Comparison

Athena Crisis vs Lightkeep

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Read full description

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.

About

Lightkeep

Features
Read full description

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

Athena Crisis4 screens
Lightkeep4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Athena Crisis sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Lightkeep asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Athena Crisis versus Lightkeep: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAthena CrisisLightkeep
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (12 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews72.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings12 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB34 MB
Age rating9+12+
DeveloperNakazawa Tech KK彬 李

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Athena Crisis

One-time4
  • Map & Campaign Editor$0.99
  • PvP & Curated Campaigns$2.99
  • The Athena Crisis Campaign$5.99
Show 1 more
  • Athena Crisis: Full Game$9.99
None

Lightkeep

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Athena Crisis free?
Athena Crisis is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lightkeep free?
Lightkeep is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Athena Crisis or Lightkeep have ads?
Neither Athena Crisis nor Lightkeep shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Athena Crisis or Lightkeep?
Athena Crisis ships an update every 9 months, and Lightkeep every 3 days. Most recently, Athena Crisis was updated on October 30, 2026 and Lightkeep on October 31, 2026.

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