Mystic Kingdom (iOS)

Lost a lot of its magic after the first week, but still worth talking about.

Mystic Kingdom is one of the most polished freemium games I’ve ever played. Despite containing the obligatory grindfest, multitude of currencies, pay-to-win events, and other annoying trademarks of the genre, Mystic Kingdom manages to maintain a charming appeal.

Mystic Kingdom has more than seven different currencies to earn (or buy). More than seven different shops to spend those currencies in. Dozens of different leveling mechanisms. Three story mode difficulty levels. PvP, Boss Battles, several other special modes, event & quest trackers, and a user interface slick enough to rein in all the chaos.

Mystic Kingdom has the best user interface of any freemium iOS title I’ve played. There are no hidden menus. Closing a page takes you back to the last page you were on (surprising how uncommon that is). Quest descriptions can be tapped to go directly to where you can complete them! Crafting, promotion, and star evolution menus similarly include links to all the game locations where you can grind or buy the resources and currencies you need. Clean, organized, and helpful. The UI in Mystic Kingdom is damn near perfect.

Mystic Kingdom perfects the ‘if it exists, there must be levels and monetization’ model of business. However, Mystic Kingdom pulls it off in a way that isn’t entirely unpleasant. While I certainly get tired of being prompted to buy stamina, gold & souls, and upgrade my VIP level, there is an appeal to the many ways in which you can level up your favorite heroes. Heroes have levels, ranks, stars, equipment, runes, four skill levels, and a leader skill. Equipment and runes also have levels, ranks, and stars. Leader skills have ranks. Hero ranks and equipment crafting require grinding for dozens of different material items. These upgrades require tremendous amounts of various game currencies, which players generate by upgrading their Castle, Library, and Lab buildings.

What about the core game design? Like many freemium RPG games the battles in Mystic Kingdom are largely automatic, however, they aren’t entirely without strategy. For each battle the player must deploy a group of five heroes. Heroes are deployed on a 3x3 grid. The player is shown a sample of the enemy troops and their deployment pattern. The results of the battle depend heavily on the selection and arrangement or your heroes. Shallow and monotonous, but better than average for the genre.

Unlike many freemium pay-to-win games, Mystic Kingdom actually feels free-to-play. Mystic Kingdom is generous with currency, keeps the paywalls soft, and doesn't withhold content from free players.

Mystic Kingdom also has a short-lived, but refreshing, set of challenges for new players. These challenges begin to expire seven days from your first login and completely vanish within ten days. Challenging new players to immerse themselves in the game, reach some moderately difficult goals, and earn some 'real' rewards was a brilliant change to the freemium status quo. Unfortunately, the short time limit reveals them to be just another ploy to push players to spend money, when they could have been better used as powerful player retention tools. After the ten day mark players return to the standard freemium grind of earning slot machine currencies with no meaningful goals in sight.

I’ve been playing for a few weeks and the paywalls are more apparent each day, however, the developers of Mystic Kingdom did a much better job than most. While many of the events, battle modes, and grinding systems definitely heavily favor the VIP$, Mystic Kingdom doesn’t turn away free players.

If you haven’t completely given up on freemium iOS games, then give Mystic Kingdom a shot. It's a great reminder of what freemium games could be.

Summary:

• + well designed interface
• + nice art
• + comparatively generous with currency
• • freemium model
• • no clue what’s going on in the main story
• - expiring quests
• - freemium grind & RNG