Comparison

Abalon vs Once Upon a Galaxy

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Abalon

Engage in tactical turn-based combat and deck-building adventures in a tabletop-inspired world. Command units, cast spells, and unleash creative combos to outwit opponents. Explore diverse biomes and expand your card collection.

Highlights
  • Turn-based tactical combat
  • Deck building strategy
  • Top-down command perspective
  • Over 500 cards and 225 characters
  • Exploration of fantasy world
  • Dice rolling for encounters
  • Undo failed attacks
Features
Read full description

Welcome to Abalon, a legendary tactical roguelike and deck building RPG! CARDS. DICE. TACTICS. Embark on epic roguelike adventures to explore a tabletop inspired world and discover its secrets. Abalon combines turn based tactical combat with deck building strategy. Defeat monstrous hordes and powerful bosses to reap the rewards of treasures, allies, and spells. Roll the dice and become a dungeon crawling legend! COMMAND LIKE A GOD Command from a top-down perspective that gives you ultimate control over battlefield tactics. Your characters look up to you (literally) as their god to indicate they are ready to receive your orders. Commands are intuitive: Drag cards to cast spells. Drag warriors to enemies to attack. Drag healers to injured allies to heal. Play fast and fluid with 3-5 minute battles and without having to wait for animations. You can even undo failed attacks to try different approaches. Endless possibilities are at your fingertips! OUTWIT YOUR OPPONENTS Defeat overwhelming odds by mastering tactical positions, backstabbing, feinting counterattacks, knocking enemies into allies to trigger combos, leveraging traps for bonus damage and exploiting spell synergies to manipulate the battlefield in your favor. Abalon is deceptively simple to learn with an unrivaled depth of mechanics that are challenging to master. Position matters. Facing matters. Terrain matters. BUILD THE PERFECT DECK Choose compelling characters like squirrel hurling druids, menacing liche kings, psychic lizard wizards and steampunk time traveling rats. Abalon has over 500 cards including 225 hand-crafted characters with distinct strengths and weaknesses. Select your favorite summoner, build your team and construct a deck of 20 cards. Abalon differs from other role-playing games by removing grindy leveling systems in favor of fixed character stats and abilities and interchangeable gear-based upgrades. Use everyone you have and experiment to create unique strategies. UNLEASH CREATIVE COMBOS Combine your units and spells to create game-breaking synergies: Hurl a squirrel at your opponent and command your critter to bite them in the butt. Cast Animal Growth to mutate it into a super hulk squirrel. Then use Breed to multiply it into an army of hulk squirrels and decimate your opponent in the most satisfying way! Discover something new each time you play. EXPLORE. ROLL DICE. MAKE FRIENDS. Explore an ever-changing fantasy world filled with colorful woodlands, frozen peaks, barren deserts, and perilous dungeons. Abalon is rich in lore, both gritty and humorous, and each biome offers its own characters to find and mysteries to unravel. Collect and roll D20 dice to determine the outcome of fate encounters and make friends with charming bears and birthday goblins. EXPAND YOUR COLLECTION Play for free and grow your collection with paid expansions. Abalon is a premium CCG and RPG that respects your time and money. There are no ads, randomized booster packs, cards to dust, or grinding to level up. Each expansion contains a curated set of content so you know what you are paying for upfront. Like a board game hobby, Abalon’s expansions enhance your existing content. We aim to support the game’s development for the next 10 years and beyond with additional cards, challenge modifiers, game modes and more for infinite replayability. PLAY ON ANY DEVICE ANYTIME ANYWHERE Abalon offers a true cross-platform experience with support for phones, tablets, computers, TVs, portrait and landscape orientations and offline play. ABOUT D20STUDIOS We’re a passionate indie game team who aim to inspire creativity, critical thinking and positive community in people around the world. We value player-driven development, quality products and excellent customer service, and we’d love to hear how we can make your Abalon experience exceptional. Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios Email: contact@d20studios.com

About

Once Upon a Galaxy

Embark on a fantasy card battling adventure where you draft unique captains and their friends to complete quests. Choose your path with diverse characters and strategic gameplay. Experience a game free of ads and AI art, focusing on player choice and engaging battles.

