Sands of Aura on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Sands of Aura is an open-world action adventure with a fantasy setting of a realm in its twilight--a world buried beneath a sea of sand. Sail across the sandseas to return life to a dying world in an unforgettable experience that is equal parts engaging story and unrelenting, souls-like combat.
Sands of Aura is a action rpg, souls-like and dungeon crawler game
developed by Chashu Entertainment
and published by indie.io.
Released on October 27th 2023 is available only on Windows
in 9 languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian and Simplified Chinese.
It has received 755 reviews of which 574 were positive and 181 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.3 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 22.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified Sands of Aura into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Sands of Aura through various videos and screenshots.
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)
- Processor: Intel i5-4440 / AMD FX-8370
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 960 / AMD R9 285
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 22 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX 11 sound device
- Additional Notes: These requirements may change during early access period.
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Sands of Aura is a surprisingly charming game. The art style and world immediately stand out, and the semi–open world structure (more dungeon-based than fully open) makes exploration genuinely fun. Dungeon design is well thought out, with good use of verticality, hidden paths, and backtracking that never feels like a chore. Even without a minimap, the game somehow manages to guide you naturally, though I did get lost more than once. I personally liked the free camera instead of a fixed one. It won’t be everyone’s preference, but for me it made exploration more engaging and immersive. Combat scratches that Soulslike itch nicely. It’s simple, smooth, and mostly free of jank. Parrying and shielding take some getting used to, but once it clicks, fights feel satisfying. Weapon variety is solid, and each weapon supports a different playstyle, which kept combat from getting stale. One of the highlights is the progression system. There’s no traditional stat leveling but, instead progression comes from gear. Armor sets, weapon crafting, and talismans offer a good amount of build variety. Upgrading doesn’t feel grindy at all; I went through most of the game with minimal grinding, maxed my weapon, and finished the game comfortably. Since weapons can be modified into different stat paths, you can even carry your starting weapon into the endgame (moveset aside), which I really appreciated. Overall, Sands of Aura is a solid 7/10 for me. My main complaint is that some parts feel unfinished, like quests or story buildup that don’t fully pay off. The main story is serviceable, but I wish the side stories carried more weight and helped flesh out the world further. The dialogue is okay although a bit too lengthy for my taste but some of the characters are very well written. Still, it’s a fun, well-designed indie Soulslike that’s absolutely worth checking out if you enjoy exploration-focused action RPGs.
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Despite my positive reviews, I do hope that potential buyers read this first and that the devs also read it. This is a game with a lot of promise and has (or had) the potential to be a great game, but even if I *want* to play it more, i don't even know if I should. We'll start with pros and cons and then explain them all: For anyone starting the game, upgrade your gear. There's no XP. Just upgrade your armor to slot more runes upgraded to give more stats. And upgrade your spells when possible *PROS* Interesting story: I haven't completed the game yet, but the story does have a mix of elements that show its influences in an intriguing way. Some of this showed potential to develop into even more interesting concepts like a changing open world or eldritch horror or choice-based character development. The idea of what it could be is really exciting.... Satisfying open world gameplay: Again, pulling from its influences and turning it into a great mix, whether sailling around like Wind Waker or delving into molten megaliths reminiscent of major souls-like games, I loved exploring. Simplified gameplay loop shows a lot of promise: Combat elements were actually great except for a few details (discussed more below). Streamlining the gear, upgrades, enhancements, etc, was a good choice. I think the overall gameplay loop showed promise for something truly addicting. Sound: The soundtrack is great and the voice acting is really well done. *CONS* PERFORMANCE: This is the biggest con by far. This is the reason I'm not sure I can keep playing this game. I run Linux Steam on a 9070XT (i.e. the latest and greatest from AMD) and this game runs HOT. The only other games trying to melt my GPU this fast are Cyberpunk 2077 (with settings cranked up) and one other poorly optimized indie game. At one point my PSU entered a failstate with all the power draw. From reviews I've seen on the SteamDeck, it seems this has been a problem for a while. I think the benchmark is simple: If you are on PC and can't get it running well on a Steam deck, you need to look at your game. Since Steam is only breaking the console market open further with its upcoming hardware, I think any developer should worry about how their game runs on Linux/Proton on AMD hardware. Support: Following the previous