Ashen Covenant

Ashen Covenant is the kind of mobile RPG I keep recommending to friends who think the genre died on phones. It has a proper branching story, party members with actual personalities, and a turn-based battle system that rewards planning over button mashing. Choices you make in the first few chapters genuinely change who joins you later.

Combat leans on positioning and elemental weaknesses. You drag characters between three lanes to dodge attacks or set up combos, and the enemy design keeps forcing you to rethink your line-up. Grinding exists, but you can largely skip it if you play smart, which I appreciated.

The writing is the star, though. Dialogue is sharp, the villains have reasons, and the ending I got felt earned rather than tacked on. It's a meaty game for a touchscreen.

What we liked

• Branching narrative with real consequences
• Tactical lane-based combat
• Party members you actually care about