Comparison

Guardian Sword vs Abalon

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

Head to head
About

Guardian Sword

Embark on an epic journey in this strategy puzzle RPG, combining classic charm with unique gameplay. Customize your puzzles with a vast array of tiles and abilities to devise limitless strategies. Level up your character, battle diverse enemies, and uncover an impressive story.

Highlights
  • Customizable puzzles with 40 unique tiles
  • Over 20 special skills and ultimate attacks
  • Teammate system with specific skills
  • 120+ enemies and challenging bosses
  • Character leveling and upgrades
  • 90+ maps across a large world
  • Weapon and armor shops
Features
Read full description

"Guardian Sword from Picsoft doesn’t look like much at a glance, but under the surface lies a deep and strategic experience worth checking out." - Touch Arcade "While the approach to strategy with matching gems is enough to keep me coming back (the boss fights are intense!), there’s also RPG elements to top everything off. - App Store Arcade "I’ve always made the assertion that there’s room for one more match 3 hybrid on my device as long as the game keeps me entertained. Guardian Sword has done so much more than that so far – it has become an addiction." - TouchMyApps "The vast amount of depth in their combat system really must be experienced to be believed, and — although I sometimes nearly began to believe otherwise — I really could defeat anything with the right abilities, tiles, and strategic play." - iFanzine From the creators of Tiny Defense comes Guardian Sword - a strategy puzzle RPG with unique gameplay and classic RPG charm. Set off on an epic journey with Guts - a fearless swordsman who seeks an ultimate legendary weapon that gives the owner infinite power. But his road is not a bed of roses when it is the Guardian Sword that everyone can kill for… The cause of “The Last War” has started!! Guardian Sword is a strategy puzzle RPG, full of classic RPG charm that you rarely see in the genre these days. Guardian Sword Highlight is the unique gameplay that allows the players to customize the puzzles by themselves. You can choose from 40 Tiles with different abilities which means you can devise your own strategy in various ways and limitless. If you are looking for a game that is all new and if you would like a simple yet very strategizing gameplay, you are looking for “Guardian Sword”. GAME FEATURES • Choose a set of Puzzles from 40 Tiles with unique abilities • Enhance with more than 20 Special Skills and Ultimate Attacks • Fight alongside your Teammates together with their specific skills • Meet over 120 different enemies and defeat strong Bosses! • Level up your character and upgrade as you wish • Stores to buy Weapons, Armors and Items • Large world map for you to travel over 90 maps • Impressive story, from an ordinary man to a hero… How the story goes? Only the ones who play to the end of the legend know!! OTHER FEATURES • Game Center Leaderboard and Achievements • Universal app: play on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch • iCloud support for you to share your progress across devices • Official walkthrough and strategy guide • Recommended Hardware - iPhone 4S, iPod touch 5th gen, iPad 2/mini or better Get in Touch ---------------- • Follow us! : twitter.com/picsoft • Join our fan page : facebook.com/picsoft • Our Website : www.picsoftstudios.com/guardiansword • Support : support@picsoftstudios.com • Youtube : https://youtu.be/IlmO6r_zYo0

About

Abalon

Engage in tactical turn-based combat and deck-building strategy in a tabletop-inspired world. Command units, cast spells, and outwit opponents with creative combos and strategic positioning. Explore diverse biomes, collect cards, and build the perfect deck to become a legend.

Highlights
  • Turn-based tactical combat
  • Deck building strategy
  • Top-down battlefield control
  • Over 500 unique cards
  • Character-based abilities
  • Creative combo system
  • Procedurally generated world exploration
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

Screenshots

Guardian Sword4 screens
Abalon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Abalon at every 2 days against Guardian Sword's every 5 weeks. Abalon also leads on ratings volume (1K vs 111). Guardian Sword's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 13.0). On price, rating, review sentiment 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

Both are free to download. Guardian Sword sells 12 one-off in-app purchases and Abalon sells 5 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 Guardian Sword against 4.8 for Abalon. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Abalon has 1K ratings behind it against 111, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 92% of Guardian Sword's written reviews are positive against 84% of Abalon's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Guardian Sword ships an update every 5 weeks, Abalon every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Guardian Sword versus Abalon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGuardian SwordAbalon
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (111 ratings)4.8 (1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews91.8% of reviews — better84.1% of reviews
Number of ratings1111K — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS8.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size144 MB117 MB
Age rating9+9+
DeveloperPicsoft Co., Ltd.D20Studios, LLC

Customer experience

Guardian Sword

All ratings111 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral1.8%
Negative2.7%
Written reviews245 reviews
Positive91.8%
Neutral4.9%
Negative3.3%

Abalon

All ratings1,012 ratings
Positive96.9%
Neutral1.2%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews290 reviews
Positive84.1%
Neutral3.1%
Negative12.8%

User reviews

Guardian Sword

From 111 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Enjoyable gameplay
  • 🚀 Addictive and engaging
  • 💡 Unique RPG-style mechanics
  • 👍 Generous free-to-play model
  • 👍 Satisfying progression system

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
  • 🔍 Repetitive gameplay at times
  • 🔍 Difficulty spike in later levels
  • 🔍 Some translation issues in text

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

Bugs and requests

Guardian Sword

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Crashes during boss battles
  • Inability to restore progress after device change

Requested features

3 requests
  • Ability to continue game after completion
  • Higher resolution graphics for larger devices
  • More enemy variety and boss battles

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

In-app purchases

12 purchases

Guardian Sword

One-time12
  • Pile of Coins$0.99
  • Pile of Gems$1.99
  • Bag of Coins$1.99
Show 9 more
  • Bag of Gems$2.99
  • Sack of Coins$2.99
  • Sack of Gems$4.99
  • Box of Coins$4.99
  • Bahamut$6.99
  • Box of Gems$9.99
  • Chest of Coins$9.99
  • Gems Factory$19.99
  • Personal Bank$19.99
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

Questions

Is Guardian Sword free?
Guardian Sword is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Abalon free?
Abalon is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Guardian Sword or Abalon?
Abalon is rated higher. Guardian Sword averages 4.8 out of 5 from 111 ratings, while Abalon averages 4.8 from 1K ratings.
Do Guardian Sword or Abalon have ads?
Neither Guardian Sword nor Abalon shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Guardian Sword or Abalon?
Guardian Sword ships an update every 5 weeks, and Abalon every 2 days. Most recently, Guardian Sword was updated on October 20, 2026 and Abalon on October 29, 2026.

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