Quiz RPG: The World of Mystic Wiz (iOS)

Quiz RPG: If Pokemon and Trivial Pursuit had a baby...

The core mechanics in Quiz RPG are fairly standard for the freemium monster collection genre (grinding and collection), but the battle system is rather unique.

Replacing the boring automatic and generic turn-based battles common to the genre is a quirky quiz system. Each turn players pick one of the four available question categories. The more elements a category has (up to 3) the more difficult the question will be. If the player answers correctly, their monsters matching the element(s) will attack the enemy monsters. Answer incorrectly and your monsters lose their turn.

While adventuring on quests (watching an animated progress indicator) players can encounter treasure chests instead of the expected random battles. These chests often present some of the most challenging questions in the game. These questions require players to put a list of items in order, for example, ordering a list of cities from east to west, American football players by touchdowns scored, or movie titles by release date.

In addition to adventuring there are daily Wiz Quiz questions. Once per day players are asked to correctly identify an item in a picture (e.g. name of a famous building or traditional Korean dress) from a list of multiple choice options.

Players can also participate in tourneys. Tourneys are indirect PvP matches where players compete based on their trivia prowess. Players are ranked by how many questions it took to complete the tourney's PvE battles and how many seconds it took to answer those questions. Having powerful monsters is obviously a huge advantage since it will take fewer questions to complete the battles, however powerful monsters won't be of any use if you cannot answer the questions correctly.

Like any trivia game, Quiz RPG is only as good as the questions it contains. The question categories sometimes feel a bit vague, but it took several hours before I noticed any repeat questions.

Eventually, the grinding and freemium paywalls will become rather tedious, but Quiz RPG is still an interesting game that's worth playing if you enjoy trivia questions.

Summary:

• + unique quiz-based game mechanics
• + nice artwork
• • cute loading screen animation
• • somewhat amusing intro storyline
• • some awkwardly worded questions
• - grinding becomes tedious
• - boring animated progress indicators
• - tons of grinding required to get cards leveled up
• - constant need to increase spirit limit