Guardian Stone is a mobile adventure RPG with a turn based combat where players asume the role of a classic dungeon-crawling heroe as a Warrior, Ranger or Sorceress.
From the very first minute, you will get a good feeling about your upcoming adventures as the game looks very polished. It's not one of the remake, rebranded games that you see all over Google Play nowadays.
I liked how after the initial download I got to see the opening cinematic that introduced me to the “lore” and only after it got me hooked, I had to wait for the patch download. I was already excited.
Character Creation
As I said before, there are currently three classes available: Ranger, Sorceress and Warrior, each with its own backstory and skill trees. There aren’t any customization options and the classes are gender locked. I don’t mind this at all, but I know some of you really hate being forced to play a female sorceress.
The Adventure
Toast did a wonderful job with the Guardian Stone introduction part, splitting the so called tutorial over the first campaign. I didn’t felt overrun by a ton of information that I usually skip just to jump straight into the action, and even if it was handholding a little, it still came naturally.
After each stage you learn more about the core features, including hero skills, guardian upgrades, crafting and enchanting, etc, and you get to try all of them with free resources provided by the game. For me Guardian Stone feels like an evolved version of Summoner Wars.
Even though I saw that the game uses that anti-gaming resource called Energy, I was very happy that Guardian Stone didn’t throw the diamond replenish options right into my face. Do you remember those games where you just finished loading and you get flooded by mega selling offers, timed premium events and other things like that? Well, it’s not the case here, at least not from the beginning.
Guardians and Combat System
Combat is where the game really excels in my opinion, and that’s because they opted for the turn based combat, mixed with the rock-paper-scissors system (Stellar < Lunar < Solar < Stellar). It takes a longer time to finish a battle, but you are free to choose the way you fight, who to attack and what skills to use. You really get to play the game, if you know what I mean.
Each Guardian and some of the enemy minions have special skills, ranging from a simple aoe attack to powerful debuffs and poisons, creating the need of a tactical play, especially that you can gain extra rewards by completing a stage with three star rating (achieved by clearing all the minions in less than 10 turns).
By now you are probably wondering what are these Guardians, right? They are your minions, your army. From the start you get to choose one Guardian (the game lets you see its skills and powers, before making the final call) and you get more of them throughout your adventure. If you are lucky, you will drop summoning stones that can be used to obtain higher tier Guardians.
Like in Summoner Wars, you will be able to evolve them and enhance their abilities. It turns a little into a grinding game when you are asked to have a max level similar Guardian in order to evolve yours, but overall it’s a pleasant journey.
Besides having your Guardian by your side when doing Campaign Missions you can also increase their level by sending them to special timing missions. This system is similar to the Garrison Missions from World of Warcraft, on a basic level of course.
Crafting and Enchanting
As a true RPG, Guardian Stone also features a complex crafting and enchanting system where you can obtain powerful items for your hero or enhance special set runes for your Guardians.
Items are usually found by clearing Campaign Stages, while mats can be found inside Special Dungeons
Arena PvP
I didn’t get to try the PvP option, but just so you know, there will be plenty of action available inside the Arena. Here players will battle against each other to show off their skills and to obtain high rewards at the end of the week, when the PvP rankings are published.
2P Score: 8.6
Guardian of Stone is definitely a must try mobile game. Even though the game is only available in Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore. If you don't live in those countries, you can download the .apk file of global trial version below.
Scan the code and download the game onto your smart phone now.
PC users can download the file at Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1veI1JFa1TIa2lGVHNHNW5tZlU/view
Enjoy the game, and see ya next time.