Fill up your holiday season with massive RPGing as Gamevil preps Zenonia 4 for a 22nd December release

Given that the App Store 'only' launched three and a half years ago, there aren't many games that have clocked up three sequels.

It's especially not the case for large content experiences such as role-playing games.

Korean publisher Gamevil has an advantage, however. Its much-praised Zenonia franchise was originally released on Java with the first couple of iOS releases being ports.

In the case of Zenonia 4 though, the game is made up especially for iPhone, being the first of the series to support retina resolution graphics.

As you'd expect if you've played any of the other titles, this is no casual experience but a fully-fledged hardcore grind through the sort of RPG that within the first five minutes has you questioning your identity - you're called Regret by the way - and that of your father, transporting you to a dark magical world full of enemies ... oh, and providing you with a sexy fairy companion for good measure too.

You get to choose one of four character classes - Slayer, Blader, Ranger or Druid - with that choice affecting your general gameplay strategy as well as item, armour, weapon and skill attribute customisations.

In addition to the main single player mode, which will keep you busy for hours, there's an asynchronous online player vs. player mode including 2-on-2 arena battles and the classic 1-on-1 rumbles from previous games. You can also compete in the Abyss zone for loot drops, and 'hire' other players' data as mercenaries.

Zenonia 4 is coming to iPhone and iPod touch on Thursday 22nd December.

We're not heard the official price, but assume it will be $4.99, €3.99 or £2.99 that Zenonia games typically launch at, although numbers 1-3 are currently available on the App Store for 99c if you're interested.

And we'd also expect it to come to Android at some point.