Ember of the Hollow

Ember of the Hollow is the kind of RPG that trusts you to pay attention. There's no bloated map full of icons. Instead you follow a single winding road, lighting lamps and slowly pushing back a fog that's been eating the land for years. The turn-based combat is tight, built around positioning and a timing meter that rewards patience.

The writing surprised me. Characters talk like people, the quests have small emotional hooks instead of fetch-this-fetch-that, and the whole thing wraps up in maybe eight hours without padding. On a phone that length feels exactly right.

It's not flawless. The inventory screen is fiddly and a couple of boss fights lean too hard on one strategy. But the mood carried me through, and I was a little sad when the last lamp lit up.

What we liked

• Beautiful hand-drawn fog-and-lantern art
• Combat that respects your time
• A story that ends before it overstays