Athena Crisis vs Lightkeep
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Athena Crisis
Command over 40 diverse units in this turn-based strategy game. Engage in single-player campaigns or test your skills in online multiplayer. Design custom maps and campaigns, and experience unique invasion mechanics that blend single-player missions with player-vs-player combat.
- 40+ ground, naval, air, and special units
- Multiple single-player campaigns
- Sync and async online multiplayer
- Unlockable player skills and unit powers
- Map and campaign design tools
- Invasion mechanics for PvP battles
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Athena Crisis is a modern retro turn-based strategy game that puts you in command of 40+ ground, naval, air and special units. Play through multiple single-player campaigns and measure yourself against others in sync and async online multiplayer. You can unlock player skills and unit powers, or design your own maps and campaigns. Fans of Advance Wars or Fire Emblem will feel right at home in Athena Crisis! Athena Crisis features invasions that turns single-player campaign missions into player vs player battles, with up to 7 people! Players can choose to activate a Power Crystal for an attack increase, which opens an inter-dimensional portal for friends to join – but also leaves it open for invaders to battle you.
Lightkeep
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Carry your defenses toward the first light. Lightkeep is a single-player tower defense game with two heroes, six tower types, branching routes, and a fifteen-wave expedition across three camps. A WIDER BATTLEFIELD Play on landscape maps with 11 tower positions. Choose illustrated artwork or a 3D view with camera rotation and zoom. Command your knight and engineer, build and upgrade towers, choose blessings, and face the final boss. CONCEPT ART GALLERY Explore the original designs for both heroes, four enemy groups, and six tower types from the home screen. GAME CENTER LEADERBOARD Optionally connect Game Center in Settings to compare your total enemies defeated with other players. Your highest submitted total is kept on the global leaderboard. Core gameplay works without Game Center. SAVE AND RETURN Your expedition saves on this device and resumes paused. Optional Sign in with Apple and iCloud sync save your progress to your private iCloud database. Choose which progress to keep when first connecting or when saves conflict. Both the in-game Apple sign-in and system iCloud account must match across devices. You can also export and import a local save. FREE TO PLAY OFFLINE No advertisements, in-app purchases, or required login. Collect and equip available skins, weapons, and auras for free. Cloud saves and Game Center require an internet connection and the relevant Apple account. Designed for iPhone and iPad with iOS/iPadOS 17 or later. The gameplay interface supports English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, and German. The app name is localized for additional regions; this does not add gameplay translations for those languages.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Lightkeep at none against Athena Crisis's 4. Lightkeep also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 9 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Athena Crisis sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Lightkeep asks for nothing beyond the download.
Athena Crisis ships an update every 9 months, Lightkeep every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Athena Crisis | Lightkeep |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.8 (12 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 72.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 12 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 34 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Nakazawa Tech KK | 彬 李 |
In-app purchases
Athena Crisis
- Map & Campaign Editor$0.99
- PvP & Curated Campaigns$2.99
- The Athena Crisis Campaign$5.99
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- Athena Crisis: Full Game$9.99
Lightkeep
No in-app purchases









