Shards of Azuria Reviews

I really want to like this game because it's right at the nexus of almost every game play genre and style that I enjoy the most but (at least for the time being) I would have to give it a miss. Hopefully as it proceeds through Early Access these rough edges will be sanded off. The items that turned me off on the game are the following: First, I'm an older guy with poor eyes and everything is just so dang tiny the text was all but illegible. In fact I spelled not only my character name but my world name wrong and didn't realize it right away because it's so tiny. Playing in a window doesn't help, and I'm not interesting in changing the native resolution of my laptop just to make things bigger. Secondly, it crashed; a lot. I don't know that I have any particularly troublesome setup, but I had several crashes during my brief experience with the game, which really detracted from my ability to get into it and really see what it has to offer. Lastly, I had issues leaving the starting map of the game. It worked the first time, just prior to the first crash while I was picking up a branch, and from that point forward no amount of rebooting, restarting, making new characters or generating new worlds would allow me to leave the starting map. I'm going to keep an eye on this as it progresses because I'd really love to see this succeed.

Fun little retro game. Love the graphics. Ability to destroy blocks is great. I wish there could be a massive multiplayer version with tons of content, but alas it seems I am in a niche minority.

this game has potential! the fight system is easy enough anyone can pick it up. The craft system is a little small but has what you need for a dungeon romp. the area are clearly defined and crisp.So if you like RPG's and crafting games you will like if not love this gem of a game

I don't know what the negative reviews are about, but when this went on sale I had to give it a shot. It's not perfect, I have no idea if it's abandoned, but it's totally playable. It's reminiscent of Don't Starve, except you don't die a bunch and there's a village to help you out and sell you stuff. It's not as hard, in my opinion, because someone actually tells you how to do stuff in tutorial quests. That never happens in most of these. So, it's a more casual Don't Starve with RPG elements and all the crafting you crave.

[b] TL;DR [/b] Shards of Azuria is a charming game with quirky characters and hours and hours of content. The controls are a little hard to get used to at first but at its price point, this game is a steal! [b] Performance [/b] Being a 2D game, the hardware capabilities of your PC aren't going to be pushed to the limit no matter what graphics card you have. Intel Integrated HD graphics should be more than enough to play this game. I personally haven't encountered any performance issues caused by any bugs. This game seems very well polished compared to a lot on the Early Access marketplace. [b] Graphics [/b] This game isn't going to blow you away graphically. However, for people who are fans of pixel art, I wholeheartedly recommend this game. The enemies come in a different variety of horrible beasts that leave me curious to find more of them just to see what they look like. Back in the town, there is still some pixel wonders to behold such as the Shard itself. [b] Gameplay [/b] Unlike some similar games, Shards is a live action game (not turn-based). This makes it all the more tense when battling hoards of monsters. The landscapes are half procedurally generated which makes replayability a factor of the game. The game ships with a wide variety of abilities that allow you to go about defeating an enemy in many different ways, be it with Might, Cunning or Mysticism. You are also able to craft your own house and make it your own with the paint blaster. The crafting system is fully fledged and you are able to craft over 90 items. The controls will more than likely seem strange at first, they take a bit of getting used to. As this is an isometric game, it's tough to determine which way is UP, DOWN, LEFT or RIGHT. There is a keybindings menu available for people to change up the controls if needed! [b] Music [/b] The music is reminiscent of 90s-esque RPG/Exploration games. It is definitely a welcoming, nostalgic treat.

A real gem in the rough, it just needs some polishing. The simple fact is that all the aspects of the game such as building, crafting, questing and exploration are already fleshed out, at the price it's a no-brainer. Recommended!! 8.5/10

