For the last two weeks I have been playing Land of Livia. Overall that took me maybe an hour, which pretty much tells you the most important thing you need to know about the game: It uses real time as a game element. And no, you can’t speed that up with microtransactions, there aren’t any. The prelude chapter is free, and then the first chapter costs just €4.49. But you need to be at ease with the slow flow to enjoy it.

Land of Livia is a role-playing game with not much in the way of graphics. Your main activity is going on quests, which nets you gold and equipment, which increases your three main stats. Your level depends on your highest stat. Each quest has a success chance based on the corresponding stat, and just requires you to wait up to 1 hour in real time. If you choose a quest that is comparatively difficult, your chance to succeed is low, but if you should succeed the reward is comparatively more valuable to you. Apart from going on quests, you can move, spend money listening in taverns to find new locations, or play mini-games to improve gems or discover lore. Overall you follow a main story, but there are side-stories as well, so it isn’t completely linear.

I tried to play this on my iPad, but somehow my typical tablet use wasn’t a good fit with the pace of the game. Then I started playing on my iPhone instead, with a silent notification every time a quest finished, and that worked much better. But of course sometimes I don’t notice, or I am in a situation where I can’t pull out my phone to make a move. So progress is rather slow. Might not be for everybody. However, as the game is free to try, I can only recommend you check it out for yourself.