point, I don't have any expectations that the previous con will get better when players are noticing that the game hasn't gotten any patching in a long time. In fact, I could hardly tell that the dev team still existed. They hadn't updated their webpage since Aura 1.0 dropped, although they still have a Youtube page with non-featured videos to see their video devlogs about a new project. If you are on the devteam, please, save a little bit of hours to consider polishing this gem more. It has the bones of something great. At the very least, for the foreseeable future, it is the calling card for your brand. Don't abandon it. Gameplay hiccups: There are quest issues and there are mechanical issues. I know they've been working on these since the early access days. First the quest stuff, I know other people talked about how vague the quest hints are. But even small changes like, including names _and_ specific locations in the description can help a lot (where applicable). Also, Radix... I can't be the only one that went to the wrong entrance, didn't get any dialogue indicating "you're in the wrong entrance" or "you can't do this side of the island yet" and felt stuck because the gameplay triggers for clearing the entrance could've gone just a bit further as I scouted the entire way around the island. (not the only example of quest confusion, but the most memorable since I almost dropped the game here) Now the mechanical stuff... Clipping was an issue. There were times where I'd get stuck in the air indefinitely trying to jump on something (waiting to either get killed or force quit the game). There seemed to be invisible barriers on the smooth ground, especially when walking slowly. Random types of enemy projectiles could travel through walls. It's not the end of the world, but it does add to jankiness. Now for a topic that the devteam has worried over for some time.... This long section is really aimed at the devs for friendly, constructive criticism. This is by no means "terrible". I only bring this up in the hopes this gem can be polished a bit more...... Floatiness. I'm glad the devs have looked at this but, even after reading their dev notes, i think they missed an important piece: Timing with animations. The way an arm moves, its articulation in space along with any sound it may make, gives it the perception of weight and momentum. This is what tricks us into a sense of tactile presence within the world. The movement of the character is actually decent. I like the way the player-character feels when swinging and rolling. The problem is the other creatures.... Every time I play a souls-like, if it has a parry-mechanic, best believe i'm wasting some lives just trying to master the timing of it. But I'm not just mastering the timing of when a parry activates for my player character, but also the timing of when to activate it against the enemy, measuring my response time between recognizing an enemy's particular move, when I should register the parry and when the parry will activate. To help this point with a segue, imagine your character is walking (and I know the devs have worked this; just starting at an understandable analog). If your character's feet don't match the speed of the ground? Floaty. If the sound of your footsteps don't match the expected touch to the ground (or are nonexistant)? Floaty. A similar set of constraints (or actually more constraints) apply to what makes combat, and specifically parrying, floaty. Is the delay time for parry too long? trying to be weighty, sure, but maybe floaty (this has to be very, very fine tuned with the expectation of weight in the world). Is the windup for an enemy's attack too long? Also floaty. Does the enemy have an extremely slow attack windup and then a quick, unexpected release? Floaty. Does the enemy attack animation show inconsistent inertia? Floaty. Even after way too much time wasted on mastering the parry. I found that dodging was usually the only meaningful choice. Most of the time, I only got parries when I was consciously trying to block and the parry happened to hit. This means how my brain inputs the inertia of my character versus the inertia of my enemy's attack results in nothing meaningful. Whenever I tried to memorize a boss' attack timing for parry, I wasn't looking at their animation; I was registering a brain timer arbitrary to the game and testing it, trying a different timer, testing it with eyes glazing over. (Actually, this is kinda like the drinking game at the festival: no idea what may indicate the right combination, so I have to try them all blindly until brute-forcing my way thru.) Obviously, this starts to seriously disconnect me from the gameplay loop and the world it's in. Outside of performance, this is the biggest hinderance to people continue to play the game. I know it seems like a never-ending slog, but this is the *core* of your gameplay loop. If I don't want to dodge, parry and swing I won't want to play the game, no matter how great the other aspects are. I didn't expect to like the great parts of this game so much. I know this game had a rocky road to its 1.0 release. I read the dev notes. I wish this game could've been a great redemption arc like No Man's Sky but with game elements reminiscent of Zelda or Bloodborne or God of War combined into something special and unique. I'd say it still could be special, but I'm just not sure how the devs think of it at this point. I know they're working on a Lethal-Company-esque game in the deep sea....and that's a cool concept.... But this game also has a cool concept and some good bones. I don't want to see the meat on it go emaciated and whither....
