Haven

A really nice game to play with your partner, even if the person is not *that* much of a gamer. ..........which is not my case! My partner is the best gamer. Love you, babe.

Haven is an unusual mix of visual novel, RPG, exploration and life/relantionship sim. I wanted to like it, but unfortunately there's not enough for the game to stand out in any way, and it rarely seems to know what it wants to be in the first place. [h3]Art Direction[/h3] Overall the game ends up looking bland and stale very quickly. It's made up of about 40 islands to explore, and they all look pretty much the same: green hills and rocky mountains. For an alien planet, it's pretty uninspired, and it's made worse by navigating what feels like the same environment all the time. There are some variations (all shown in the promo material), but they show up way too late into the game, and they really aren't that different. Blueish green is replaced by swamp green, you get the occasional ruins or watefall, and at some point you end up in wheat fields. I was happy to see a different colour after unending green/red/rusted gray, but only because I felt colourblind for so long. For the same reason, it feels much better to explore later in the in-game day as the sky changes gradient, but it's also discouraged by the hunger mechanic, which makes the characters weaker in battle - and when they eat, they sleep afterwards. [h3]Battle[/h3] It's got a cute gimmick that revolves around synchronizing your actions between both characters. One can soak an attack with a shield, while the other counters, or both can do the same move together to perform an empowered variant (although, side note, the overcharging mechanic is actually less efficient than simple attacks). It gets old really quickly, and I think it is entirely because the pacing is so odd. I think adapting this idea into turn-based combat, or using some form of ATB for the enemies, would have made it much better. Right now the timing always feels off or strange, and the worst encounters are the ones where you need to wait for the enemy to attack, to counter [b]immediately afterwards[/b]. You end up waiting and waiting and waiting, only to miss the opportunity because the Duo Blast has an inexplicable delay of a few seconds on it. Its only saving grace is that it's not challenging at all (the game says so itself) and all "bosses" are optional; but the game being easy does not make this system any better. [h3]Exploration & Gliding[/h3] The gliding looks pretty neat, and is my favourite aspect. All the animations linked to it makes it look very fun, and to me it feels as though it was meant to be the main focus. However, the game barely revolves around it at all. Exploration is encouraged by collecting food ingredients, finding collectibles in specific places, and cleaning each island of the red glowing dust that makes the critters angry. It's also enginereed around the blue threads, which are mainly used to gain elevation. First, I do not like this idea simply because it makes what is supposed to be a free-flow exploration into an obstacle course; you cannot climb any steep terrain unless you follow the only route the game has designed for it. This decision baffles me, as one of the first upgrades you get from leveling up, is this really cool backflip animation the couple will do when they drop from cliffs. Already, I don't get the contradiction of limiting by definition the opportunity to do those things. Second, the navigation feels absolutely [b]awful[/b]. Any tiny rock will cause the couple to do an immediate U-Turn, in an animation that lasts a second too long. Despite hovering above ground, they cannot jump over anything. It's as if the game was actively against the idea of parkouring, for whatever reason. I really don't understand this direction, as I think there could have been a few easy fixes. Make less islands, but bigger, with more room to fly around. Allow the couple to jump over canyons with their flying boots. Less invisible walls to smash into, so you can actually backflip without breaking your whole body. Instead, you get all these repetitive tiny maps, where anything on the ground that threatens to raise above your tibia, warrants an immediate 180°. The thing is, the ending section is its own spectacle, that hints at an alternate version of this game that's centered around this parkour idea, and it felt great - but only comparatively, because the entire journey to get there set the bar so low. If you didn't want to do free exploration, then embrace the obstacle course route instead, and shape the environment to encourage players to master the controls. Some islands seem to be aiming for that, but overall it's perpetually torn between both ideas, and ends up achieving neither. [h3]Characters & Narrative[/h3] Haven is mostly focused on its main characters, and the story is mostly implied. I actually liked that, and I think the tiny bits of worldbuilding and backstory we've got here and there were enough to get a good grasp on what their world is like, which was interesting, and leave the finer details up to interpretation. Probably the best way to do it in order to avoid non-stop exposition. Kay is a curious, endearing nerd who's really into plants, or anything alive. They're sort of the ideal person you'd want to take with you to be the only other human on your planet. Yu is an engineer who likes tech... most of the time? I didn't really get their deal to be honest, while they have moments where they are enthusiastic about stuff, I mostly remember them being weirdly dismissive or mocking a lot, as if their reactions were a constant coin flip. It's to the point where I wondered whether they actually chose to be here with Kay. Both suffer from nightmares and carry their own trauma, and the story ends up being about their past coming to haunt them; but really, the game is about the slice-of-life couple stuff, and that's the only part where I understand the intent. They cook together, they repair their little home together, they do corny roleplay together... For the most parts, it's very idyllic. Bonus points for giving different gender & pairing options. [hr][/hr] In the end this is a soft game that's all about fantasy fulfillment, where you and the person you love get to have your own planet far away from the tediousness and difficulty of the outside world. When they glide close together, they hold hands, and they don't kill the critters that attack them, they just pacify them, and actually help them by cleaning up their natural habitat from the taint of capitalism. Sometimes, that's just enough. Which confuses me as to why it's got all these unrefined, or contradictory ideas added to it, if the real intent was to hover around with your boyfriend.

