Ashfall Wardens

Ashfall Wardens is the kind of RPG I used to think only worked on consoles. You build a party of four, each with branching skill trees, and the writing is good enough that I actually read the dialogue instead of mashing through it. Companions remember your choices and will needle you about them hours later, which is a nice touch.

Combat is turn-based with a timing layer — you tap to parry and the window is tight enough to matter without being twitchy. I played a lot of it docked in portrait mode on the train, and the one-handed layout mostly holds up, though the heaviest fights really want two thumbs.

Fair warning: it's a battery eater. The lush environments and constant animations will chew through your charge, so turn the frame cap down in the graphics settings if you're away from an outlet. Do that and you've got one of the deepest mobile RPGs around.

What we liked

• Writing that respects your time
• Satisfying timing-based combat
• Companions that react to your choices