Hollow Reign

Hollow Reign packs a full role-playing campaign into something you can actually play on a phone. You explore crumbling halls, piece together a quiet story through notes and conversations, and build a character around skills that genuinely change how fights play out. We ran a reckless melee build the first time and a cautious caster the second, and they felt like different games.

Combat is turn-based but brisk, which suits touch controls perfectly. There's real decision-making in each encounter — spend a resource now or save it, retreat or push on — and the difficulty respects your time without holding your hand.

The art leans dark and moody, and the writing is better than it needed to be. For an RPG that fits in your pocket, Hollow Reign offers a lot more depth than its humble menus suggest.

What we liked

• Meaningful build variety
• Tactical but quick combat
• Writing above its weight class