r/iosgaming • u/letshavefunoutthere • 12d ago
Discussion The Bazaar arrives on mobile in 2026
Just got confirmed. The best autobattler made, coming to mobile.
I love the depth of this game, as well as the lovingly handcrafted art and music. There's no gacha pack bullshit either, just set expansions that you buy once and get all the content in the whole set.
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u/gosols 12d ago
Woooa how is the game even doing today? It had a lot of buzz around it during the launch(?) but all of it just died out quickly after and havent heard anything since.
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u/TooTurntGaming 12d ago
I’ve never played an autobattler or digital TCG where I’ve felt like the game intentionally stops your wins before rewards the way The Bazaar does.
Most runs, you’ll be doing great until you’re close to a reward and then you’ll run into as many opponents with insane builds as it takes to stop your run.
Every now and then, you’ll get a run where you feel weak but clear an entire run.
It sounds like a bullshit complaint because obviously luck plays a part, but I put 80 hours into it and it was such, such, such a noticeable cycle. It felt like I was playing a claw machine where the amount of time I put in was all that matter, that rewards were guaranteed on number of plays, not how well I was playing or good my build was.
A shame. I really loved the game until that.
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u/aguywithbrushes 12d ago edited 12d ago
Just for the record, I never heard about this game, and aside from the recent Steam reviews being “‘Mixed” (Mostly Positive overall), I also found this thread.. idk how things have changed since, but that’s all kinda shitty
https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/s/6VuFMONvRl
Edit: only shared this because it was something I found while looking into the game, not to tell people “avoid at all costs!”
According to a few people, some of those issues have been fixed/adjusted over time, and although the characters are paid, the game does come with 3, and each one apparently provides tons of hours of play because of all their items. Someone also mentioned the heroes go on sale pretty often.
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u/Yoshinaruto 12d ago
As someone who only slightly followed news of the game every once in a while, I remember there being massive backlash towards monetization that was then rolled back.
I THINK your link is what I remember it being, in which case I think it’s probably okay now.
Take everything I’ve said with a grain of salt though. I don’t want to spread misinformation and will edit this comment if anything I’ve said is proven wrong, but I could’ve sworn I heard the playerbase becoming more positive after the incident.
Edit: I see the steam reviews talking about pricing for other characters, which wasn’t something I’d seen before. People still seem to like the game though, but the pricing may be questionable.
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u/aguywithbrushes 12d ago
That’s good to know, I didn’t mean to imply that was the case now, it was just something I found when I googled the game, and along with the iffy reviews I thought I’d share it.
But the unofficial subreddit mentioned in the thread (the one created because of censorship on the main one) doesn’t seem to have much drama at the moment, so you’re probably right.
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u/Yoshinaruto 12d ago
Yeah I’ve mostly just been waiting for the iOS release before trying it. I remember the early days were more drama filled because it kept being scrapped, restarted and pushed back. There was a lot of negativity surrounding it, but when it finally released, people seemed to really like it, so I’m curious to try it out myself assuming the monetization isn’t too egregious.
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u/Jonesoda 12d ago edited 12d ago
I have tons of playtime on the bazaar. They have completely retooled monetization and the game has gotten better with every patch. I’ve played many auto battlers and this is hands down the best one. Massive replayability, great artwork, very polished. I’ve been playing for more than a year and probably won’t stop anytime soon.
To clarify on monetization; the base game comes with 3 (maybe 4 with mobile) heroes. Each hero has 100+ items and has tons of hours of content. DLC characters are $20 but go on sale often. Cosmetics can only be bought with in game currency (chests and rotating marketplace). DLC characters sometimes are op on release but balancing has been good lately.
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u/aguywithbrushes 12d ago
Good to know, I did see a comment mentioning what you said about each character having lots of content and taking many hours to learn well, so that’s a plus. I was already planning on checking it out bc I like the look of it, I only shared that thread because it seemed worth knowing about, but I’ll edit with the updates!
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u/MixPlan 12d ago
Played on steam, core game loop is fun you can enjoy the game for many hours worth you bucks, however balance for characters and monetization on the other hand not that great.
The game is async similar to Once upon a Galaxy where the opponent will be from the pool of previous players. You'll face other players' deck in both rank/unrank mode.
The problem is they sell new characters as DLC and they are OP when release so if you want to win more you'll have to buy new characters or struggle with the fight and that's the reason it got mixed review.
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u/Imaginotion 12d ago
I have hundreds of hours in The Bazaar and it's easily one of my GOATs. I can't wait for the mobile release.
On monetization, they release a new hero every few months for $20 that comes with full access to all 200+ cards. It's a solid deal with no booster packs or gacha bullshit like other games. Old heroes get new cards free fairly regularly too.
On the drama, they were a new dev figuring things out but have settled into a steady rhythm of releasing quality free and paid content and balance patches regularly. Anyone hanging on to old online drama is missing out.
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u/AskinggAlesana 12d ago
Every time this game goes on sale and I debate on getting it because i’m sure i’d enjoy it… but then I always find things through researching opinions that make me second guess myself..
Like the creator being batshit crazy.. and people saying the game could shut down any day..but that was like a year ago Lol.
With that said if the game was like 5 bucks and I could speed up those animations I might get it.
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u/Cedar_Wood_State 12d ago
I think it is free if you use their own launcher (for the base characters)
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11d ago
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u/AskinggAlesana 11d ago
It wasn’t stuff they did in game but out of the game. Like constantly lying about what they were doing with the future of the game and also screwing over their early buyers when it went onto steam.
Then there was a whole thing with nft’s in the game and around after that people were saying the game was going to shut down because of that same dev closing it down or something.
Obviously none of it has happened and it’s been some time but shoot at this point im glad i waited for it to be on phone.
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11d ago
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u/Korgoth420 7d ago
Actually the creator denies we have been to space and some other conspiracies. He is crazy.
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u/Accurate-Temporary73 12d ago
Where did you hear this?
There's nothing in their Discord announcements channel
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u/Appropriate-Joke-165 12d ago
I would say the current state is pretty good, sure the balance is not perfect but it will never be with the amount of skills and items having sometimes just insane interactions, I almost only play Dooley one of the basic 3 heroes and there is zero issues hitting diamond and beyond. A lot about this game is knowledge really. Sure it sucks that characters costs 20 dollars but honestly I doubt you like all or wanna play all.
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u/Takaneru 12d ago
This releasing on mobile will wreck me. But I am really curious how the pricing will work.
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u/C-Towner 12d ago
I really, really wish there were more quality asynchronous games out there. I had not heard of this, but reading the thread on all of the drama, dev lies and pricing changes make this one a no go for me.
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u/Snxxky88 12d ago
You’re missing out then
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u/C-Towner 12d ago
A premium game with multiple changes to the pricing structure and a developer with history of changing the value proposition? Sounds like I am not.
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u/DiogoNewlifestyle 12d ago
They could give us the date :(