Mobile Game 3-Day Play Analysis: Tower Defense RPG
Estimated to be the developer's second release on Google Play
As of 2019.10.23: Ranked #16 in trending, highest in rising charts
Rating: 4.7 stars, 464 reviews, 100,000+ downloads
Chinese company
Design
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UI that completely disregards UX
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The game feels like a strong mix of tower defense and RPG elements
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Each character uses different skills; to see these flashy effects, you need to gacha for characters — stronger characters clear defense waves more easily
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Feels like a game targeting office workers; turning on auto mode makes it no different from watching videos
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Tutorial was too sparse, making it hard to learn everything at once
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Fortunately, the controls are relatively easy
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Business Model:
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In-app purchases only
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Typical Chinese game VIP system
Development
- Server is implemented, but randomly naming characters during creation was mostly pointless — most names were already taken
Art
- From the start screen, the art felt very rough — reminiscent of mass-produced Chinese mobile games from the mid-2010s
- It feels like someone from an older generation trying to imitate modern game art styles and failing. I suspect it's actually popular in China though
- Strong vibes of old Chinese HTML games. Not thrilled about having to play this for 3 days
- Dialogue and expressions reminiscent of the old "shocking rabbit" game era. I thought these disappeared with Flash...
- One well-chosen ad illustration, but when you open the actual product, it's garbage
- In-game states are even worse — feels like looking at a 1990s RTS CD game
User Response
- Many opinions that gameplay is better than expected given the crude art
- Despite 100K downloads, having only ~460 reviewers raises manipulation suspicions
- Most 1-star reviews were about server instability; it was hard to find users who were negative about the gameplay itself
My Takeaways
- Terrible art, terrible polish, terrible mass-produced Chinese game — I wish these would stop coming to Korea
- However, it seems there was genuine user demand for the defense genre
- Despite the rough exterior, it captures the essence of the defense genre well, earning positive reception
- The lesson here: focus and prioritization were executed very well in this game