The laws of the world have stopped working. Time no longer functions, no one no longer dies, and chaos reigns. Morgain’s quest to conquer the world has failed, but the damage he has caused lingers. The world’s order needs to be restored, but they have been scattered across the continent and are held by Guardians who will not let them go willingly.
Shards of Order is a deckbuilding RPG in which you control a party of three: the Soldier, the Exile, and the Scholar. The Soldier is the main character and it is made obvious who he is early on in the story, while the Exile and Scholar have their own goals that they are trying to meet. Each has their own deck of cards and equipment, and there does not seem to be a deck limit to the number of cards you can equip. However, Shards of Order is a game that requires regularly tweaking each character’s card deck and their equipment – items including weapons, armour and passive buffs labelled as Memories.
Your party of three will come up against different types of threat. Early on they are straight forward and with enemies that you can take out with your basic cards, but the stakes get higher quickly and if you are not prepared for a fight then you will lose.
One of the main themes of the game is that death no longer exists, which means enemies do not truly die either. In fights, a downed enemy can get back up unless you down the whole group of enemies and are able to move on. As you progress, enemies will start to wield abilities that will take out party members if you are not prepared for them. It took me a few times of going up against the same enemies with the same tactics, until I sat back and truly looked at what I was armed with.
You unlock more cards by levelling up and choosing which ones to unlock to add to your deck, so paying attention to the kind of build you want for each character is important. The Soldier I built to be able to do high damage attacks while maintaining his shield, while the Scholar I tried to build as a character that would deal status damage, and the Exile I built to also add status ailments with her arrows. Additionally, you can get second chances in battles by choosing to beg to a God who will either grant a bonus or provide some assistance at a cost, but it was only at the end of the game that I discovered that using this too often will lock out one of the narrative endings.
Shards of Order’s story is decent if sometimes predictable. There are side quests dotted around the three main areas of the continent with some having two different ways to resolve them, which in turn impacts the story. The world is suitably dark with few glimpses of hope scattered about. Progress is linear even though you can wander to different parts of the map as they open up. This is fine as it keeps you on track but one issue I had was running into enemies that could act as barriers until lucking out on my cards coming out in a favourable way. There is no way to go back and grind for XP either. If you fall and are sent back to the last bonfire, you will come across the same enemy parties until you reach the next checkpoint. Defeating these enemies over and over gains you no additional experience after beating them for the first time. I get that this is done to make you optimise your loadout, but it can be frustrating when you just want to move forward.
The world of Shards of Order has been put together well and all the parts fit together nicely. The characters are decently written and the lore paints a world that could be filled with so many more stories. The cards do offer a lot of ways to play, but I was a bit surprised not to see healing cards included, especially for the Scholar. I did get through Shards of Order, but having the option for additional healing and not just shield cards would have allowed for a bit more variety in my deck builds.
