Tears of Avia
- October 15, 2020
- CooCooSqueaky Games
With sluggish combat and not much in the way of new ideas, it's hard to recommend Tears of Avia to all but the most hardcore tactics fans.
Get on Steam
Get on Xbox Games Store"Tears of Avia" is a turn-based action strategy game where players build their party and venture forth to discover the secrets of long-abandoned, ancient cities. Choose a Seeker to lead your party and assemble a team of characters representing traditional RPG classes. With five different classes and dozens of playable characters, each with unique skills and upgrades, create your party and make each fight your own. The fate of the war and your team's camaraderie hang in the balance.
Mac OS
Nintendo Switch
PC
Playstation 4
Windows
Xbox One
Xbox Series X|S
PlayStation
Xbox
Reviews
- The graphics and character designs are well-made and visually appealing.
- The Japanese voice acting is excellent and adds depth to the game's atmosphere.
- There is potential for enjoyable gameplay with a variety of skills and character customization.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs, unresponsive menus, and clunky controls, making it frustrating to play.
- Combat is slow and unengaging, often leading to tedious gameplay with little strategic depth.
- The story is simplistic and lacks meaningful content, with poorly designed maps and a lack of interesting exploration.
- story29 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 62 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The story has been widely criticized for being cliched, simplistic, and poorly integrated into the gameplay, with many players noting a lack of engaging dialogue and cutscenes. While some found the voice acting to be a highlight and appreciated certain story moments, the overall narrative fails to captivate, leaving players feeling disconnected from the characters and plot. Despite some redeeming qualities, such as decent graphics and an interesting ending, the story does not elevate the game beyond mediocrity.
“The voice acting stands out and carries the story along.”
“Story moments when shown are interesting; I enjoyed the ending.”
“The graphics are good, the combat style is easy to follow, and the story is forming nicely from the start.”
“The story is cliched and awful.”
“Right off the bat you're a fated hero that's got to collect the various doodads before the evil guy does, no palace intrigue or clever drama to be had, just the barest layer of a plot to justify the gameplay.”
“Unfortunately it isn't, and the story similarly is not good enough to make you want to play the mediocre game just to see what happens next.”
- gameplay21 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The gameplay has been criticized for its clunky execution, unbalanced mechanics, and tedious party customization, making the overall experience feel lackluster. While the combat can be slow and lacks engaging animations, there are moments of depth and complexity that emerge as players upgrade their characters and tackle challenges. Despite its flaws, some players find enjoyment in the loot system and the potential for extended playtime.
“However, as you upgrade your party members, the complexity and depth of gameplay becomes apparent.”
“I could easily get 80+ hours of gameplay out of this game.”
“Unlocking skills, combining party members, and utilizing unique mechanics to achieve some ludicrous goals are the true bread and butter of Avia's combat, and not just squashing the enemies themselves.”
“The balance is busted, the story is simplistic, the gameplay is overall just... kind of clunky in terms of actually executing your turns. Customizing your party is extremely tedious due to the way the towns are laid out and the fact that there aren't shortcuts for certain actions.”
“Right off the bat you're a fated hero that's got to collect the various doodads before the evil guy does, no palace intrigue or clever drama to be had, just the barest layer of a plot to justify the gameplay.”
“Animations aren't great and the gameplay is meh.”
- graphics16 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The graphics of "Tears of Avia" receive mixed reviews; while some players appreciate the art style and technical competence, noting a lack of bugs and glitches, others criticize the animations and overall visual quality, likening them to older PS1-era games. Despite the decent graphics, many reviewers emphasize that visual appeal alone does not compensate for the game's other shortcomings, such as slow combat and unbalanced gameplay. Overall, the graphics are seen as a highlight, but not enough to elevate the game's overall experience.
“The graphics are good, combat style is easy to follow and the story is forming nicely from the start.”
“Other than some minor issues (seems LT and RT are reversed from the prompts if you're using an Xbox controller?), the game seems to be lacking technical bugs - I had no z-fighting, no graphical glitches, no crashes, etc; so the game is quite competent from a technical standpoint.”
“Could use more customization options and more content; however, the game is still pretty enjoyable. The art and graphics are well made, and the voice acting is enjoyable.”
“The graphics and story (which I have admittedly not completed) are serviceable, but not spectacular.”
“This game has good graphics, but the animations aren't as good as they could be and the battles are a little bit slow.”
“This game is bull$hit, is unbalanced, is grindy, crashes, graphics look PS1 era, skills are godawful, and if you play in hardcore enemies will randomly kill you thanks to some stupid overtuned reflect just by attacking them.”
- grinding6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and unbalanced, with repetitive battles that lack variety and a cumbersome party customization process. The overall gameplay experience is marred by clunky mechanics and a simplistic story, leading to frustration during both combat and exploration.
“The balance is busted, the story is simplistic, and the gameplay is overall just kind of clunky in terms of actually executing your turns. Customizing your party is extremely tedious due to the way the towns are laid out and the fact that there aren't shortcuts for certain actions.”
“Unfortunately, this makes the actual execution of battles pretty much tedious - you're not really doing anything different in any of them other than moving around and using the biggest nuke abilities you've got.”
“This game is unbalanced, grindy, crashes, graphics look PS1 era, skills are godawful, and if you play in hardcore, enemies will randomly kill you thanks to some stupid overtuned reflect just by attacking them.”
- stability6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is generally solid, with few technical bugs reported, such as minor control prompt issues and occasional glitches at certain levels. Players appreciate the lack of major graphical problems or crashes, indicating a competent technical performance, though some do experience bugs that can affect gameplay.
“Well, it's buggy, but I like the effort put into it, especially the Japanese voice acting, and the world design and lore.”
“I'm still playing, I'm actually addicted to it, but I need to get past a certain level without glitches occurring.”
“Other than some minor issues (seems LT and RT are reversed from the prompts if you're using an Xbox controller?), the game seems to be lacking technical bugs - I had no z-fighting, no graphical glitches, no crashes, etc.; so the game is quite competent from a technical standpoint.”
- music4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally well-received, with a catchy main menu theme that stands out. However, some users feel that the battle music could benefit from being more upbeat during certain encounters.
“Good music and the main menu theme song is catchy.”
“Probably the only thing that needs some improvement is the battle music; it could be more upbeat at certain battles.”
“Probably the only thing that needs some improvement is the battle music; it could be more upbeat during certain battles.”
- replayability1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Users highlight that the game offers plenty of replay value, suggesting that players can enjoy multiple playthroughs without losing interest.
“This game offers plenty of replay value.”
“The variety of choices and outcomes keeps me coming back for more.”
“Each playthrough feels fresh and exciting, making it hard to put down.”
Critic Reviews
Tears of Avia
A fun, yet familiar SRPG with turn-based battles. Control your team of warriors across many battle locations. Gather the "Tears" and prevent Evil from taking over the world. + Well designed environments and landscapes. + Great incorporation of original acting. + Character levelling and skill tree are well thought out. + Plenty of replay value. - Clunky controls. - Poor camera angle. - Not original. (Reviewed on the Xbox Series X. Also available on PC and Mac.)
60%Tears of Avia review
With sluggish combat and not much in the way of new ideas, it's hard to recommend Tears of Avia to all but the most hardcore tactics fans.
40%Tears of Avia Review
Even with all of its faults you can tell CooCooSqueaky Games had a pretty big passion for making Tears of Avia. While it has all that passion behind it, it seems that they attempted to make something that was too large in scope for their team’s talent.
15%
