Last updated on December 17th, 2025 at 06:43 am
Caves of Lore – Strategy Game Review
Caves of Lore is a Strategy/Roleplaying game from TILT Games LLC, first launched in 30th January 2024.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 172+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Caves of Lore Stand Out
I'm a self-taught solo-dev who built this passion project over 6 years while holding down a full time job and raising a family. I dedicated myself to work 5 minutes a day no matter what, and built the game piece by piece, not really knowing where I was going or how it would all end.
• Caves of Lore is a turn-based, pixel-art, fantasy CRPG that combines elements of environmental exploration and character interaction with tactical, grid-based combat.
Fun and weird adventures await as you progress through a world full of monsters and humor. Hidden secrets and strange powers abound, allowing for a highly customizable party.
• Vast amounts of loot and treasure constantly increase your power, while dialogue, books and lore are waiting for those who want to be drawn into the world further.
• Dark themes and ancient horrors don’t keep this game from remaining upbeat and funny, with a story that unfolds in unexpected ways. Tactical combat, endless magical item combos, and a vast array of spells, abilities and traits make for great replay value.
• 6 character capacity party, 65+ spells, 65+ abilities, 65+ traits, 50+ monsters, 40+ NPCs , 30+ quests, and 20+ areas to explore. Hundreds of items and tens of thousands of enchantment combinations make for all manner of powerful items.
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Caves of Lore is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 14th November 2025
Recent improvements include:
Thank you for all your suggestions on how to make Caves of Lore better. I've added a new Spellbook, new Unique Weapons, More Ability Options, iOS iCloud Saves, New Items, along with Monster Spawn Controls, New thumbstick options, Better controller support and Rebinding, External audio support, Screen rotation and zoom options, Better Character Creation info, Updated Abilities and other QoL features. If you have more suggestions, don't hesitate to join our Discord channel.
Download & Availability
Caves of Lore is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Caves of Lore on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Love it, other developers should take note. Thanks for a great gaming experience, cant wait for number 2.
This game is a true labor of love. Love for old school RPGs and dungeon crawlers, with amazing monsters, fun sidekicks, and plenty of side quests and secrets. But also love for the player this is a game with an amazingly supportive and responsive dev who really cares about making the game better.
One of our favorite games of all time. A true treasure with inspiration from Fallout 1/2, Baldurs Gate, and other classic RPGs. We count this as a cozy game with the art style and spell leveling. Amazing work, thank you dev.
Fantastic game and the dev is receptive to feedback.
We highly recommend this if you like a great story, unique characters, and DnD-like combat. Lots of love went into this game.
Ive been gaming since we were a child. Our first game was Pong. Yes. Im old and we still love gaming. All of this is to say, Ive played plenty of games in our 50 years on earth. We love this game. Thank you for sharing your art.
Ive only been playing for a few hours but we ca already tell the dev put a lot of thought/love into this game. Our recommendation is to create a trial version of the game so people can test it out and realize how good it actually is.
A super-fun old-style turn based RPG with a solid story, cool magic and battle skills, fun character progression mechanics, nice visual (pixel-art) flourishes, and a smart world/hub system. The level of potential complexity is probably deeper than required to play the game, but you can pretty much bash your way through. A great play, and a phenomenal bargain at the price. Cant wait for the sequel.
The creator is easy to reach out to if you have suggestions. Theres a bit of a learning curve it doesnt put everything in your lap, if its not hard to think its unforgiving. Just have to do some backtracking sometimes if you dont pay close attention to what the quest is telling you.
This game is quite possibly the best RPG in existence when it comes to apps. No ads. No pay to win. No pay to anything except just buying the game. This is hands down our favorite game Ive ever downloaded from the App Store. If you like solo rpgs and loot and TONs of hidden gems. Get this. We come from the times before wow and have grown up with wow and now a 17 yr wow veteran. Get this game you will not be disappointed.
This game clearly has a lot of work and passion put into it. There arent a lot of games of this quality on the AppStore, so whenever we find one we have to get it and try it out at least. This game didnt disappoint, Im not sure how much of this game is completed, but what Ive seen this game is content rich and begs you to explore it. Keep up the great work! Amazing this was mostly done by one person.
We wish games like this came along all the time for iOS. A new classic great build and battle diversity and a fun old school vibe. Worth every penny.
This game is amazing! It has the feel of early Avernum games, with deeper and more polished mechanics. Ive got a terrible case of restartitus though – cant stop thinking about new ways to build the party.
