Already been through the PQ stuff so looking for another game that’s like it - either fantasy or sci-fi. Preferably playable on iPad?
HuniePop
Yuck.
As crazy as this sounds, there’s not much else that comes close. There were a slew of puzzle rpgs that came out in the wake of the success of PQ, some of which were pretty good, but I think none of those still exist as a supported game. The only match-3 games release these days are usually f2p gacha nonsense on mobile hentai games on steam.
I’ve toyed with the idea of making one for years because the type of game I want to play isn’t out there anymore. And I don’t like the design changes of the new PQ at all.
There are, however, plenty of great deckbuilder games, and I think in many ways these fill that kind of void. But there aren’t many of these on iOS (Slay the Spire is an exception), though there are games that play well over steam link (Monster Train, Dicey Dungeons (deckbuilder adjacent)) if that’s an option.
By ‘PQ stuff’, are you including Gems of War?
HuniePop is really quite good btw. :)
I’ve been playing a bunch of Small Town Murders lately for my match-3 fix. It is not sci-if or fantasy but it’s pretty solid for match-3 and has a reasonably engaging story for a match-3 type game.
The setting is basically a Murder She Wrote riff where a murder mystery writer is helping a small town sheriffs office solve real murder mysteries.
There are many, many games like the one @nKoan linked, including some with rpg elements. To me, those are an entirely different lineage of game more closely related to hidden object titles, not at all like PQ.
@jpinard I HIGHLY recommend Solitairica if you haven’t played it.
You Must Build a Boat?
Yeah that was a really good one!
Grindstone
Solitarica was a freebie on EGS
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon
You Must Build A Boat and its prequel 10000000
ZOOKEEPER DX
Critter Crunch
Might and Magic clash of heroes
Meteos, Pokémon Puzzle on NDS or emulator
Magical Drop, Puyo Puyo or Puyo Tetris games
Super Puzzle Fighter
Dots TwoDots
Tiny Bubbles
Ticket to Earth
I liked Puzzle Quest Galactrix too
Sure, but it’s exactly a match-3 game with rpg elements that doesn’t have any gacha nonsense.
Ok, but I was trying to recommend GOOD games. Though to be fair, I’d say it is better than Grindstone ( I miss M&M:CoH-era Capy)
What was the deal with Puzzle Kingdoms and Puzzle Quest 2 and Gems of War? Is one of them the official sequel and the others are Walmart store brand?
Puzzle Kingdoms is effectively off brand. PQ2 added dungeon crawling, which made the game really boring (fighting the same enemies over and over again). Gems of War, I haven’t played in years, but from what I know of it (outdated, obviously) it was a good game if you don’t mind f2p mechanics.
Is Grindstone available for separate buy on iOS or tied to Apple Arcade recurring subscription still?
Remind me to never speak to you again… though I did play that on DS back in the day
You have a low opinion of the ZOOKEEPER franchise?
No, it’s just that headline…is…painful