Heroes Lore: Wind of Soltia

Judging by the PR hype, Heroes Lore is as big in Korea as, say, Harry Potter is here. Harry Potter with an iPhone. And starring in a wizard spin-off penned by JK Rowling and new writing partner JJ Abrams. Not only is the Heroes Lore series a hit there, but the third episode in the series, Heroes Lore Zero, both shattered all previous game download records by selling 200,000 copies in a week and crashed networks through frenzied demand. That's got to stand as some sort of testament to this game's quality, right?

Well yes. But bear in mind that South Korea is hugely into its role-playing games. Especially massively multiplayer ones such as Lineage and World of Warcraft – the sorts of games that don't so much enhance your life by providing light relief as take it completely over. In fact, two years ago a Korean man keeled over dead after playing Starcraft in an internet cafe for 50 hours. And he's not the only one. This is a nation of very dedicated RPG players.

And Heroes Lore is very much a traditional, hardcore RPG, of the old skool Final Fantasy variety. It's very impressive that so much has been crammed onto the humble mobile – although my eyes haven't looked so red after hours spent squinting at all the tiny text since I forgot to wash my hands after chopping up chillies and then put in my contact lenses.

The game will be fairly familiar to fans of this type of game. You begin playing a boy called Ronin – there are a further two characters to play as once you've completed his adventure – who finds himself embarking on a series of quests for various characters. There are various towns, including his home town of Basto, where hundreds of characters can be talked to for information, then there are numerous realms outside of these safe areas, where dangerous creatures roam. Around 80 different types to be exact.

At the start, you have a basic sword and armour and are very much a rookie in the fighting department. Taking on the low level creatures nearby can earn you gold and, more importantly, level you up. Points won can also be manually invested in six different skills to build up your character's power, HP, agility and defence.

More interestingly, you get to choose two of three guardian types at the start of the adventure: fire, water or earth. Whichever guardian you have equipped grows in experience alongside you, offering increasing numbers of skills. On top of this, you can craft masses of different weapons by visiting a refiner or blacksmith and combining potions and items you've found. Completing quests can also earn you new skills – like increased numbers of combo options in battle – as well as more experience.

So there's no shortage of accumulating items and experience, and also no scrimping on the quests. But Heroes Lore is very much a game that requires a lot of investment of time to level up your character. Enemies can be dodged around quite easily and it's very tough to die. But leg it to the end of a fire temple without spending the requisite 15 minutes slaying enemies first and you'll face a boss you can't so much as plant a hit on.

The quests are varied, but exploring is a long-winded and quite confusing trek through numerous types of environment. The game's map is as basic as if it had been drawn with an Etch A Sketch so you really need to pay attention to where you've been. Wonder into territory with enemies at too high a level to take on and you might find yourself pinned into a corner, which is a frustrating interlude to treasure finding.

You can't fault the ambition here, though. Loading times are short, and the game encompasses a vast and varied world. Unlike fellow mobile RPG Might & Magic, there's much more back-and-forth fetching and finding and none of the clever puzzles. But this is unashamedly hardcore in nature, and – aside from there being a bit much to read for a mobile game – it does it surprisingly well. We can't see it threatening the stability of Vodafone's network post-release, but we can easily imagine a few people losing hours of their lives playing it.