Batora: Lost Haven

Millennial writing isekai. Snark From Another World. Both the protagonist and her why are you here bestie spend the whole game making snide comments. Decisions don't have any weight to them because there was no world building. Do you want to save the character you just met or the tribe you just met? Fully voiced though. The combat is alright but it soon gets repetitive and the upgrade system is mostly just health and damage boosts. Also there's some very basic puzzles.

El núcleo de Batora es su dualidad, representada de forma brillante en su sistema de combate y en su narrativa. Cambiar entre la Física (fuerza bruta, color naranja) y la Mental (habilidades estratégicas, color azul) no es un mero recurso jugable; es una metáfora constante. Te hace sentir la tensión entre el puño y la palabra, entre destruir y entender, entre imponer tu voluntad y buscar un equilibrio. Cada planeta que visitas es un escenario de esta lucha, con dilemas morales que rara vez tienen una respuesta "correcta", solo consecuencias que resuenan en la historia Muy bueno

战斗无聊 女角色服装设计离谱。女主的侄女穿紧身裤，过场动画里有不少对准屁股的特写镜头。另一个外星人女角色的服装露出胸部的下半部分

bad writing and poor voice acting, tons of framerate issues too. also just makes you wait for stuff to talk at you while you do nothing constantly

There's just something missing in this one. Its an isometric ARPG. The game has a ranged and melee form and specific colors associated with it and enemies you can only really damage with one form, so theres switching back and forth. This is interesting at first, but it doesn't evolve much after that. You unlock two special abilities for each form as well as a shield ability, and thats it. Theres no variation, every person playing the game will unlock the same abilities and play the same way, so you have no real influence on your character. The first from 50% in play out the same as 75% and then 100%, and this leads to the game feeling monotonous and kind of boring/repetitive. Its even worse that the healing system makes 0 sense, as to fill up healing for one health bar you have to use the other form to deal damage, but since the opposite color basically does no damage you have to be barely hurting an enemy to then fill up the opposite form to heal back to then damage again......yes its that dumb. I collected a bunch of seeds and other things but was never given a chance to use them or anything was explained. Theres vendors and some upgrades, but theyre boring stat upgrades, and for no apparent reason each one has a negative effect built in, so you're marginally improving specific stats you want while hurting other aspects, which may be the dumbest system ever. The two characters are pretty whiney and annoying, and should just get a room and scissor already. I couldn't possibly care about the story as its just a bunch of long dialogue and it all seemed pretty boring, so then when you're given "choices" I never knew what was going on or I was picking, and all that really influences is the ending which I didn't care about either. Theres also no map for the game which makes 0 sense as you have a minimap in the top right. Overall the game suffers from lack of meaningful upgrades, no variation in play, all battles feeling the same, and uninteresting whiney characters. The combat is novel at first and its not broken or anything, so there can be fun had for some. But I couldn't get into it. 6/10.

Story and visual are decent, but gameplay it self, it is boring and repetitive.

[h1]It's competent[/h1] Californian writing is obviously a problem here but overall it's OK-ish teen grade science fiction. Visual novel + action RPG in a dreamy world. Only 52% played it for 10+ minutes (and got both powers)

The story is weird. By "weird", I mean the story/lore feels needlessly bloated, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.. But what matters is that the story makes sense to the characters in the game :D Otherwise, there's a lot going on: you have to collect runes and other collectibles, to power up and unlock your inner superhero. You fight some (actually, a lot of) battles. The combat is somewhere between decent and fun. But also, you have to solve puzzles to achieve.. stuff. The puzzles get to be challenging (sometimes frustrating, maybe). Overall, I think this isn't the _BEST_ game I've ever played, but it's also not the worst. It runs great on the Steam Deck (if you can even get one at this point.. thanks AI). I bought it on sale, and can't complain. I'll recommend it

[Potential spoilers ahead][potentially dork threatening language ahead][not potential but real human made review ahead] - I see a lot of people giving this game hate for bad scripting and characters and praising the combat system which really just goes to show you that some people who review games are objectively bad at video games and don't finish games before they rage-quit-review. The review: Characters: I think the story telling in this game is adequate, the main characters are tolerable maybe even likeable sometimes. NPCs are rational, reasonable, real. But admittedly all are kind of shallow and naive sometimes and I did not appreciate being called "little bubble" so much by a mutant penguin I hardly knew. Combat: I do think the combat is kind of a weak point, There's nothing wrong with it but with an ARPG title it's pretty uninspiring is all. It's made the game too easy, if you can just work out the jank hit boxes and nature switch mechanic, which although has it's quirks the rune-purchasing for character to level up is a nice idea but it's pretty one-dimensional as all it does is meager stat boosts and add a few moves and features to your moves that really don't do all that much to impact combat. Just boost damage and roll cooldown and you can pretty much beat anything with good enough reaction times. Choices Matter: Does it matter? maybe, Avril seemed pretty depressed and regardless but it does have narrative impact I think which is nice, but it definitely feels like it's just a mechanic to make you play NG+, which I don't mind per say but again just didn't feel... necessary? or the right game for it maybe... HOWEVER it did help [player] shape Avril and immerse into the role a little more which worked in it's favour well. The Puzzles: If you like puzzle games, this is not the game for you. There is some that make you think a little but all in all they are rudimentary, uninspiring, boring and annoying. I have nothing good to say about them, Well the pinball one wasn't unfun but that lasted 10 seconds. BUGS/Game issues: The most frustrating thing is the bugs. Of which there are very few but very stark ones e.g. I couldn't complete the gem riddle to open the way to Mila because first time the gems didn't activate and after a restart they kept resetting after I hit the 4th (emerald) So I was forced to open it the other way. Another is enemy trapping, because the enemies are real objects they can movement lock you, you can't even roll, there is moves that allow you to push them but they are available usually once, maybe twice, per combat. TLDR: On the whole I think it could have been a great game but with the bugs and the combat it's lacking a je ne sais quoi... maybe just depth and polish. Worth money, I'd say sub tenner though. Will scratch the rpg itch but it won't cure the sickness. 6/10

Batora is a winner. Female protagonist, orange and purple glow magical powers, beautiful alien landscapes. The plot pacing really kept me hooked, the skill tree is cool, there's a lot of info but was easy enough to figure out. I got stuck at a boss fight, so I quit? Would be neat to add a skip feature, the bosses are much higher difficulty than the rest of the game which is mostly narrative. I was already using the "cheat" for non penalty ammo type. Might try again but either way it was worth it.