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Fantasy Mage ($2.99) by Illogical is a combination of action role-playing and hack-n-slash games, creating a nice mix of action that most can enjoy.

When I was in high school, my love of fantasy and magic blossomed. Since we all know how stressful growing up and high school can be, I liked to escape into fantasy worlds for a break from reality. And even though high school is long gone for me, I still like to take a break every now and then to escape the stressful responsibilities I have in adulthood. That’s why video games are one of my favorite things — they’re great ways to pass the time, and I can just escape from reality. And while I love stimulating games most of the time, sometimes I just need something that allows me to mindlessly kill things without putting too much thought into it. Hack-n-slash games are perfect for the job, but as I love spell-casting, I thought Fantasy Mage would be right up my alley.

The graphics in Fantasy Mage are pretty sharp, and just about what I would expect from a mobile game. It is rendered in 3-D with an angled, top-down perspective, so you can see enough of the battlefield with a single glance as you move around. It’s not the most detailed game I’ve played, but it is sufficient enough for most. The colors run a bit darker than I’d like, but that’s because of the shadows that cover the village. I mean, what do you expect from villages that seem abandoned due to the plague of skeletons that have taken over? Still, for whatever vegetation life remains in the villages, the greens look nice and lush. Buildings, though, kind of blend into the darkness. Animations are fairly smooth and fluid in the game, and the ambient soundtrack is rather upbeat and soothing during the game menu, but a bit more techno-ish during gameplay. It’s a weird mix, but it doesn’t detract from the actual game itself, which is good.

Fantasy Mage is a level-based game, where players must progress through the story stage-by-stage. While there is a pretty basic story going on in Fantasy Mage, the game will give you a short text brief before you begin a level, explaining the current situation to you. However, for the most part, there is not much variation between how each stage looks — you have a barren village that has been deserted by the people who lived there, though it still has a nice bit of bright and vivid vegetation still intact. While the layout may vary, it’s largely the same thing on each stage, so there is a bit of repetitiveness going on here. The objective is simple, but doesn’t add much variation either: just clear out all of the skeletons on the stage, and then it’s complete. Again, I found it to be a bit repetitive.

Fortunately, the game does have some variety in terms of the combat itself. Since you’re a mage, you specialize in elemental spells. Unfortunately, the enemies also have their own specialized element when they attack, whether it be mêlée or ranged, so you have to take their element into consideration when making your own move. The game’s “auto-target” button in the bottom right corner will pinpoint the nearest enemy to you and point out their element, giving you time to plan out your counter attack. The cycle of elements is pretty simple and straightforward: water is strong against fire, fire is great against earth, and earth is good against water. It’s like an elemental version of rock-paper-scissors, and once you get the basics, combat becomes easier.

While the controls in Fantasy Mage are easy to understand, I think there could have been some better optimization, because it did felt cumbersome at times. To move, you just tap where you want your mage to move to, or keep your finger on the screen to move continuously. When you see an enemy or are engaged in combat, just tap on the foe to begin attacking with your spells. Your equipped spells show up at the bottom of the screen, and you can tap on the one you want to use at the moment — switching on the fly is just a tap away. The auto-target button locks on to the closest enemy and you’ll begin to attack once you’re in range.

Though the controls are pretty simple to pick up, I found that it gets annoying at times. I would have preferred a virtual joystick of some kind to move around, as the current control method means my fingers are always on the screen, making it hard to see what’s around my character, and sometimes it’s like I’m stuck. I’d also like to have a button to start attacking, rather than tap on the foe, because again, my finger just gets in the way. All-in-all, I just want to see some better optimizations for the controls so that they don’t feel as clumsy.

Since the objective of each stage is to clear out the skeletons, once they’re all accounted for, the stage ends and you will earn experience points and loot for your troubles. As you level up, your character will earn skill points that can be distributed into four areas: Rage, Focus, Stamina, and Constitution. Rage deals with water defense and attack speed, Focus is for fire defense and reload speed, Stamina affects earth defense and move speed, and Constitution has to do with your character’s health, which is indicated at the bottom left corner.

The loot will always be randomized, and will be a mix of equipment (helmet, boot, and armor) and even different spells. To equip your mage, just go to the Inventory screen from the main title, and you can tap on the slot you want to change gear for. However, be careful, since you have limited inventory space — if there is something you don’t need, you can just destroy it to free up space. There is also an option to compare an item or spell with something else, in case you are wondering which one would be better. But don’t get your hopes up on changing your mage’s appearance — her look remains static throughout the entire game, no matter what you’re using.

