Undead Slayer Extreme review: it's a real action RPG on your device

I normally prefer action RPGs than targeted RPGs on PC, but my preferences usually switch for mobile devices. I’m not fond of playing mobile action RPGs because they feel so limited, but you could say Undead Slayer Extreme is an exception.

Undead Slayer Extreme is an action RPG by NHN Entertainment Singapore that combines Romance of the Three Kingdoms characters with zombies. It puts you in the shoes of Xiahou Dun, younger brother of Cao Cao, the lord of a kingdom that is unfortunately overrun by zombies. Your job is to clear areas invaded by the undead. The introduction makes you curious, but not enough for you to actually care that much about the story. What makes Undead Slayer Extreme interesting, though, is the gameplay.

Yes, I want hack and slash action

What I like about action RPGs is that they seem more complicated than targeted combat system. Interestingly, what made Undead Slayer Extreme workable as a mobile action RPG is that it simplified what I thought was supposed to be complicated.

The controls on Undead Slayer Extreme are simple. You tap on the location you want your character to move to and he automatically attacks every enemy he encounters along the way. You can dodge by double-tapping, activate skills by tapping on the skill icon, or tap-and-holding on the screen to perform a power attack. The challenge in this game is how to efficiently use mobility and resources.

(See: Fantasy Defense 2 review: A reminder that Plants vs. Zombies isn’t the only awesome game of its genre)

Items are dropped by enemies and are automatically picked up. Unlike most RPGs, this game doesn’t have an inventory, so when you pick up an HP regen item, you can’t save it for later. This means you can’t just happily let yourself get hit because you can’t pop a potion later on. Using skills also requires a Soul Stone, which is also dropped by the enemies you kill in-game. You can store and use these when you need them, but you can only hold a maximum of eight Soul Stones at a given time, which forces you to strategize rather than spam spells.

But I’d like to pick up items properly, too

Picking up items can be annoying in Undead Slayer Extreme. First, there are structures that block your view. If an HP regen item falls under a scaffolding, it’s going to be obscured and you will end up blindly running around in search for it. It would be cool if there was at least an indicator of where an item fell or where the character is under scaffolding.