There isn't a simple recipe for idle games, but they have to follow some basic rules in order to be fun. You need to be able to go almost infinitely and it needs to scale. The things you do manually in them are often more powerful than simply idling and it needs to keep your interest so you don't stop letting it run because you're bored of it. Tap Heroes doesn't do most of these things, and it's a weird idle game that couldn't keep my interest.
Characterizing itself as a RPG, I think that Desktop Dungeons is more of a puzzle game than something else. The core concept of the game is fighting through a ton of dungeons, each time with new characters of various races and classes by killing enemies, finding gear and potions, using skills and unlocking thing for your city which will help you in the following runs. In practice, most of my runs were trainwrecks, I had few options I could actually use and the game felt like a puzzle that couldn't be won except by dumb luck.
Leaving behind my fears of moving from opinions to hyperbole, I have to say that FFRK represents one pillar of mobile gaming that is turning this side of my review section into a runaway train of 1/5s and 2/5s. Around the Final Fantasy nostalgia core, around the microtransactions, the energy timers, the roulettes to buy stuff, the fusion and the weird impenetrable systems designed to make money might have been an okay game only if the designers hadn't chosen to make this game excessively reliant on online.
Far from me wanting to launch uPlay in order to run a steam game - and get performance issues for my trouble - Child of Light is a really good RPG that reminds me of Grandia and other games of that style - one with a time bar where you act after a certain point and can get knocked back and do the same to your enemies - mixed with a stylish 2d adventure where you fly around collecting items and solving puzzles. I'm not a big fan of poetry as the base for video game writing, but the actual game is pretty fun to play.
SwapQuest is quite interesting with it's core systems and the ways you can upgrade your character and improve it, but ultimately the act of playing it is boring, mostly because of the main idea that you walk along a path made out of tiles and you have to switch them around in order to progress forward; a needed progress because of the wall of darkness that follows you. Doing so, you fight monsters and pick up chests and things like that.
Pillars of Eternity is to Baldur's Gate what Wasteland 2 was to the old Fallout games - and Wasteland 1, of course. It's a nice throwback to old school RPGs mixed up with new systems and mechanics. I had a good time with it, but I feel like I had an even better time with Wasteland 2. Some of the systems in PoE were too complex. the story felt too verbose at times and the level progression was slow and somewhat unrewarding. I have to preface all of this with the disclaimer that I haven't played any of the older games because I also found them a bit too dense for my tastes.
Swap Heroes 2 is a fun little game where you swap heroes on a grid in order to have them attack monsters or use special abilities. It's a bit too simple with very light RPG elements and there is one tune that reminds me of a Super Mario RPG boss fight theme - which is funny. All and all, I've had a few good moments with it, but it didn't last very long, as the core of the game is doing the same thing over and over.
Although the South Park brand of humor might not be your cup of tea - and I have to admit that it's not mine either - the game inside SPTSOT is quite solid. Against a backdrop of high fantasy only existing in the character's minds - and everyone plays along - you control a normal kid going around South Park, doing quests, fighting enemies and collecting loot, all of that done in an ocean of poop jokes and pop culture references. I had a ton of fun with it and I would recommend it to most turn-based RPG fans.
Wasteland 2 is a masterpiece, it's one of the best RPGs I've played recently, and while I wasn't aware of Wasteland 1, nor haven't I played the old Fallouts extensively, the setting and characters were something interesting vis-a-vis the fantasy settings of old. I might not have built the best team for the job - and I might be stubborn on some things, I might have some complaints about the way the game works in some spots, but overall if you enjoy turn based roleplaying games you owe it to yourself to try W2.
Area 777 is a slot machine 'rpg' where you fight aliens by spinning reels to match symbols and attack them. You're also trying to get more cash to continue playing and to get experience to level up and unlock new type of reels, new machines and new power-ups. I didn't have a terrible time with the game but the huge full-screen ads that popped out all the time, combined with unrefined RPG mechanics and the unpredictability of chance games made me uninstall it after I had seen one too many advertisement for some product I didn't care at all about.
