Ember of Vael

Ember of Vael is the kind of RPG I end up playing far past the point I meant to stop. The combat is turn-based, so it forgives slow reactions and plays nicely in short sittings, but the writing is what hooks you. Side characters have real opinions and remember your choices.

Performance holds up well once you drop the shadow quality one notch. On a mid-range phone the battle scenes stayed smooth after I did that, and the touch targets for skills are large enough that I rarely mis-tapped during a tense fight.

Battery is the one caveat. The lush overworld pulls power, so for long commutes I'd cap the frame rate at 30 in the menu. It barely changes how the game looks and roughly doubled my play time before needing a charge.

What we liked

• Memorable, reactive companions
• Forgiving turn-based combat
• Frame cap option saves real battery