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Sands of Aura has a little bit of jank, but nothing glaring or obstructive to gameplay. Take a half a cup of Torchlight, 1 quarter cup of Dark Souls, and 2 tablespoons of LOZ:Windwaker and you get Sands of Aura. If the above sounds like a fun game, buy it. You won't regret it. Fully voice-acted (very high quality) beautiful and charming worlds, and an art-style somewhat like Little Nightmares (without the horror.)
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Most games sailing in the wake of what we know as SoulsLikes deal with the same melancholy, lost civilizations and cyclical themes with diminishing returns as their genre-defining predecessors and contemporaries. It’s ironic that so many end up as barely remembered relics themselves so quickly, never leaving the same footprint as their incandescent inspirations. Can this one, with its lone and not so level sands stretching far away fare any better? Let’s break it down… Visuals&UI If you’ve played any (Action)RPG, Soulslike or even Metroidvania, you’ll be fine. One thing I was missing was actual exact info for status-effects, since most of them might as well have displayed as ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The icons fit nicely, but in general had the vibes of someone dressed for the wrong kind of party, coming across as minimalistic compared to the rest of the visuals. Sands of Aura, in a depressing way, is a very beautiful game. It harbors the same unsettling beauty as a ghost town, a perfectly silent, lonely night in late autumn, or a bunch of crows tearing a trashbag apart in a backalley. Weirdly angled ruins, crystals and weathered rocks pierce the ever shifting and grinding sea of sand around the last safe haven in that world. It clads itself in Tim Burton-esque animated film style, with an eerie stylized stop motion toy aesthetic that adds uncanny suspense to ruins, caves and tombs and comforting whimsy to blooming flower fields, shanty towns or bodies of clear water. Effects for spells, special attacks and weather are all cool and thematic. They rarely clutter a screen and are a welcome burst of color in an otherwise pretty muted world. The ambience caters to a world of sand, stone and metal. You will travel the sands which absolutely win in atmosphere, but you spend a lot of time looking at sky, sand and stone. Visually, we have a game that is dark, brown and grey in many places. If you just take in scenery from your ship called a ‘Grainwake’ that’s all fine and dandy, but, if you, let’s say, look for a character dressed in dark cloth and weathered armor in a dark weathered place, or for any other level colored object among level colored object things get exhausting. Characters feature the same style and your mileage may vary. Creation choices are limited and not very exciting and due to the top-down slightly tilted camera perspective you won’t see much of your character’s body silhouette for most of the game anyway. You get covered in cool armor soon enough, and any set is potentially viable until endgame, so fashion-souls your little heart out. Sets offer a nice variety and are composed well, with an impressive density of clutter and dangly stuff attached. They still have to be slapped on your androgynous mannequin-esque body, so again, mileage may vary. Weapons, objects and monsters are, by contrast, much more creative and interesting. Anything animated is snappy and has good readability. Granted, I play a lot of these games, so maybe I’m just more forgiving. Monster animations, especially for the weirder ones, have visceral weight to them. Your own movement sometimes lacks a lot of that - and yes, sorry, I’m one of those people who really think the dodge roll should be retired and replaced with sidesteps or dashes, it’s just goofy at this point, especially if you cannonball across half the screen, like you do here. The perspective is top down with a slight tilt. It adds to the atmosphere of most places, since, as with dark places you visit with a lantern, the area you actively have visual control over is limited. This is double edged to a point where I say it’s one of the most frustrating visual features I have ever encountered. If it wasn’t in true Souls fashion constantly your worst enemy that would be fine. Geometry often obstructs your line of sight, so that you feel like you cannot control what you want to see. What makes it so frustrating to me is that this was a deliberate choice, despite the fact technical implementation suffers from a bunch of problems. Sound Soundtrack is fine and fits the theme. Shame that the band you collect don’t have more custom songs, but the ‘finished’ song was fantastic. Weapon swings lack punch and weight, but Specials deliver. What the game nails are sound cues like the cracking of your shield, for example. The standout here is the voice acting which has a lot of heart and good direction and helps the characters being much more vivid. Special shoutout to Felker, whose VA must’ve gargled gravel and sand for reals. It’s a shame your own character isn’t voiced - I don’t think having yourself be a blank slate silent protagonist was necessary