Inotia 3, at it's core, is a story-driven RPG where you use a party made of six classes to confront your destiny, yadda yadda yadda. Along the way, you'll complete quests, World of Warcraft style, to appease villagers, get loot and become stronger. The game's main story is actually quite expansive; I haven't had the chance to play through the entire thing yet, but the developer touts 230+ quests, 130+ maps and enough quest text to let you get right deep into it.

This is actually true: the game doesn't shy away from the text, and from what I can tell the translation is much better than the game's market entry. If you want a little laugh, go check it out - you can read about the heroes and their "guntlets", saving the world from evil.

Engrish aside, this game actually plays quite well; the on-screen controls are both functional and responsive. However, you don't necessarily need to be precise all the time; Inotia actually avoids the problem of other hack-and-slash RPGs in that the combat is actually functional.

I mean, what I've had trouble with in the past regarding games like Zeonia is the grid, or lack thereof; when hit detection is buggy, you can be left jumping in and out, wondering whether you'll hit or be hit if you try. It's a frustrating system, as no one really wants to be hampered by game mechanics.

So I'm happy that the game has both a functioning grid system and the ability to double tap the basic action button (which serves as a melee attack) to automatically lock on to the nearest enemy and start attacking him. This makes lining up special abilities all the more easy, and let's you feel rewarded when they land.

Also included is a "skip cutscene" button, which I can't appreciate enough. The cutscenes in this game aren't terrible, but they aren't exactly anything new, either. I'm not a fan of the lack of placeholder sprites for town villagers, as seeing sprites along with dialog for some characters and plain text boxes for others just seems a bit lacking.

The graphics of this game have been dumbed down a little bit in the effort to be "universal"; while I only have one phone to test this on, the game's graphics are nowhere near taxing, as they're 16 bit sprites at least. There doesn't seem to be anything requiring split-second movements, either, so the lag is a bit negotiable. The game is free, so you're welcome to try it out, risk free - when you start paying for it is when you have to watch out.

Like its previously-successful title, Homerun Battle 3D, developer Com2uS has decided to implement a cash shop into Inotia in order to expedite the grinding process. I mean, why actually play the game when you can just buy gear, right?

This is what kind of frustrates me about cash shops: in certain games, they can work to the benefit of the developer, giving users access to new content or present things in a way that makes things more appealing. However, you can argue that in an RPG, giving players the option of buying gear actually detracts from the experience, especially if it's story-based. Like it or not, questing and grinding are actually the bread and butter of RPGs - it's kind of defeatist to say "come experience our rich story!" then say "if you pay us, you can skip it if you want to!"

Ultimately, I can't control what a developer does, and if people buy weapons and armor to breeze through then game, that's their money out of their pockets. However, you have to think: what are you missing by rushing? The game isn't exactly so difficult that playing through without paid items is impossible, so I can't really recommend doing it. Instead, you should try Inotia out, mess around with the classes, find something you really like and enjoy what could be one of the most functional RPGs on the Android market.

Just learn to ignore the Homerun Battle 3D ads.