Ranking fantasy games

In most collectible card games, the hero, or summoner (or whatever you want to call it), sits out of sight, signified by a portrait, but in Duelyst, your general starts on the battlefield and gives the game its namesake. Battles in Duelyst are just that, duels. It’s your general pitted against your enemy’s general, and all the cards you play are in service of that.

➔ Main points:

• fun implementation of generals
• lots of strategic options
• grid-based movement and positioning
• great pixel art

Fairy Tail: Hero's Journey is the official online MMORPG of the manga series. For a free to play web-browser game, fans of the franchise will be rewarded as it features authentic characters and story from the manga.

The gameplay is easy to grasp as players pick from one of three classes and progress through the world via leveling up themselves and their companions. Combat is turn-based with party dynamics that are fun to watch due to the excellent animations. However, the battles are passive for the most part meaning you actively do nothing but watch most of the time. The game also has an in-depth cash shop that can be advantageous, but not necessary for end-game progression. Overall, Fairy Tail: Hero's Journey is a good free to play title that will serve loyal fans of the series with plenty of originality and fun.

➔ Main points:

• Gorgeous authentic world and art style based on the Fairy Tail franchise
• Dozens of pets and companions to collect
• Turn-based party battle system but passive in design
• Free to play browser game but expect intrusive cash shop
• Easy to follow stories and quests for fans but will differ for newcomers

Gods Origin Online is a browser-based MMORPG by VivaGames. In it, you controller a summoner who wields the power to yank various deities back through time in an effort to prevent Ragnarok from happening.

➔ Main points:

• Browser-based strategy RPG
• Many different activities
• Lots of customization
• progression choices

Hero Wars is a browser-based RPG adventure game by Nexters, also available on mobile devices.
It's a casual free-to-play game with over 100 million downloads in the Android and iOS App Store, and also one of the most popular Facebook games in 2023.
But why is it so popular?

One thing we appreciated about Hero Wars is its easy-to-learn gameplay.
You simply follow the storyline or campaign and get to battle with unique and strong heroes: most of the combat will happen automatically, but the player can make a difference by using each character's special skills at the right moment.

The game has pretty good graphics: playful, colorful and eye-catching.
The artworks of the characters are quite different from other similar casual games, and the skill effects used by each character were relatively impressive.

In Hero Wars, you collect over 50 unique heroes to make your team strong. You can obtain these characters by playing the campaign, where you will be rewarded heroes at certain stages. However, you can only use the five strongest heroes in battle.

There are 13 campaigns with 190 missions, and the farther you go, the stronger the enemies become. But don't worry, as you complete each mission, you will receive good and rare loot equipment.

In addition, you can equip each hero with suitable equipment for your class, and level up your heroes by giving them XP brews or sacrificing 10 weaker heroes. The higher the grade of the heroes, the higher their level can be.

Each stage/mission has three stages inside, and the last stage is where you will face the boss. You can also join a guild and start guild battles with your friends.

Rise of Angels is a browser-based MMORPG that's free to play, features isometric action based combat and a companion collection system that requires players to obtain, upgrade and look after Goddesses who alters your combat skills and stats for the better. The game offers both PvE solo and group content as well as PvP arenas and guild wars for competitive gameplay. The game world is incredibly stunning due to the ability to zoom, rotate and inspect closely the finer details of textures and aesthetics that's almost unheard of for a browser MMORPG. While the content is very predictable and might come across as a carbon copy of most other games, it's aesthetics wins out and makes you pick this title of the next. There is a heavy reliance on the cash shop but it's largely forgettable if you're taking your time playing through the game's lengthy main story.

➔ Main points:

• Stunning graphics for a browser MMORPG
• Features familiar combat and companion collection systems
• Main story that is better than most browser games
• Heavy cash shop influence that can be ignored

Blade and Soul is a Korean MMORPG recently published by veterans of the MMO industry, NCSoft.

