With an abundance of puzzle-RPG titles on the App Store, it isn’t always easy to know which ones to play and which ones to let fall by the wayside. Let’s be honest, these aren’t always good, and narratives are often non-existent. As such, I was downright floored when Will O’Neill, the developer behind story-driven titles Actual Sunlight ($3.99) and Little Red Lie ($4.99), announced that his next title was a free-to-play mobile tile-match game called Guildmaster Story (Free). But I am so very happy that he has created this absolute gem of a puzzler.
The game tells the story of Ganyo, a man who grew up with everything handed to him from his successful father who told him, and I quote, “never let other people tell you how to live your life." This unfortunately means that Ganyo is a lazy, greedy person. When his father dies, he inherits his casino and states that he wants to become a success by taking a decent amount of wealth and turning it into a pointless amount of wealth. Then Ganyo immediately burns the casino to the ground, and I was in tears of laughter.
What happens at this point is what makes the game so special. First, he blames the firefighters, as the firehouses are all in the suburbs since the central locations were converted into firehouse-themed condos. Then, instead of trying to rise from the ashes, Ganyo tries to sell the literal ashes of his former casino. He doesn’t know how to work hard to rebuild, and he i...