It kind of feels like a game that was going to be a different game, then changed to this game, then wasn't finished. I actually played the demo and liked it well enough to get this on a bit of a discount around release, but the demo is a bit misleading because you only ever get 3 abilities during the game and you do NOT get them quickly. It makes combat very, very boring - it's like if you took a top-down Zelda game and slapped some Diablo onto it without actually adding any abilities.

The story is... not great. The "twist" is broadcast so far in advance and so often that I don't actually think you can call it a twist, but the writing clearly still treats it as if it's supposed to be a surprise. The whole choice system feels pretty meaningless and heavy handed. The dialogue and world building overall feel incredibly confused - almost all the "world" stuff would make way more sense in a more cartoony, light-hearted setting, but instead it's in a grimdark "everything is awful and violent" setting which just makes it feel that much more childish. The heavy setting is not given a serious tone and the nonsense tone isn't given any fun to play with.

Visually it's pretty good, there's a lot of details, and weirdly there is a TON more on your minimap than you can get to - not sure if it's to make the map look less plain or if it's an example of plans not being met. However, the tells for enemy attacks are largely terrible and difficult to read outside of boss fights.

The rune system feels tacked on because the whole stat system feels tacked on. You can equip different runes to make different trade offs but there aren't enough options to like, change how you play at all. Except for the dash cooldown because spam dashing is the fastest way to get through the empty corridors (I hate when games don't make running the fastest way) so you always want that.

The puzzle sections are boring and tedious, dealing with auto-scroll timers combined with janky targeting and hit registration and not being complicated in the slightest, just long.

It's not, strictly, a bad game. It just doesn't really DO anything and I have absolutely no idea why I would recommend it over any game that actually does any of the things this game tries to do, better. There are elements of quality here, mostly visual, and there are some clearly unrealized ideas, but it's a fully released game, not something with 2-3 more years of polish coming.

Batora: Lost Haven is a game that could have been really good if it was made by more competent developers. As it is, it's just okay.

The story has some great ideas that could have been really powerful and emotional, but the writing is just abysmal. The dialogue feels like it was written by an 8 year old and the characters are inconsistent, obnoxious and just plain stupid.
There is a choice-and-consequence mechanic and the story does change based on your actions (apparently there are 4 possible endings, as the game was quick to tell me when I got "Ending C", in a futile attempt to get me to play it again), but... it's hard to really care. All choices feel stupid, all consequences are very predictable and uninteresting, I could not care less about what happens to these characters, and even though the game tries to present things as "morally gray", it's really easy to tell which choices are the "good" choices.

The gameplay is pretty good though. Calling this game an "RPG" is pretty generous, I'd say it's more of a hack & slash with the occassional puzzle, but it works.
The combat mechanics are fun and even pretty creative, forcing you to switch up between 2 forms ("Physical", in which you only have melee attacks, and "Mental", in which you only have ranged attacks) with each one having it's own seperate set of skills and it's own health bar. I really enjoyed the combat, even though it did start getting repeptitive and some point, as there isn't really any way to customize your gameplay (hence my "not really an RPG" claim), and all enemies are basically the same.

The puzzles were decent. Some were more fun than others, but generally I found them enjoyable. They kinda reminded me of the temple puzzles in Breath Of The Wild, and those were great. The main problem I had was that sometimes the isometric view kinda got in the way of seeing exactly what's going on, which made some puzzles a little more frustrating than they needed to be.

Genereally, I'd say this game was a decent way to spend the day while being stuck in bed with a virus and a Steam Deck. The story is genuinely terrible, not only because the writing is so bad, but also because it has some really good ideas and interesting worldbuilding, and it just hurts to see those ideas massacred like that by absolutely incompetent storytelling.
So just... lower your expectations, enjoy the mechanics, and skip all the dialogue. You'll like it better that way.

Batora is a game with no meat on its bones. I would give it a mixed review if I had the chance, it is by no means horrible but at the same time it is such a forgettable experience.

The Good :

+ Graphics and cutscenes looks nice for an indie game.
+ Most lines are voice acted, which increases the immersion.
+ UI looks clean and modern.

The Bad :

- Combat. It just doesn't have enough variety. Fight red enemies with your melee and purple with your ranged. Only a few special attacks unlocks by the end.
- Choices. Batora gives you the ability to choose your actions on certain missions. While this seems good on paper game just isn't big enough for it to matter. Unless gameplay is phenomenal playing the same locations and fighting the same enemies doesn't sound appealing to me.
- Content. Maybe I missed it but there doesn't seem to be any side missions or activities. So the experience gets stale quickly.

