Last updated on November 29th, 2025 at 03:49 am
Empires & Puzzles: Match-3 RPG – Puzzle Game Review
Empires & Puzzles: Match-3 RPG is a Puzzle/Casual game from Small Giant Games Oy, first launched in 1st March 2017.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 96,560+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Empires & Puzzles: Match-3 RPG Stand Out
Epic heroes, monsters and action await in this beautiful, tactical match 3 game!
Featured by Apple!
"A challenging game of strategy and puzzles"
"We're impressed by this epic match-three adventure"
Players are saying:
"Awesome game. This will keep me busy for months!"
"Really fun, great production values!"
Empires & Puzzles is a completely new take on puzzle games, combining match-3 battles and building a mighty stronghold – topped with thrilling PVP duels and RPG elements. Join the battle now!
• Match – Send your troops charging by making amazing combos!
• Build – Rebuild an immense war fortress!
• Collect – Summon hundreds of powerful heroes and troops!
• Raid – Fight in PvP battles against players from around the world!
• Upgrade – Level up your heroes, buildings and special powers!
• Team Up – Fight mighty Titans with your Alliance!
• Amazing Graphics – Experience detailed monsters, heroes and visual effects in a majestic fantasy world!
Empires & Puzzles is FREE to download and includes optional in-game purchases (including random items). Information about drop rates for random item purchases can be found in-game. If you wish to disable in-game purchases, please turn off the in-app purchases in your phone or tablet’s Settings.
This Puzzle game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Empires & Puzzles: Match-3 RPG is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 6th November 2025
Recent improvements include:
∙ Our amazing Black Friday Summon returns with a preview of the upcoming Shady Scoundrels family!
∙ The brave Musketeers are joined by new heroes, both beautiful and beastly, in an updated Alliance Quest
∙ Assist Dragons in War and Tournament earn their own rewards!
∙ The next treasures to arrive via Secret Summon go above and beyond. Aether Mimics are coming!
∙ Various improvements and bug fixes
Download & Availability
Empires & Puzzles: Match-3 RPG is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Empires & Puzzles: Match-3 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:
Impressed with the challenges and everything you have to accomplish to level up. Love the freebies.
We love this game you get to chose if you want adds or not.
This game was awesome and we liked it and want to thank the creator for not putting a timer on the game we're not to good with timed games and it suits us real well so we enjoyed it real well and look forward to playing it anywayi think we're a bit autistic that why we are time sensitive.
The game looked too simple for us and just looking at the store page didnt get us worked up to play, but we tried it as a result of for filling the requirements of another game and we are glad we did. It will now be one of the games we play regularly. Try always to match 4-5 gems in a row when fighting for the bonus special gem and remember that fighting the special monsters on the map are timed so be quick to match your gems. We like games that let you build your characters abilities and this is right up our alley. It is a slow burn game as well.
We dont usually play games like this nor do we like them, but this had been pretty fun. Theres lots of content and decently easy and a good pass time game.
We really do like this game however, while playing others we get the ads for this game and let us tell you, the ads lie. Ever ad we see for E&P make it look as if you get to maneuver in ways that are not true. Every map is just a flat match colors game with little to no true 3D imagery. Still, very fun game.
We like the game keeps you motivated and different tasks or missions keep you interested.
We wish it would let you mute the game during the extremely long and unbearable tutorial mode.
Los juegos de guerra no son parejos ,, los contrarios son ms fuertes que otros el tiempo del tt est mal el tt ataca en ltimo momento ya que no hay tiempo pero ni modo es juego solo por entrenamiento o pasar el tiempo pero es tan bueno como pensaba.
Expensive. We dont mean cash wise. But, the purple bonus power is ridiculously high cost at 10 per level above the standard power. War is, most of the time, completely unbalanced. Finding specific items to level up becomes tedious and annoying. The new map levels are boring. You gave story and a grid to work with. And still havent opened the super difficulty portion of it.
What they advertise is not what you get. You never get the room with the falling rocks where you have to help someone by opening holes.
This game is fun, that about the end of the perks because if you want to compete you will have to pay.and pay a lot so if you dont have deep pockets dont even try the loot system on this game is horrible. If you want to level anything up without paying for it and we dont mean with your time it will take absolutely at minimum a month. By the time you level up a character you earn they are worthless so shine up that debit card real nice and get ready to lighten your bank account. If all of that is ok with you youll have a great time.
Chill city builder that use puzzles to progress a story great to pass time.
