Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Top Heroes vs Fire Emblem Heroes

Top Heroes 4.6★ · Free + IAP 40
Winner Fire Emblem Heroes
Fire Emblem Heroes 4.8★ · Free + IAP 65

Fire Emblem Heroes is the better choice for fans of the franchise and gacha mechanics, despite its power creep issues, while Top Heroes struggles with misleading advertising and aggressive monetization.

Full reviews: Top Heroes · Fire Emblem Heroes

Top Heroes faces significant criticism for its misleading advertisements and aggressive pay-to-win mechanics, with many users feeling scammed. Fire Emblem Heroes, while praised for its characters and gacha system, is frequently criticized for severe power creep and becoming overly complicated, making it less accessible for new or free-to-play users.

Head to head

Features & Gameplay edge: Fire Emblem HeroesR1R2R5R7
Top Heroes Many users of Top Heroes feel the game's actual features and gameplay bear no resemblance to its advertisements, which show a different style of game, leading to disappointment and accusations of bait-and-switch R1R7R9. The game is described as a 'p2w war game' or 'city builder' with chibi-style battles, rather than the advertised dungeon exploration or character interaction R16. Some players find the core gameplay enjoyable for casual play, despite the misleading ads R2R5.
Fire Emblem Heroes Fire Emblem Heroes is praised for its combat style, character designs, and being a good mobile adaptation for fans of the Fire Emblem series . However, many long-time players lament the severe 'power creep,' where new characters quickly render older ones obsolete, making it difficult to use established teams competitively . The game is also criticized for increasingly complex skill descriptions, making battles difficult to plan .
Monetization & Value tieR4R12R16R24
Top Heroes Top Heroes is widely criticized as a 'pay to win' game, with users reporting that significant spending is required to progress or compete, especially in PvP R4R12R16R24. In-game purchases are described as expensive, with some individual items costing up to £89.99 R24. Players also report issues with customer service regarding purchases, where refunds from Apple lead to account lockouts and demands for repayment .
Fire Emblem Heroes Fire Emblem Heroes is also seen as having become 'pay to win' over time, with new units requiring significant investment to acquire and remain competitive R75R79R81R82. Users complain about poor 5-star unit drop rates, making it expensive to summon desired characters . The FEH Pass, a subscription service, is criticized for being pushed aggressively and offering features that feel essential . However, some free-to-play users manage to collect many characters and enjoy the game without spending .
Reliability & Performance tieR54R60R72R91
Top Heroes Top Heroes has a few reports of crashing R54. One user noted an issue with the game not working with VPNs, which is problematic for travelers or those concerned with data protection R60.
Fire Emblem Heroes Fire Emblem Heroes has reports of a bug with a specific character icon R72. Some users experience overheating on newer iPhone models R91. There are also complaints about frequent and mandatory data downloads, which can be irritating and lead to considerations of uninstalling . One user reported losing their account twice .
Community & Support edge: Fire Emblem HeroesR27R39R42R55
Top Heroes Top Heroes has serious allegations of allowing cyberbullying, racism, extortion, and soliciting sexual content to minors, with reports of developers failing to address these issues despite multiple complaints R58. The PvP environment is described as unfair, with 'overpowered dictators' (whales) controlling servers and threatening other players R39R55. Players also complain about aggressive notifications R27.
Fire Emblem Heroes Fire Emblem Heroes users feel the development team has little connection with its player base . There are complaints about the lack of an option for Japanese voice acting with English subtitles . Some users also note a high number of bot reviews .
Pick Top Heroes if

you are looking for a casual time-killer and can overlook misleading ads and aggressive monetization, potentially enjoying the core gameplay for a short period .

Pick Fire Emblem Heroes if

you are a dedicated fan of the Fire Emblem franchise, enjoy gacha mechanics, and are willing to navigate the complexities of power creep and potentially invest money to stay competitive .

Evidence note: Reviews for Top Heroes are heavily skewed by complaints about misleading advertising, which impacts perceptions of all other dimensions. Fire Emblem Heroes has a much larger volume of reviews, with a significant portion focusing on the 'power creep' issue.

