Can a real RPG work on a phone? Ashen Vale says yes

For years the assumption was that mobile RPGs meant watered-down systems. Ashen Vale pushes back on that, and it got me thinking about what actually makes an RPG feel full on a small screen.

The answer isn't more menus. It's readable menus. Ashen Vale keeps its stats visible without cluttering the screen, and combat is turn-based so you're never fumbling.

Party building is where it earns the RPG label. There are enough skills and combos that two players can build totally different teams, and both can work.

The story helps too. A phone RPG lives or dies on whether you want to see the next scene, and here I did. That's rarer than it should be.

If you've been skeptical of mobile RPGs, this is a good one to reset your expectations with.