Emberfall Saga

Emberfall Saga surprised us with how much actual story it packs onto a phone screen. You recruit a party of oddballs, each with their own quirks and skill trees, and work through a world that slowly reveals it's hiding something. The writing has personality — a couple of the companions genuinely made us laugh.

Combat is turn-based and leans tactical. Positioning matters, elemental weaknesses matter, and the auto-battle option is there for grinding but useless against bosses. We appreciated that the UI scales well; buttons are large enough that you're not fat-fingering the wrong skill mid-fight.

It's heavier on battery than most games here, especially with effects turned up, so we dropped the quality a notch for longer sessions. Do that and it runs beautifully. This is the one to download if you want something you can sink real hours into.

What we liked

• Memorable party of characters
• Tactics that reward planning
• Scales nicely on smaller screens