15 best gacha games and mobile RPGs for Android

Gacha games are fairly popular these days. The most popular ones have millions of installs and even the smaller ones have loyal fans. The games have a specific style of play. They usually have the old-school, JRPG combat mechanics along with very long storylines, various types of special events, and sometimes there is online multiplayer. However, the hallmark feature of a gacha game is the gacha element.

You summon characters with in-game currency or in-game items (often called pulls). As the game meta shifts, it becomes necessary to build and rebuild your team multiple times and that helps keep things interesting. Plus, once you get a good meta team, the damage you can do is insane.

Some are friendlier with this mechanic than others and that helps separate them from the pack. With that in mind, here are the best gacha games (mobile RPGs) for Android! Please note, free to play games change all the time by adding new events, characters, and mechanics. Most of what we have written here should still apply, but they will all have grown and changed at least a little bit by the time you read this.

The best gacha games and mobile RPGs for Android

Another Eden

Price: Free to play

Another Eden isn’t the most popular gacha game, but it’s actually pretty good. The story writer and music composer are the same guys that did Chrono Trigger. There are actually quite a few odes to Chrono Trigger in the game, including time travel and some other little story and design elements. The gacha element is quite small, but we think it’ll grow over time. The mechanics stray a bit from the traditional mobile RPG. You move around a map and engage in story missions like early console JRPGs instead of the usual mission-style gameplay.

It’s surprisingly good, even if it’s a bit different from most gacha games. The summer 2019 update also added many new story content and gameplay changes.

See also: The best anime games for android

Arknights

Price: Free to play

Arknights is a hybrid of a gacha RPG and a strategy RPG. A lot of the core mechanics are similar. There is a campaign mode, various temporary events, and hundreds of characters to summon. However, the combat is a lot less JRPG and more SRPG. It’s almost like a pseudo-tower defense game in how the combat works and finishing levels are part puzzle and part brute force.

The game also comes with an auto-deploy mode and a surprisingly decent soundtrack. It has the same kind of allure for players as Azur Lane, and there’s a much larger focus on collecting characters than other parts of the game.

If you like the mechanics, but want to try something new, Path to Nowhere (Google Play) has very similar tower defense-style strategy RPG mechanics. We think Arknights is the better game, but choices never hurt anybody.

See also: The best RPGs for Android for both JRPG and action RPG fans

Bleach Brave Souls

Price: Free to play

Bleach Brave Souls is one of several gacha RPGs with a long-running shonen as its theme. We went with Bleach Brave Soul, but you can easily try out Ultimate Ninja Blazing (Naruto), Dragon Ball Legends, and One Piece Treasure Cruise. In any case, Bleach Brave Souls features action RPG mechanics, a fairly solid gacha system, plenty of characters to summon, and even play online PvP if you really want to.

Like most, the grind in this game is a bit intense, and the pull rates can sometimes be a little frustrating. However, with a little patience, you can usually get the big meta pulls when you need them.

See also: The best Android games released in 2020

Fate/Grand order

Price: Free to play

Fate/Grand Order uses the mammoth cast of the popular Fate anime series. Thus, fans of the series should get a good kick out of this one. The game features a surprisingly engaging storyline and soundtrack. Additionally, you get tons of units to summon, plenty of special events, and decent, anime-style graphics.

Most of the complaints we’ve found are the differences between the Japanese and global versions. The Japanese version is a little further along in its development cycle. In any case, Fate/Grand Order is a perfectly good gacha game, even if you don’t know the anime series very well.

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

Price: Free to play

Final Fantasy Brave Exvius is one of a number of Final Fantasy gacha games. Most of them are pretty good, but Brave Exvius is just one step better than the rest. It’s very F2P friendly. Additionally, it comes with a long storyline, tons of units to summon, a lot of special events, and plenty of other things to do. The combat is turn-based JRPG style with the usual array of special abilities.

It also has tons of cross-overs with other Square Enix properties for an extra dosage of nostalgia. The developer, Gumi, also makes the Brave Frontier series. It’s functionally identical to Brave Exvius minus the Final Fantasy part. Some other excellent Final Fantasy gachas include Final Fantasy: Record Keeper and FFBE War of the Visions (a strategy RPG). Square Enix is also highly competitive in this space with Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe.

Fire Emblem Heroes

Price: Free to play

Fire Emblem Heroes is Nintendo’s foray into the gacha games world. Thankfully, Nintendo did a pretty good job. This game is relatively rock-solid with fun, colorful graphics, and tons of stuff to do. There are a variety of characters to summon from the Fire Emblem series. It uses strategy RPG mechanics just like the console games.

We also like the little things about this game. For instance, Nintendo tells you the percentage chances of summoning the really good units. It’s fairly F2P friendly and just straight fun to play. It has an excellent story and gameplay mechanics similar to the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS versions of the game. Nintendo really knocked this one out of the park. Nintendo also does Dragalia Lost (Google Play link), another excellent gacha RPG that you should totally try.