Highlights
  • Fantasy card battling
  • Captain drafting
  • Quest completion
  • Strategic gameplay
  • No AI artwork
  • Asynchronous play
Features
Read full description

Galaxy is FREE to play, has NO ADS, uses NO AI artwork. Will you choose Dorothy as your captain and help her and friends on their journey to complete their quests? Or Dragonmother and discover what will hatch from her dragon egg? Or maybe Indiana Clones, who will "clone" your best three treasures? It's all up to you!

Screenshots

Abalon4 screens
Once Upon a Galaxy4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Abalon at every 2 days against Once Upon a Galaxy's fortnightly. Abalon also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Abalon sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and Once Upon a Galaxy sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Abalon against 4.8 for Once Upon a Galaxy. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1K and 1.4K respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 84% and 83% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Abalon ships an update every 2 days, Once Upon a Galaxy fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Abalon versus Once Upon a Galaxy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAbalonOnce Upon a Galaxy
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (1K ratings) — better4.8 (1.4K ratings)
Positive reviews84.1% of reviews — better83.4% of reviews
Number of ratings1K1.4K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size118 MB195 MB
Age rating9+9+
DeveloperD20Studios, LLCMillion Dreams Games

Customer experience

Abalon

All ratings1,014 ratings
Positive96.9%
Neutral1.2%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews290 reviews
Positive84.1%
Neutral3.1%
Negative12.8%

Once Upon a Galaxy

All ratings1,404 ratings
Positive95.4%
Neutral1.3%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews385 reviews
Positive83.4%
Neutral5.2%
Negative11.4%

User reviews

Abalon

From 1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fantastic strategy game
  • 👍 Fun game
  • 👍 Highly recommended
  • 👍 Great for busy RPG parents
  • 👍 Way better than expected

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Not recommended at the moment
  • 🐛 Very unbalanced and costs $30
  • 🐛 Game crashes after loading
  • 🐛 Koumpounophobia (fear of buttons)
  • 🐛 Controlling units is frustrating

Once Upon a Galaxy

From 1.4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth gameplay
  • 👍 Intuitive and streamlined
  • 🎨 Charming art style
  • 🕹️ Engaging strategy
  • ⏱️ Asynchronous play

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Bugs and crashes
  • 🔁 Repetitive gameplay
  • 🔒 Locked content behind paywall
  • 🤖 Imbalanced heroes/abilities
  • 🕰️ Slow progression

Bugs and requests

Abalon

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Bugs in second chapter dungeon
  • Unable to use satchel items

Requested features

3 requests
  • Controller support for Backbone and other third party controllers
  • More variation in encounter types
  • Dark mode option

Once Upon a Galaxy

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Black screen on startup
  • Infinite loading issues
  • Progression loss after updates

Requested features

5 requests
  • More hero/card variety
  • Improved tutorial and learning tools
  • Offline/save progress mode
  • Cosmetic/non-gameplay monetization
  • Competitive/ranked modes

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Abalon

One-time5
  • Animal Gear$3.99
  • Angels & Demons$7.99
  • Dark Legion$7.99
Show 2 more
  • Mean & Green$7.99
  • Space & Time$7.99
9 purchases

Once Upon a Galaxy

One-time9
  • Welcome Bundle2 variants$4.99
  • 500 Gems$4.99
  • October 2026 Galaxy Pass$9.99
Show 6 more
  • March 2026 Galaxy Pass$9.99
  • December Galaxy Pass$9.99
  • October 2025 Galaxy Pass$9.99
  • September 2025 Galaxy Pass$9.99
  • 1,100 Gems$9.99
  • 2,300 Gems$19.99

Questions

Is Abalon free?
Abalon is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Once Upon a Galaxy free?
Once Upon a Galaxy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Abalon or Once Upon a Galaxy?
Abalon is rated higher. Abalon averages 4.8 out of 5 from 1K ratings, while Once Upon a Galaxy averages 4.8 from 1.4K ratings.
Do Abalon or Once Upon a Galaxy have ads?
Neither Abalon nor Once Upon a Galaxy shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Abalon or Once Upon a Galaxy?
Abalon ships an update every 2 days, and Once Upon a Galaxy fortnightly. Most recently, Abalon was updated on November 6, 2026 and Once Upon a Galaxy on November 8, 2026.

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