Grindstone vs Masterpieced
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Grindstone
Engage in a challenging puzzle-battle game where you slash your way up a treacherous mountain. Cleave through swarms of enemies, battle bosses, and discover blueprints for powerful gear. Over 200 levels of intense puzzle-battling await.
- Sword-slashing puzzle battles
- Over 200 levels
- Battle bosses
- Loot resources
- Discover gear blueprints
- Cleave deadly foes
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GRINDSTONE is a game of sword-slashing puzzle battles from the award-winning creators of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes and Critter Crunch! Grindstone Mountain is overrun with vicious Creeps! Slay your way up its treacherous peak where fortune, glory (and death) awaits! It’ll take sharp puzzle skills and an even sharper blade to cleave your way through the swarms of bloodthirsty Creeps dwelling within Grindstone’s dungeons. Battle bosses, loot resources, discover long-lost blueprints for powerful gear, all while cleaving the innards from your deadly foes! Now with more than 200 levels of intense puzzle-battling madness!
Masterpieced
Immerse yourself in art and its stories with this unique puzzle game. Solve intricate puzzles by strategically combining visual clues and artist narratives. Unlock a world of color, music, and hidden insights as you piece together masterpieces.
- Hundreds of artworks from various artists and mediums
- Puzzles featuring famous artists like Van Gogh
- Artist stories providing inspiration behind the art
- Custom-composed music and sound effects
- Real-time multiplayer gameplay
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Masterpieced is a unique puzzle game that immerses you in beautiful works of art and the stories behind them. As each puzzle begins, you are given a picture along with words of the artist’s story behind their masterpiece. Your objective is to solve the puzzle, strategically using both picture and story. With every placed piece, colors build, music plays, and clues are revealed... Features... - Hundreds of beautiful works of art created by artists past to present, across a wide variety of artistic mediums and genres. - Puzzles featuring Vincent van Gogh and many of his contemporaries by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam! Learn about Van Gogh and his paintings and experience these masterpieces in a way never experienced before. - Puzzle illustrations are paired with stories written by each artist - each giving you a glimpse into what inspired them to create their masterpiece. - Over 3 hours of custom-composed music and beautiful sound effects provide an even deeper dimension to gameplay. - Experience gameplay together with family and friends anywhere around the world with real-time multiplayer!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Masterpieced at free against Grindstone's paid. Masterpieced also leads on device support (6 vs 4). Grindstone's advantage is review sentiment (78% vs 66%). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Grindstone against 4.8 for Masterpieced. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6.7K and 11K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 78% of Grindstone's written reviews are positive against 66% of Masterpieced's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on September 28, 2026.
| Parameter | Grindstone | Masterpieced |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (6.7K ratings) | 4.8 (11K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.1% of reviews — better | 65.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6.7K | 11K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 13.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 988 MB | 1.3 GB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Capybara Games Inc. | BorderLeap |
Customer experience
Grindstone
Masterpieced
User reviews
Grindstone
From 6.7K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Addictive gameplay
- 👍 Unique and charming art style
- 🎨 Excellent soundtrack and sound effects
- 💡 Satisfying chain combos
- 🕹️ Intuitive and challenging mechanics
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- ⏱️ Unskippable animations
- 🔄 Progress loss when switching apps
- 🤔 Difficulty spike in later levels
Masterpieced
From 11K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎨 Beautiful artwork and illustrations
- 🎶 Calming and relaxing music
- 💤 Helps relax and unwind
- 🧩 Enjoyable puzzle experience
- 🖼️ Interesting artist stories and quotes
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy and crashes frequently
- 🔋 Drains battery quickly
- 🤔 Unclear controls and navigation
- 🔀 Puzzle board moves around too much
- 🙈 Difficulty seeing pieces on grayscale background
Bugs and requests
Grindstone
Reported bugs
3 issues- Freezing on black screen after intro
- Inability to complete certain levels due to glitches
- Disappearing save data after updates
Requested features
5 requests- More levels and content updates
- Ability to save progress mid-level
- Option to disable animations
- Landscape mode support on iPad
- In-game enemy encyclopedia
Masterpieced
Reported bugs
4 issues- Puzzle pieces not loading
- Puzzle progress not syncing across devices
- Preference settings not saving properly
- Multiplayer mode not functioning
Requested features
5 requests- Option to disable text/story mode and just see the full image
- Ability to sort and group puzzle pieces
- Lock feature to keep puzzle board in place
- Lefty mode for piece placement
- More varied difficulty levels
In-app purchases
Grindstone
No in-app purchases
Masterpieced
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Grindstone free?
Is Masterpieced free?
Which has better reviews, Grindstone or Masterpieced?
Do Grindstone or Masterpieced have ads?
Which is updated more often, Grindstone or Masterpieced?
Other comparisons
