Last updated on February 17th, 2026 at 01:20 am
Crowntakers – The Ultimate Strategy RPG – Roleplaying Game Review
Crowntakers – The Ultimate Strategy RPG is a Roleplaying/Strategy game from Kalypso Media Group GmbH, first launched in 31st March 2015.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 225+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Crowntakers – The Ultimate Strategy RPG Stand Out
Dark times are imminent: the king’s abduction throws a once peaceful land into turmoil. Being the chosen one elected by the king himself you embark on an adventurous journey to free him from the hands of the evil duke.
But time is of the essence!
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Features
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- Roguelike turn-based strategy meets RPG on a hexagonal battlefield.
- On every game start the world is rebuilt with different environments and encounters;
- More than 4 diverse and procedural environments
- Hire 9 individual mercenaries to take on bandits, wildlife and malevolent knights
- Utilise the unique class skills of the archer, wizard, scout and others
- Gather resources, level-up your companions and collect mighty equipment
- Alternative endings
Will you save the king before the time runs out?
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What the Media says
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„Crowntakers strikes a really good balance between simplicity and complexity. It has just as much pick up and play appeal as lighter roguelike fare while offering a bit more to chew on.“
Shaun Musgrave, toucharcade, 4,5/5 stars
„Crowntakers is a tough combination of turn based strategy and Roguelike. It's quite satisfying, though.“
Jennifer Allen, 148Apps, 4/5 stars
„How many acronyms can you cram into a single game? Crowntakers is a PDL TBS RPG (that is, a procedural death labyrinth role-playing game with turn-based strategy combat) (…) and it’s really good fun if you like games like Final Fantasy Tactics.“
Michelle Star, CNET
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User Ratings
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5/5 – If you like turn based tactical medieval rpg's get this. Not as much story/length as final fantasy tactics, but frankly on iDevices I consider that a win. Bite sized battles, winnable in a day on easy, challenging on hard, good replay value. Only crashed once on 1st gen mini
5/5 – This is worth your money. You get a polished game, tactical battles, and thoughtful choices in exploration. Also big points for splitting the game into two difficulties. One being sort of roguelike with permadeath and the other much more RPG without permadeath and with consistent leveling. If you're thinking about this one, you'll probably thoroughly enjoy it like I do!
5/5 – This game should get much more hype. I've been playing it non-stop in my free time for over a week. Despite some bugs (which the dev's have been very quick to address), Each game feels quite different with the random locations within areas, random loot and different party builds. It's not easy at first, but learning different strategies as you go is enjoyable. Highly recommend this game!
5/5 – Big fan of this game. The battles are very tactical and the map navigation is really streamlined and fun to explore. This is a good one for any rogue-like fans. It's not super punishing, but it does present a nice challenge on the normal mode (haven't beaten it yet, but I hope a hard mode unlocks after doing so).
This Roleplaying game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Crowntakers – The Ultimate Strategy RPG is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 3rd April 2017
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
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Download & Availability
Crowntakers – The Ultimate Strategy RPG is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Crowntakers – The Ultimate Strategy RPG 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:
The game is great we love the art style and fighting mechanics. Turn based strategy very cool. Honestly we find normal difficulty too hard. We could get to stage 4 but there just werent enough items / gold to get by. Gold seemed always in short supply. Anyway easy is fun and more progressive. Game is like Heroes of Might and Magic, good stuff.
Great game. We beat it on Android awhile ago. Bought it for IOS to beat again.
Im looking for a few things from RPGs that this delivers real good. Theres some challenge, but its not a pure exponential numbers game where you just need to grind to get your numbers higher. It is a roguelike in that the battles and maps are randomly generated, and you are likely to lose a few times before you figure out how to win. Thats a key part of the game. However its not a roguelike like nethack: its not infinitely deep and detailed. Which is good for us because we dont have time for an insane learning curve right now. The UI is well designed and quick enough. It hasnt been updated in a while so it doesnt fill our screen, but its still quite pretty. No prob. We might play this occasionally for months.
This is a highly playable game with some really fun strategic elements. It could use some additional content and we have been unable to access the end game content as the program crashes every time at that point. However, even without it the game is well worth the time and money.
Lots of fun and some unique twists. A bit buggy on our iPad Pro, but nothing major (mostly music cutting out in Viking stages).
We download and play lots of strategy games on iOS, and most of them we dont play for more than a couple minutes before uninstalling. This is one of those rare ones that hooks us so much that we even play it at home when we could be playing dota. Just an amazing game, up there with kingdom rush as one of the greatest ios strategy games ever. Wish there was more content.
