Zenonia

Zenonia brought an action RPG to mobile phones with ambitions that in 2009 weren't yet expected on a touchscreen — character progression by class, a skill tree, equipment with varying properties, and a storyline that carried players through dozens of hours, not just short play sessions. The controls relied on a virtual directional pad and on-screen buttons, which wasn't as elegant as purely touch-based schemes in other games, but it allowed the structure of a classic action RPG to be transferred without major compromises in system depth.

The Korean studio Gamevil released Zenonia in 2009, and the title quickly earned a reputation as a game with unexpectedly large content for the price of a single download — at a time when many competing titles were built around short arcade loops, Zenonia offered dozens of hours of quests, crafting, and combat, setting it apart from most of what the App Store, and the nascent Google Play, offered at the time.

The success of the first Zenonia kicked off a long series of sequels that retained a loyal audience, especially among players looking for a full-fledged RPG experience on mobile comparable to handhelds. Thanks to this, Gamevil positioned itself as one of the pioneers of the genre on smartphones, even though control via virtual buttons remained a noticeable compromise compared to a physical controller. The story drew on traditional fantasy motifs and quickly became one of the reasons players came to see the South Korean mobile scene as a distinctive, strong tradition standing apart from the mainstream of Western studios.

Why play it: Will appeal to players looking for a genuine RPG with depth on mobile, not quick fun for a few minutes, and who don't mind a less elegant virtual controller.