Ive been playing this game for over 5 years! The developers do a great job of introducing new features and challenges that consistently keep the game engaging. Its a lot easier for new players to progress than it was when we started.
The game really is straight keeps your occupied for sure but you win money so win win for us.
First off, we love the game, Ive been playing since it was first released, however the ads they show are in no way shape or form what actual game play is.
Could be better. We started this game like maybe 3-4 years ago. It is fun until you get a little more competitive. Every three days (give or take a day) we go through great bouts of bad luck or good luck. But even now after all these years we can tell within the first five moves of pvp whether or not Im going to lose whether not Im stronger or not. After all these years the pattern still the same. We dont mind sinking money into a game, as a matter of fact we have spent quite a bit, but it is not necessary. You can beat a random player or a player who has spent a ton whether or not the RNG decides you are worth it. So enjoy it and dont spend, the outcome will be the same.
Been playing for many years. It was a good game. Then . . . The pay to play kicked in. New characters every year you could only attain via spending lots of money. And the new characters render the abilities of the old characters non existent. Reflect? Nope, their character bypasses. Dispell their buffs? Nope, undisspellable. Damage them? Nope, they have double the health. PvP went to the trash. Pay players achieving 7000 plus power when your line up tops at 5000. We log in for a game or two from time to time. The system was fun. Emphasis on was.
, The game is very addictive. Dont download if you dont have plenty of time to play definitely give it a five star.
Im sure theres glitches. What game doesnt have them? This game keeps us curious about what is next? Working with the best group of players is awesome! Im having so much fun! Oh and we havent spent any $.
Didnt think we liked it, but we fell in love with it. Its an amazing game.
We love match games and when we saw this game on Fetch we just have to have it. We love the gameplay mechanics and how you get stronger as the game progresses. Plus the story is captivating.
We really enjoy this game. Been playing for years. But, the pop ups, constantly in your face, is so annoying. We just want to get in and play the game. Would you please, please stop it? We think all of us, at least a huge majority, would greatly appreciate it. Would love a response.
Fun to play but severely favorable to defense. 4+ year player.
Its a game intended to be played over a LONG period of time. So, if youre RICH, or broke and/or trapped on an island somewhere, youre going to love the light elements of strategy and polished look. However, if youre a busy-body, and looking to kill only a few scraps of free time allotted you in a day youre probably going to become increasingly frustrated in about 2 weeks. Leveling is a SLOW process (see first sentence), and getting a really GOOD cast of heroes takes luck, but most of all patience. What is NOT well advertised is all those 5* heroes they flash in your face have such a small chance of getting summoned (like less than 1% chance). Even if you were to save up all your gems, and pull a 10x, its very likely youll get ZERO heroes of significant value. And when you actually DO get one, it takes a really LONG time to fully level/ascend them (see first sentence). And dont get us started on Raids (PvP) ugh, its 90% based on your boards (which you have minimal control over). You have been warned.
We love the game but lately we cant claim our free gifts and we spend a lot of money but we will not anymore when we go daily streak it says to update in app and we did.we also think we get the same heros all the time and no legendary #5.we also feel like the WAR is not fair with the opponents sometimes mismatch.Thanks for letting us vent.
Empires and Puzzles" stealing money and repeatedly giving the same heroes are common complaints related to predatory monetization tactics in free-to-play mobile games. While the game's mechanics are not a technical scam, they are designed to manipulate players into spending money on a highly randomized, "pay-to-win" system. The summoning system is designed for high spending Extremely low odds for top heroes: The chances of getting a high-tier legendary (5-star) hero from summons are very low, often under 2%. Most of the heroes you summon will be lower-rarity (3- and 4-star) characters. "Maximum RNG" is frustrating: The game developers have stated that the outcome of each individual summon is completely random and independent of prior attempts. This means you are never "due" for a 5-star hero. You can perform hundreds of summons and still not get a legendary hero, which many players find incredibly frustrating and unfair. Duplicates are common: The randomized nature of the summoning system means there's a significant chance of getting duplicate heroes, including ones you already have. The feeling of wasting money on duplicate characters is a frequent complaint from players. New heroes are better than old ones: The game uses a practice known as "power creep," where newly released heroes are significantly stronger than older ones. This creates a never-ending cycle where players who want to remain competitive feel pressured to keep spending money to get the latest, most powerful characters. The game is engineered for spending Pay-to-win dynamics: The game's competitive multiplayer modes, like Raids and Wars, heavily favor players who own the most powerful and rare heroes. It is nearly impossible for free-to-play players to compete at the highest ranks without spending a significant amount of money. Hidden, manipulative tactics: Mobile game monetization practices have been criticized for exploiting human psychology. Tactics can include disguising the true cost of items and presenting constant, aggressive sales pitches. Many players report feeling "hooked" and manipulated into spending, only to find themselves unable to win without doing so. Don't waste your money.
