These are hybrid and cross-genre RPGs, including interactive storybook adventures. Others are puzzle, card or jewel-match games with certain RPG elements such as quests or special equipment you can earn. Others are essentially RPGs that use a puzzle or arcade mechanic for combat, or strategy sims with a strong RPG element. This category includes games that RPG lovers will probably enjoy, even if they’re not exactly RPGs, or pure RPGs.
Fishing Paradiso
Fishing Paradiso is a beautiful retro pixel art narrative game with a fishing minigame. The RPG elements come from the different quests you can do and earning money from fishing
Troll Patrol
Troll Patrol is a very slick match-3 RPG. It has been compared to Dungeon Raid and will definitely be enjoyed by those who like tile/jewel-match RPGs. Play as the last
Rune Sword
Rune Sword is a slick puzzle RPG where you do the usual thing of matching swords to hurt the enemy, and avoid matching skulls so they can't harm you. When
Tower of Fortune 4
Tower of Fortune 4 is Game Stew's latest instalment in its slot-mechanic RPG series. Unlike the earlier three you're travelling across the world, not just climbing a tower. You play
Phrased Out
An RPG-trivia quiz hybrid, this quirky little game uses a hangman-style game for its battle dynamic, which promises "a mystery that unfolds as you play". You get to choose the
Dungeon Village 2
A sequel to Kairosoft's 2012 RPG-Sim hybrid, Dungeon Village, this sequel is essentially more of the same. You build a village, which attracts adventurers whom you can send out to
Survival Island 1&2
Survival Island 1&2 is an escape RPG where you collect and combine various items, gradually building better tools, until you can repair a boat and escape the island. Initially you
Harvest Town – Pixel Sim RPG
Harvest Town is very obviously inspired by Stardew Valley and some players appear to prefer it. It's very detailed and feature rich and has a lot of top ratings (40,000+
Moonlighter
Moonlighter is half shop-management game, and half dungeon-diving to collect wares for your shop. It has been described as ticking many of the same boxes as Stardew Valley, so fans
Forager
Forager is a superb retro-style open world game "inspired by your favourite exploration, farming and crafting games" - for that you can read "Stardew Valley". You gather resources and gradually
Survival RPG 3:Lost in time 2d
Survival RPG 3:Lost in time 2d is the third instalment in the excellent crafting-progression series, that begins with The lost treasure followed by Temple ruins. This time you switch between
Kingdom Adventures
Kingdom Adventures could be an absolutely amazing game. Unfortunately, the "Freemium" model has been taken to the extreme, and it's rarely that I've come across a game with such gouging
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope is a hybrid RPG farming sim in the vein of Stardew Valley. There's a lot of farming, fishing and mining as well as seasons to
Survival RPG 2:Temple ruins 2d
Survival RPG 2:Temple ruins 2d is the sequel to The lost treasure. Described as a "Stranded fantasy exploration", like the first game it involves a lot of foraging and crafting
Survival RPG: Lost treasure 2d
Survival RPG: The lost treasure is a free 2d survival exploration retro RPG game that combines adventure, escape, fantasy in a 2D pixel art universe. The game includes dungeon exploration,
PictoQuest
PictoQuest is a puzzle RPG with the combat based on picture grids. Each grid either fights an enemy, or opens a chest, or is some sort of challenge ("time limit"/"no
Graveyard Keeper
Graveyard Keeper is a Stardew Valley-inspired "medieval cemetery management sim". You have to build and manage your own graveyard, and expand into other ventures, while finding shortcuts to cut costs.
Rule with an Iron Fish
Rule with an Iron Fish is a super slick pirate fishing RPG. You unlock different zones to fish for various different fish and sea creatures, as well as fighting tentacles
TAP! DIG! MY MUSEUM!
