iPhone game of the day: Ash

Game: Ash
Price: $4.99
Size: 71.5MB
Buy it now from the iTunes Store: US/UK

You don't get a huge amount of Japanese roleplaying games appearing on iTunes, so when one does pop up, I tend to take notice. Ash isn't strictly a JRPG because the studio isn't Japanese, but it's close enough. This introduction is terrible and inaccurate. Ah well.

Ash may not boast Japanese blood, but it wears the flesh of a JRPG quite well. You crawl through dungeons, get into random battles, take out foes in turn-based encounters and gain experience with which to level up. All the expected trappings are there -- item stores, weapon upgrades, and an overworld map are all in attendence. If you're into those things, you're covered.

One thing worth noting with Ash is that they did not screw around with the difficulty. This is a hardcore roleplayer that expects you to grind. It can get frustrating if only for the fact that enemies seem to love dodging attacks more than they ought to, but generally this game caters to fans of an old school RPG that doesn't show mercy.

Add into that some great music and some humorous dialog and you've got yourself a fun, rather challenging, time. It's got some flaws but JRPG nuts can do far worse than to check this one out.

Nov 29, 2010