Comparison

Pocket City 2 vs Lanternfall

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

Head to head
About

Pocket City 2

Construct and explore a vibrant 3D metropolis, managing zones, landmarks, and special buildings. Live the life of a mayor, from building your own house to surviving disasters and hosting events. Enjoy a dynamic world with seasons, a day-night cycle, and engaging minigames.

Highlights
  • Build unique cities with zones and special buildings
  • Explore your city as an avatar
  • Dynamic environment with seasons and day/night cycle
  • Play minigames like street racing and plane flying
  • Survive disasters and host fun events
  • Customize avatar and become a homeowner
  • Collaborate on cities in real-time
Features
Read full description

Build and explore your own city in this 3D sequel to the original Pocket City! Create using roads, zones, landmarks, and special buildings. Drop your avatar into the world and roam freely. Buy your own house, host events, survive disasters, and live the life of a successful mayor! No microtransactions or long wait times, everything is unlocked and rewarded through gameplay! FEATURES - Build a unique city by creating zones and new special buildings - Explore your city by controlling your avatar directly - Enjoy a dynamic environment with seasons and a day night cycle - Play minigames like street racing, plane flying, and much more - Trigger fun events like block parties, or disasters like tornadoes - Complete quests to earn XP and money - Customize your avatar with clothing and tools - Become a homeowner and furnish your own house - Visit buildings in your city to buy items and find loot - Invest and build long-term mega projects - Encounter and help NPCs around your city - Spend research points to gain valuable perks - Invite a friend to collaborate on your city in real-time - Unlock special rewards by competing against rival towns - Unleash your creative side in Sandbox Mode - Play in both landscape and portrait mode

About

Lanternfall

Engage in a turn-based tactical combat game where your lantern is your primary weapon. Navigate eight floors of a dark forest, outsmarting enemies with perfect information and strategic use of four core actions. Unlock new abilities and customize your lantern to overcome increasingly challenging foes.

Highlights
  • Turn-based tactical combat
  • Perfect information gameplay
  • Four core actions: step, strike, shove, flare
  • Dynamic forest environments
  • Unlockable boons and lantern types
  • Daily challenges and leaderboards
  • Offline play
Features
Read full description

Your lantern is the weapon. Raise it and everything beside you backs off a hex. Whatever has nowhere to go, against a tree, the forest's edge or another creature, is cornered: it burns, and it staggers. Lanternfall is a turn-based tactics game for one thumb. Eight floors of dark forest, one action a turn, and every enemy announces exactly what it will do next. Wolves show the claw. Archers draw the line. Boars show the charge. If you get hit, it is because you ended your turn somewhere you shouldn't have. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT • Perfect information. No hidden dice, no surprise damage. Every loss is readable. • Four verbs: step, strike, shove, flare. The shove moves the board; the flare stuns everything within two hexes. • A forest that changes shape. Wolves hunt in packs. Archers back away when touched. Boars charge down lines and throw you. Weavers web the way to the gate. Crows drive the pack. Stumps wake under your feet. From floor 3 an old one walks every floor. • Two named encounters. Floor 4 is barred until the Old Bear falls. Floor 8 is the den: when the Den Mother falls, you have walked out. TWENTY-ONE BOONS, LEARNED ONE WALK AT A TIME Four families: Flame, Blade, Cloak and Light. Keystones change what a verb does. Pairs appear only when you hold both halves. Every walk that ends, win or lose, teaches the next boon, so there is always something new in the forest. THE CAMP Embers come back from every walk. Spend them on five ways to carry the lantern: the Wanderer, the Lamplighter, the Duelist, the Warden, the Torchbearer. Each starts something in hand, costs you something, and tilts the gates toward its family. THE DAILY One shared forest a night, the same for everyone, with a nightly board and a weekly ladder. One missed night a week is forgiven. DEEPER NIGHTS Walk out of a depth and its nights open: no keepsake, two hearts, a bold pack, no second chances, each for more embers. MADE THE HONEST WAY Depths 1 and 2, the Camp, the kits, every boon and the daily are free. One optional purchase, Lanternfall Deep, opens depth 3 and everything below it. A small Supporter Pack adds lantern colors and your name in the credits. No subscriptions, no ads, no consumables, no energy timers. Nothing is collected about you. Works offline. Sound follows your silent switch. Every walk is written down in the Chronicle, and any page can be shared.

Screenshots

Pocket City 24 screens
Lanternfall4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Lanternfall at Free against Pocket City 2's $4.99. Lanternfall also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6). Pocket City 2's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (808 vs 1). On update cadence and ads 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

Lanternfall is free to download; Pocket City 2 costs $4.99 up front. Lanternfall sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Pocket City 2 asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Lanternfall holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket City 2 has 808 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Pocket City 2 versus Lanternfall: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket City 2Lanternfall
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (808 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews79.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings808 — better1
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#28 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS13.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size304 MB7 MB
Age rating9+9+
DeveloperCodebrew Games Inc.NICHOLAS DANIEL MINIERI

Customer experience

Pocket City 2

All ratings800 ratings
Positive90.3%
Neutral4.8%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews536 reviews
Positive79.7%
Neutral10.4%
Negative9.9%

Lanternfall

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Pocket City 2

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Crashes when entering certain buildings
  • Graphical glitches and disappearing elements
  • Freezing and performance issues with larger cities
  • Bugs with regional city and money transfer features
  • Issues with road building and placement

Requested features

6 requests
  • More building styles and architectural variety
  • Improved traffic management and transportation options
  • Expanded regional city functionality
  • Mayor customization and more interactive features
  • Better save/load and cross-device syncing
Show 1 more
  • Optimization for older devices

Lanternfall

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Pocket City 2

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Lanternfall

One-time2
  • Supporter Pack$2.99
  • Lanternfall Deep$4.99

Questions

Is Pocket City 2 free?
Pocket City 2 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lanternfall free?
Lanternfall is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pocket City 2 or Lanternfall?
Lanternfall is rated higher. Pocket City 2 averages 4.6 out of 5 from 808 ratings, while Lanternfall averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Pocket City 2 or Lanternfall have ads?
Neither Pocket City 2 nor Lanternfall shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pocket City 2 or Lanternfall?
Pocket City 2 ships an update weekly, and Lanternfall weekly. Most recently, Pocket City 2 was updated on November 7, 2026 and Lanternfall on October 31, 2026.

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