Luxora

Luxora is one of those RPGs that trusts you to be patient. The opening hour is quiet, almost too quiet, but once your party fills out and the map opens up, it turns into the kind of game you keep launching during every spare minute. We tested it across a couple of weeks and it held up far better than most mobile RPGs we've tried this year. Combat is turn-based with a stamina layer that stops you from spamming your strongest moves. You tap to queue actions and swipe to switch targets, and it all works cleanly with one hand on a phone. The progression is where it shines: skill points feel meaningful, and rebuilding a character to fit a new region is genuinely fun instead of a chore. The writing surprised us. Side characters have small arcs that pay off later, and the world reacts to a few of your choices in ways you don't see coming. It's not a perfect game, the later dungeons repeat a bit, but the story and the party chemistry carried us all the way through.

What we liked

• Party members with real personality and arcs
• One-handed combat that stays deep
• Progression that rewards experimenting with builds