What actually makes a good mobile RPG

We play a lot of mobile RPGs, and most get uninstalled within a day. The ones that stick share a few things, and it's rarely the graphics.

The first is pacing. A good mobile RPG respects that you're playing in ten-minute bursts. It saves constantly, it lets you pause mid-battle, and it doesn't punish you for putting the phone down.

The second is progression you can feel. Emberbound Saga is a good example — every couple of levels something tangibly changes about how your party fights. Bad RPGs just make the numbers bigger.

The third, and the one most forget, is that the story has to earn your attention. If I'm skipping dialogue by hour two, the whole thing collapses.

Get those three right and you've got something worth keeping. Everything else is decoration.