When we read "quirky" to describe an app's attributes, we think of Tweak from FC5. This is a game where we are able to use that word and positively. Like real life, money sometimes talks (and so do items). Gameplay on normal, at least when starting out, often relies on a single item to break through enemies. We don't know if enemy strength accumulates through all stages over time, but instead of bribing we tried to keep the experience coming and our party of three got flattened by a train of several logarithmically buffed heavily armored guards. Strangely, we see this as a lesson learned. We don't want the gameplay changed; we took time to gather extra resources and that was the result. However it would be nice to see visited areas marked visually (as double checking costs in-game time) and at least have a peek at upcoming unit strengths so we could plan. We'll check the in-game jester-wiki if those features are there. Great hybrid game for jaded veterans! Update: The game blooms like a rose after 3-4 characters unlocked, and its hilarious tactical fun once fully upgraded characters combo with others. We would recommend suffering through normal; getting the first mercenary is so much sweeter once finally achieved. Unless you do everything using measuring tape, you will die huge amounts of times. Hurrying DOES pay off. Mysterious little items and locales keep popping up to liven up the fun. We love how potions normally used in battle can guarantee or enable new results in buildings. End-game runes are great too. P.S. Can you fix saving on iPhone X? You have to exit the app after doing so.
Wish there were more like it in the App Store.
Fun game to play. We like easy mode, characters are fun and you don't have to worry about saving progress. Wish it was a bit longer but still happy with it.
They call it rogue but its more of a simplified tactics game. As you play you are presented a chance to unlock more mercs and there are three different versions of each that get unlocked as you use them. High replay value. If you want a new feel in a tactics style system then its worth the money. It can be hard as you learn but gets easy as you optimize how to play. Edit: we love the mashup of old nes tunes for the dlc fight theme (we will keep the songs unnamed).
Runs well, provides a fun, tactical challenge, loads of replay value. It's perfect. 5/7.
We love this game. We have beat it nine or ten times and it doesnt get old. To be clear: we dont play intense action games, we just like simple, thoughtful games that require strategic thinking and decision making. The battle system in this game is perfect for that kind of thing. Furthermore, the enemies in the game level up as you spend time moving on the map. In most RPGs, it pays to explore everywhere, but in this game, you must carefully weigh the costs of meandering lest your enemies surpass you in strength.
The reviews are overwhelmingly positive, and they should be! The negative seems to be entirely about how you can lose, and how hard the game is. Even the professional toucharcade review claimed it was hard. However, if you have basic familiarity with resource management and strategy, the game is remarkably easy. It's terrible to say, but the game is just TOO easy. It needs a "hard" difficulty. We beat it on our second play on Easy difficulty (almost won on the first play through), and now that we beat Normal, we beat it every time with an epically overpowered party. You have to set self-challenges like "all meleers" if you want it to be hard. One ranged character can kill infinite enemies.
Too many hours on this game. It's a learning process and you'll die a lot. We appreciate a game you just can't faceroll through. Great RPG mechanics and each time you play, things are randomized so it's never monotonous. Try it out.
All great game details are found here in this game. Buy and enjoy.
This is a super fun little strategic time waster. Yay.
Long time we dont spend so much time in a game! In love with the battle mechanics.
Fun affordable game for the ios. Unfortunately it can be a tad buggy but its usually not game breaking. We think its a little misleading, easy mode should be called normal and normal mode in the game should be called hardcore mode. Fix that, the bugs, and the ending and Id change our rating to 5 stars.
We would have given 5 stars were it no for a couple of crashes. But we highly recommend this game. It is fun and although you keep dying and having to start over, it is kept interesting because you u lock different archetypes of your character and the mercenaries you pick up on the road to save your father. We do wish you got to choose more than one character. Does the king really only have one son and (spoiler alert! The son has an evil twin) Now that the king is saved , he and the queen need to get to business and make more heirs to the kingdom. For Crowntakers 2.
We sincerely disagree with some of the reviews Ive seen. Saying its imbalanced. We played the hardest difficulty and completed the game on our 3rd try. Not sure about how good the other reviewers are in terms of turn based games, but we consider our self amateur and we beat it so yeah. Now for the entire campaign, it crashed on us at least 10 times. Maybe more. So hence the 4 stars. Keep up the good work.
Fun little game. Lots of replay out of it. +1.
Story and controls are good. Movement fritzes during battle mode now and then but otherwise enjoyable game.
Its a good game that is a bit less complicated than other rogue-like games. It is more like Out There instead of FTL, but it is a lot of fun. One downside is that it has bugs. We have the DLC and am still unlocking all the mercenaries. But if you have a quest open to unlock a mercenary, the game will crash if you try to enter the Necropolis at the end of Step 2. It crashes every time, and re-installing the game will not do anything except cause you to lose the mercenaries you unlocked and your progress thus far. We learned this the hard way.
