Tanzia Still in Steam’s Early Access and Now Available on Nintendo Switch

By: GeekyGamerGirl87

Developed and published by Arcanity Inc, Tanzia is an Action Adventure RPG that has been in Steam’s early access for three years but has just recently been released to the Nintendo Switch. When I first saw Tanzia, I was mesmerized by how beautiful the game looked. Another thing that caught my attention was the fact that it was an Action Adventure RPG, which I highly enjoy. Therefore, when I was offered a code to play Tanzia from the developers for free, I figured that I would give it a try. Now keep in mind the game is still in Early Access, and it has the chance to be improved.  There are somethings with the game that in it’s recently build were remove that I felt should have been kept, and somethings that could be added to make the game better. Again, before going into my review, I would like to take the time to thank Arcanity Inc for providing me with a free copy of the Steam version of Tanzia to play so that I could write this review.

I will admit that I absolutely love the story for Tanzia. You are playing as an Akazi, who is a loving and gentle race whose home is trying to be taken by the Skeleton King and his army. Your Grandfather who was the warrior to stop the Skeleton King and who can will Arcanity magic, fights off The Skeleton King in their first encounter. Years later you are born, and you to like your Grandfather can wield the very same magic. Therefore, the Skeleton King figures he will kill the successor (you know because you are a kid) to this great magic as he does not stand a chance against your Grandfather. The Skeleton King makes his move and attacks you in the forest, presuming you dead; The Skeleton King is satisfied and moves on to plan his next attack. Only your death was all a hoax, and you were not killed by The Skeleton King. After fooling The Skeleton King and to keep you safe; your Grandfather entrusts your safety to a good friend and sends you off to an undisclosed island, so that you can continue your training. In the same breath your Grandfather disappears and is never seen or heard from again.

When I first played the game, the controls felt a little strange to me. However, since the last time I have played they have gotten a bit better. There are three sets of controls you can choose from. You have the actual Gamepad controls, Keyboard /Mouse MMO, and then Keyboard/Mouse FPS. I have played with all three sets of controls, and I can say that out of the three I prefer the Gamepad controls, even though I have played a many of MMO’s with keyboard/mouse. I can say that the gamepad controls have improved greatly from the earlier build of this game. In the beginning there was no way to loot the enemies once you killed them. However, in build #4373, I have been able to loot the creatures with the gamepad by pressing the Y Button. The MMO settings are pretty good. My only thing is you must click the right mouse button to move the camera, which would have been nice to see the camera move along with your character. If you use the FPS controls the camera moves when you move the mouse, which is okay but sometimes moves too quick, so you are unable to really focus on what you are attacking. You use the E key to loot or interact with items, as I have played quite a few MMO’s I changed it to the right mouse button because that’s what feels natural to me. I would love to see added for the FPS setting a sensitivity for the camera or mouse to be added, because again at times  the camera is too fast.

Another thing I would like to see  that was once in the controls mapping for the keyboard but taking a way is the ability to bring up the  quest journal. The game at least for Steam once had that ability and then it was taken away. I think that should be added and the key that should be used is the J key for keyboard and then the select/option button for gamepad. There’s nothing too wrong with going into the pause menu to see your quest, but it would just be a nice feature. I will admit one of the things I do like about the interface is that the quests are not all over the screen, mainly because the game is beautiful. However, I would still love to have a faster way then pausing the game to check my quest. Another thing that needs to be added to the quests is showing you how many items you have collected, if doing a collection item quest.  I found myself checking my equipment frequently during one of my collection quest and thought, that would be a nice touch if it just told you, instead of having to go to the equipment menu.

Something else that could also be added, is the option to have a mini map on your screen or not. I do understand that this is an open world game, and I appreciate that it is. However, sometimes (if I have a limit amount of time for gaming) I am not able to explore the world like I would love to. Sometimes, I just want to get to my next quest. Having the ability for the player to have the menu map that helps guide them to the next quest would be great. Currently, you must pause and look at your quest journal to get to the map, but again it would be nice to do a mini map. The developers could ideally do something like the M key for keyboard and maybe the down button on the d-pad to turn on or off the feature.

Something that I notice was missing was a way to exit. This isn’t only in the merchant’s screen but even on the actual title screen as well. Ideally, you could play the game in Steam’s Big Picture mode to exit, However, if you don’t want to go into Big Picture mode then you can use the alt + F4 keys or the alt + tab + mouse option to exit out of it the game itself. Be warned that If you choose to exit using the alt + f4 method please make sure you have the game selected. If you do not have the game selected but another program; it will exit out of said program. When it comes to the merchant screens, sometimes I was able to exit out of the menus by using the B Button and other times I had to bring up the  pause menu to back out of the screen. Therefore, having a clear option to exit would be awesome.

The game does offer achievements for the game. There is a total of nineteen different achievements. However, I do not believe that I am gaining credit towards the achievements. I say this because some of the achievements that I know I should have something towards still read as zero. So maybe the achievements are still new or perhaps a future patch can fix this issue. The fact that the game has achievements will keep me coming back to it, that and the fact that I really do love the storyline of the game. So hopefully, this error with the achievements can be fixed.

If you are one of those players who enjoy collecting trading cards for the games, you play and have played: you will be glad to know that Tanzia offers six different trading cards. Just as it implies they are trading cards, so to get them all; you will have to go to the Steam marketplace or trade with friends for the other cards.

Overall, I can say that build #4373 of Tanzia is most definitely a step in the right direction with the game. As stated before the game is in Early Access on Steam, therefore I am hoping that these issues are address in some way. However, even with those suggestions; the game is still fun, holds my attention and I do recommend it. If you would like to experience Tanzia for yourself, you can do so by purchasing an Early Access  copy of the game on Steam for $14.99 USD or purchasing a copy of the game on Nintendo Switch for $19.99 USD.