In my near half-decade at TouchArcade, I've had the (some would say dubious) privilege of watching the social RPG genre grow out of barely-interactive card-collecters like Rage of Bahamut into the flourishing and surprisingly-varied dominant force that it is in today's mobile market. A lot has changed in that time. What was once the realm of only a few upstart publishers is now host to companies like Square Enix, Nintendo, and many more. The increased competition has had two big effects for players. First, any company that wants to launch a new social RPG needs to commit to going big or going home. Second, with so many choices out there, social RPGs have had to become more player-friendly. Today's social RPGs are better than they've ever been as a result.
Unfortunately, the other effect of that heavy competition is that it has become extremely hard for a new game to succeed, especially if it can't lean on an established brand. And it's in that zone where Gamevil has been living for the last little while, launching several social RPGs that have obviously had a lot of resources poured into them to somewhat limited success worldwide. Heir of Light [Free] is the latest, and it's one of the publisher's most extravagant releases yet. This game looks absolutely gorgeous, is packed full of content that is accessible even to free players, and has a rather substantial story. It's not exactly brimming with new ideas, but it's well-made enough.
And yet, I can't help but feel a strong ...