Romanian video games, episode 1: Zoria Age of Shattering

Today, I want to talk about Zoria: Age of Shattering, a CRPG created by the Romanian studio Tiny Trinket Studios.

It was released on March 7th and on Steam, it has Mostly Positive reviews, created by three people from Romania. I've played it for about 5 hours and liked what I saw. This isn't a review, because the purpose of this series is to promote video games made here. Next, I'll tell you what kind of game Zoria is, a brief spoiler-free story, and how the gameplay looks.

Zoria: Age of Shattering is an RPG in the style of Baldur's Gate, if you will, with classes, a party, turn-based combat, and a progression system for each companion. As the co-founder of the studio himself says, it's a B+ game for those who love RPGs and fantasy stories with a hint of science fiction. So don't expect BG3, but it's more than satisfactory in my opinion, especially considering that only three people worked on it. What Zoria brings new is that it has a base-building element. At some point, you'll take control of an outpost and from there you can recruit new companions, send them on missions, upgrade various components of the base for certain rewards, and so on.

Also, an interesting thing is that there are multiple classes in the game, each with a unique ability that will help you in combat and exploration. For example, you might need a lancer to demolish a boulder blocking your path or a priest to bless an area.

In this game, two nations are at war for control. One kingdom isn't fighting fair and is using necromancy to rule. You play as Captain Witherel - the gender and class are your choice - who fights on the side of Elion, the good guys. And the action begins at the fortress of Daeg Marastir, which is invaded by the nefarious Izirian army. You manage to gain a respite for the Elion army and receive that outpost I mentioned, from where you could reinforce and launch a counteroffensive.

Meanwhile, you also discover a new highly advanced and technological race and must unveil the mystery behind it. As Stefan mentioned in the earlier mentioned interview, they were drawn to this concept of fantasy and science fiction from Starcraft and that's evident in Zoria. I haven't finished the game, but I've done quite a few side missions, enough to say that the story isn't the game's strong point. The story is more of a background element, not central, and the companions lack personality and are there just to assist you in battles.

It's a CRPG, so you start by choosing a class, and there are many. You'll find something you like whether you want melee or a magic class casting spells. If that wasn't enough, the folks at Tiny Trinket recently added two more classes: necromancer and bard. Each class has abilities, and you can allocate skill points into others and into character development branches like stamina, agility, and so on.

It's important to have a balanced party, to have healing and ranged damage, and so on. Battles are turn-based, and the order is determined by strength and initiative. There's a lot of loot, perhaps too much, but at least you have a large inventory, and it can be organized quickly and easily.

Also, positioning is important, and from the side or behind, you have a chance to deal higher critical damage. And if someone passes through a character's action range, they can perform an opportunity attack. It's a simple combat system, quite fun, but I would have liked more impact in battles, for them to be more satisfying. Right now, spells, for example, feel rather artificial.

You also need to rest your characters from time to time either for healing or because their fatigue level is too high and their effectiveness is affected. Also, items have a durability element and need to be repaired or replaced. Fortunately, this isn't much of a problem since you find many items, and repairing is quickly done at almost any vendor and doesn't cost much.

You need resources for your base, to create potions or armor, and so on. You can find them in the world, but you can also send companions on missions to obtain them.

I like that Zoria is very friendly to the player and has all sorts of helpful features like pressing the F button gathers all resources in an area, there are many places from where you can teleport or change your team composition, monuments where you can heal if you have a battle cleric in your team, and so on.

Overall, what Zoria offers in terms of gameplay is pleasant, satisfying, and on normal difficulty, I haven't had many problems, at least not so far.

Tiny Trinket Games' game looks pretty good, considering it was made by three people. It's a B+, it's an isometric game, and you can zoom in or out depending on preference, there are many areas to discover, forests, ruins, dungeons, and so on. Romanians have also implemented a pretty good and dynamic lighting system.

There's also quite a bit of voice acting in the game, more than I thought, and the narrator is very well chosen. Some voices aren't great or the recording quality is slightly below average, but the system works. There's even a day-night cycle that changes things up and adds a bit more diversity. The music is sometimes too epic, sometimes too medieval, and generally a bit loud, but you can adjust that in the settings.

So, I recommend Zoria: Age of Shattering if you're in the mood for a charming RPG, not too difficult, with base-building elements. If you want to support them and help Romanian gaming, then go to Steam, buy it, or put the game on your wishlist. Then don't forget to leave a review. It's important for the success of the game and the studio.