TAP! DIG! MY MUSEUM! is a great fun, unusual little RPG Sim where you unearth dinosaur bones and develop a museum. You level up your spade, as well as the
Quest Town Saga
Quest Town Saga is a typical Kairosoft hybrid SIM-town builder-RPG. It doesn't have the best ratings on iTunes compared to other Kairo games, possibly because of all the freemium elements
Beastie Bay
Beastie Bay is a brilliant Kairosoft monster catching RPG and town sim, where you gradually explore different islands and capture territory and monsters, while designing and growing your resort and
Devil Shard
Devil Shard is an amazing match-3 RPG from Game Stew, the devs of the very popular Tower of Fortune series as well as Hell Raider. This time instead of a
Card Crawl
Card Crawl is a card-based dungeon crawler: "a solitaire-style dungeon crawler game played with a modified deck of standard cards." You clear the dungeon of 54 cards by using item-cards, slaying
Hell Raider – Wheel of Fate
Hell Raider - Wheel of Fate is a marvellous game from the Tower of Fortune devs. This time the mechanic is a wheel-of-fortune type device where you have to stop
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is as amazing as all the hype makes out. It's a farming-SIM RPG - if that sounds boring it's really not, you can even ignore farming crops altogether
Tiny Dice Dungeon
Tiny Dice Dungeon is a free RPG where you collect and forge dice to battle enemies, and catch monsters that will fight alongside you. As well as basic combat dice,
Good Knight Story
Good Knight Story is a slick jewel-match RPG where you "solve puzzles, battle monsters and survive bad jokes as you piece together events from the night before". It's free, with
Evoland 2
I wanted to love Evoland 2 because I adored the original instalment, Evoland, but unfortunately the sequel is as much of a platformer as an Action RPG - and it's
You Must Build a Boat
You Must Build A Boat is a hybrid match-3 puzzle RPG that's slick and feature rich. It's by the makers of so if you enjoyed that, you'll love this. You gradually
Ninja Village
Ninja Village is a Kairosoft game so expect some familiar faces, such as Bearington and Chimpan Z. If you're already a fan of Kairosoft games you'll enjoy this - they're
Reigns: King & Queen
It's hard to categorise Reigns and Reign: Her Majesty, but they're most like a Gamebook with a swipe/"Tinder"-style interface. Swipe right usually pleases the person who is requesting something, and
Solitairica
Solitairica is a hybrid RPG, this time using a version of the card game Patience or Solitaire as the combat mechanic. It's very slickly made, and works rather like a
Tower of Fortune 3
Tower of Fortune has gone full colour for the third instalment of the series, and it looks beautiful while keeping the overall retro style. There's still the tavern with its
Nocked!
Nocked! is a gamebook adventure-style interactive fiction game, with resources management. It's wonderfully written and has incredible detail and depth. It's a really interesting and engaging story, with optional "romances"
Tower of Fortune 2
Tower of Fortune 2, the sequel to Tower of Fortune, is a role playing game with combat mechanics drawn from slot machines. You’ll need to earn money to progress, by
TacWars
TacWars is a Match 3 Puzzle game where you need to "match tokens creatively" to beat your enemy. Wins will give you experience and help you strengthen your army, lending
Dawn of Crafting
Dawn of Crafting is a slick crafting-based RPG that’s huge in scope. You start making the most basic tools and progress to more complex tools and constructions, while having to
Choice of Broadsides
Choice of Broadsides is an interactive adventure that fuses a "choose-your-own-adventure" with a text RPG. It's much more than just a book: choices you make will affect later plot points,
Sorcerer of Fortune
Sorceror of Fortune is a puzzle RPG with "match three gems" battles. It has great graphics, there's loads of different gear to buy, and forty different characters to unlock. Apparently
Dungeon Scroll
Dungeon Scroll is a puzzle RPG that uses word games as its mechanic. You fight monsters by forming words, which the game calls "casting spells". Longer words do more damage
Adventure Bar Story
Adventure Bar Story is best described as a SIM RPG - you progress the story by running a restaurant and cooking different recipes for it. Each day you choose a
Dungeon Village
Dungeon Village is a town SIM RPG from Kairosoft: you build up your town, and earn money off adventurers coming through. You then use that money to buy them better
10000000
10000000 is a Bejewelled-style dungeon-crawler hybrid that has been a runaway success, with its retro style graphics and music. You match-three tiles in a fast-paced game, to hit monsters with
Epic Astro Story
Epic Astro Story is another Kairosoft game: games which kind of exist in a hybrid genre all of their own: strategy adventure SIM RPGs might be one way to describe them.
Tower of Fortune
Tower of Fortune is a role playing game with combat mechanics drawn from slot machines. You'll need to earn money to progress, by microtransactions or fighting monsters. There are four
King Cashing 2
The original King Cashing was a smash hit game, cleverly using slot-machine mechanics to create an RPG. King Cashing 2 is more of the same and better, using a comic-book
Kairobotica
Kairobotica is another fascinating little hybrid Sim RPG from Kairosoft. This time with a space exploration and robots theme, you’ll encounter many of the usual features and familiar faces. Where
Hero Emblems
Hero Emblems is a Match3 RPG with JRPG features. It’s a hugely long game with a satisfyingly large game map. The mechanic feels really RPG like, not match-3 like: you
High Sea Saga
High Sea Saga is another Kairosoft game so expect the usual faces (Sally Prin, Kairobot, etc). This is the closest yet perhaps to a pure RPG: there’s very little in