Originally published in Asia, a little over four years ago, the long anticipated game finally makes its way westward. Fans here in the west have long been clamoring for Blade and Soul: the flashy anime inspired graphics and the apparent innovation of its highly touted combat system make NCSoft’s newest experience seem like an amazing proposition.

The question though, does it live up to all the hype? In many ways yes, the game’s combat is reminiscent of classic combo based fighting games, making each encounter engaging and unique.

The graphics are great, if a little dated. However optimization issues and lag run rampant, PvE is somewhat lack luster, and gearing at max level can be a bit of a chore.

The game is a mixed bag, it does some things right and some wrong, however the things it does correctly may be enough to outshine its rougher aspects by the standards of some players.

➔ Main points:

• 2016 Free to Play MMO
• Action Combat
• Fun 1v1 PvP
• Great Environments

Guardians of Ember is a fantasy isometric action MMORPG that features six MMO classes and four races to play as. For a free to play game, the PvE and PvP content on offer is decent. The game's best feature is its class combat mechanics, that lets players change skills depending on what weapon is equipped in addition to an in-depth skill tree system that encourages multiple builds. This keeps gameplay refreshing until the late game. While animations are good, other artistic assets are mediocre at best. What holds it back is its decision to rely on conventional progression systems like gear enchanting instead of shaking things up. Ultimately, Guardians of Ember is still a fun game to play especially when in groups for dungeons.

➔ Main points:

• Fantastic class combat skill system that doesn't feel repetitive
• Variety of content in PvE and PvP that's decent
• Cash shop for convenience instead of selling gear
• Runs smoothly with good presentation in some areas
• Fully free to play including future updates

The world of NosVille has turned to chaos and your character comes in with tremendous power and fighting abilities to bring it to peace.

You'll have a number of NosMates (computer-controlled characters) to help you in this quest, as well as pets. Over the course of the game, you will also gain access to different cards that will give your character newfound skills.

NosTale comes with a number of unique classes and their interesting sub-classes with each character possessing special abilities depending on which group they are from.
To make the game less gloomy and more fun, you can train pets as well and make them get involved in missions too.
With all these features and so much more, NosTale really promises to be an excellent adventure for you.

➔ Main points:

• An anime MMORPG game with an interesting storyline.
• A number of fun activities including pet management and fighting.
• 15 unique classes and sub-classes.
• Graphics (anime-style) have a room for improvement.

Pokemon Mega is an unofficial Pokemon RPG adventure game that is inspired by the classic series from Nintendo's legendary franchise. The gamplay includes familiar systems from the originals, but adds plenty of good ideas like open world PvP, a gear system and more to make it different from the paid games.

Pokemon Mega also functions like a proper browser MMO with world chat, guild functionality and PvP tournaments. The graphics and art style are for the most part authentic, but the game changes quite a few things about the Pokemon such as altering base types and attacks. For a free to play game with a cash shop, the game can be fun but it takes a while to overcome to autonomy of the early game levels.

➔ Main points:

• Unofficial Pokemon adventure game that is inspired by classics
• Free to play with optional cash shop buffs and boosts
• Full roster of Pokemon across generations
• Plenty of gameplay features like tournaments, dungeons and open world PvP
• You won't have full control until level 26 and above

Quake Champions is a free to play FPS game that continues the Quake franchises' long history of excellent fast-action team matches and gameplay. The game has over a dozen Champions to play as and each comes with unique weapons and abilities that are customizable the more you play. Progression comes fairly for simply playing the game, and players can unlock more content like cosmetics and additional match modes the higher their rank.

Presentation is fantastic and so is the gameplay, as that familiar power up utilization in matches combined with the frenzied swapping of weapons and quick movement offers some addictive gameplay. The cash shop uses currency awarded from simply playing the game and allows you to purchase cosmetics and there is no pay to win.

➔ Main points:

• Buttery smooth FPS shooter featuring fast-action gameplay
• Plenty of progression systems for ranks and Champions
• Free to play with cash shop not being pay to win
• Good size Champion roster with high replay value
• Multiple data centers to pick from based on ping