Zoria: Age Of Shattering - Review After 100%

[@tinytrinketgames1610]

Hello, Zoria developer here. Thank you for the very thorough review, we're very happy Zoria: Age of Shattering was featured on you channel. You make quite a few compelling points regarding some systems and we will be looking into those, as we do with all feedback. Regarding the issues encountered, we are already working on another patch with many small fixes and an overhaul to the inventory that will make crafting materials take no inventory space, have their own tab and be accessible anywhere, hopefully reducing micromanagement by a lot.

[@wezacker6482]

I haven't played (YET!) but game LOOKS fantastic! I love games like this!

[@Orosian5]

My backlog is real, and there's a number of interesting elements in play here, so I'll put it on my wishlist and keep an eye on how it progresses.

[@fisher-samoyed9857]

Make it multi-player.

[@richardloccz9730]

CRINGE L take @@fisher-samoyed9857

[@tinytrinketgames1610]

Thank you so much. Honestly, we don't see it as criticism but as feedback and we try to improve based on it. @@TherinThimble93

[@plasticsamalt6633]

Mortismal, what sets you apart from other reviewers - is your enthusiasm and love of this genre, served with incredibly chill tone. I always liked RPGs but something in the way you deconstruct them reminds me of how fun it is to dive into these stories and learn the mechanics. I don't have that much free time these days to grind all these games, so your videos hit the spot for me. Thank you!!

[@Firenutz]

EDIT: I didn’t see the pinned comment before posting. That said, good on you Tiny Trinket Games! Continue to respect and respond with humility to your fan base, and you are well on your way to big time success. You’ve earned a new fan based SOLELY on your comment on this channel. I hope the (working and aspiring) developers of games like this watch, listen and take your reviews to heart. You do the RPG genre and community a legit service with such thoughtful, complete and fair reviews. Keep up the great work, Mort!

[@jackiewilliams4854]

I just watched your last 3 videos and was about to close down the computer and I’m stunned you just dropped another review @7am on a Sunday morning. WOW. Incredible.

[@CalTN]

I get bored of gaming after an hour or two. I don't know how he can just crank away either.

[@shredman59]

His ability to 100% games and produce detailed reviews with this frequency is mindblowing to me. I love seeing a new Mortismal video pop up in my stack!!!!!

[@1tsbag134]

​@@CalTNif you were paid to release videos, would you play games 24/7

[@cleverlikem3218]

He's a true gamer

[@GeoGyf]

@@CalTN Must be the games you play? Fore example, RTS genre, Roguelike genre or Hack & Slash scene (example Diablo) can get repetitive. As for Mortismal, he has 'industrialized' & his review process, optimizing many aspects of his gameplay. For example, if the game doesnt have an achievement related to the mastery of a particular mechanic, chances are he doesnt interact a lot with that mechanic.

[@TazarYoot]

I really appreciate your critique of the systems and mechanics in your reviews. This one’s been on my radar but I think I’m going to wait a bit for them to clean it up before I dive in.

[@mhjmstultiens]

I like what I see, though some of its gameplay systems need to be a reigned in a bit. Hope the devs keep supporting this and we might have another indie winner here.

[@ChrisHMusic95]

I've been keeping an eye out on this one for a while so I'm glad to hear it can be recommended. Due to my ever growing backlog of CRPGs I'll probably grab it while it's on sale and then play it later in the year so hopefully they've tweaked a lot of the issues you've brought up.

[@shredman59]

Really love that they made this game. It looks like a fun game that needs some fixing and polish. If they can clean it up like MG states, I will buy it.

[@gerasmus]

I'm a Kickstarter backer. This game will joing my listt of 25 other Kickstarter games I backed, but never played!

[@mhjmstultiens]

So you're a kind of a connoisseur?

[@Hekk.]

Philanthropist

[@Ironclad6661]

I do a similar thing. My reason is I like supporting small teams or individual developers. The Triple AAA studios are only profit driven.

[@warrend2880]

With the release of the 1.1.1 patch I think its a must play rpg now, especially at its price point.

[@warrend2880]

Another insightful video Mortym, putting another game on my immediate radar.. I am really impressed with what I saw with Zoria here, hard to believe its only a three man team. That and the fact the devlopers are activley patching and improving the game so quickly means I have to grab this one now I think..

[@clifcorcoran9917]

Another honest and fair review. Thanks sir!