See also: The best strategy RPGs and tactical RPGs on Android

Genshin Impact

Price: Free to play

Genshin Impact is an action RPG with gacha elements. It’s also arguably one of the best of the genre from 2020. The game looks and feels a little bit like Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You can explore every pixel of the landscape and you even get a glider to make travel easier. There is a decent story, a competent soundtrack, and a good selection of characters. The gacha elements are actually quite different.

Like most other games, you earn characters through quests rather than pulling them from tickets. This one is shaping up to be something special if the developers can keep it up. MiHoYo Limited also does Honkai Impact 3rd, another excellent gacha game.

Goddess of Victory: Nikke

Price: Free to play

Goddess of Victory: Nikke is a gacha game with some bullet hell combat mechanics. You do the usual stuff, like summon characters and build a team. In combat, you hide behind cover and shoot your enemies while dodging their bullets. It’s a unique concept in a genre that really needed some unique concepts. Along with the neat combat, there is also a story, decent artwork, and more.

In practice, the combat can be a tad clunky at times. It asks you to do a few different things at once, and some players have found that difficult. Otherwise, the artwork is good, the music is good, and it’s fun to play. It launched in 2022, and there were some release bugs, like random crashes, but those should clear up as updates roll in.

Guardian Tales

Price: Free to play

Guardian Tales is something a little bit different in the gacha games space. It features action-adventure combat where players roam the game world and dungeons to beat bosses, find loot, and gain levels. It boasts a relatively smaller group of heroes (50), but it helps keep the game simple. There are also guilds, PvP, a house-building mechanic, and plenty of missions to play through. There is a lot to like about this one. It plays smoothly and the in-app purchases aren’t too aggressive.

See also: The best and biggest MMORPGs for Android

MementoMori

Price: Free to play

MementoMori is a gacha RPG with some AFK mechanics. We’re a bit weary of putting AFK-style games on a list like this, but people seem to really like MementoMori. Players collect girls who are called witches in the game. Each one has its own backstory to go along with the main story. Collecting the girls, putting together a team, and making your way through the story is the main mechanic.

Combat is mostly AFK-style, where you send your characters in, and they do the rest. The auto-battle has multiple speeds, so you can play as quickly as you want. It’s definitely a chill game where the story matters more than the combat. Those who want more control should look elsewhere.

Princess Connect! Re:Dive

Price: Free to play

Princess Connect! Re:Dive launched long ago in Japan, but it only had its worldwide release in 2021. The game is a light gacha with RPG mechanics. There is a roster of over 50 characters to summon. You can level up each one, equip various gear, and more. Each character has a bond rating that unlocks extra quests and other stuff. This one enjoys a better combat system than most gacha RPGs, online PvP content, and a surprisingly good story and soundtrack. There are some complaints about cheaters in PvP, but otherwise, the game is really good.

See also: The best Marvel games for Android

Revived Witch

Price: Free to play

Revived Witch is the latest game from Yostar, one of the heavier hitters in the gacha games genre. This one has you playing as a young witch who travels across worlds to solve problems. There are the usual gacha elements like summoning companions and story-driven gameplay. The game also features voiceovers for most characters, simple battle mechanics, and a decent soundtrack.

It has the same pitfalls as most gacha games where you may put in a lot of resources and not get the pull you want. The community has also complained about the banner events being a bit too difficult. Still, it’s a game early on in its life so the developer has plenty of time to make changes.

Romancing SaGa Re;univerSe

Price: Free to play

Romancing SaGa: Re;univerSe is a JRPG series from Square Enix wrapped in a gacha format. It has a similar look and feel to most gachas with pixel-art graphics, simple combat mechanics, and plenty of characters to pull. The game boasts deeper than average character growth, a good story, the kind of excellent soundtrack Square Enix is known for, and it’s just an overall good experience. It could use a coat of polish, but that rarely makes the game unfun.

Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2

Price: Free to play

Shin Megami Tensei is a popular jRPG series mostly on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. The mobile RPG is one of the newer entrants into the series. It features over 160 characters to summon and use. Additionally, you get simple jRPG mechanics, plenty of events, and basically all of the other perks of the gacha game genre. You can probably see the pattern by now.

This one also includes decent cut scenes and above-average storytelling, much like its console counterparts. Of course, it also comes with PvP elements and other typical gacha stuff. It’s pretty good, even if it’s newer.

Tower of Fantasy

Price: Free to play

Tower of Fantasy is one of the biggest gacha releases of 2022. It’s heralded as the next Genshin Impact. It’s an action RPG where you roam the world, complete quests, defeat bad guys, and just enjoy exploring things. You get your characters the usual way, and each one has its own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

The game is new, so the developers are still working on things like lag, enemy balance, and other stuff. The microtransactions are slightly more aggressive than Genshin Impact, but the two compare favorably. It’s a reasonably good gacha experience.

If we missed any great gacha games, tell us about them in the comments. You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists.