play. The game has its ups and downs, mostly due to it being so old. However, the game is on an upswing at the time of this writing and it’s easily one of the best when it’s on an upswing.
WitchSpring 1-4
Price: $1.99-$4.99 each
WitchSpring is a bit of a hidden gem on mobile. There are four games in the franchise and each of them are competent RPGs. The games vary from release to release. However, they are all generally decent RPGs with your typical RPG mechanics. The bigger draw here is the above average storytelling, the various things to do, the above average graphics, and simple controls. The first three games happen at the same time in the game’s universe with the first two titles telling the same story from two different perspectives. Thus, you don’t have to play this series in order for the most part. We do recommend playing the first before the second but you can play the third and fourth titles independently at any point.
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