I really want to like this game, but it is simply unplayable with the current level of difficulty and lack of a real save system. Avoid unless you are willing to repeatedly lose hours of progress due to RNG.
I really enjoy Stone Shard. It's overflowing with potential and it has a bright future and I'm really hoping that the developers take the notes from the people posting reviews here and on Steam since there seems to be a lot of shared sentiment.
I can't talk positives until the negatives are addressed. The current save system is this game's Achilles' heel. Instead of feeling like a true adventure where you can be prepared for the road ahead, it ends up feeling like bashing your head against a wall and hoping the brute force will yield results. It mostly ends in death and lost progress. My suggestion is do what Kingdom Come Deliverance does and have a consumeable that you can use as a save system. Ideally I would also like the ability to setup a campsite out in the wilderness. The current save system cannot be in the final product, it's a bad idea.
You've made a hard game, but it's punishing, don't do that.
The save system is worsened by a small invetory space and how many items you must bring with you if you ever venture beyond the villages. Food and healing items should stack or give me a backpack that allows for your adventuring items to stack. I'm spending more time going back and forth to the village rather than actually exploring and adventuring. Plus, anytime I do it's a huge risk that often doesn't pay off.
Lastly, the save system really sucks due to combat restrictions. The devs say the combat is turn-based tactical well part of being tactical isn't just using the right abilities, it's also knowing when to retreat.
Every time I'm in combat I have to kill what I'm fighting, they can chase me between loading areas, they can keep pace with me, there is no option to run, so every battle is All or Nothing. Better not die.
A better save system is a must. I'd like the other stuff to be improved as well. They do that they've got a great game on their hands. I really get excited at everything else in the game but the core is flawed.
Please fix it Ink Stain.
That's all this game means when it says it's hard. It just wastes your time. Go out of town for 5 min. fill inventory. Head back to town and spend 15 just making sure you can actually leave and not die. It's a cool game, for sure. But making everything just take forever is not a replacement for "difficulty". The game is not hard, just super annoying and, like, nit picky.
I had a lot of fun with this game. But it doesn't have to much content. The development is very slow. I don't recommend to buy this now, it takes forever for very simple small updates. Probably not finished ever. Maybe worth it later....
I bought it on Steam about 1.5 Years ago.
The games hard, I get that.
This game just offers very little in the way of letting you get better, by learning.
That is to say, you start the game with a very small amount of skills, that means early game is pretty much just RNG. There's no joy in that, you can't adapt and learn after fatal encounters because you don't get the toolset to do so.
The save system is a hinderance to the games 'hardness' dying just costs you, the player, time. That isn't fun. There could be a campsite item that costs you currency to acquire or something like that.
But instead it creates this time sink where you have one close call with a wolf 3 zones away, go all the way back to town, rest. Go 4 tiles away this time. Rinse repeat.
TL;DR Game is tough, and thats okay. But game is also very RNG which is not okay. A games difficulty should be mitigated by skill, not by luck.
Art is cool though.