Realms of Antiquity: The Shattered Crown Reviews

I was surprised at how quickly this retro RPG transported me back to my childhood days of playing Ultima and kept me playing for hours on end. The exploration and maps are fantastic - you can tell the designer put a lot of thought into them. The dungeons are better designed than those in AAA games in many cases. I actually felt a sense dread and danger while exploring certain large dungeons, which I think is rare. This is largely to due to the fact that you can't rest to instantly heal, and must rely primarily on healing spells (potions to a lesser extent). Spells take energy, and energy can only be restored by rations and potions. The combat mechanics are simple but fun, and allows for turn based combat that doesn't take too long. There are many different monsters with different strengths and weaknesses that you have to figure out in order to fight them effectively. Magic items are rare, but definitely worth finding. Overall, I can't recommend this game enough!

A surprisingly complex RPG in the style of the old Ultimas but with some modern sensibilities. You can tell that the whole thing has been a labor of love by the developer. Speaking of the developer, he is extremely responsive and continues to make extensive updates to fix bugs and improve the game. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with this title and encourage anyone reading this to give it a try.

This game is very interesting in a lot of ways. It is very lateral, in that you can essentially go through out the world and explore wherever and not feel completely powerless even at level 1. The leveling curve feels somehow both extremely important and powerful but utterly unimportant. This is a game where you have to pay attention to what you read, and everything leads to something. I still haven't beaten it and im 74 hours in. Average play through is 110 hours. I learn new stuff constantly, and exploring is delightful. The story is more complex than expected too, every trope you think is going to pop up.. just somehow doesn't. I really look forward to finishing up this game and learning the whole arc. Spells have a huge weight to their use, and its very satisfying to set up and position for a great cast. Every action in battle and out has a cost, and when your traversing menus and switching characters for a pre battle buff time still passes. Monsters get closer its pretty fascinating how something so simple can be so effective. A ton of secrets more than you could count and.. overall a glowing review. If your a CRPG fan, pick this up. This game is VERY lateral, expect to travel the world to figure things out and acquire different spells to deal with seemingly insurmountable odds in certain locations. Wonderful game.

Excellent old school game. Reminds me of the early Ultima series. Amazing graphics, well for the TI-99 anyways, and a ton of play squeezed in to a computer from the early 80's. Tunnels of Doom WAS my mainstay for the TI but RoA has taken that spot with a wider range of characters, greatly improved interface, fantastic combat, good use of the sound capabilities, and a lush landscape to explore. This was clearly a labor of love. I own, play, and enjoy on the steam version and my TI-99.

Despite being restricted to such archaic hardware, Realms of Antiquity The Shattered Crown is the next step on the evolutionary chain of Ultima inspired role playing games. The world of Realms of Antiquity is fun to explore, in fact the world design is this games single strongest aspect, and is full of things to discover. Either it be loot or entire dungeons! What truly makes the world design great is how diverse each area is while not becoming a theme park like so many other games. Logically telegraphed transition zones. you will start seeing cacti and brown dirt before entering the gulch. Areas placed in a manner that is environmentally logical. No scorching desert adjacent to icy plains. Towns themed around their environment. Stone buildings in the highlands and mud brick designs in the desert. While it seems odd to assign so much praise for what should be relatively minor aesthetic choices. It is important to remember that all of these things are all marks of passion from the single developer. That he made the game not solely for profit but because he wanted to make something outstanding, something ignored or even forgotten by some many people in the industry today.

Great RPG with an intuitive control scheme, superb exploration, quality world building/narrative and a well balanced/fair combat system that isn't very grind reliant in the least (leveling does grant you some additional life/stamina/a skill point which are useful but for the most part if you're really struggling on a particular encounter/area you really ought to go elsewhere, the game is very open and working your way through a tough section will always reward you with useful equipment, which is never stat gated). The inventory limit can be a bit challenging to manage at first but makes finding new recruits all the more rewarding (assuming you're starting as a solo hero, you can also create a party of up to four custom characters to start your adventure as well). Visuals are colorful and very readable (for the most part, there's a few issues where large boss tier enemies share the same enemy icon as a smaller less threatening variant). Outside the starting splash screen there's no music so you might want to load up an OST/podcast of your choice as you play. Dev is very responsive and helpful, so if you're looking for a high quality game with high quality support look no further.

