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[Cruxador]

I've seen a lot of ads for that, and mostly disregarded it on the basis of gacha waifus, but is it actually fun as a tower defense game?

[Mephisto]

I think so. I've seen claims that it's perfectly beatable if you either ignore the gacha stuff or stick with the free gacha.

You have a pretty wide variety of towers and, unlike most TD games, towers of the same type are not identical. One healing tower that I've got can double-cast and heal two others at once. The other does something entirely different that I don't recall. One of my "blockers" has a skill that does some kind of counterattack. Another does some kind of AoE.

You've got to keep facing into account as well - there may be multiple mook entry points, requiring you to situate several blockers to cover those areas.

Unlike most TD games, you don't have to (and probably shouldn't) leave a path from the entry point to the exit point.

[Folly]

I've been playing Arknights since launch, and yeah it's got some respectable TD elements. Progressing through the main story I often find that I have to rebuild my loadout and do some critical thinking about how to distribute them before I can clear the level, and then do all that some more before I can get a perfect clear.

But make no mistake, it is very much a gacha kemono waifu collector. Albeit one with a rare emphasis on style and quality over fan service. I've actually got about a dozen pieces of official artwork in my Desktop Wallpaper random cycle folder.

KO KO DA YO!~

[Aoi]

I couldn't really stand Arknights, as the interface annoyed the hell out of me, so I only made it through the first five stages or so... barely out of the tutorial. Also, I had problems speeding up the narrative cutscenes, it was a tossup between t.y.p.e.w.r.i.t.e.r. o.n.e. c.h.a.r.a.c.t.e.r. a.t. a. t.i.m.e. or accidentally                       . I mostly went with the latter, which lead to having no idea what was going on in the story (which sounds like it's largely unnecessary).

Which is a bit of a pity, since the gameplay actually seemed kind of interesting. At least, in a 'I have a fairly limited source of entertainment' sense, which would've been good for my next hearty-expletive 14 hour layover. In China.

[Mephisto]

Also, I had problems speeding up the narrative cutscenes, it was a tossup between t.y.p.e.w.r.i.t.e.r. o.n.e. c.h.a.r.a.c.t.e.r. a.t. a. t.i.m.e. or accidentally                       .

Same. I don't know how I forgot that.

Luckily I think it's the tutorial messages that just get dismissed when tapping. As a TD game, those aren't entirely necessary.

[Aoi]

Also, I had problems speeding up the narrative cutscenes, it was a tossup between t.y.p.e.w.r.i.t.e.r. o.n.e. c.h.a.r.a.c.t.e.r. a.t. a. t.i.m.e. or accidentally                       .

Same. I don't know how I forgot that.

Luckily I think it's the tutorial messages that just get dismissed when tapping. As a TD game, those aren't entirely necessary.

No, but it kind of nice to know what the stuff on the interface is for. I was sitting around in FLL for 11 hours, after getting up at 6AM when I was trying it, so my mental state wasn't the clearest and most patient.

I definitely lost narrative scenes though; I think it operated on a tap-once-to-show, tap-again-for-next system, except it registered my taps twice some 80% of the time.

[Folly]

I've been playing Iron Saga for a couple of months now, long enough to get a good feel for the game I think.

IS is a gacha game about collecting both pilots and mechs, then pairing them up to clear content.
The mechs and pilots each possess unique skills, and a large focus of the game is composing a team that synergises well. Additionally you get several equipment slots which can further augment specific aspects of your pairing. There are a great many options here and it can be very enjoyable to find new ways of refining your team to make them more effective. Unfortunately, this experience is marred by very limited information. You usually only get a vague skill name, and then have to test it out to find out what it does, which can become fairly tedious with the vast array of options laid out before you. There are reviews from other players attached to each mech and pilot which can help cut out much of the guesswork.
My biggest complaint is that progression is a bit slow. Many mechs and pilots don't really start to shine until they've been upgraded, and the materials required to upgrade are not easily farmed. In fact, waiting on the one-time rewards from the frequent events seems to be the main source of upgrade materials. Maxing out a single unit will take multiple weeks, and maxing out an entire team will take months.
Artwork is of high quality. Some of it is fanservice-heavy, but only about 15%, and that can generally be ignored if that's not your thing.
Gameplay is largely auto. Players mostly only intervene to grab occasional powerups or focus a specific troublesome enemy, but most stages can be completed without even doing that much if you've composed a suitable team. But it can be fun to watch and see your crazy combos come together to wreck the enemy mechas in a glorious hail of bullets and explosions.

[Dostoevsky]

I recently gave Iron Saga a whirl as well, had been debating to bring it up here.

The PvP (which thankfully seems to be not a major part of it) definitely has a P2W component what with the progression curve, but there seem to be pretty reliable 'free' strategies available. Balance is pretty mixed, which means that SSS rank mech you get might be quite useless.

