Batora: Lost Haven Preview: Double-Edged

Listen up: everyone’s dead, and only you, Avril, can save Earth. Batora: Lost Haven follows the reluctant teen’s cosmic journey after everyone she cared about has gone. She’s in the enviable position of not having grown-ups telling her what to do, meaning she can be the person she wants to be – good or bad.

A trend has developed in games of late where several genres are thrown into the melting pot to get out the best flavours, and in this title, there’s a little sprinkling of a karma mechanic to make it one sexy dish. What the hell am I going on about?! Basically, a lot is going on in this demo, but it all blends well.

Stormind Games (Remothered: Broken Porcelain) and my besties (don’t ask them, they’ll deny it) Team17, have put together a hack and slash, action RPG, and a twin-stick shooter. On the surface, it looks like an arcadey Diablo-type with accessible controls and pick up and play gameplay.

As for Avril, she’s been blessed with duality. That means she can shift between two forces of nature: the sun and the moon. Initially, this seems to be a combat-focused trait, but her powers assist in puzzle solving. But first, Batora: Lost Haven fisticuffs.

Avril has two styles. The sun power is melee-based and originates from her physical power, whereas the moon power is ranged and stems from her mental prowess. Should she lose either in the heat of the battle, she dies, and you return to an automated checkpoint – no immediate resurrections.

Batora: Lost Haven offers up button-based attacks, or if you’re playing with a controller like I did (hello, fellow cool person), the right stick is used for attacks, not camera movements, and it’s pretty effective. There’s a dodge button and a button to shift between her sun/moon powers on the fly. Additionally, holding down the left trigger will bring up a special attack, directed with the right stick. 

One last thing on gameplay would be the puzzle sections. The first puzzle was straightforward; to either tease your confidence or break you in (I wage it was both). Avril will be switching states to melee a colour-matching switch; another time, it’ll be shooting a switch between sliding panels and even telekinesis. The aesthetics here reminded me of Timelie – which is a good thing. These puzzles were a highlight and complemented the fights.

Bear in mind that these jumbled words are about the Batora: Lost Haven demo, so it’s not a definitive write-up, but a good test for what’s to come. The visuals are excellent, and I’ll have to say that the cutscenes in the game are outstanding – Final Fantasy standard. I wasn’t keen on the voice acting – especially the titular character Batora. Every time she spoke, the volume seemed to go up, as did my apparent grimace.

The in-game dialogue bits, a bit like a visual novel, were also beautifully illustrated, and the actual story shows promise. Coming back to that choices matter comment, you can shape Avril’s path – karma, by being good or bad, and you’ll be rewarded accordingly. In this case, you’ll earn runes that can boost skills and what-not and will no doubt key in the full game.

There’s something ‘indie’ about Batora: Lost Haven, yet it feels like a big production. Even though this was an early preview just before the Steam Next Fest, the game already looks polished and, as a result, is a game I’m looking forward to more now that I’ve experienced a portion of it.

If the powers that be leave the demo up after the festival, download this and give it a go. At the least, wishlist it so you’ll get updates on its release.