Djinn Caster (iOS) Review

By Luna Eriksson 04.03.2017

Review for Djinn Caster on iOS

Cubed3 enters the magical and mysterious desert land of Dulshara as a djinn caster, a person with the ability to see and command powerful djinns. It is an interesting world that unfolds in this action RPG, but how does this premium title hold up on iOS?

It is always a mix of excitement and anxiety that strikes when seeing a title that looks really well-developed and deep on the surface appear on the App Store as an inexpensive title. What has been compromised? How much will be required to spend to have an adequate experience?

Djinn Caster certainly is one of those games that can make the customer feel worried, despite its great visuals, relatively open world, and combat system that really makes it look and feel like a full-size game. This really is a large game for the price, yet there are compromises, and there are moments that feel incredibly cheap.

The world in Djinn Caster is carefully crafted, with a well-written background story and overall lore that captures the Middle Eastern spiritual world in a wonderful and colourful way. The problem is that while this world has been built up, what the developers have done with it in the game is really lacklustre.

Screenshot for Djinn Caster on iOS

The characters are shallow and the story is made up of what seems to be bad excuses for the plot to move forward without any sense at all most of the time. It is really sad to see this happen in contrast to the great world building. There are some positive highlights in the characterisation, though; namely the djinns, which all have diverse and colourful personalities, and is a sad reminder of what they could have done with the human characters, if just maybe with the protagonist.

The main character has other flaws besides being a flat and stereotypical RPG hero, though, and that is how little customisation there is to his playstyle. Normally in RPGs, it is acceptable that characters have little to sometimes no customisation because there is more than one playable character to fit the vast styles of gameplay of different players. This is not the case here, though, and while there is some customisation, the gameplay will be extremely similar no matter which path the player focuses on - so if the player dislikes the initial playstyle of Elmir, it is sadly not going to get much better later on, even with the djinns that offer new attacks and some customisable bonus stats...

It is really sad, as the action RPG gameplay with all the in-game systems could have served well as a fantastic title. In the end, though, everything feels half done, from the character customisation and combat, to the world and characters. Djinn Caster certainly has the foundation to be a great title, but it lacks the important details that are required to make the game more attractive.

Screenshot for Djinn Caster on iOS

Cubed3 Rating

5/10
Rated 5 out of 10

Average

Djinn Caster has a solid foundation of mechanics and lore to build a great ARPG upon. Sadly, many important details were missed to make for an appealing game. Flat characters, a really mediocre story mixed with a combat system that grows boring quickly, and a touch of little customisation and choices makes for a really dull ARPG title that lacks many of the alluring features of the genre. It is a fully functional game, but nothing more.

Developer

Chocoarts

Publisher

Kemco

Genre

Real Time RPG

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  5/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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