Good start to a potentially good game. I'm giving this game a Thumbs Up because of its potential and because it's still in Early Access. However, if the Developers don't read Thumbs Up reviews, then I will change it to thumbs down in hopes that they will address some issues noted below. ISSUES 1. The Object Interaction Range needs to be Increased (20-35% ?) You must be standing VERY close to objects to interact with them. It would be helpful if the Interaction Range was increased and the ability to interact with objects wasn't so 'picky'. 2. Inventory Tips Blocked by Mini-Map The pop-up tip for Crafting help is centered on the screen. Nice. But almost half of the pop-up tip for the Inventory appears behind the mini-map. Not nice. It would be better if all pop-up tips were centered on the screen. Also, it might be helpful if there was a toggle to hide the Mini-map. Additionally, I'm not able to Close the Inventory pop-up because the upper right corner with the red close button is also behind the mini-map. Currently, I must save and exit the game, then restart to have the Inventory pop-up close. 3. Screen Resolution change not working. OK, this might be user error, but no matter how I try I can't save changes to the screen resolution. When I go to Options/Video, change the screen resolution and click Apply a pop up tells me a game restart is required for that to take effect. Fine, many games require that. But when I restart the game it returns to the default screen resolution. No matter whether I save the game or not, or whether I reload the game or restart the entire app, it always resets to the default screen resolution. Please fix. (I'm on a desktop PC with a large monitor and have no resolution issues with 99% of other apps.) 4. Each time you talk to a Vendor, you have to left click through all the text interaction every single time before being able to buy or sell anything. Very annoying. Please provide a way to skip all the text after the first time you've read it. 5. Pixel Graphics do not require Pixilated Text (Less an issue, more a personal pet peeve.) I don't mind pixel graphic games. If a game is fun who cares if it looks "old school." But I wonder why developers choose to use those old pixilated fonts that look like a terrible dot matrix print out. The text in the NPC chat windows and the Quest text is not impossible to read, it would just be nice if it was more legible. 6. I like the message scroll in the bottom left corner noting useful information, but it would be nice if the font size could be increased. (I hoped changing the screen resolution would accomplish this, but...well, see above.) *** EDIT: Ignore #7, found small button to set # of items to 'auto-craft'. ISSUE SOLVED. *** 7. When crafting multiples of the same item, you must click the button over and over, crafting one at a time. Please add a Craft All button. 8. After placing materials in the crafting window slots, if I close the crafting window, the materials do not return to my inventory. They did remain in the crafting window so I could retrieve them, but I'm not sure if they would be there after exiting the game. I suggest auto-returning all materials from crafting slots to the player's inventory upon closing the crafting window. Although still in Early Access, this game is very playable and quite fun. I look forward to seeing some issue fixes and whatever new things the developers have in store.

Wouldn't recommend it at the moment. Although I like the idea and hope the developer will pull through and finish the game, at its current state it's just a pain to play. Isommetric view mixed with a character that moves way to fast and enemies/objects you have to stand right infront of to hit/activate makes it just extremely annoying. Just walking through a door or hacking down a tree is a chore. I won't refund the game and really hope for the best, so that this game may shine at some point in the future. However, I wouldn't buy it at the moment and wait till a full release is out or at least a lot of updates have been made.

Let's just get to it, shall we? Pros: - Nice retro presentation - Dynamic lighting - Enjoyable crafting system - Enjoyable building system - Appealing for most age groups Cons: - Dynamic lighting - Controls - HUD could use work At this point, my two biggest complaints are against the controls and lighting. In most instances, cranking up the brightness/gamma settings in a game can get you around dark areas - but not in Shards of Azuria. As for the controls, combat tends to be frustrating with both mouse and keyboard. Though not as frustrating, this also goes into simply trying to open a door. I have just started out, but I am already dreading encountering tougher enemies. However... the cons are not enough for me to not enjoy the game. I am looking forward to building my house with the very user-friendly building system and seeing how strong my character can become with the things I can craft, as well as looking forward to how this game will improve on its way to a full release.

First off, I'm not sure why a few people seem to have struggled with the controls - personally I found it very straight forward and there are a few options to tweak it to how you like, if you look for them. In terms of the game itself, I'm a few hours in and I've found it really enjoyable - there are lots of things to keep you engaged, whether it's the story, crafting or simply grinding through levels, but all offer that sense of simple satisfaction you want from an RPG. Don't get me wrong, this isn't Skyrim or The Witcher, but then I don't think it's trying to be - for me its charm lies in its simplicity, but with the right amount of intricacies to make it engaging, and at times a satisfying challenge. If you're looking for something new to keep you busy for either a few hours or even a few weeks, then I'd certianly recommend this game. I for one look forward to playing the finished article when it's ready.