Review — Batora: Lost Haven [PC]

Sometimes it’s easy to dismiss the concept of choice-driven games. They’re all too commonplace nowadays, and often they feel like they focus far too much on giving the player an emotional jolt rather than a serious set of consequences. That brings us to Batora: Lost Haven, a game which tries to break past this barrier.

An action-RPG at its core, Batora puts player choice and storytelling at its front and center. Through the adventure, you’re forced to confront your decisions as a player as you progress through the story.

With a simple but gripping choice system, not to mention solid gameplay and combat, Batora: Lost Haven feels like a cut above the norm. Yet a couple of hangups in the writing and voice acting department prohibit it from being something truly special.

Batora: Lost Haven and the power of choice

In many ways, Batora is a pretty typical “save the world” kind of RPG in regards to its story. You take control of Avril, a human who, along with her friend Mila, are two of the few survivors on Earth after an incident in which half the planet was destroyed. After seeing visions of two gods, Sun and Moon, in her head, Avril gains the powers of the chosen one and is tasked with restoring balance back to the universe.

You’ll visit a number of different colonies and experience many cultures along the way. On your journey to restore the Core of each planet you visit, you meet new species and, inevitably, make decisions that directly impact them. Each decision you make influences your Defender or Conqueror meter, with major choices filling up more points in either direction.

Without spoiling exactly what your choices are and where the story goes, Batora does a solid job building up the stakes and delivering on its story. I felt the weight of every decision I made, and while the game did pull the rug out from under me in many instances, it was usually in a satisfying way. Note: usually — more on that later.

By the power of the sun and moon

Batora: Lost Haven’s combat takes heavy inspiration from top-down action-RPGs of old and new. Avril can switch between two different forms that each feature their own weapon and battle styles. With Sun’s powers, you gain a hard-hitting but slow sword; Moon grants you a projectile weapon which can be fired rapidly.

Enemies on the field take more damage depending on your form. Thus, switching between them in the flow of battle is critical. Each form has a number of special moves as well, such as a powerful sword jump slash or a barrier that damages enemies and blocks projectiles. It makes some for good old-fashioned RPG combat that isn’t outstanding, but responsive and engaging enough to make it worth the trip.

The scenery helps in this regard as well, with the many diverse environments looking absolutely stunning. Which is nice, since between combats, you are mostly just wandering around and occasionally solving puzzles. All standard stuff, but it does tend to get boring when the combat and story isn’t involved.

Emotions run high, but not always smooth

Where I found Batora: Lost Haven faults the most is in specific details of the narrative. Its cast of characters is mostly fine, although I can’t say I cared for the voice acting at all. (It’s a fault of poor direction more than anything.) Yet the characters do often suffer from unclear or contradictory motivations.

If the idea was to make them seem more realistic that way, then it ultimately doesn’t work because the conflicts feel too forced. It sacrifices character intelligence for the sake of creating drama. Emotionally, the choices resonate with me in the moment. But in hindsight, I felt unconvinced by most of the impact they have on the characters’ growth.

Usually, it’s not a huge problem, and I can overlook it when the game is otherwise a very solid affair. Batora doesn’t break any new grounds as an action-RPG or narrative-driven game. But if you’re looking for a good, satisfying, and occasionally very thrilling adventure, it will certainly be up your alley.

Batora: Lost Haven is developed by Stormind Games and published by Team 17. It is available now for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. A version for the Nintendo Switch will be available at a later date.