This game is great. Its right up our alley in terms of depth, the gameplay and the customization of playthroughs is wonderful. However, it crashes a whole lot. Specifically, it crashes every time we try to sell any item. This makes the game obnoxiously difficult, since we are unable to free up inventory space or make some gold when we need it. Its also quite frustrating. Please fix this! We play on an iPad mini.
In an otherwise polished game heres bug after in-app purchase: trying to enter Necropolis with Malda always crashes. 5 stars for a fix, but dev seems to have stopped on this :(.
We were very excited for this game, especially because of the high review scores and comparisons to great rogue-likes, like FTL or Dead Cells. Overall, we think its worth buying, but it does have a few kinks that need to be worked out. Unfortunately, while the game does have some great mechanics and combat, these mechanics are often obfuscated or simply unexplained at all. Enemy special attacks, movement range, and abilities are always hidden, making battles as much about trial-and-error and memorization as strategy or planning. Likewise, important facets of the game are vaguely represented, like the daily callout that enemies are getting stronger. How are they getting stronger? Higher HP? More damage? More enemies per fight? How much stronger? And then there are the apparent bugs. Missing mercenaries upon reloading a save or entering combat, using a potion with no effect, etc. Last, but not least, theres no real penalty for taking as much time as you want: we think the games time pressure is more smoke than fire. We think this could be a stellar game, but it needs work. For now, its 4/5.
The randomness of the game and character acquisition is highly addictive.
Finally there is a decent game to play on our iPhone.
One of the most fun games we've played bought the DLC unfortunately it crashes every time we try to enter the portal of the DLC but the original game is solid.
We did really like this game but calling it an rpg is incorrect. It has the battle mechanics of like a banner saga ( which we like) but there are no role playing mechanics. The armor/weapons are all the same in terms of how you upgrade, only ability to customize is in gems with different perks. You cant change how the armor/weapon looks. Also your main character is always a warrior, you can change some of his abilities but you cant make him an archer or mage. You have to choose which companion is good at which task despite the companions never talk or interact with you so we have no idea how you would know one is good at singing and one is good at chess besides googling. The companions dont talk to you and have no interaction. All the other choices are search the cave/hut or whatever for 9 hours and get more stuff or search the cave for 2 hours and get less stuff. Normal is too hard for relaxing play, which is what we want in a phone game. If we want something stressful/intense Ill play a fully fledged PC game. But easy is too easy to be rewarding. Its that ridiculous easy lets you skip end of level bosses. Normal should be hard and there should be an actual normal difficulty level. Lastly, when we finally finished the game on normal ( which is harder than it sounds because of permadeath and items/XP not transferring to new character) the game cut out so we didnt even get to see the ending, and not enough people play so we could easily find spoilers about ending online :(.
Fun, short game with lots of replayabilty value, but it crashes all the time, especially just after killing a boss (meaning you have to kill it again). Super annoying, but gameplay is still addictive enough to keep us playing.
This game had so much promise but the execution is average, bordering on lazy bad. Ive developed games for over 12 years in this industry and its a shame really you have instant kill, no save. Yes you allow for experience to stay with characters which is good, but then you make it next to impossible to make enough money to buy food to get HPs back. How lame is it that when we spend 2gp for rest that our characters are not refreshed as well?? Simple things are overlooked and dying a third time on easy mode means the game is too hard and not balanced properly. We give 3 stars for the effort as it had promise, but Im done now. Hopefully the rest of the developer games are not like this. Suggestions to fix game are; make food and drink available at all taverns (not limited) and allow full health restore at rest stops. Id have given you a 4-5 star just with those. We know you can patch it btw and if you do, we might be back.
The game needs to be longer. Better story line. A for effort. A for design, C for story line. This is not similar to final fantasy tactics despite what some of those reviews said. Maybe the mechanics in battle are similar but overall, it needs more work to be a great game.
Great game, very addicting and fun, the only thing is when we save and quit the screen freezes and Im forced to close the game and reopen it. Thankfully it saves but thats the only bad thing about this game, if it wasnt for that Id give it 5 stars.
Just no. Couldn't get into it. Probably a decent game, just not for us.
- 10 unique characters with unique skills Challenging gameplay Well animated, composed – Story is an afterthought Loses charm after several playthoughs Short game (probably 2 hrs) = Good for a fix, but leaves you craving more Usually these games are almost un-lose-able at the beginning, so we started playing in the Normal mode (other option is Easy, there is no Hard). We died in the second battle. And dying means dead, as in that is the end for your gameplay; start over. So we appreciated that the game would be challenging. Unfortunately one of the reasons it is challenging is due to the lack of introduction within the game. Once you work out the mechanics, the game eases up. One of the interesting aspects is that there is quite a bit of variability between gameplays. You might be blocked off from advancing on the map by an enemy right away, or you might be able to navigate around them and power up from the stores making for an easier fight. And the powerups at the stores can be very different, allowing you to try different techniques one gameplay verses another. That said, that randomness keeps the game interesting for only so long. Although there is an expansion pack, the story in the version you bought already is so unimpressive we are wary to see what else these creators have. A Hard mode would help here. Too bad, because we didn't unlock all the characters, much less their skills. There are 10 characters and the IAP unlocks an 11th. The characters are pretty unique with a variety of special powers, so you can tinker with a party strategy for a very different playthrough. Overall, a well put together game suffering from a too short gameplay and lousy story. You may enjoy for a little bit but will probably move on after a few plays.