[@harismohammad7294]

I have just found your channel and gotta say you are my go to reviewer now. Your videos are too good and I love how the 100 percent doesn't refer to solely achievements but the depth of your reviews. I really hope you review Alone In The Dark or Dragon's Dogma 2.

[@MortismalGaming]

Dragon''s Dogma 2 will be happening yeah

[@harismohammad7294]

@@MortismalGaming Sweet, any chance for alone in the dark?

[@MortismalGaming]

@@harismohammad7294 no current plans for it no

[@harismohammad7294]

@@MortismalGaming So what type of games do you avoid for reviews and which do you prefer or even focus towards for future reviews.

[@PrettyGuardian]

Thank goodness for the gamers covering these indie gems.

[@kyle1806]

Mortym I have the PERFECT game for you. It's called Tales of Maj'Eyal. Please check it out (though I don't think even you could 100% the game), even if not for a review just to enjoy. I think it's the kind of game you could really sink your teeth into and have a lot of fun.

[@Mr_Cinos]

Oh, another Tales of Maj'Eyal enjoyer. Finishing a game or getting to the last boss on Insane (or at least Nightmare, but Insane is where it's at with so many changes IMO) is probably what I'd think could be enough. By far my favourite rogue-like and I really like that it doesn't have stuff like - hunger/thirst/etc or countless consumables like potions, scrolls or whatnot. It makes the game a lot more focused on pure combat and tactics with resources you will always have at the beginning of the encounter

[@kyle1806]

@@Mr_Cinos I've literally played like 100 hours on just nightmare archmage and I can't get past the T2 zones 😭 I'm hopelessly addicted. Bout to fire some ToME up on my flight this morning

[@aoihitori]

Finally, I'm waiting for this before trying this game.

[@greyroo]

Great review. Very comprehensive and a true reflection of the game as it currently stands. The main problem I keep having though is I am constantly running out of gold. I'm running around a pauper for most of the time. Apart from that I'm having a great time with the game.

[@GeoGyf]

Chances are: 1) that you should either stay clear of crafting, unless you find something really good (ie engage with crafting at end game), 2) you dont sell enough items, 3)you are dont focus on the gear that counts, rather you buy all available gear, 4) you must tune the difficulty. Usually in harder difficulty settings, you have to focus on specific stuff & really optimize builds.

[@Jasta85]

Looks solid, just needs a bit more polish, so will probably check it out again in a few months so see if it's gotten some updates. Dragon's Dogma 2 is out next week and Ghost of Tsushima on PC drops probably around the time I'm done with that so schedule is already full for the next few months.

[@anduril38]

Such fantastic videos

[@faroboon4212]

man, I love your reviews!

[@epone3488]

This actually looks pretty nifty. Its sort of how I imagined the future of crpgs back in the 80's with fans making games. Cool!

[@ath0lbr0se]

Another phenomenal video!! I'm very glad you're seeing lots of success lately, you have always been an incredible, fair and level-headed youtuber and game reviewer. I trust your reviews more than anyone else's. Keep up the good work and have a great day man

[@phtefanphtefan3873]

Thank you, great review, very fair :) Will get in it 😅

[@R3GARnator]

Looks like something to keep an eye on for a discounted whatever edition, as a Patientgamer.

[@caubert]

thank you, will wait for deeper sale

[@twistedturns65]

Bought it a couple days ago, doubt I'll ever regret it, so far so good! Though, I will say, no inventory organizing is a pain in the ass. Take note Devs, inventory organizing, make a button or something. 😛

[@realizewave1513]

Great game, they did a ton of with their limited resources. I'm honestly shocked.

[@GamerSoul4Ever]

Men you have all the great rts available on internet 👌🏼

[@Somebody374-bv8cd]

Thanks for the video, been waiting for this. I think I'll probably get it despite the jank, plus it is on GoG as well. Some parts of the game do give me a FF tactics/suikoden feel as well, like sending your squad out to find resources (the "I have a good feeling!" thing in FF tactics thing) and the 4 party limit/ keep building aspect.

