Temporal abyss – My latest time killing mobile obsessions

I haven’t been doing a whole lot of big gaming recently. Anything I have been doing, I’ve also been streaming over on the DorkadiaPlays channel over on Twitch. While there will certainly be more reviews for those games as I finish them, I thought I’d take the time to talk about the extremely casual games that I’ve been playing obsessively on my phone or tablet. For the most part, these mobile games aren’t actually new. A few of them have been on my tablet for some time now, but I seem to be compelled to continue logging in and doing a little something virtually every day. I’m sure I’m probably not the only one that does it. We all have those little time killing apps that we use when nobody is looking, right? Right?!?

Final Fantasy Record Keeper

First up on my list of time killers is an ingeniously retro feeling homage to virtually every numbered Final Fantasy game made. (I’m pretty sure it only skips 11, X-2, and 15.) There’s a story about a record keeping apprentice that needs to relive legendary battles in order to preserve the blah, blah, blah. Look, there are a couple reasons that I enjoy this game and they’re not the backstory for the UI. Firstly, I get to assemble my Final Fantasy dream team from my favorite characters. I have Paladin Cecil (FF IV), Cloud (FF VII), and Vivi (FF IX) on the same team and rotate out other characters as needed to fill out the rest of my five characters. Secondly, the game has an auto mode for battles. So after spending enough time leveling and properly equipping my characters, I can pretty much sick them on the first half of each new event dungeon and let them cleave through the bad guys while I concentrate on other things. And with the rate that the game introduces limited time content, I get to do that a lot.

My only real complaint about FFRK is that the premium currency is crazy expensive and is still quite a gamble. Real money doesn’t buy anything that can’t be acquired through game play, but it is quicker to spend cash. However, it’s also still a ridiculous gamble. I’ve done plenty of 11 item pulls in the relic area only to receive a good 8 of the lowest tier rewards and 3 mid tier. That doesn’t sound too bad, but I would be livid if I had just spent $30 on what is essentially vendor trash at my current level. I want to support the game, but I really don’t want to be frustrated when I do so.

The Battle Cats

This one has been around for a while now. The Battle Cats requires a little more attentiveness than FFRK, but the main selling point for me is that it can be played offline. This has turned it into my go to game for killing some time while travelling when I need to take a break from reading comics. The funny thing is, I only found this title thanks to another popular mobile game obsession of mine, Survive Mola Mola. They ran a cross promotion at one point, I installed it, and I haven’t stopped playing since.

Yes, the dragon is a “cat”.

The Battle Cats is pretty straightforward. I choose a lineup of up to ten specialized cats from an ever growing roster and take them into stages to do battle against the evil doges. It’s a linear battlefield with the simple goal of defending your own base while pushing forward enough to damage the enemy base. The art is cute and the gameplay is rewarding either as a free app or with the additional in app purchases to acquire rare cats faster. From time to time they give away cat food (the premium currency in the game) or rare cat tickets to use in an attempt to get an uber super rare cat to rule the battlefield. So spending real money isn’t strictly necessary if you’re a player on a budget.

Like FFRK, spending money on certain parts of the game can still be a gamble. However, there are cats and items that can be purchased outright in the game, including one that will put the game on auto-pilot. This is actually a preferred strategy for some of the harder stages since the item can dispense cats more efficiently than a person tapping on the icons. But be warned that the only place that game data exists is locally. So if you ever uninstall the app, you will lose all of your data as well. This includes real money purchases.

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes

Okay, I really only got into this one after going out to see The Force Awakens. At first I thought it was kind of just a Star Wars skinned version of Hello Hero. After my long history with that game, it probably would have been enough. However, there’s a tad more depth to Galaxy of Heroes than that. Not a lot more, mind you, but it’s better than a simple clone with a fresh coat of shiny, shiny Disney paint.

Like Hello Hero, players will assemble a five character team drawing from characters spanning the length of the Star Wars film and animated franchises. Characters break down into basic types such as tank, healer, support, and attacker. So it’s easy enough to figure out who works together to create a balanced team. Much of the game revolves around upgrading characters and building team synergy. Then it’s off to battle against a variety of enemies in either themed encounters or pvp. The pvp in Galaxy of Heroes is sadly not live matchmaking, but against AI controlled groups put together by other players. My personal group for pvp is currently Captain Phasma, Talia (from the Clone Wars animated series), Asajj Ventress (also Clone Wars), Count Dooku, and the Jedi Consular (generic Jedi character). I seem to be doing pretty well with out a tank.

Just so players won’t get quickly bored, there are a number of encounter types to choose from. Some are strictly light or dark side and limit the alignment of the characters that can be on the player’s team. Others are neutral, so anything goes. There are also daily challenges which tend to restrict by class type such as tanks only. And then there’s the galactic war table which is best summed up as endurance pvp.

Since I’ve mentioned it with the other games, the paid option in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes feels convenient, but ultimately not required. In most cases it’s also a huge gamble with no guarantee of getting anything useful. However, as a new player I was offered a variety of limited time package offers that ranged anywhere from $10 to $100. I’m not sure who might find themselves so quickly and deeply invested in the game that they’ll shell out big bucks to have Kylo Ren on their team, but thank you to those players for supporting the game I’m playing for free.

Go forth and kill time!

All three of the games that I’ve mentioned are available on Android and iOS systems. I mostly tend to play them on my Nexus 7 just because I like the larger screen. They’re also all free to play with optional (but in no way mandatory) paid content. Personally, I like these titles for their ability to let me multitask something entertaining into my day when I deal with less fun things like paperwork or commuting. And the fact that two of them capitalize on large existing franchises is probably a big part of the allure to me. So if you’re looking for something to do and don’t have a lot of time to invest in a deep story, these might be just what you’re looking for.