Knights of Tartarus is a brilliant retro RPG from Crescent Moon Games. It uses wonderfully slick 8bit style graphics. The game is open world but some areas can’t be accessed until you have found certain artefacts, for example a ring that creates a wind spell that blows flame from one torch to another, or freezes puzzles into ice blocks. And a necklace that temporarily turns you into a goblin with sufficient strength to push blocks.
The game is full of puzzles, mainly block-pushing, and there are also spells to learn from monsters (it’s a bit random how and when this happens). I didn’t really use any spells, I focused on fighting and levelling up fighter skills and my Greatsword with Meteorites (these can be found as well as bought).
You find some basic equipment but most needs to be crafted, which isn’t too challenging. Wood + Wood makes a Wooden Staff, for example. There’s a guide on Steam here. It’s probably worth saving the Meteorites for the second-tier weapons.
Monsters respawn so you can grind as much as you need, which can be necessary if you get stuck in certain areas*. The best thing about levelling is that it’s quite quick and frequent, and you regain health each time.
*Currently the King’s Flute, a device to exit dungeons, doesn’t work on iPhone (specifically iPhone 11 Pro running iOS 14.4 as of March 2021) but other set ups may be affected). If you use the flute the game crashes, so if you enter a portal area you’ll need to complete it to get out again.