The plot is a basically a slurry of political melodrama, anime, aspirations of Cowboy Bebop, sprinkled with the occasional stink of male chauvinism. Could be better, could be a lot worse. Also the translation is sometimes terrible.

My favorite part is probably the sheer variety of units, and that you can use pretty much any of them (to varying degrees of success). Want to use a crummy mass-produced tank on your team? Sure. Some of the lower-ranked units punch way above their weight. There are mechas (obviously the focus), tanks, and aerial units, each with their own basic class aspects (e.g. tanks can reload weapons quickly, aircraft can auto-dodge attacks, mecha get fancy techniques but can be knocked over) and individual unit perks. As Folly notes, the variety is quite vast but the easily-available reviews do help.

Tip: In menus that feature silly eye-candy art, click the button in the lower-left corner to change the portrait to one of your pilots. Thus you can tailor the level of your cheesecake.

[Iduno]

For another little PSP title that totally passed me by, Dungeons and Dragons Tactics is a somewhat faithful recreation of the 3.5 ruleset. It's not great, it takes a fair bit of time to take a turn (you'll be controlling up to 6 characters) and it's certainly not the *entire* ruleset (3.5 got a tiny bit bloated by the end), but it does a thing and does it OK'ish.

If PSP is allowed here, pick up a copy of Unlosing Ranger.

You're a superhero who needs to power up for a big fight to save the world. So, you do the only reasonable thing: grind. You go through turn-based dungeons, fighting monsters, collecting loot, and gaining xp. Sometimes (or often, if you're me), you die and lose your stuff you're carrying, but keep the xp (I think) and whatever you had squirrelled away back at base. Eventually, you defeat the dungeons and the badguy. Also, each dungeon boss is related to the story of the game, which is revealed as you go.

Gameplay is a bit difficult at the start, because you're a scrub. It gets...not easier but more manageable as you (and the character) get better, and the storyline improves as you play (and find out that there is/what is the storyline).

You also, at some point, gain the ability to spend equipment you aren't using anymore to enhance your stats. It's a roguelike made by the people who make Disgaea, and is better than those things would make you expect.

[Folly]

Pre-registration is now open for Final Fantasy Brave Exvius: War of the Visions!

[delphonso]

If PSP is allowed here, pick up a copy of Unlosing Ranger.

I didn't think there were any PSP games I didn't know about, but damn... I'll have to check this one out.

Other PSP recommendations:
Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce, nothing special, but decent Monster-Hunteresque feeling Musou.
Way of the Samurai 1 and 2 have fan translations. I believe 1 is about 90% done while 2 is about half. Not sure how completable they are without knowing a bit of Japanese, but they are doofy fun that you can play for a couple hours.

[Aoi]

Rogue Adventure, available for Android, is a pretty tidy game in the same general genre as Slay the Spire without being an outright ripoff (like three of them I've seen).

That's... about it. It's pretty solid, based on my 10 hours of in-transit today, though I was playing to a background of the Democratic Debate.

A tip though: Turn off your data. It lets you open the chests for free (normally ad-supported), which is kiiiiind of a big deal.

[Frumple]

It's pretty alright, yeah. Some fights can be pretty tough, sometimes you just start crushing. Fairy and robot seem the strongest "builds" at the moment, for what it's worth (especially mixed, using fairy junk generators and robot exhaust scaling). The data thing is a thing, but the game's also kinda' buggy and will often just... stop running the ads anyway part way through a run. Which is nice, heh.

[Aoi]

It's pretty alright, yeah. Some fights can be pretty tough, sometimes you just start crushing. Fairy and robot seem the strongest "builds" at the moment, for what it's worth (especially mixed, using fairy junk generators and robot exhaust scaling). The data thing is a thing, but the game's also kinda' buggy and will often just... stop running the ads anyway part way through a run. Which is nice, heh.

My last stomp of a run had the Fairy Princess that generates pea pods for healing, that card that generates poisonous blooms, and the robot card that generates robodogs based on number of exiled cards. Combo that with the skill that does 1dam per card played, and cap it off with your choice of 'Deal X dam for each card played this turn'. Which is a fairy/robot deck, yeah.

I do wish it played a bit faster, but it's a winner as far as sitting around on a plane is conerned, at least. The buggy ads was a nice bonus.

[Frumple]

Yeah, I've won a run with basically that exact combo. Game's not really set up to handle 20+ robot dogs played in 1-2 turns, heh, on top of other stuff.

Had a pretty nice recent one that was mostly the... forget what it's called, one that duplicates and exhausts and deals damage based on the number of copies in play. Had three or four copies in the deck by the last fight, and it was on an assassin so every third or fourth hit was doing extra percentile damage. Few other multi-hit cards and some other stuff going on, but it basically just shredded everything, heh.

Biggest complaint I have is probably just how long it takes to unlock the other classes, really. Takes a goodly number of wins, even with taking double xp.