iPad dungeon crawler Pocket RPG gets pre-release gameplay tweak but out now on App Store

Much as many gamers - including me - love RPGs, sometimes the plot can be frustrating, if not downright annoying.

Pocket RPG, the latest game from RPG specialist publisher Crescent Moon (Ravensword, Aralon, Rimelands etc), and developed by South African outfit Tasty Poison, doesn't bother with any of that.

Instead, it's an all-action dungeon crawler that offers you the choice of either a melee Blade Master, ranged Dark Ranger or magical Battle Mage. Levels are randomly populated with objects, armour and weapons (depending on which items you've unlocked), plus lots and lots of enemies for you to beat on.

Your goal is just to power through, collecting items and levelling up and earning gold as you go.

It's a game I've seen on and off since late 2010, and have been playing solidly in the past week. However, that pre-release version was rock hard - too hard indeed - which resulted in a slight delay as the original v1.0 version became v1.0.1 for launch.

Hopefully, this will smooth the difficulty curve, making it easier to progress: embarrassingly, I was stuck on level 2 for hours, but then again, that might just be me.

According to the update list, these changes should help me out.

Adjusted good items to drop more often.
Increased the Blade Master and the Battle Mage's damage by 50%.
Increased the Blade Master's life slightly.
Increased Battle Mage's Magic circle protection.
Added mana regeneration to all of the Battle Mage's crystals.
Made the "Find More Potions" perk more effective.
Made the Ankh drop more likely and more deterministic.
Made Bosses regain less health upon the heroes return.
Placed health shrines by the Yetti Boss and nerfed the Yetti's damage.
Fixed the math in the calculation of the Dark Ranger's health.

Aside from this, my favourite update is - Made the final boss more enthusiastic.

Pocket RPG is out now for iPad, with an iPhone version to follow in a month. It's priced at $2.99, rising to $4.99 in the future, so get it now.

You can see how it plays in the following video.

Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on