[@giankjojo]

I actually decided to play it, so far I have played a few hours in the next hardest difficulty after normal, a few things I have taken notice are: if the loot is randomly generated then I have terrible luck because most armor, like 95% my character cannot use, I do not think I enjoy picking up stuff I definitely cannot use, most of the time. You can cheese most enemy combat encounters, especially when you are outnumbered, just get close enough to the enemies so one enemy takes notice of you, then run away as back as you think the rest of the enemies will not aggro and kill that lonely enemy, you can whittle down groups like this. Because imo, it is hard, maybe if I picked a straight warrior class it would be more manageable but I had to also cheese the first boss of the game, being a combination of a mage and a warrior, I managed to make it so the warrior did not aggro so I beat down the mage first and then focused on the other. Maybe if I could take advantage of those stats I am excluded from because of my class things would not feel as a hard, but a harder experience is what I asked so I guess I am fine with it... good thing is you can craft armor and that's always a plus for me, especially in a game like this when the loot is so random and there is so much of it.

[@wulfwarren]

11:30 that greatsword is so light

[@simoncodrington]

Looks like a nice little indie game. People have to remember that indies aren't going to pump out games up to the quality of Pathfinder / BG3. It looks good enough for the price

[@Ironclad6661]

Crafted gear can be so OP. You can save game do super hard crafts with 20% success chances if you fail then reload a previous save try again until you succeed if you do that you'll be so OP your character can win on any difficulty setting easily.

[@coconutologist]

Thanks for the video. Making exploration fun is no small achievement. It'll help you murder-hobo proper. Onward to 300k. All glory to the algorithm.

[@MatthewAlan1484]

Great review.

[@fakeigniz13]

Got this off the strength of the demo during Next Fest. Like you, think they released it too soon. I don't remember it having the gear system and it's the weakest part. Weapons just break constantly, which felt like a bug. And the zone control is an issue but I feel there are answers. Things like taunts become available and there's defensive spells. It really feels like they rushed it out for no reason though. Still probably a worthwhile pick on sale though

[@xNachtmahRx]

One little detail I like is the walk speed. The walk and animation speeds are nice and quick, which is rare in this genre. I can't stand Larian games because everyhing feels like you are under water, and just traversing and looting the worlds takes too long. I wish more studios would add an animation speed slider or make movement as fast as in this one, maybe even a skip animations option like in many trpg. But balancing an rpg as a small studio is probably impossible. The difficulty really felt...strange

[@Etheral101]

This game looks more empty than Baulders gate. Lot less assets to stream in.

[@austinhearn6111]

Cool video mort

[@chrismiller3484]

It's got some problems, but I'm loving this game. Thanks Devs!! Best Gaming Channel Ever!! Thanks Mortym. - Galatians6:2

[@adcaptandumvulgus4252]

Is this the year of the RPG I see a bunch of bangers starting to finish up to come out

[@techieg33k]

Mort, did you ever use Fragments in the crafting? Fragments can get you major bumps like +100 armor, etc; you can stack multiple of the same fragment, but each decreases the success rate of the item being crafted by 20%. Fragments and blueprints imo are some of the best reasons to use the Missions... Well and XP for the Followers so they don't fall behind if you want to use them later on. Last comment is that space for crafting materials and ingredients is sometime being looked into after some discussion on the Discord yesterday.

[@RogueTides]

Great channel

[@MRW-kt2gt]

Hmm...Been waiting on this one but durability mechanics on items, not a fan. I'll probably get it and give it a try when I've grown bored with AOW4. Support the small devs! 👍

[@shockmesane4158]

As a kind of older retired guy who constantly likes to find little projects to throw some money at this game has one of the most inexplicable titles of all time. Unless the Zoria franchise is just some beloved thing I've never heard of despite an entire lifetime of playing games.

[@Ironclad6661]

I'm 72 hours into a second run. It's a fun 50+ hours for $25 bucks. The things that bother me about the game are easily fixable so I'm sure the devs will update and patch them. They already did one decent path that fixed a lot of the bugs. It's worth $25 bucks.

[@remitemmos9165]

I already said i wiuld love to see your review of banner of the maid but now I have to say unicorn overlord is all I can think about, and play of course!

[@connormatthews522]

Looks like one hell of a lot of game for the price, especially considering the tiny dev team. Goes to show budget and a giant team aren't the key ingredients

[@patricknilsson4360]

This is right up my alley. Will be getting next time I add to my backlog.

[@LXXVIIZONE]

Do you ever sleep ? Lol your output is crazy

[@dbib9754]

Honestly can't believe mortem doesn't have RSI

[@ThePiotrekpecet]

He plays like 50h every week if you look at his steam (which kinda makes sense since it's his job)

[@LXXVIIZONE]

@@dbib9754 Literally what comes to mind 😭my hands just heart looking at me backlog lol

[@LXXVIIZONE]

@@ThePiotrekpecet which is kind of crazy even so, in the UK you cant work more than 48 hours a week so even as his job he's going above and beyond, very very impressive not to mentioned editing / voice over work, scripting , wow wow wow

[@dschortz]

Hey mortim, I love your videos. With your 100%s can you include how many hours it took you?

