Parents' Guide to Forged Fantasy

Fantasy RPGs are a dime a dozen in the app store, and at first glance, this one looks a lot like all the others, but its sense of humor makes it stand out from the rest. Featuring your typical sword-and-sorcery-style characters, weapons, and settings, Forged Fantasy checks all the boxes RPG fans have come to expect. Fantasy stories often take themselves too seriously, but this game goes for the laughs with funny hero descriptions and snappy character dialog (think Avengers-style banter.) The idea is to temper the violence with silliness, and the strategy works well. Of course, humor alone can't carry an RPG. Forged Fantasy though, backs up the jokes with energetic combat, a host of lively heroes, and a straightforward crafting system.

Heroes can be controlled manually during combat or put on Auto-attack (the latter works well for Campaign mode, but versus modes are easier and more fun when you steer the team yourself.) Team building's the name of the game here; different situations (and modes) require different team compositions, and since each hero comes with his/her own particular skills and unique over-the-top weapons, your team's power can vary widely. Additional modes unlock as you progress through the Campaign, and all of them are fun (admittedly, gameplay is much the same in all of them.) Rewards are freely given, and you get a good amount of free play before your energy taps out. Still, the energy-based model makes buying energy tempting, and you and your kids might not be able to resist the urge to speed up hero upgrades by buying skill points or signing up for unnecessary third-party subscriptions. All told, Forged Fantasy is a solid fantasy role-playing game. Though not terribly unique and employing the bothersome energy model, its humor helps differentiate it from other RPGs, and its combat and crafting are undeniably fun. So provided you and your kids can resist the urge to shop, you're in for a fun (and funny) freemium fantasy.