White Cat Project has been a hit mobile action RPG in Japan for a while now, and its English version, Colopl Rune Story, has had a soft release in a few markets for a while. And Rune Story isn’t just your vanilla Diablo-esque action RPG, think of it as Diablo meets Farmville, all wrapped up in cute, Kindgom Hearts-esque graphics.
In Rune Story, players use a “mystical rune compass” to uncover ancient magical runes which fell from the sky a long time ago. The game promises 1,000 story quests through 11 flying islands – including “The World’s End”, as well as a roster of over 200 characters (from six classes: Fencer, Lancer, Warrior, Brawler, Sniper and Mage) to recruit and train. You can also join forces with friends and other players, as well as … build a town to harvest resources and upgrade weaponry.
But what gets me piqued right away is how the game only requires one finger to play – from movements to attacks you’re just controlling it with your thumb. Think about it – you have your other hand free! Eat a donut, do your work, take a … break somewhere. I’ve given a go at the early levels with it, and the control system works very well. I’ve never felt more lazy while mobile gaming.
There’s also real-time co-op missions as well as a guild system. A lot of this is par for the course for mobile games – and some newer games have done well in balancing base building as well as combat (usually turn-based). Still, with the one-thumb controls and cute graphics, this is worth a shot, especially since it’s free to download (F2P, but you can spend money too). Also, cats.
As for “White Cat Story” – just early into the game’s tutorial you will get to meet her, but it’s not clear where this goes … yet. There’s a short introduction (screencaps below) which mentions a white cat and a black cat. And then it’s on to the main story. It does make me very curious, since, you know, cats, but the global name of the game might hint that the cats do take a back seat.
“After the monumental success of White Cat Project in Asia, we sought to create a newly evolved version of that experience fit for the international market,” said Shohei Yoshioka, CEO of COLOPL NI, Inc. “By maintaining the one-thumb controls and building upon the character roster and online capabilities, we created Colopl Rune Story as a brand new adventure for mobile’s newest operating systems and devices.”
Colopl Rune Story is now available on the Apple App Store and on the Google Play Store.
