Batora: Lost Haven Review

Batora: Lost Haven has first released a few months ago and is now available for all platforms. It’s a top-down hack-and-slash action role-playing video game. If we want to point to a similar title to this game, we can name Darksiders Genesis. Of course, Batora was made by a small studio and cannot have the greatness of the Darksiders series at all. But in fairness, we see talented developer who knows their job. They can appear much better in their future games.

Batora: Lost Haven tells the story of Avril, a sixteen-year-old girl in a post-apocalyptic earth. She lost her whole family in an unknown destructive event, and now she is looking for a way to save the world. The game starts off cliché and seems like a teenage story. But the more you go, the more the story leads you to noteworthy and deep issues. Especially since the game usually gives you two choices for important moments, each of which can have significant consequences. According to the game itself, these choices are not necessarily right or wrong, but they affect the story plot and the ending anyway.

We cannot say that everything in the story is flawless. For example, some dialogues and acts of the characters are illogical and superficial. On the other hand, the story narration is a little incomplete, and even some important pieces of information are just available in the Codex menu. But in general, the story is engaging and it convinces you to continue the game by raising various questions and sometimes cruel answers.

In terms of gameplay, the structure of this game is similar to the Dungeon Crawlers, But the emphasis is more on the action. The role-playing elements are implemented in a very subtle way. The combats mechanics are simple, and you will not see complications such as upgrading skills or choosing multiple weapons. This may be discouraging to some. What makes the combat remain engaging until the end is the ability to change Avril’s body elements. That is, the main character has two types of powers. One is physical powers and the other is mental powers. These two cannot be used at the same time and you have to switch between them. The enemies have these two categories of powers too, and you have to constantly be aware of what kind of powers to use for which enemy to follow in the battles.

Fortunately, the gameplay does not cease at fighting. Rather, a little exploration of the map and finding useful items have also been added to the game. Also, there are puzzles in your way that are not very difficult but require the same two categories of mental and physical powers. Some of these puzzles even reminded us of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Overall, the gameplay is well-made, but I wish the role-playing elements were a little more profound. You can only find or buy a set of Runes, each of which changes Avril’s Stats.

We played Batora: Lost Haven on PS4. Although the game does not have stunning graphics from a technical point of view, its art caught our attention. The design of the environments may be a little simple, but the character models, both in 3D and 2D, have a suitable style. Also, the cutscenes are well-directed and create interesting scenes. The game is again acceptable in terms of music. It is good to know that its composer has a history of working on titles such as the Batman and God of War series.

You can finish this good $25 game in about ten hours. Of course, the game even has a New Game+ so you can start the game again from the beginning with previously acquired skills. It is good for those who like to make other choices in the game’s story and achieve different endings.

The review code was provided by the publisher