I'm old. I remember when Apple IIe was standard and 386s were primo. And yeah, I love modern AAA games. But I find myself gravitating back towards the games of my youth. It makes me so happy that games like Nox Archaist and Realms of Antiquity exist. Old games with modern QoL stuff. This game is epic for anyone who actually remembers the 80s. You'll love it. It'll make you feel like youre playing Ultima V again.

NOTE: I've been playing this game for several dozen hours before it came out on Steam, hence my very short listed playtime. If the likes of classic Ultima or its many spawn (The Magic Candle, Questron, etc) live in your heart, you owe it to yourself to play Realms of Antiquity. Yes there's a bit of a hump to get over in managing inventory menus but exploration and combat couldn't be simpler. At the same time the experience goes well beyond what many classic games achieved as the old design patterns have been updated with modern considerations to create rich tactical depth and variety. The world is huge and full of things to find, and quests often have multiple solutions. You definitely need to take notes, although I managed to get through almost the entire game without mapping (there are two dungeons that practically require it). The setting is clearly crafted more for play than narrative but even so it's distinct and well-imagined, with a clear history to discover and plenty of easter eggs. It both takes itself seriously and allows itself to be fun at the same time (elephant-snakes!). Of note, this game is running on TI-99 emulation and as such it's not completely seamless - there's a small pause on input that you quickly get used to. More of an issue is that the emulator hangs if left alone for too long so be sure to save before getting up to do something away from the computer. These issues should be kept in mind but don't take away from a spectacular achievement in modern retro-gaming. It's early, but I'm pretty sure this is going to be my personal 2021 GOTY.

I really like this game. I have been playing it on the TI-99/4A and am now thrilled to be able to play it in Steam. It is a deep RPG written for an old computer. Wide variety of weapons, armor, spellbooks, potions, trinkets to discover and learn about. quests to solve. A nice manual and map. There are easter eggs. I keep starting over because of all the major version releases, but I don't mind.

