Phone game recommendations

[commandercool]

Last week my crappy old Android phone broke, and yesterday I got its replacement, a Samsung Galaxy S2, hooked up and working. The previous phone didn't really have the processing power or battery life to handle games, but this one does, so I'm looking for something I can download to play on breaks at work or other periods of down time. Ideally I'm looking for something with these criteria:

-Free, or at least inexpensive. I don't think phone games tend to be expensive, so I don't imagine this will be a problem. Anything that's in-app-purchase-heavy is probably out, though.

-Reasonably deep, but not too grindy or technical. I want something I can play consistently for a while without getting bored of it, but not something that I'll have to invest time in outside of fifteen minutes once a day or so to enjoy.

-Doesn't require anything peripheral to play well. I'm not going to bother carrying around one of those snap-on gamepads or anything, since at that point I might as well be playing a real console. So something that's satisfactory with just a touchscreen is good.

Anybody have any ideas?

[Jana]

There's a few threads for phone games floating around, Puzzles and Dragons is the biggest but I didn't stick with it cuz I suck at puzzles. 2nd biggest seems to be that Love Live game, which I haven't tried myself, so people from those threads can probably tell you more about how p2w they may or may not be.

As for games I am playing, I mostly just do Moe Can Change, a cutesy dressup game; 0 commitment required cuz I don't like spending too much time on the phone, and Chaos Drive, a card battle game with real-time PvP, which tends to hand out premium stuff like candy. (Also if you decide you like either one you should totally ask me for my referral code ;w; )

Edit: I also installed PSO2es yesterday, mostly for the purpose of buying money-items to use in the PC MMO proper without any markup, but it's a fun game in its own right.

[commandercool]

There's a few threads for phone games floating around, Puzzles and Dragons is the biggest but I didn't stick with it cuz I suck at puzzles.

I downloaded and have been tooling around with Puzzles And Dragons, but it's not great so far. It's monstrously (and so far, seemingly arbitrarily) technical. The puzzle part seems kind of fun, but the RPG elements have me worried based on how JRPG-in-a-bad-way they seem like they might be.

2nd biggest seems to be that Love Live game, which I haven't tried myself, so people from those threads can probably tell you more about how p2w they may or may not be.

Probably avoiding for thematic reasons.

As for games I am playing, I mostly just do Moe Can Change, a cutesy dressup game; 0 commitment required cuz I don't like spending too much time on the phone,

Again, probably not because I would feel weird playing that.

and Chaos Drive, a card battle game with real-time PvP, which tends to hand out premium stuff like candy. (Also if you decide you like either one you should totally ask me for my referral code ;w; )

Mmmmaybe? I'll look into it I guess.

Edit: I also installed PSO2es yesterday, mostly for the purpose of buying money-items to use in the PC MMO proper without any markup, but it's a fun game in its own right.

I had to Google that to figure out what it was, but I've never played anything Phantasy Star before. Maybe?

[Third Eye Lem]

I'd suggest Brave Frontier, but good luck getting any of the higher level units without throwing some money at the game (otherwise you gain gems at an astronomically slow rate). I do enjoy it for the combat system, it's very much Valkyrie Profile with elements of Pokemon thrown in. At least try it.

Angry Birds Epic is probably a "better" example of how to do a mobile turn-based RPG right, the controls are simple and the paid elements are mostly to get new materials (for weapons, armor and healing items) more quickly. Also, it's colorful cartoon birds vs. green piggies in a setting that isn't a puzzle game or a silly cart racer!

[MatsuriSakuragi]

Come play Dragon Poker.

EDIT: I've also got a fair bit of mileage out of:
Puzzle and Dragons (which you said you didn't want)
LoveLive! School idol festival (rhythm game)
Nanaca Crash! (a classic made mobile)
Plague Inc. (you are an epidemic. kill the world.)

[Jana]

I had to Google that to figure out what it was, but I've never played anything Phantasy Star before. Maybe?

PSO2es is directly tied to the main PSO2, and it is a bit of a commitment because the game is only in Japanese (unless you live in the SEA regions). I wouldn't want that to deter anyone who likes action gameplay, and it combat isn't too shabby in the cell phone version!

[Labuto]

There are some danmaku games in the market now. For example there is 9彈幕 and 彈幕遊戲 both of which are nice time wasters.

[Conqueror]

Nethack for phone.

[Pesco]

Who dis scrub friend requesting me on PAD :V

[Aba Matindesu!]

Love Live School Idol Festival. While actually winning events and stuff will require you to time everything you do down to the last second, the game overall is fun and has a huge selection of songs, and you are not by any means required to grind so hard.

Edit: I also installed PSO2es yesterday, mostly for the purpose of buying money-items to use in the PC MMO proper without any markup, but it's a fun game in its own right.

Wait what? You can buy AC in PSO2es?!

[Jana]

Yeah, and without the markup of using a webmoney service. 1000AC for 1080 yen (80 tax) equaled $10.54 USD.

[Suikama]

this is the only game you will ever need