[@MortismalGaming]

It was about sixty for this one, a playthrough will likely be around 20 give or take

[@ThijsSchrijnemakers]

thanks

[@Ivyleaf2]

Missed a chance to say "the storia with Zoria is..." still good review

[@cernunnos_lives]

Geez I can't believe how fast you complete these games. It's uber-nerd work ethic you don't lack brother. I love your coverage.

[@vinnyclifton7006]

You 100% games and review them faster than other reviewers just reviewing them

[@erikskoog8415]

Good show sir

[@nanthilrodriguez]

@Morty, thanks for your reviews. I've been bingeing your content, as I'm just getting into CRPGs for the first time. I'd like to make a request for your future reviews/content. Can I ask you to include a portion about the game's writing in your reviews? I just bought Pillars of Eternity 1 with the steam sale, I'm about to cross the 2 hour mark (time limit for steam returns), and the writing has been so stilted and bewildering just from the first 2 hours of the game that I'm not convinced to continue playing, and thinking about returning the game. I am really enjoy the systems of CRPGs (playing through Baldur's Gate 1 for the first time, and having a blast), but if the writing is this bad, that I'm thinking about returning the game rather than playing it, then it doesn't matter what brilliant systems there are to explore, if I have no motivation to continue. [spoilers for Pillars of Eternity intro] Starting the game, I'm supposed to be deathly ill. So go out and collect your own remedy? But the water fetcher has disappeared, so I should go find him (deathly ill remember), and I'm ambushed. Return to camp and everyone is dead. We climb a cliff (deathly ill), only to enter some kind of ruins in a cave at the top? Just in time for a storm to completely cave the entrance? So everyone in the camp would have died from the storm anyway? A comically complex series of events later, I show up to the town I'm supposed to be settling, to see a giant tree full of dead bodies, scolded by the magistrate that I'd better watch my step or I'll wind up in the tree. So I should be cautious, right? But immediately afterwards, 10 paces to the left, I encounter an elf arguing with 3 townsfolk outside the tavern, which the game thrusts me into fighting and killing them (I reloaded a few times, to try different dialogue options and leads to combat each time). Despite being 3 paces away from the guy who just threatened to hang me if I stepped out of line, and having killed 3 guys, the elf thinks its time for casual, long-form introductions, with no anxiety or apprehension about killing townsfolk, in a place that hates outsiders??? And this town is supposed to be a new settlement looking for homesteaders as I'm lead to understand from the introduction, but there's a whole ruins in the center of the town? Just inside the door of the ruins, someone who is bleeding out (which you would think might incline him towards urgency) decides to belabor on about the history of religions of the region... The roles are inverted, he should be rushing to tell mem something urgent, and I would tell him "slow down, what's going on, I don't understand I'm new here", but instead, I'm given the dialogue option to tell him "cut to the chase" because he's bleeding out and giving me a Putin-interview-length history lesson. He's laying there bleeding out, and explaining to me some sort of fetch quest, because there will be gold in it for me?? The opening is so tone-deaf and immersion breaking that I haven't the slightest desire to continue learning anything about the setting, people, place, because everything I encounter in the first 2 hours is just so jarring and out of context. [spoilers for Baldur's Gate 1 intro] Contrast that with the writing of Baldur's Gate 1 - Your foster father gives you cryptic instructions for a sudden trip. You are immediately adventuring around your little hometown, and embark on the journey. He tells you "if we ever get separated, you should head to the Friendly Arm, where friends that I trust are waiting to help you, should you need it." You are ambushed, flee for your life. You're alone, being hunted, can't go home because they already found you there, and thereby are launched into your adventure without any confusion as to your own personal motives or role in the story. [end spoilers] I would really appreciate writing as part of your review process. I understand that sort of thing is difficult or impossible to do without spoilers, but the writing in Pillars of Eternity's intro is so convoluted, tone-deaf, disjointed, not to mention filled with awful hillbilly speech mannerisms that are poorly voice acted. Not to mention the names of characters and places also seem like randomly generated sequences of characters, compare that with LOTR characters, where whether names from Rohan, Gondor, Elvish or Dwarven, the all make some kind of phonetic sense for the culture.

