Glyph Quest Review

Glyph Quest is a game that undersells itself. As a sucker for Match 3/RPG crossovers, I threw myself into it upon release last week, but it required a certain amount of acceptance during the early phases of the game. Mostly because the free portion of the game hardly demonstrates the potential of the rest of it.

Reminiscent of titles such as Puzzle Quest, Glyph Quest is a little rough round the edges. Its graphics, while charming, are still a little old-fashioned to look at. It also lacks a particularly helpful tutorial, leaving players to figure things out for themselves a lot of the time. Worst of all, once players hits level 5 it asks them to buy an in-app purchase without fully explaining why they should do so. It actually unlocks the rest of the game but the explanation is vague, leaving one to wonder if it simply provides some bonuses rather than anything more substantial.

Stick with it though, because Glyph Quest is worth it. At its core are some simple techniques. A board of glyphs presents itself during each battle with players required to match up glyphs in order to inflict damage on the enemy. At first it's only possible to connect two together, but through the process of leveling up this expands much more so, and proves much more interesting. Indeed, it proves quite complex after a time; and all the more satisfying to figure out. Reversals and combos are possible here, with up to 5 glyphs eventually possible to combine. Further depth comes from the ability to level-up specific spell types, rewarding those who regularly use the same range of attacks.

That's the problem with Glyph Quest though. It's all to do with promise. A certain amount of faith needs to be used in conjunction with the game as those early free levels really don't demonstrate what can be done here. Don't see this title so much as a free game but one priced at $1.99. They really are completely different beasts and the paid version is far superior.