Lovely game. Well defined characters and overall just a very fun experience. We all dream of this kind of love, I hope you find yours.

Шикарнейшая, не побоюсь такой характеристики лучшая игра для пар! Всё, от звуковой и визуальной части до сюжета, юмора и хронометража на 10/10. Даже удивительно, как чётко всё сделано в игре (и устать не успеваешь, и при этом жёсткое насыщение сюжета). Интересная боёвка, а как много милоты!!! От Хрюнчика и большой картофелины до сих пор в кайфе, а семейство потокожевателей отдельное искусство. Короче искренне советую игру челам в отношениях. И мои лютые респектухи создателям. Спасибо за такие воспоминания!

A story about space Romeo and Juliette. Beautiful arthouse game about what it feels like to be in a truly harmonious relationship where you don't need anyone else and the costs of such a relationship. There is also other stuff like gorgeous environment, great animations and voice acting, slightly weird combat system (why there is only auto-aim and we cant choose our targets? Difficulty overall is very low so it doesn't matter much, but just why?) and signature moving/flying system (which is cool 70% of the time any clunky and unwieldy the remaining 30%). Game universe is pretty detailed and interesting too, hope to see other games in this setting in the future, perhaps even continuation of Yu & Kay's journey-relationship

A fantastic sci-fi romcom that made me feel like a 3rd wheel. Probably more enjoyable if you have someone.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING

a very fun story driven couch co-op game with some fairly simplified active time battle style turn-based combat and very rudimentary survival/crafting elements. the two main characters are very well done and you can tell a ton of love was poured into the copious amount of excellent voice acting. while the plot isn’t exactly mind blowing, the storytelling is great, interweaving the protagonists’ pasts and relationship with unveiling the mystery of the planet they’ve crash landed on. exploration is a big element of the gameplay and is quite fun. big fan of the soundtrack. the ability to choose each of the protagonists’ genders is also a very nice touch. one of my main complaints is that the handling on the gliding system is a little awkward and difficult to get used to, but it does feel good with enough practice. i ended up thinking of it as something like a skating game, which i was not expecting from this game, but it felt a lot more natural once i started thinking of it that way. only one player can “drive” while gliding though, which can be a little awkward. also, the game can be weird about saving. unless i missed something, it seems like it only saves automatically during loading screens. this is easy enough to trigger manually, but sometimes it seems like we’d replay conversations we already listened to or lose a little progress. the gimmick that originally drew me to this game was that it was pitched to me as a game “meant to be played with your significant other”, and i do think the experience of playing it that way feels a little special, but i think it would still be a really fun game to play with a friend or solo. overall, i think it’s worth giving a try, particularly if you’re looking for something story-driven with an emphasis on relationships!

The bad ending made me so sick that I decided to stop playing and not finish the achievements. I don't recommend it.

Not really oen to be played alone. Play with a partner via remote share, or by swapping the controller back and forth if you must. Aside from that, its cute. I enjoy it :)