Chances are you know Shimage from the addictive Megami Quest, in which case you may be interested in adorable simple strategy-lite RPG Village Guardians, also available free for Android. In it, your goal is to keep the town safe for thirty days by managing a party of heroes who automatically do battle with the monsters who show up. Heroes who take part in battle and live automatically gain experience and level up, though even if a party member gets trounced, they'll be revived the next day. Your involvement is mostly limited to Scouting, which tells you what monsters are coming next, and spending hard earned gold on new party members or equipment. Every few days, the things sold in shops change, so properly managing your cash in order to ensure your party is best equipped for the coming days is important. Do you buy up a bunch of low level warrior grunts? Save up for more powerful equipment even if it means struggling along with only a few heroes? Sadly, while the game will run in another tab or window, it only does so very slowly, so for the most part, you'll be better off watching the game run. (I know, I know... what is this, olden times?) Just save frequently and in different slots on different days, since if you fail a battle, it's game over.
Village Guardians (Android, Android Tablet)
Of note is that if you scout more than once the enemy composition changes, which in early waves can mean the difference between one enemy that can reliably hurt you and four (a significant difference when you can't afford to buy extra heroes as a buffer to the at-first puny Braveman).
I appreciate this for what it is, and there are some good mechanics here. The character AI is great. However, I have a few quibbles:
It appears impossible to win with fewer than 3 heroes, and with 3 you can't afford the best gear. Seems a bit restricted.
Similarly, being able to sell gear would make the shop less frustrating. Like in many RPGs, it sucks to buy something for 500 and lose that money when 2 turns later, you're shown a better one for 700.
It's not clear whether having fewer heroes results in more XP to each hero.
Mantus, regarding your first quibble:
It is possible to win with just 2 heroes. Hire a witch as soon as you can afford it and get her the mass effect spells (first storm, then thunder). However, you will still be unable to fully equip both heroes with the best gear.
Is anyone up for the challenge to win without hiring any additional heroes?
Crouch,
I tried a couple times with just one. Here are the problems I ran into:
Single-target magic is a waste of money, because you won't use a spell unless it's stronger than your weapon (rare).
Multi-target magic will blow all your mana on the first 3-monster fight in a day, while still taking a ton of damage because you're getting hits from 3 over and over.
Melee seems the only way to go, but you always lag behind. You'll eventually end up in a healing death spiral.
Ok, I finished with one, by the skin of my teeth! The key is:
Hire the warrior as soon as you can, play with both for 1 round (until you can afford a better weapon for him), and then ditch your main hero. Atk and Def are both higher on the warrior because he isn't a hybrid.
With some judicious use of scouting, you can avoid taking on sets of 4 and 5 earlier than you're ready. It was tough, and I spent so much on healing items I still wasn't able to afford the best weapon. However, it did answer my question about XP. I leveled up far higher with one than I did with three.
I managed a solo run with the default hero. It took some perseverance and luck, both in the selection of monsters you face and occasionally the order you attack them in.
In general you can get past any fight with enough high-level healing items, but when you run out of them you can easily get into a death spiral. Of course, buying too many healing items means you can't afford the best equipment.
I did eventually buy a multi-target spell, but I'm not sure it was the best option. Single-target magic never did more than melee, so I didn't bother with it.
Update