here. Story We’re not treading new ground here. The world is fucked by some ancient goof-up and people have to live in isolated communities, barely surviving, their former cities, glory and empires lie in ruin, swallowed by the callous sands and time and the stereotypical dark force, in this case the Corruption. You are an aspiring Remnant Knight, a traveling warden able to withstand Corruption and fight it to protect your home and friends. You and your mentor discover something’s awry, you investigate, yadda yadda… I’m not saying exploring the world is not cool and interesting, but what elevates Sands of Aura is its zoomed in story and theme about hope and community and the very relatable and deeply weird characters you meet throughout your journey. For a better connection to them, I wish your character was… well, a character. I don’t see a reason for their lack of personality and not having more fleshed out dialogues for them, since your disposition is pretty linear anyway. A sort of heads up: it also does the thing these games love to do and some quests are convoluted and deliberately obtuse. It’s not as bad as FromSoft, but you need brains, unquenchable thirst for exploration, or the internet to catch everything and I’d say it is worth it. Gameplay It’s a top down souls like. Combat punishes greed, exploration rewards the bold,enemies respawn on death or rest, you have Bells for Estus Flasks, and everything is very, very deadly. The adaptation is overall successful, but sometimes, the cracks show, especially when the camera acts up, you get sniped from offscreen, or when you fight more than one enemy at a time that’s not a basic zombie. The ebb and flow of combat is nice - hits fill up your corruption meter, which you can use to execute a special attack, which in turn is converted to magic channelled into 3 flavors of spells, basically offense, utility and defense. Weapons are very diverse and modular and it's fun to tinker with the different pommels, blades, runes for and types of Armor etc to create your personal build. You also have a lantern that sheds light when raised and creates a protective dome with its own regenerative HP pool. You can use it to tank hits or parry. I liked the flavor and utility a lot, especially when upgraded. Sands basically copies Talismans from Hollow Knight and I’m always happy to see that system pop up. Build variety has a crazy amount of moving parts and it’s a lot of fun to mix and match. Exploration is satisfying, traveling with your ship and discovering new places and ports and generally sailing a sandship is such a neat idea. It would be nice if there was more to do, or if the thing was customizable, but that’s the constraints of indie games for you. It’s fair to mention that a few areas of the game are unpolished, some clearly unfinished content, but I’ve encountered no bugs or softlocks. In Conclusion Tragically, Sands of Aura is one of those games that have genuine heart and a solid core, but in my whole life, it’s unlikely I’ll ever casually talk about it and exchange opinions on story, or characters, its highs and lows or even gameplay features, simply because not enough people know about it. Still, loved it to bits, and gladly sailed those sands. Hard recommendation.
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I'm not a souls like fan but this was an incredible journey from start to finish. Tons of ways to replay the game as well with different weapons, optional bosses, rune builds, and more. Also the NG+ was a nice surprise once I completed the game.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Sands of Aura is currently priced at 22.99€ on Steam.
Sands of Aura is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 22.99€ on Steam.
Sands of Aura received 574 positive votes out of a total of 755 achieving a rating of 7.25.
😊
Sands of Aura was developed by Chashu Entertainment and published by indie.io.
Sands of Aura is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Sands of Aura is not playable on MacOS.
Sands of Aura is not playable on Linux.
Sands of Aura is a single-player game.
There is a DLC available for Sands of Aura. Explore additional content available for Sands of Aura on Steam.
Sands of Aura does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Sands of Aura does not support Steam Remote Play.
Sands of Aura is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Sands of Aura.
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The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 25 January 2026 22:29 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 25 January 2026 20:12 |
| Steam price | 28 January 2026 20:27 |
| Steam reviews | 29 January 2026 00:04 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Sands of Aura, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Sands of Aura
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Sands of Aura concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Sands of Aura compatibility
Game modes
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Online players
1
Developer
Chashu Entertainment
Publisher
indie.io
Release
27 Oct 2023
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