Lately, I've been playing Orna, an RPG-style phone game in which your character moves around in the game world when you, the player, move around in the real world. E.g., in the picture below that looks like a map, you can see my game character (the little guy in the middle with the purple hair) walking the streets, stalked by a blue troll, a green goblin, a big blue genie, a big spider, a little spider, and other monsters. But somebody who knows my neighborhood really well might look at that map and say "Oh hey, that's where Carl Street makes a dogleg turn and becomes Irving Street" because I am causing the little purple-hair guy to walk around by walking myself around my neighborhood, close to that dogleg turn. (Looking at that map, you'll also see big text saying "Calls and texts will vibrate." That's not part of the game. That's a side effect of me trying to take that screen picture and pressing the wrong button because I'm not good at phones, apparently.) I've been enjoying this game the same way I enjoyed…uhm, another game that I played many years ago on Game Boy back when that was a thing, which was oh gee whiz about 20 years ago uhm well anyhow maybe it's not surprising I don't remember the name of the game that Orna reminds me of. Dragon Quest, maybe?
Unlike other move-around-by-walking phone games I've played, there's plenty to do if you're sitting still. Much of the game activity involves beating up on monsters. As you might have figured out from the aforementioned goblin, troll, genie, and spiders: there is no shortage of monsters in this game. If you don't go to the monsters, they will come to you. But I don't tend to play sitting down. I mostly play while I'm walking around because that's still how I spend my mornings: getting some exercise by walking around streets in my neighborhood, eager for a phone game to hold my attention.
There's a lot to the game, but fortunately you don't have to figure out everything at first. As you go along, you encounter dungeons, quests, PvP fights, a fishing mini-game, guilds, land-capturing… I mean, I've heard this is true—but I haven't tried to figure out guilds or land-capturing yet, and I'm still having a good time. There's variety—I don't enjoy that fishing mini-game, but I can avoid it without ill consequence. Anyhow, if you start playing the game on my recommendation and/or are already playing and I know you, we should form a "party" (a collection of characters who can help each other out); you can add lahosken to your party; or tell me your character's name and I'll add you. Yes, play Orna, recommended for fans of a game which may or may not have been Dragon Quest (but with optional walking around).