Frequently asked

Are the ads for Top Heroes accurate?
No, numerous users report that the ads for Top Heroes are highly misleading and do not represent the actual gameplay or features of the game R1R3R7R9.
Is Fire Emblem Heroes pay-to-win?
Many long-time players of Fire Emblem Heroes indicate it has become a pay-to-win game, especially for competitive play, due to severe power creep and the need to acquire new, powerful units frequently R75R79R81R82.
Does Top Heroes have a toxic community?
Yes, reviews for Top Heroes include serious allegations of cyberbullying, racism, extortion, and soliciting sexual content to minors within the game, with claims that developers do not adequately address these issues R58. The PvP environment is also described as unfair, with powerful players dominating and threatening others R39R55.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R1] Top Heroes 2/5 · US Pictures Lie - game is not like them: It’s an ok game to play at first. But the pics all lie and what’s show isn’t what you get. I was hoping once I level up I can actually do quests and interact with the town. But it’s all Lies - It does not give what it claims too. And once ya get farther in it’s kind of more boring now and I’ll probably delete soon If it was actually as it shows via anima
  2. [R2] Top Heroes 5/5 · US Yay: I love the game
  3. [R5] Top Heroes 5/5 · US Love it: Really enjoyable game
  4. [R7] Top Heroes 1/5 · US Not as advertised: The actual game is nothing like it is advertised. Unfortunately a bait and switch.
  5. [R4] Top Heroes 2/5 · US Bad game: Developers have only added more things to prevent any sort of enjoyable PvP. Their goal is servers full of people who only make purchases and do nothing else. Castle defenses are so high you cannot attack similar powered players even using a counter faction and they only add more every update.
  6. [R12] Top Heroes 3/5 · US Okay: It’s kinda fun just seems super heavy on the pay to win micro transactions
  7. [R16] Top Heroes 1/5 · US Fake ads and picture of what the game should be: This is entirely a p2w war game. It has 0 of any feature it mentioned in the game feature. You are competing with whales to stay in power. I’ve played it for 3 months and you can see the power differences of someone who play 10 of thousands vs someone who pay here and there. Don’t fall for it. Don’t give them your hard earn money… No matter how much
  8. [R24] Top Heroes 3/5 · GB Pay to play: I would have given this game full stars but the designers are very greedy. You can progress in this game but certain aspects of this game that aren’t achievable unless you spend a large amount of money. Apple shouldn’t let any game developer charge more than £10 on an in game purchase. £89.99 is not a micro transaction. It is piracy!
  9. [R54] Top Heroes 3/5 · GB Crash: The game is good but please sort the crashing out
  10. [R60] Top Heroes 4/5 · US Thanks for ending strife: Season 4 with water is great!! Excellent fun modes. Amazing work. Just need to be able to use VPNs. Very frustrating when traveling I can’t stay safe and need to turn it off. Major issue for travelers and people who value data protection. When traveling abroad, often with limited internet and needing to connect to suspect WiFi, I always have a VPN on. This game does not
  11. [R72] Fire Emblem Heroes 3/5 · US A possible bug: There’s a bug where bundle of energy Mae icon is her icon from certain events like the tap tap music event and I tried going to the settings and doing different things and nothing has worked out so far and it’s only that Mae no other character I own has this problem.
  12. [R91] Fire Emblem Heroes 1/5 · US Overheating: Game makes iPhone 17 pro overheat like crazy. Fix this
  13. [R27] Top Heroes 3/5 · GB Notifications: If you want me too pay to remove all the notifications in your game think again I’m not but other than that really good game
  14. [R39] Top Heroes 3/5 · GB Too many overpowered dictators: We have some very overpowered whales on our server - one of whom controls the citadel and who has threatened the other guilds not to even try fighting for the citadel or he will burn every player every day if they do. It’s just so mismatched to favour the few. I don’t bother with the carriages anymore as they’re just plundered by players three times stronger than me
  15. [R42] Top Heroes 3/5 · GB Love it but one problem: I absolutely love this game! No ads or anything, and the gameplay is amazing, I just have one thing about chats I don’t really understand why there can’t be different chat rooms, (other than private and guild) but just being able to change chat rooms will be great, just so I can be around different people. Cuz I ended being harassed in the game , that I ended up have to b
  16. [R55] Top Heroes 2/5 · US Misleading Adds / Social Bullying: Not for kids. First installed because the add was about farming food… then found out it was a gar game. I said ok, I like strategies. Guilds with real people are involved… but then strong players create their own rules, as if they were queens and kings, killing players that don’t pay for the game and don’t want to be their subordinates. Basically you follow the
  17. [R3] Top Heroes 3/5 · US Ignore the Preview Images: The same looks nothing like the preview. It’s still fun to play, but those images aren’t what the game is.
  18. [R9] Top Heroes 3/5 · US misleading: the ads they use to promote the game look NOTHING like the actual game. keep that in mind before downloading
  19. [R75] Fire Emblem Heroes 3/5 · US Power Creep: Used to be very balanced but now you get power creeped by some broken unit every month. Also you have to spend a lot of money to get the new units. I’ve played other gachas that were far more forgiving.
  20. [R79] Fire Emblem Heroes 1/5 · US Some of the worst powercreep I have ever seen: Genuinely, I think this game is one of the worst gacha games on the market as of right now. This game is ten years old this year and it is genuinely not a good game. This game has had the same festering wounds since the first few years of its release and done nothing to make a good game that is balanced and enjoyable on any merit other than one thin
  21. [R81] Fire Emblem Heroes 3/5 · US Used to be so fun: This game used to be so incredibly good, but now it has devolved into a power creep nightmare. Nothing makes sense, new characters and old characters are useless, and if you intend to play online against others, just be ready for the most one sided and infuriating experience because you will be fighting against pay to win A-holes.
  22. [R82] Fire Emblem Heroes 1/5 · US Became P2W.: Title says it all. It started out fine, but they pulled a Nintendo. 😑
  23. [R58] Top Heroes 5/5 · US child pornographers and extortionist: this app; allows its users to cyber bully people, allows racism even after multiple ‘reports’, extortion and soliciting sexual content to minors for in game currency. even after multiple complaints the users who do these things continue to be free to spread their hate and child pornography.

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store