Batora: Lost Havenis an action RPG driven heavily by puzzles, as well as moral decisions the player makes that influence the trajectory of the game’s narrative. Players take on the role of Avril, a young woman forced into the role of a hero, somewhat against her will.
With its distinctive art style, strong story, fun combat, and a great soundtrack,Batora: Lost Havenis a strong title overall with plenty going for it. However, there are also some aspects of the game that detract from players' experience. These are the game’s biggest strengths, as well as its biggest weaknesses.
10Loved: The Player’s Impact On The Story
There are plenty of games out there thatlet the player’s decisions impact the outcome of their narratives(or claim to, at least). Usually, the actual influence players have on what happens in the game varies considerably in practice. InBatora, though, the choices players make have a genuine effect on how the events of the campaign unfold.
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Avril’s decisions inBatora: Lost Havenwill essentially put her closer to one of two states: Destroyer or Saviour. While this moral system is a bit simplistic, it does have a real and profound impact on how the game ends up unfolding.
9Didn’t Love: Avril (At Times)
There’s arguably no word that better describes Avril, the protagonist ofBatora: Lost Haven, than snarky. For much of the game’s campaign, Avril has a lot of attitude, and it starts to feel one-dimensional as the campaign progresses.
While it’s refreshing to see a female character that is strong and empowered, Avril can frankly come across as grating and insincere at times, especially in light of what she’s been through prior to and throughoutBatora: Lost Haven’scampaign. While this isn’t something that all players are likely to struggle with, it’s worth noting.
8Loved: Combat Is Strong
While the combat inBatora: Lost Havenis far from perfect, there’s still plenty to praise here. Battles in the game feel fun, quick, slick, and players have a number of different ways that they can approach enemy encounters (as is the case for manyother strong action RPGs).
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Avril can use both melee attacks and ranged attacks in the form of her Mental powers. This keeps combat feeling varied and dynamic, and gives the game some replay value for players who want to explore different ways to take out the same foe or use multiple strategies.
7Didn’t Love: Clunky Inventory System
WhileBatora: Lost Haven’sinventory system isn’t broken by any means, it does often feel complicated for no particular reason. Although most games' inventories are a minor aspect of the overall gameplay experience, they do undeniably influence players' perception of a particular title. An inventory system that’s difficult to work with can come pretty close to breaking the game for some players. (Many of thebest action RPGshave very functional inventory systems, for example.)
So, whileBatora’sinventory system isn’t quite that bad, it is a shame that it isn’t more streamlined and efficient. This would make for a far more positive gameplay experience overall.
6Loved: Rune System
Players can collect various Runes throughoutBatora: Lost Haven, and these Runes can be used to grant Avril different buffs for combat. (Mastering this system isone of the best things beginners to the game can do.) Different combinations of Runes can make Avril pretty deadly, but using them isn’t always simple. For example, some Runes will grant Avril a boost to one stat at the expense of another.
This can make effectively utilizing the game’s Runes more of a challenge than it might seem at first glance. However, this makes the game’s Rune system more interesting than it would have been if Runes simply conferred different buffs at no cost to the player.
5Didn’t Love: Puzzles
Puzzles make up a big part ofBatora: Lost Haven(like they do in countlessother titles) and are generally challenging, rewarding experiences. However, some of the game’s puzzles feel awkward and downright frustrating to navigate (the ball puzzles are just one example of this), requiring that players use Avril’s skills to complete them.
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While these weaker, more irritating puzzles are few and far between, it does detract from players' experience of navigating the puzzle sections. If the game’s puzzles provided a more consistent experience, then this would make for a more enjoyable title overall.
4Loved: The Art Style
While the graphics inBatora: Lost Havenaren’t exactly state-of-the-art, the game does a fantastic job of working with and making the most of what it has. The title’s art style is distinctive and, at times, nothing short of jaw-dropping.
It’s getting harder and harder to find games with a truly unique identity nowadays, soBatora: Lost Havenshould absolutely be praised for how strong its art style is. This is something that helps the game truly make an impact on players and ensures that it’s truly a memorable experience.
3Didn’t Love: Formulaic Boss Fights
In a manner not unlike theboss fights in the Soulsborne games, bosses inBatora: Lost Havenusually pose a significant challenge, and they also become harder to take down as the fight progresses.
Typically, boss fights inBatorahave three phases, and each boss has two Health meters, both of which need to be emptied for the boss to be taken out. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with a challenge, the boss battles following this progression does make them feel somewhat formulaic, and, unfortunately, predictable, as a result.
2Loved: The Soundtrack
Something that really setsBatora: Lost Havenapart from plenty of other RPGs is the original, thoughtful soundtrack. Not only does it perfectly suit the aesthetic and style of the game, but it does a fantastic job of underpinning the title’s more impactful moments and giving them an even greater emotional weight than they previously had (putting it up there with someother, very strong RPGs).
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No matter what’s happening inBatora: Lost Haven, the title’s soundtrack pretty much never misses. From quieter moments to the game’s battle music, the composer/s who worked on the game deserve all the praise they get.
1Didn’t Love: Saving System
One aspect ofBatora: Lost Haventhat could objectively use some improvement is the game’s save system. Bizarrely, while players can manually save their progress in the title, the game will automatically defer to reloading from an autosave instead when player die or reload their game.
This can result in players losing a fair amount of progress, as the game actually autosaves infrequently. Whether or not this mechanic was intentional is hard to say, but, unfortunately, it can make for a pretty frustrating experience and seems like it would be straightforward to fix.
Batora: Lost Havenis out now on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S.
