Epic Seven

Epic Seven is a turn-based hero-collector RPG developed by Super Creative and published by Smilegate Megaport. It launched in Korea in August 2018 and went global on November 8 of that year. What sets it apart from the rest of the genre is the art: portraits, skill animations and story scenes are hand-animated frame by frame, like an anime series.

Combat fields teams of four heroes on a five-element rock-paper-scissors chart. Turn order runs on speed, and plenty of fights come down to who moves first and which buffs and debuffs land before the other side gets to answer.

Past the campaign there are morale-based labyrinths, the Automaton Tower, the Abyss floors and bosses farmed for materials. PvP comes in three flavours, including the real-time World Arena, which anchors an official circuit built around the global Epic Seven Masters league and the E7WC championship.

It is free to play with no entry price and no subscription. The premium currency is Skystones, traded for Covenant Bookmarks to summon heroes; the 5★ rate is 1%, with guaranteed pity at 120 pulls. The shop adds progression bundles, energy (Leifs), cosmetic skins and season passes.

Those Skystones also come from playing. Between daily missions, logins, Arena and the towers, community math puts it around 2,700 a month, roughly one pity cycle every four to six weeks. Money speeds up your roster, but gear is not for sale: sets come from grinding dungeons for randomised substats.

It has been live for more than seven years and still gets full support: updates every few weeks, near-weekly maintenance, new limited heroes, side stories and events. It runs on Android, iOS and Huawei AppGallery, and on PC through Smilegate's STOVE client; there is no Steam version.

It's a good fit if you want tactical turn-based combat and can live with an endgame that is months of gear farming. The opening hours also got friendlier over the years, with Selective Summon and the Moonlight Blessing. If you want fast progress, or PvP without that grind first, this is the wall its community has argued about since year one.