Fun and engaging definitely should give it a try.
This game works if you want something to passively kill the time or if you want to get fully immersed in the lore and minutia of the game – and there's a lot! They got Reddit pages fer cryin out loud.
We love it you can puzzle the board and battle as well best game.
if the freaking sale ad things would NOT pop up after Ive been doing levels or raids for a while.. Like dang, Ive been on the game, why do you need to tell us your sales again!?!! We wish they would only show up when we log on.
Waste money . Spend thousands over the years and useless heroes you get. When you get a good one level up cost you or else it take forever to get ascensions needed to level up but when u done, more stronger heroes . You cant win and with AI, you presume win or lost at the very beginning . Useless.
They paid us to write this review.
Super addicting. Cant break away.
Before we start anything, we need to say, we love this game. We have been playing for a couple years now and you dont need to spend money to advance/enjoy the game if you are patient. There are enough awards and challenges that will boost you up during the game. However, the summons and wars can get really painful. We dont inow how many times we have summon Felton and Treevil. Its always the same heroes. Even when you spend money and purchase a 10 summon you may end up getting 4 of the same hero. And then the wars. We really dont know how it works but we have never been in a winning team in 3 Kingdoms wars. Like how does this work its so weird. We wish instead of introducing new heroes constantly, they would focus on improving these issues.
This game is very intense! If you like battling it out daily to make a life for your people then youll love this game! It keeps you evolve and engrossed in the game.
This game makes us want to smash our phone. Its great until you battle other people. The heros it gives out is lopsided, so you go into battle with 2 of the five different colors and it only gives you tiles of the other three colors that you dont have so you get beat so many times because they continually give you the other colors. Ive spent probably $200 in gems and we cant even get any complimentary heros to play with so its an endless cycle until you rage quit the game. We never write reviews but we would like hopefully save some people from falling into the same trap we did.
Have been playing for a few months and it's becoming clear you have to make purchases to compete. Don't know how much longer we will continue playing.
Ive been playing this game for a while now, and while its definitely enjoyable, the character balance is a major, major problem. It feels like the characters are purposely overpowered to the point of being completely broken, and it really takes the fun out of the game. Whether its for monetization reasons or just poor testing, it creates a frustrating experience, especially in competitive or PvP modes. Occasionally, youll see a balance update, but lets be honest, its usually just a joke. The core issues remain untouched or are barely addressed, and the same broken characters continue to dominate. This game could be great, but until the developers take balance seriously, its hard to fully enjoy. Heres hoping for a real update that actually fixes things.
Naw this game is tuff especially if this a game that u can win money off of by using ur downtime.
We enjoy the game play its a little simple but its not bad.
Really fun game. We genuinely enjoy playing it, building and leveling our team and progressing through missions while also improving our castle. The biggest downside is how insanely cluttered the UI is when viewing your castle. Im not sure why an option to hide all of the offers isnt in the game yet, but it absolutely needs to be.
We like this game and have been playing for years. We dont spend money and found that it makes no difference. Three star are all you get on draws anyway. Very rare to get 4* and impossible to get 5 anymore. We think its a disadvantage to new players.
This game can be played without spending money. But if you want really cool stuff, you could spend.
Buen juego es de lo mejor q e jugado en telephone.
The game is fun to play. You can play with people from around the world, which is also cool.
Easy to learn and adapt to play.
Great game to play, cant seem to put it down, graphics are better than we thought they would be, we enjoy the pace of the gameplay.
We accidentally bought something and now when we go to check the refund policy, it says that we cant refund it even though it was by accident. This app is just money hungry. Im rating it five stars so people can see this.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 81.0.0
- Size: 292.83 MB
- iOS: 13.0 or later
- Languages: AR, DA, NL, EN, FI, FR, DE, ID, IT, JA, KO, NB, PL, PT, RU, ZH, ES, SV, ZH, TR
- Content Advisory: Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Loot Boxes
- Developer: Small Giant Games Oy
Last updated: 6th November 2025 | Genre: Puzzle, Casual | Developer: Small Giant Games Oy