Tears of Avia

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.

47%Game Brain Score

story, gameplay

grinding, music

50% User Score Based on 84 reviews

Critic Score 43%Based on 6 reviews

Platforms

Buy Nowfrom $1.17

Buy NowGet on Steam$14.99

Buy NowGet on Xbox Games Store

About

"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.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

50%

Audience ScoreBased on 90 reviews

story11 positive mentions

grinding12 negative mentions

The game features colorful art and well-designed environments that enhance the visual experience.
Japanese voice acting is well-executed, adding depth to character interactions.
The tactical combat system allows for strategic gameplay, with a variety of skills and character classes to experiment with.

The game suffers from severe balance issues, with overpowered equipment making combat too easy and unchallenging.
Controls are clunky and the user interface is poorly designed, leading to frustrating navigation and gameplay experiences.
The story is simplistic and lacks depth, failing to engage players or provide meaningful character development.

story
71 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
74%
11%
The story of the game is generally considered cliched and simplistic, lacking depth and engagement, with many players noting that it fails to drive the gameplay effectively. While some moments and voice acting are appreciated, the overall narrative is seen as mediocre and not enough to compensate for the game's other shortcomings. Players seeking a rich, story-driven experience may find disappointment, as the focus leans heavily towards tactical combat rather than narrative development.
- “The voice acting stands out and carries the story along.”
- “Story moments when shown are interesting; I enjoyed the ending.”
- “You are the seeker, the chosen to search for the tears, and you have the mission to collect them before the ancient demon’s henchmen take them to open the door to the demonic realm and take the world of Estera with a demonic army.”
- “The story is cliched and awful.”
- “For an RPG, the story is not that elaborated.”
- “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.”
gameplay
43 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
70%
9%
The gameplay of "Tears of Avia" has received mixed reviews, with many players criticizing its clunky execution, poor balance, and tedious party customization. While the turn-based combat offers tactical depth and can be engaging, the overall experience is marred by a simplistic story and slow-paced battles, leading to a lack of motivation for players. Despite some redeeming qualities in mechanics and the potential for extended playtime, the game's shortcomings in balance and presentation detract significantly from its enjoyment.
- “Tears of Avia is a turn-based game that relies on tactical gameplay a lot.”
- “It's a tactical game where the party composition, items, skills, and strategy that you design are just as fundamental to the gameplay as the battle itself.”
- “Unlocking skills, combining party members, and utilizing unique mechanics to achieve some ludicrous goals are the true bread and butter of Avia's combat, not just squashing the enemies themselves.”
- “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.”
- “Right off the bat, you're a fated hero that's got to collect the various doodads before the evil guy does. There's no palace intrigue or clever drama to be had, just the barest layer of a plot to justify the gameplay.”
- “Some RPGs, strategy or otherwise, do have stories that are good enough to make up for humdrum gameplay, but sadly, Tears of Avia does not have that either.”
graphics
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
57%
14%
The graphics of "Tears of Avia" receive mixed reviews, with some praising the stunning visuals and support for 4K resolution, while others criticize the art style as inconsistent and reminiscent of older gaming eras. Although the game is technically sound with no major bugs, the animations and overall graphical presentation do not elevate the gameplay experience significantly. Overall, while the graphics are a highlight, they do not compensate for the game's other shortcomings.
- “Graphics-wise, Tears of Avia is stunning and supports up to 4K resolution.”
- “The graphics are good, the combat style is easy to follow, and the story is forming nicely from the start.”
- “Could use more customization options and more content; however, the game is still pretty enjoyable. The art and graphics are well made.”
- “The graphics and story (which I have admittedly not completed) are serviceable, but not spectacular.”
- “The art style & graphics of the game are very, very mixed.”
- “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.”
grinding
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and unbalanced, with clunky gameplay and a simplistic story contributing to a frustrating experience. Customizing parties and executing battles often feel repetitive, and while a recent update allows players to skip animations, the overall grind remains a significant drawback. Many reviews highlight the game's difficulty spikes and the potential for sudden deaths, further exacerbating the grind.
- “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.”
- “It's rare to find a strategy game that isn't beyond tedious and rife with opportunities to get yourself one-shot, followed nearly immediately by being dead (and a game over screen).”
- “Thus, I am glad that there was a recent update that allowed the player to skip the animations, which might be quite tedious otherwise with a lot of enemies on the map.”
music
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
50%
30%
The music in the game is generally described as basic, with most standout elements limited to the catchy main menu theme. While some users appreciate the overall sound, they suggest that the battle music could benefit from being more upbeat to enhance the gaming experience.
- “Good music and the main menu theme song is catchy.”
- “Probably the only thing that needs some improvement is the battle music; it can be more upbeat at certain battles.”
- “Sound/music: the sound and music are fairly basic, with not much beyond the menu music to note as standout.”
- “Probably the only thing that needs some improvement is the battle music; it could be more upbeat during certain battles.”
- “Sound/music: the sound and music are fairly basic, with not much beyond the menu music to note as standout.”
stability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, the game's stability is generally solid, with users reporting minimal technical issues such as reversed controller prompts and occasional glitches. While some players have experienced bugs, they appreciate the game's technical competence, lacking major problems like crashes or graphical glitches.
- “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.”
character development
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
Character development in the game is criticized for being unclear, leading to a lack of understanding of character intentions, which detracts from the overall experience. While the 2D anime character design and voice acting are noted as decent, the overall execution feels clunky and underdeveloped.
- “I often was unable to understand the intentions of various characters, and along with that, the character development suffered as well.”
- “The 2D anime character design, voice acting, and core gameplay are decent, but the rest is a bit clunky.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's optimization is generally well-received, highlighted by a reasonable install size that suggests efficient resource management.
- “Optimization seems good with the game being a reasonable install size.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of "Tears of Avia" is characterized by its engaging tactical gameplay combined with a captivating anime aesthetic, creating an intriguing and immersive experience for players.
- “Tears of Avia features an interesting tactical premise and a captivating anime atmosphere.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players highlight the game’s strong replayability, noting that it offers plenty of value for multiple playthroughs.
- “This game offers plenty of replay value.”
- “The variety of choices and outcomes keeps me coming back for more.”
- “Each playthrough feels fresh and engaging, making it hard to put down.”

43%Critics’ scoreBased on 6 critic reviews

Buy Tears of Avia

Videos

This game contains adult content

71%1.2kreviews

Disciples: Liberation

2021

Tactical Role Playing

65%384reviews

The DioField Chronicle

2022

Role Playing

94%5.8kreviews

Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children

2020

Casual Role Playing

73%1.9kreviews

Dark Deity

2021

Tactical Role Playing

79%1.4kreviews

Tower of Time

2017

Tactical Role Playing

+10

80%5.6kreviews

King Arthur: Knight's Tale

2022

Role Playing

76%177reviews

Himeko Sutori

2021

Role Playing

71%1.7kreviews

Edge of Eternity

2015

Open World Role Playing

82%289reviews

Zoria: Age of Shattering

2023

Tactical Role Playing

78%1.3kreviews

The Iron Oath

2023

Role Playing

Tears of Avia Tweets

Tears of Avia

Platforms

About

Tears of Avia

Tears of Avia review

Tears of Avia Review

Buy Tears of Avia

Tears of Avia Steam CD Key

Tears of Avia

Tears of Avia

Videos

Games Like Tears of Avia

Disciples: Liberation

The DioField Chronicle

Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children

Dark Deity

Tower of Time

King Arthur: Knight's Tale

Himeko Sutori

Edge of Eternity

Zoria: Age of Shattering

The Iron Oath