We REALLY want to like this game…. But it just crashes WAY too often, sending you back multiple moves (sometimes multiple battles). Since it hasn't been updated for 2 years now, and with the amount of other players bringing this issue up, we really doubt the devs care about it enough to even attempt to fix it. You'd be better off spending your money in the AppStore on something that actually works like it's suppose to.
We've played the game at least 15 times on hard level. Never got past step 4. So make whatever assumptions about our skill or saltiness if you choose to keep reading. Resources are hard to come by. You get very little gold to purchase items and few items to purchase. So you're faced with steadily declining hit points for your party. Either you don't have enough food or you don't have enough food to purchase food. If you sirens time walking around the map looking for towers to search, you get penalized by enemies getting stronger. You get these mushrooms with no way of finding out whether they are helpful or harmful unless you Google it. What game makes you go outside of the game for vital information? Multiple times we've accidentally moved a character when we thought we were setting which direction they would face. We didn't realize they still had action points for whatever reason our character in the start menu is level three. No idea how he got to that level. No sense of progression in spite of the defeats. Overall there is nothing compelling enough about this game to make us figure out how to save the King.
Needs a quit button. Needs a way to speed up animations. On replay it is tedius to watch fight animations. Too short. Otherwise great.
The bug where we always crash when entering the graveyard chapter has not been fixed for more than a year.
The game is very fun when it works, but it crashes often and there are some UI bugs. The worst is the add-on. We paid for the Necropolis add-on but when we opt to enter the portal to the additional content, the game simply force quits. Great potential, really disappointed.
…and you're Bill Murray (but not in a cool way); add in the tv episode of Community "Digital Estate Planning" (the 8 bit video game sequence) and that sums up the game. We like the general game play (exploring and fighting); but you have to keep dying over and over and over again, just to advance the story. And when you die, you have to start all over again at the beginning. Getting bored with it already.
Our only complaint. We probably won't finish the game and feel like we wasted our money because we don't want to keep starting over from the beginning and go back through all the things we've already done. Would be a great game were it not for that.
This game has great art and is fun. But, having a save function is a horrible tease when you die, in-game, and find that your progress has been erased/nullified. Maybe that's a "style" of game… But we don't want to lose 900 times to MAYBE complete the story. As they say: the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Make the save meaningful, and we'll reconsider our rating.
The game play is okay and we agree with most of the positive comments. However, it is a very unstable game that will load sometimes, will not load other times. Other problems include what appear to be glitches in the game progression loading. The fame would load but it wouldn't allow for game play. We had to uninstall and lose all progress. Don't buy the add-on. That also loads about half-the-time and really isn't necessary to advance. We would not recommend this game because of the issues -even though the game play (when you can actually play) is not too bad.
Playing on iPhone X. We have been to necropolis twice in previous runs, but now it crashes every time we try to go there.
Cant survive past the second or third zone, no matter what we do. There is absolutely no way to win; there arent enough options that early to have an actual strategy.
Mess up once or twice early on and youll Be paying for it for the rest of the game.
We dont mind difficulty, but many of the limited encounters seem designed just to make the player angry. Enemies that cannot be hit, bad luck on drops guaranteeing loss in the first few fights, enemies not being seen in the beginning, and enemies disappearing. All the cheap game mechanics are for the bad guys, nothing for the good guys. Maybe if we buy the additional mercenary for yet MORE money for a game we already paid for. Gatcha garbage, play literally anything else.
We just bought this and was having fun. But we bought the dlc for 2 bucks because we liked it so much. Now when we click on the necropolis it just crashes every time. So now that we spent more money on the game it just wont work. So cool we guess. Hope they fix it so we dont feel like we completely wasted our money. We would def give this a 4-5 star rating if it worked . Is there anyway to get our money back if this cant be fixed.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.2.7
- Size: 662.39 MB
- iOS: 6.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, IT, JA, KO, RU, ZH, ES, ZH
- Content Advisory: Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Kalypso Media Group GmbH
Last updated: 3rd April 2017 | Genre: Roleplaying, Strategy | Developer: Kalypso Media Group GmbH