Many other reviews have stated all the positives already. We just want to say this: if youre now into CRPGs because of games like Baldurs Gate 3 or Divinity Original Sin, buy and support this game! This game is essentially like those games, just in a smaller form. Great gameplay, beautiful low pixel graphics, fun story, and just so much to explore and do. 50 hours of gameplay easily if not more. Its worth way more than $8, this is a steal and no brainer if you like these types of games. Also while it is on PC, its works extremely well on mobile with touch screen controls and looks fine even on a smaller iPhone screen.
The mechanics in the game are wonderful but it just feels like all the work went into mechanics and not actual gameplay. The fights are really boring which is a bummer considering how much work you have to put into leveling your character. What we mean is youll spend 2-3x as much time in stat and level up screens as you do in battle. There is no respec so look up plenty of walkthroughs and explanations on google so you dont waste points on abilities that you wont end up using. The magic and skills are kinda boring to use which again is a bummer considering the way you get spells in the first place is kinda cool. Feels wasted. Ultimately we feel like if you add all the mechanics to a completely different game it would be really cool. But theres too much tedious stat managing for such simple gameplay.
First of, this is a really fun RPG. Im a bit into Act 2 and am really enjoying ourselves. There are some challenges though – it doesnt seem like we can raise base stats like Strength which makes it impossible to get to a point where a character can finally equip a cool weapon we found earlier – that has been a fundamental leveling up benefit in most RPGs and that its missing here turns a lot of gear into junk. It is also hard to see what you can interact with at times. Sometimes we accidentally move the right joystick button and it shows us that there is a door we can openwouldnt have seen it otherwise and now we feel as if we constantly have to check the area by using the button (which we wish wasnt even there as it confuses more than helps). The sun/moon system is too complicated and at this point we have lost interest trying to figure it out. Having said all that its still an enjoyable game.
This is the first game that Ive truly played blind. Because it still has a relatively-small community, we were able to experience the gamess magic of finding secrets and gathering items without some form on consistent guide. If youre looking for an old-fashioned rpg that will embrace you with the warmth of your childhood, this is the game for you.
Very intriguing game with a good amount of depth, lore, and secrets hidden behind the beautiful graphics. We're highly interested with what is come to next in this series, we definitely recommend this for those that love this art style and type of RPG.
We have to save game before every fight as it kicks us out after almost every fight. Darn it all.
Idk if we will play it Im just looking for something to play while listening to an audio book.
Can definitely tell this game has lots of love put into it. Props to the creator, will definitely look forward to future updates/future projects you do.
Very jealous and very happy this exists. Its the type of game we all dream of making as a solo person its been wonderful so far we hope it does well enough you can do it again.
Fun game with interesting graphics and depth.
Excellent gameplay , history all.
If you like CRPGs but dont like making them YOUR WHOLE LIFE, Caves of Lore strikes a nice balance of playability and depth. Nothing groundbreaking here, but what is here is fun and the interface makes an epic game feel cozy on your phone. Im ten hours in and still having fun.
Cant say enough about this game. Very complex, a you tube walk thru on some parts would be great. But there are many many hours of hunting and figuring it out. Reminds us of EverQuest in ways.a couple of the zones you will find yourself in will rock your world. A few things made us scratch our head and curse (the moon system) but elation and satisfaction came once you figure it out. Couldnt have spent so little for so much period.
Love the game thus far! There is so much depth to the loot, gameplay and secrets to discover. The old school 8-bit aesthetic is one of our favorites. One gripe is the massive amount of battery drain. Even playing a short 30 minute session drains our iPad pro battery by 30 to 40% and it would be good to see some optimization done here.
Its fun, plain and simple. Its everything we loved about CRPGs but now we can take it anywhere, play short sessions while Im at work, pick up and put down without worrying with the autosave feature. But even better than that – the dev is awesome. We DMed two small suggestions on quality of life improvements literally 2 weeks ago, and theyre already implemented in this update. This dev is incredible and so is the game. Buy it.
Very captivating, great world building, fun combat, tons of build variety, 5 stars easy.
Very immersive. When first downloaded, decided to try it out for a minute and realized we had been playing over an hour. Lots to explore, people to talk to and items to find. Gave us a little nostalgia as a kid from the 90s. Great game all around.
Props to the dev for getting this whole thing off the ground on their own, and even more so because its actually a really good game. We hope this takes off so we can see future updates and more titles in the future! We need more crpg on mobile.