[@GeoGyf]

Strange you mention BG1. in BG1 you cant really do anything to veer off the suggested path, Sarevok or Gorion are immune in Candlekeep. You can only play normally up to Friendly Arm Inn, then the game becomes open ended from there, ie do what you want as long as you travel to the story related areas and complete them (Naskhel and so on). Also dont think you should compare Characters from BG1 or PoE vs LOTR. Tolkien writes very good. Many PoE names were backers, they chose the names. As for BG1, many BG1 characters are caricatures/tropes (and Bioware unceremoniously killed off many of them in the sequels), Minsc was highly successful because for that reason (and his awesome stats). In BG1 it was common to kill of certain characters in order to get the other, better ones. This also why BG Tales of the Coast or BG Enchanced Edition had to do rebalancing stuff. In general cRPGs focus more on the world rather than the characters. The stories are simple enough (although PoE is slightly more convoluted). Keep that in mind.

[@nanthilrodriguez]

@@GeoGyf My point wasn't about what options are available to the player nor the character stories, my point was about the quality of writing. The literal text on the screen in Pillars of Eternity intro is bad. Makes no sense. So many massive plot beats that I had a headache from tone whiplash.

[@GeoGyf]

@@nanthilrodriguez What do you mean the intro? The intro is about a caravan, you were a traveller in that caravan, and you suddenly got ill.

[@ZedTheMasterOfShadows]

I started Thief, it was ROUGH. Suuuper underpowered class.

[@timmyburch6501]

❤

[@azarisLP]

A cRPG with multiple bad systems is just a nightmare, despite the fact that Zoria actually looks very interesting. I beg devs to understand that the players have spoken, and for the most part they want: - no Vancian spellcasting - no permanent debuffs - no durability mechanics - no fatigue system - no insta-kill traps - no convoluted and ill-explained puzzles

[@armelior4610]

no vancian spellcasting - doesn't D&D and thus BG3 still run on this ? very much agree on the rest though

[@azarisLP]

​@@armelior4610 Yes. But 5E toned down it a lot so even Wizards can swap in spells without having to long rest and re-memorize everything. Plus Larian added a bunch of once-per-combat or once-per-short-rest abilities that are not in 5E. And it's still the one of the most complained about features of BG3.

[@itemgeil8000]

Great review again

[@onatgz]

free comment.

[@farcesable]

There’s some stuff in this game that feels like it’s right out of the early 2000s like the system where you send companions on missions for resources, but I remembered the latest far cry had that in it too if I’m remembering correctly. Maybe we’ve come full circle but to me menuing like that for a mechanic that takes you out of the “real” game is something to keep in the past.

[@nojuanatall3281]

It depends on the context. Xcom 2 war of the chosen has you send a team member on a mission and you have to be careful who you send out. There has to be some strategy to it and some risk/reward.

[@farcesable]

@@nojuanatall3281for sure, I think Xcom (and others) can be OK because that temporary space between missions is its own thing, where there's an expectation that you have some time to prepare and that you'll come back to it later naturally. In Zoria though there's menus to upgrade/unlock buildings in your keep that could have just been in-world NPCs and quests.

[@spadez011]

Is unicorn overlord part of the list?

[@sinisterdesign]

It's not a PC game.

[@blackfistxu7953]

👍🏾👍🏾💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

[@sjwarhammer4039]

What is a trpg? Tactical? Traditional?

[@ianbrinkley5968]

I think it’s tactical bc “crpg” is classic so it wouldn’t make sense to distinguish them if it meant traditional

[@AngryJesus1]

Why does the enemy always go first on every fight? Initiative is useless?

[@armelior4610]

This looks like way too much micro-management. Strange to put a diablo-like system of loot for a turn-based tactical RPG. Maybe the fact that the combat goes fast for this type of games meant the game felt too short, so they added more inventory management to compensate. Durability mechanics need to die unless devs find a way to make it engaging (well you can keep them in pure survival games, since there it's just another part of the grind)

[@showcase0525]

Ah. Resting bonus. Seems like someone learned from the WoW resting debuff from before.

[@DrChaos-jb3sp]

Wait, are you saying you can recruit necromancers but your PC can't be one? That would be pretty lame.

[@KhaosElement]

This game started off as something I thought I'd like, but I'm just so bored and over those entropy mechanics. They're just the polar opposite of fun for me personally. It's not engaging it's just...tedious. It's horrible.

[@laszloszombati7966]

A cheaper version of wotr.