I like interesting games that offer us an interesting story with interesting gameplay (yes, I put the same word three times!). I was offered Batora: Lost Haven, with the idea of a nice game...what a surprise. I will try to present you as much of the game as possible while respecting the requests made not to spoil certain levels.
Graphics & atmosphere
We are dealing here with a game that offers a truly beautiful and enchanting product. We are not in an ultra sharp style that tears the retina, but in something softer and clean. Everything is served by music that sticks quite well with the tone of the action and the context. A little faultless that should not leave fans of the genre indifferent. The enemies and protagonists that we encounter are also well designed, although the design of some of them is a bit simplistic for my taste. Question of preference surely...
History
You are Avril, a woman who is accompanied by her friend Mila, assisting her in her search. You will come across sun and moon deities who will lend you a hand. To save your world, you will have to travel to another one and discover your new powers granted by the two stars. For this, you can choose your destiny: opt to be a person who will rescue and relieve or a conqueror ready to do anything to preserve her universe and gain power. What will be your choice ?
Gameplay
The game will give you, during a tutorial, an overview of your maximum abilities with the related skills against creatures that will give you little trouble. Once launched, you will only have your basic sun mode hits and dodging to begin with, but you will regain your skills over time and missions.
On the sun side (physical), you will be a melee with jumps, rushes and powerful combos, while on the moon side (mental), you will be a distance capable of holding your enemies and inflicting blows on them without taking any risks . But it will also provide you with a rather interesting concept: maximizing your damage depending on your opponent's element, which may be physical type, mental type, or hybrid... I won't say anything about the bosses who have many surprises, so as not to spoil your pleasure.
As for equipment, you can use runes that you find or buy for dust to support you in your fight. This will allow you, depending on the points you have available, to level up. This will be very useful for you to have a linear increase in power and avoid too big gaps which will block you during the adventure.
Note that a decision system will guide the direction of your adventure, as well as your alignment, which will change the way the NPCs perceive you. This will be in the form of choices according to indicated in red and green and will decide the follow-up you want to give to the events.
Summary
Batora: Lost Haven offers us something quite fresh even if it is not revolutionary. Personally, I loved the heroine and her style, as well as the general design of the game. The gameplay certainly offers something quite classic, but successful in its genre, with relative freedom in its style of play. the title is still in the development phase and that many changes are likely to occur, it really makes me want to go further to discover it in more detail when it is released in autumn 2022.