Really fun game. From what we understand there is a PC version of the game, and we think itd be nice if they brought over the wish console command mechanic because sometimes there are minor bugs or misclicks that could be rectified with that. Other than that wouldnt change a thing about this game.
THIS is a beautiful call back that makes us reminisce about dungeons and dragons when it first came on the scene of RPG. We're only at the very beginning of the very first cave to explore and we are completely hooked. The pixel art is adding to the throwback feel. Haven't tested the new joystick update that just dropped but was ironically thinking we wish it had an option to slow down the movement. It felt a little twitchy and overreactive. So far we are 100% in with this feel good adventure.
This is exactly the in depth, old school RPG that Ive been searching for on iOS for years. It has the charm of old Ultima games, plenty of depth without being overwhelming, but also plenty of quality of life features that weve come to expect in modern games. We cant recommend it enough.
Truly worth the price, as this game is a gem. For a mobile game its feels complete and something we can get lost in for hours.
Picture the scene: youve had a long day at work and you are taking the bus home. You are faced with a dilemma: what game should you choose to play on the bus. You want something to bring you back to your childhood, when you didnt need to worry about taxes. Introducing: caves of lore. We never write reviews on App Store but this game is above and beyond. The puzzles dont insult your intelligence, the story is involving, and there is better gameplay than even some AAA games. All in all, a wonderful game well worth your time.
Excellent rpg with great graphics, sound, and leveling by doing system we liked so much in Skyrim. It has the feel of being made by someone who has played a lot of this type of rpg and has put all the best features from the genre together.
This is simply a great CRPG. As an avid enjoyer of pixelated turn-based RPGs, the moment we saw this game we knew we had to buy it. The world building is nice and simple. Each puzzle is similar yet different, keeping you guessing to find everything. Definitely recommended to anyone who loves to read about the lore in a game, but can still be played without looking too deep into everything. The gameplay and ambience are nice and there is just so much to explore and obtain considering that this was created by a single developer. Definitely worth your money if you enjoy games like these.
A rarity on iOS, a old school RPG with the scope and scale of Baldurs Gate and the retro charm of the 8-bit Ultimas. Not for the faint of heart, the systems are deep, the volume of items, skills, spells, abilities and tactics may be daunting for the casual player. Loving it.
There are plenty of choices to start the game and Im excited to play more.
Ive waited years for a good Ultima-style CRPG to hit mobile. Id rather despaired of it happening. The SaGa games give you part of the vibe that ability to wander and still feel youre knocking down milestones. But the sense that it was all adding up was missing. The deep lore and dialogue, that repeated exposure to riddles that you know you must revisit once you acquire more information about the world. And its so streamlined and accessible, without giving up its promises of inscrutable mysteries. We are thrilled that this game exists.
Ill start by saying we dont ever write reviews, be it iOS games all the way to steam but we wanted this developer to know his years of hard work are appreciated. Ive been a fan of D&D style/old school rpgs for awhile and Ive been trying our best to find something to scratch that itch on IPhone and this is it. Ive only gotten to Act two thus far but Ive enjoyed every second. We hope he continues to update the game and add new features and spells.
Fantastic streamlined pixel crpg. We wish there were more games like this on iOS. The price is well worth it. Keep up the good work.
The graphics are surprisingly beautiful and artistic for pixels, and the gameplay is smooth and intuitive. Its very fun and interesting. Looking forward to many many hours of gameplay.
Its a Friday night in 1994. Your mom said you can rent one video game from blockbuster. At the store, you look around for whats new and you end up zeroing in on an RPG youve never heard of before because, hey, you liked exploring caves, killing monsters, learning magic, leveling up a party, and decking them out in mystic loot as much as a next kid. And the box art said it all. It might have come with a manual, or it might not have. It didnt matter because figuring it out was half the fun; there was no internet to speak of, no strategy guide – there was just you, your friends, and your collective thirst for investing hundreds of hours conquering a sprawling and unforgiving fantasy sandbox that you knew would actively try to conquer YOU. And it ended up being one of your favorite games ever. Caves of Lore is that. It respects your intelligence and demands to be -played-, not just clicked on. Never stop looking for clues. Dont ignore the dialog. Subtle solutions are hidden everywhere and if youre not paying attention to your surrounding youre going to get mercilessly thrashed – just like a real amnesiac trapped in a underground death maze.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.8.3
- Size: 907.09 MB
- iOS: 12.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: TILT Games LLC
Last updated: 14th November 2025 | Genre: Strategy, Roleplaying | Developer: TILT Games LLC