Summary Realms of Antiquity: The Shattered Crown, RoA in short, is a classically inspired role-playing experience with a top-down iconographic UI akin to the early Ultimas. RoA sports a diverse, extensive, and dynamic open game world populated by numerous concisely and well characterized NPCs, with excellent world building and writing, thrilling tactical combat, and countless quests to solve, places to explore and challenges to overcome. RoA is a technical marvel, given that this game was developed for, and runs in an emulator of, the TI99/4A home computer released in 1981. Every pixel in RoA oozes Adam Haase's, the single author's, love for classic RPGs like Ultima, Might & Magic, etc. In short, RoA, Adam Haase's magnum opus, answers the question what would happen if you'd implement a classic RPG using modern day game design sensibilities on ancient hardware. The answer is everything an avid role-playing and retro gamer could have ever asked for. Writing and World Building The story of RoA is the story of a group of heroes plunged into a strange and fascinating world of high fantasy finding their way home. RoA is littered with smaller stories that unfold as you explore the world of Talanua. As in any good RPG, you can engage in those stories and steer them for better or for worse. The story is mainly driven forward through conversations with NPCs and title cards that are shown when, e.g., a building is entered. RoA runs on a computer released in 1981. This imposes a tight limit on the amount of text or graphic that can be shown on screen and it requires a skilled writer to characterize NPCs and drive the story forward. Thankfully, Adam Haase is more than up to this task. His writing strikes a careful balance with descriptions that allow the mind to form a picture without overloading the player with text. The world building of RoA is amazing. Adam Haase uses the limited tools available to him to create an engaging and believable world on the game’s level of abstraction. When the game can only show a metropolitan port city comprising two dozen houses and 10 people on the streets, it is up to the player’s mind to fill in the details. Yet, so much loving detail has gone in the game world, such as a bowyer shop that has an archery range out back or a hospice where you find a chest with padded armor. Its little details like these that make Talanua come alive. Talanua is huge and chock-full of settlements, dungeons, and encounters. Although most of Talanua is a high fantasy world, there are varying themes and cultural backdrops. While you start out near the classical rural fantasy village, you will explore regions inspired by Vikings and their mythology, humid tropical jungle isles, oriental wonderlands and much more. The world is open and dynamic. You can go anywhere that you can survive right from the start. Note, if you try to take on a dragon with a single, level one hero, the outcome will be predictable. Even with this restriction, you have many viable options to go on from the starting area and with the right tactics you might negotiate areas that would otherwise be deadly. The world is dynamic in the sense that if you achieve a particular deed, then the NPCs and the world itself will react to it. Combat and Magic Combat is a central aspect of this in RoA and it is tactical, turn-based and plays out and on a square-tile grid. Skills and equipment allow for different approaches to combat. Nimble fighters with light armor that can dance across the battlefield and deal critical melee damage, strong, but slow protectors built to resist all but the most deadly attacks, as well as, archers sniping from the back of the ranks with deadly accuracy, all are viable options. How much a character can do in combat depends on his or her stats and stamina. A fatigue meter serves to limit spells, but it is also used up, if you force your character to move/attack beyond his or her action points. Once stamina is drained, the character can no longer cast spells and any exhausting action will drain health. The effective use of magic is crucial to combat tactics. Unless it is an ambush, enemies can be seen from far off which allows for effective use of buffing spells. You know the area is infested with enemies that charm? Better cast Mindguard. The place is crawling with difficult to hit fireflies? Buff the to hit chance. Don’t want to fight at all? Cast stealth and evade the confrontation. In battle the party has access to a variety of offensive, buffing and utility spells. Those fireflies are a pest, so introduce them to the ice ball spell. Your paladin can hardly move, but is nigh impossible to hit? Teleport the character into the fray. Available spells are determined by which spell book a character has equipped. Spell books contain 8 spells from the different schools of magic. You can’t switch spell books during combat, so choose wisely. The many different monsters, you will encounter in different regions will force you to adapt your tactics and equipment to counter their strengths keeping combat challenging. Equipment Equipment is as varied and plentiful. There are numerous melee and ranged weapons, armor, trinkets, wands to equip and a cornucopia of potions, scrolls, touchstones with utilitarian effects. Equipment upgrades will be frequent and interesting until the very late game. RoA’s equipment is rounded off by adventuring equipment (light sources, lockpicks and trap disarm kits). Finally, there is also a hunger system, so you need to buy food from time to time. One of my few gripes with the game is that you have a limited inventory and no long-term storage. So, you will need to make some hard decisions what to sell-off. Characters and Character Development The defining qualities of your characters are their class, attributes, and skills. Class controls usable equipment, thief skills and magic use. Attributes influence health, fatigue, movement speed and skills. Skills such as melee, lock-picking or lore determine the effectiveness of your character while performing certain actions. There is also magic affinity the one of the seven different schools of magic. Skills can be trained by specific NPCs. Characters can rise 16 levels and they gain more health, stamina, and one skill point at level up. Development is somewhat flat which plays into the open world nature of the game while your characters still get notably more powerful each level-up. It is a difficult balance to strike and Adam Haase has done a good job at it. On rare occasions it is also possible to improve a character’s attributes. Graphics and Interface Your viewport into Talanua is a tile-based, top down view on your close environs. There are many diligently hand-crafted tiles for all kinds of objects and terrain to account for the varying locales in the game. The character and monster icons are delightfully drawn and will make the heart of every pixel aficionado beat faster. The interface is keyboard based and works very well. Everything you need to do is streamlined and requires very few keypresses. In contrast to early RPGs very few keys are used thanks to context sensitivity. If you walk into an NPC, you strike up a conversation. If you walk into a boat, you board it. Gameplay The world is varied, the challenges diverse, and there is always something new and interesting to find for an enterprising player. The different enemies in the different regions require adaptation, so combat stays fresh. The dungeons themselves range from short excursions to long explorations and thus require adequate preparation. Finally, the game contains substantial optional content for those who like to explore. So, is it fun? YES! This game has the addictive core gameplay loop of any open world RPG down pat. Explore, find new stuff, learn new lore, get better, repeat. It is pure unadulterated fun to any RPG enthusiast and/or addict.