Ahead of the Game - League of Grimm: Idle RPG challenges you to forget everything you think you know about your childhood fairy tales
That's not the Red Riding Hood I remember
- Idle adventuring with twisted fairy tale characters
- Set up your squad and collect offline rewards
- Gacha surprises await for your franchise faves
It's all about dark versions of supposedly sunshine-and-butterflies fairy tales in this week's Ahead of the Game series, where we tell you about a new mobile endeavour that's playable in one form or another despite its unofficial launch.
There must be something in the water as we're yet again diving into another auto-battler featuring a familiar cast of characters. This time around, it's your typical lineup of fairy tale icons - but they're not exactly as you might remember them.
In particular, twisted versions of all kinds of fairy tale characters take centre stage in League of Grimm, and honestly, it's a refreshing change of pace. You've got Red Riding Hood chucking poisoned apple bombs every which way (wasn't that supposed to be Snow White's thing?) and The Little Prince wreaking havoc with his little fox. And because it's all a chaotic hodgepodge of franchises all thrown together in a single adventure, pulling from the gacha is a delightful surprise.
You never know which character you'll pull from the summons pool, and because they've all got very distinct designs, it's a joy to collect them all. Other than that, though, the gameplay is what you'd expect from the genre - you pick your squad lineup, deploy them in a strategic formation depending on their skills and builds, and watch them auto-fight their way through various levels to reap rewards. Idle goodies are up for grabs when you're offline, and as you progress, you'll unlock a variety of modes and raid dungeons in the main menu.
It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but that's because it knows what fans of the genre want - it is, after all, exactly as it says on the tin, with "idle RPG" right there in the title. And because it's already switching things up with its roster of fairy tale figures, that's more than enough.
So, how do you play League of Grimm: Idle RPG?
With its early access phase on Google Play, I did encounter a few glitches here and there - sometimes, the tutorial would ask me to tap on certain icons that weren't there. I also had to reboot the whole thing when the system crashed on me during a particular battle. I suppose that's what these beta versions are for, of course - I don't doubt the devs are working hard to iron out the kinks to prep it for launch in the future.But you're happy to give it a go while it's still rough around the edges, you can download it for free on Android right now!