The Ugly :

-- Story. Oh lord what a hot mess. I'm sorry but it just amazes me how people with 0 creativity can become writers in this industry. Dialogue is equally bad if not worse.
-- Customization. Upgrade system is extremely basic and not exciting. You feel no joy using a new upgrade for your character. Most stuff are +50 hp - 5% attack stuff. No exciting abilities, no creative changes. This is possibly the worst way to reward a player, it just doesn't feel fun.

Tl;dr Batora is your mediocre 6/10 game that you will not remember after a few months. And if this is what you are looking for it is okay to get it on a sale and shut your brain for a few hours. Anyone looking for a fresh experience look elsewhere.

I had a good time with Batora: Lost Haven, but if there is a game that is a mixed bad, this is it. It's not a masterpiece, but it's not garbage either. More complex than a casual game, but nowhere near a full RPG. The combat is fairly unique, yet super simple. There are puzzles, but they are extremely simple and forgiving. The story is neither interesting nor unimaginative. There are choices, but each choice is like saving someone you know or saving everyone else. The graphics are somewhat similar to World of Warcraft, easy to look at, but nothing you haven't seen before. Bonus points for the moody ambient soundtrack and minus points for the annoying "cool chick" protagonist. Overall, it's entertaining for about ten hours, but don't expect a life-changing experience.

There are some good things to say:
1. It looks beautiful.
2. There are some mechanics to play around, although very straightforward.
3. it is very simple, so it's open for kids and very casual players.
4. You can make choices. I have no clue what the actual consequences are to whatever you choose but I doubt there's any impact other than a few lines of chatter.

But there are also bad ones:
1. The first hour felt like a slog. Very boring to make progress in general, I made it to the first miniboss which wasn't anything special.
2. The combat system is very bland, it gets repetitive and boring fast. I.e. red enemies = red sword, purple enemies = purple missiles, that's all. It also gets boring fast because the game practically forces you into playing ranged only vs some enemies and melee only vs the others. There's an option to disable this, but what's the point then?
3. You get spells over time but it's like a MOBA, except you get them extreeeeemely slowly over time. It just feels like a mobile game in this sense.
4. The story is super cringe. Think Forsaken's adolescent dialog while you're supposed to be a super human bound to save the world, but you can't stop making 5-year-old jokes and witty remarks.
5. The upgrades system is like 2/10, all you do is get extra points in damage or health, and "low quality" runes sacrifice one to give you the other. Which means you will always want damage.

Now the most egregious issue, I don't even know why this game is tagged as RPG/ARPG because there is no role-playing at all. That really makes me mad, why would you market your game as RPG when it's not? All there is here is very low quality elements of statistic management (i.e. health, defense, attack, critical hit chance...) that's not RPG at all.

The game is decent in many areas. The combat worked alright, the story premise was neat, but the overall game is a big o' pile of meh. The inventory system is complicated for almost no impact on combat, the replayability is made annoying by unskippable cutscenes, and the overall game just seems weaker than others in its category. Decent game to get on sale, but even then, better to spend your time on something else.

Really enjoying myself so far. I was a bit concerned at first b/c of the WASD movement and twin stick-style of combat (since I play with a mouse and keyboard), but I got used to it pretty fast. It helps that I can control my character with either WASD or the RMB, so it's up to me whatever feels more comfortable to use.

I'm liking the story so far, it's definitely engaging, with just enough of a hint of mystery to keep me wanting to figure out what happens next. I also really like the environmental puzzles. They are simple enough that you'll be able to figure it out if you stop and think for a bit, while also being complicated enough to not be completely pointless. I'm also a big fan of the graphics and the art style, and if I'm not mistaken, the VA for Avril is the same one who voiced Panam in Cyberpunk 2077.

Also, the boss battles are top notch! Having faced two major story bosses so far, I can't praise the boss battle design enough! It's very reminiscent of boss battles in games like Darksiders as opposed to traditional ARPGs where you can usually just outgear / outlevel the content and trivialize the boss.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this one, even at full price. As far as indie ARPGs go, this one is one of the better ones I've played in a long time, and a definite diamond in the rough! Also, I've heard there are multiple endings you can get based on your choices in game, as well as a NG+ mode, so I'll almost certainly be getting my money's worth.

Batora: Lost Haven is a fine adventure with very frustrating combat mechanics. You have the sun, melee and the moon, ranged. Aiming the moon projectile is beyond dumb on a controller so that's where the frustration comes from, with more on top of it later on the game. I'll talk about more later on this review.

So, I'd say to get this game on sale if you want a game you can beat in a rainy afternoon and have some fun with it if you can get the hang of the combat, which I'm gonna be honest, I just pressed buttons and somehow it worked. This is definitely no Hades so keep that in mind.