I was excited for Fantasy Mage when I first heard about it a few weeks ago, but I’m going to admit I’m a bit let down by the game overall. While it looks nice during the actual game, I found the menus and such to be a bit barebones, and the music, levels, and missions are repetitive and get stale after a while. I’m also sad that the appearance of my mage never changes, which is one of the biggest reasons I like to play these kind of RPG games. It also doesn’t help that there is not even a way to tell which items in your inventory are new, because they’re all just kind of there, all bundled up, though you can separate by category.

Fantasy Mage is not a terrible game, but it certainly did not live up to my expectations. However, it’s a decent time-waster and a lighthearted game that could be good for casual players.

If you are still interested in checking out Fantasy Mage, you can find it on the App Store as a universal download for $2.99.

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The Swords ($2.99) by Lee-Kuo Chen is an action game that deals with the ancient martial arts. If you are looking for innovative gameplay and love swordplay, then this is a game that you must check out.

Back when I was in high school, I had a thing for swords. I bought a few and tried collecting them, though I didn’t do much of anything with them afterwards. I think it was my obsession with anime at the time, and I thought owning some swords would be a cool hobby. And while it is, it certainly wasn’t practical, and I didn’t take the time to learn actual swordplay or martial arts like a few of my friends had done (more like kendo). Still, even though I don’t collect swords anymore, I still love admiring them from afar and find them fascinating. So naturally, when the news of The Swords hit my inbox, I was intrigued and had to give this game a shot. And I’m glad I did, because there isn’t anything else quite like it.

The visuals in The Swords are stunningly beautiful. While the game itself has fairly minimalistic graphics going on, I am much more impressed with the cutscenes that explain the story behind the game. These scenes are painted in black-and-white with a traditional Chinese art style that I’m all too familiar with. The backgrounds are a clean, off-white color and the black ink and gray shadows contrast nicely with it. The gameplay parts feel a bit like Chinese calligraphy, especially the beginning stages, and visually, it all just comes together as you go. The atmospheric music is captivating and adds that layer of suspense and action as you play, and the realistic sound effects are a nice touch. If you like games that are more like art, then The Swords does not disappoint in that department.

In The Swords, players will learn the history of a character named the Grandmaster, who is essentially a sword master that you hear of in legends. To learn the history, though, you progress through different chapters that contain several levels each, and these stages go by fairly quickly. It also teaches you the basics of the game as you go at a gradual pace, so you aren’t going to be lost and stuck. If you mess up or get hurt in battle, you just retry the stage until you get it right. There are no stars to earn or points to rack up — it’s just learning the ways of being a sword master and fending off enemy attacks. The game has three different game modes so you can pick your level: Novice, Advanced, and Master. The difficulty level can be changed at any time, though you lose current progress if it is done in the middle of a fight.

The controls in The Swords are simple and intuitive, though the responsiveness seems a bit lagging in more hectic fights. In the first handful of stages, you will learn the strokes of the sword, similar to calligraphy. To do this, you swipe anywhere on the screen to start the line, then when it reaches the end of that path, you swipe again in the direction the outline is going to follow it. The moment you miss is the moment you have to start over. During battle, you will see enemy blades coming in from all over the screen, and you can destroy their weapons by swiping your finger over them, preferably at the tip. You can break multiple weapons with one swipe if you’re skilled enough. Then you move on to “soft” swords, which make me think of things like Ivy’s Valentine Ivy Blade. These are blades that can twist and bend, surprising the enemy and giving you an advantage. These levels will require you following a path of “weaknesses” to reach the opponent’s own weak spot, but if you mess up and hit your own weakness, you’ll have to restart. As you play The Swords, you’ll discover many different types of swords, but they all require the same gesture to make use of them: swipes. However, any time you get stabbed by the enemy, you just tap to retry. Things start out pretty simple in each chapter as you learn the basics, but the action and pacing picks up rather quickly from there.

I’ve only started The Swords this morning, but so far I’m loving every minute of it. The art style is true-to-form, the music adds to the suspense of battles, sound effects are rather realistic, and the gameplay is innovative and challenging. Honestly, at first I wasn’t quite sure how to play since I missed a few seconds of the intro, but once I restarted and saw how to swipe, it’s been a ton of fun. It can be difficult, but that is the way of the martial arts, and it’s always fun to have a challenge. It’s like a Fruit Ninja but with a much more serious tone and theme.

I highly recommend picking up The Swords if you like martial arts and want an artistic and innovative game to play this weekend. You can get The Swords on the App Store as a universal download for just $2.99. There are no in-app purchases.

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