Although for me, gameplay is king and systems will trump over the story and graphics of a game, LISA is a case that reminds me how I play games to escape reality and its brutal problems. I'm not a big fan of games that relate the sorrows and tribulations of people in our modern society - or in a realistic past. Games that deal with heavier subjects are things that I don't tend to consume, no matter what genre they belong in. LISA was no exception, presented as an earthbound-inspired RPG with a ton of party members and systems like using russian roulette to power-up your character, I didn't get very far in it and didn't enjoy my time with the game overall.
Hero Emblems is one of the best iOS games I've played in a long time. There are no IAPs and the game feels like a complete package with tons of content to go through, fun core mechanics and enough challenge and character customization to not feel bored of it. You play a party of four characters - mage, healer, paladin and fighter - and you match emblems to attack, defend or heal yourself. It's a classic formula turned into an amazing little game.
Combo Quest is the first paragraph in a design document for another game; CQ is the core mechanic that should be embedded into something much bigger than it is, while actually being all there is. CQ could have been a pretty neat RPG for touch devices, but it's barely a tech demo with some inappropriate in-app purchases. I didn't enjoy my time with Combo Quest for various reasons.
Fearless Fantasy is a neat concept - a turn-based RPG with some novel way to attack/defend, but poor execution, low amount of content and weird mechanics quickly turned me off from the game. It's not that the ideas are bad, but they're poorly explained, alongside the relatively low potential for character customization - something that I always look for in role playing games.
I really wish I could give CoE 5/5, it's one of the most interesting and most inspired RPG I've played in ages. It's inspired by Earthbound, for one, but also features deep gameplay mechanics both in battles and outside of them while pushing the player to collect more party members in a colorful world with tons of stuff to do. That being said, in its current state, 4 is the best I can give it, mostly because of technical issues but also because of some design choices that I didn't enjoy.
Words for Evil is a game where you make words out of tiles to attack enemies and use abilities. My experience with it was quite poor as the controls didn't work properly and some of the core ideas don't work really well for me. Besides that, the character system and the items you can get, the skill and their upgrades and the mechanics the game tosses here and there to help you try and beat it are a good effort and I had some fun with WoE.
It's a wipe! is a really bad game based on a cool concept - being a guild leader and running 'raids' against huge enemies with a bunch of people at your disposal. The interface is clunky and broken in spots, the battles take forever even if nothing is happening, you have close to no control over your characters and it's quite difficult to plan strategies properly so the end result is a depressing little RPG.
Maybe if Terra Battle was a game you'd pay money for and you didn't have to gamble to get new characters, maybe if there were no stamina system, maybe if it didn't use the timed drag-your-characters-around method of control in puzzle games, maybe if it didn't do all these things, I would've liked it better. TB is a RPG where you move your characters around a battlefield to "pincer" enemies in order to attack them. You have a wide cast of skills and abilities that trigger and alter the grid and there is also a wide range of characters to collect. Ultimately, I didn't like it much.
Outcast Odyssey isn't a terrible game even if there is a respawn timer, even if you have to be online, even if it's weirdly balanced and even if the core battle system is a bit flawed. I had fun with it at the beginning, but it deteriorated quickly. OO is a game where you explore maps, fight enemies and fuse cards together to become stronger and potentially fight stronger enemies while they slowly lower your HP until then you have to pay for potions or wait until you get healthy again.
EBF4 is a bit overwhelming and it's a bit silly, but it's one of these RPGs that I love - the kind that mostly base all of its strong points on gameplay systems and ditches most of the story and quest dynamic of RPGs you encounter nowadays. EBF4 might look and play like a flash game - the toggle to change the game quality is a good indicator of that - but I'm having fun with it and I'll continue playing it until I beat it.