The puzzles are super simple and I dig them since they don't hinder the pace of the game... and one thing about the pace, there are some cutscenes you can skip and some you can't, for whatever reason. The same goes for the dialogue which I could simply skip altogether because if there's something I despise in games is slow ass dialogue for a story I didn't really feel interested at all, and trust me-- I tried, even with the choices you have throughout the game, which I saved and tried the different ones for all the achievos but overall I didn't feel affected by them; they're... there, that's it. You get a quick recap at the end but mostly I was like "oh yea that happened". No Mass Effect type of consequences so feel free to choose whatever you think it's best. The characters don't really have a personality sotospeak and you can smell what direction the story is gonna take from a mile away.

By the way, the latter half of the game goes by extremely quickly too which I liked it a lot but I didn't like the last few bosses and their multiple health bars; it didn't feel fun to slog through them with the weird ass combat and a very unfortunate runes inventory system that doesn't... change much how you play the game-- it's just numbers for the most part and the enemies still feel bulletspongy. Oh hybrid enemies are very unfun to play against, just not exciting at all.

To elaborate more on the combat, the game shows you enemies you can damage using your two stances and, quite honestly, the gimmick gets old pretty quickly since you can also mash buttons and come out on top if necessary. I particularly didn't enjoy it but maybe you won't mind it because the combat is my least favourite thing about this game.

Basically, I do recommend it because it's not a bad game, it's just not good either. Batora: Lost Haven reminds me of those simple PS2 games from my childhood and for that, I am glad I bought it and played it to its completion. The game is beautiful and I absolutely adore the atmosphere, however I rushed it, barely took time to explore what the game allows you to (very little) so my playtime is based on going from point A to point B with save scumming for achievements.

Up front, I want to say that the game isn't *bad*. The core of it is fine; it's not saddled with technical glitches or horribly broken mechanics or anything like that. But a core gameplay loop that's "fine" doesn't carry the other issues.

On the plus side, there are some decisions you need to make that have actual moral weight, and which you can't avoid. The story concept isn't bad, and in fact is arguably pretty good. The voice acting isn't too bad either; the biggest issue there is that they didn't seem to have enough different voice actors, or enough different voices (since some actors can do multiple voices), for all the characters who had lines spoken. This is understandable enough for a smaller studio, which I assume Stormind is, but the decision to have so many different characters voice-acted when the voices themselves are often barely differentiated from each other, especially when a lot of those characters are not human and are only set apart by linguistic tics rather than a different sound, is questionable.

The problems start, however, with the writing, which fails both the story and the voice actors. The latter is easier to explain—the dialogue is often more literary than true to how people talk. This is OK when you're only reading text, but sounds wrong when spoken verbatim by a voice actor. Put another way, the dialogue would often sound (read) better if you only saw it in text rather than having it spoken by a person.

The story is impacted because, while the core concept is perfectly good, the way the writing builds that story creates a lot of situations that don't make sense with how quickly you're intended to move through the game. The main character makes several references to not having time for this or that, and some things happen which I think a lot of us would naturally think should take some time to resolve (early example to minimize spoilers: a broken bridge) but which are dealt with almost immediately. And the speed of finishing the game is obviously intended, because at the end they explicitly suggest playing through again with different choices to find different endings. (You should know this ahead of time; if you enjoy the game, you'll probably be happy to play through it again regardless.)

The characters also... how to put this as vaguely as possible... don't always seem to have the same point of view from one situation to the next. I don't mind that their opinions shift in a logical way based on the specifics of a situation, but that I was more than once left saying out loud, "What the f--- are you talking about?"

Gameplay is, again, fine, but it's a little tough in some ways. You can attack directionally with your right analog (assuming you're using a controller, which I recommend), and that's cool, but there's a melee mode and a ranged mode, and I found very little use in this when in melee. That's fine; you can also press X to attack (XBox controller), so you're not stuck with a terrible attack scheme.

However—and maybe I'm more sensitive to this at the moment because the two most recent action games I've played through are Dreamscaper and Rogue Legacy 2, and roguelites need super-tight combat—the enemies often do not give much, or any, visual clues for their attacks. When you're at range, this is OK, because you have time to adjust, but in melee it's effectively impossible. And the combat system does encourage, or require (depending on the settings you choose), you to be in melee for some enemies. So there are situations, especially later on, where an enemy has a multiple-strike attack, and you don't know it's coming until it's killed you at least once. Then you at least know the enemy has that trick, and you can work around it. But that's a lot different from a game where the enemy has a tell, and they kill you anyway because you don't know what the tell means yet. You see something's coming, but you have to learn what. Here, you don't know anything's coming until it's hit you.

Also, occasional enemies are clearly short of striking but do damage anyway. It's not a significant problem, but it's frustrating when it happens.

TLDR: Good ideas, fine gameplay loop, but decision-making undercuts most of the positives this game could, and should, have.

I really wanted to love this game but after 3-4 hours I found myself just waiting for the dialog to end