Haven

Not the sort of game I normally play, but it was hard to fault this in the way that it did exactly what it wanted to and didn't try to be something else. It was fun, a distraction, and a good piece about two characters. Gameplay was interesting, the music is great and the two mains had fantastic interactions. A change of pace.

(haven't found anything against sharing this in the guidlines so I'll just go ahead:) I've played this game on stream after I've been following its development for a long time & had also streamed the demo in March. So if you want to hear a more detailled review & witness more of how I've made up my opinion about it, just search for "Kanashi Atisuto Haven" 🌀 I finished playing the game on 09/12/20 but still want to play the second ending for 100% achievememts & out of curiosity, of course. On to the (kind of) TL;DR version: •atmosphere The demo gave a great feeling for what you'd be in for but the full game delivered so much more than I expected & it stays true to everything that's been promoted. You get greeted by beautiful colours & incredible music (I knew Danger before & fell even more in love wih their work through this)- I literally get goosebumps & want to cry every time I hear the intro, it's so beautiful 💙 The visuals represent the characters, dynamic & feel perfectly. One of the main elements is gliding & it's so relaxing. Some challenges await you as well making for fun variety. Oh & there's one special event + some parts in the story that give off a creepy vibe. I was not prepared & the contrast to the main mood of the game made me remeber a bit how I felt when I played that basement part in TLOU- made me shiver 😳 So: chill, sometimes challenging, fun & beautiful 🙌🏻 •gameplay I played with an xbox 360 controller. Gliding became a bit tricky sometimes mostly due to the u turn getting triggered too easily or the character sometimes not reacting quick enough but overall I wasn't bothered too much by that. The fighting isn't really turn-based (not my thing normally), I liked the challenge & wanted to do everything as well as possible. •story/characters Awesome, mature, different, "brave" writing & acting 😍 •more Vegan friendly 💚 (one exception which the devs kindly aknowledged) Incredible designs Legendary credits

The two central characters are, well, central to the game, and they really are the highlight of the overall great experience of the game. Seeing the relationship between the two, and how it grows, develops, and is strengthened, is something I haven't seen other games do quite like it. The exploration and combat aspects of the game take a different bend from most RPGs, having to sync between the two characters to be the most effective. Other aspects such as cooking keep it all from becoming too tedious. The story is decent enough if lacking in some areas and overall underwhelming and following the beaten path. The other aspects of the game make up for it though.

TL:DR The team's obssession with interrupting gameplay with dialogue kills the pacing, and, as another reviewer said, this should have been made into a VN instead (although the dialogue would still have to be changed because it's not good enough on its own to carry the game) The team definitely put a lot of care and love into creating Yu and Kay, and you can feel it, from the cute loading screen drawings that depict the characters in events from day to day life to the fantastic and intimate voice acting. However, where the team did not put as much thought into was pacing. In the studios previous work, Furi, expositionary dialogue was limited to these walking sections in between the frenetic boss fights and it was kept brief and vague to service the story, while also keeping the pacing feeling natural and in tone with it being a boss rush game. Haven, on the other hand, went all out on it, explaining things in excruciating detail while failing to stimulate your imagination like a good book would. Not only that, but it also interrupts your gameplay quite frequently and abruptly to the point where you spend more time reading than actually exploring this deserted planet. While the gameplay is not very interesting, it still feels off when control gets taken away from you because Kay has to go on a raving monologue about a plant. P.S. The OST is fantastic and I would highly recommend getting it on Bandcamp

The story, characters and dialogs are amazing which is clearly the focus of the game. I feel that every gameplay element is embeded into the story to the fullest extent. Nothing feels out of place the music is fantastic and accomodates the whole game very well.