Haven

I really hate giving poor reviews to small game studios, but I can't find many reasons to recommend this one. I liked the characters, but not enough to keep me going through the repetitive islands and abysmal combat. It's pretty enough to look at, but that quickly wears off.

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.

Some games are woefully underrated, and this one most certainly belongs in that category. The characters are utterly endearing, the soundtrack is simply splendid, and it genuinely deserves far more recognition than it has received. It's one of those rare little gems that quietly slips under the radar despite doing so many things exceptionally well. Above all, though, it's an incredibly cosy, feel-good experience. It's the sort of game that gently melts the stress away while you're playing, and somehow leaves you feeling calmer and lighter long after you've put it down. An absolute hidden gem, one I cannot recommend highly enough.

Haven feels like multiple games mixed together, but not blending nicely. I like the visual novel style storytelling, I like the flowing movement, and I kinda like their take on turn-based combat. But together, these parts feels disjointed. At least the music is great (what I expected from the studio that made Furi) and I love the character and world design. The combat mostly felt like it was there to pad the time, there weren't ever any real "bosses" in the story, so it never felt like it belonged, and the combat got pretty one-note after a while. While the movement felt nice, I spent most of the game fighting the camera as it kept changing FOV, flipping around, turning places I didn't want it to while floating around, and being a little awkard to control. The story is interesting, but I also didn't feel like there were any stakes. Any real conflict is very quickly resolved and the story is almost exclusively limited to Kay and Yu talking to each other. It could've been great, but I felt like it was missing something. I think if this game had focused on the movement and developing the story more (maybe with the extra characters having an actual impact), it would've been a lot better. Get it on a steep sale if you want it for the aesthetics and story.

Wish I had a girlfriend (or boyfriend) to play with.

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.

Après avoir été captivée par l'excellent "Cairn", j'ai eu envie de découvrir "Haven", un jeu de type RPG créé par les mêmes développeurs. Il semblait à la fois sympathique et attrayant, même si le style de gameplay était très différent. Malheureusement, après les premières heures d'émerveillement et de satisfaction, entre cet univers futuriste et mystérieux, ainsi que les échanges plutôt agréables entre les deux protagonistes que nous incarnons, le couple Yu et Kay, tout l'enthousiasme que j'avais pour "Haven" a rapidement diminué. J'ai donc décidé de ne pas poursuivre le jeu, choisissant de l'arrêter après quasiment cinq heures de gameplay. Bien sûr, mon avis est totalement subjectif. Je comprends que le style de jeu puisse convaincre certains joueurs, mais de mon point de vue, j'ai trouvé que l'exploration des différents recoins de la planète devenait rapidement répétitive et redondante, avec peu de variété dans les éléments à trouver (que ce soit pour le Nid où vit le couple, pour la cuisine et les recettes, la fabrication de médicaments, les animaux à adopter ou apprivoiser, la rouille à collecter pour réparer le vaisseau, etc.). De plus, j'ai trouvé les combats complètement inintéressants et dépassés (sous la forme d'un mauvais "tour par tour") au point que je finissais par tenter d'éviter la majorité des ennemis qui rodaient dans les divers lieux de la planète. J'ajouterais également que les déplacements du couple peuvent être assez pénibles et désagréables si vous utilisez un clavier et une souris. L'optimisation est désastreuse et le jeu manque de fluidité pour exécuter certaines techniques comme le demi-tour, la glissade ou le dérapage. De plus, l'angle de la caméra n'est pas toujours bien adapté au gameplay. Je recommande donc vivement de jouer à "Haven" uniquement avec une manette si le jeu vous intéresse, sinon vous risquez de vous sentir rapidement frustré par les déplacements, car c'est principalement ce que nous faisons dans ce jeu : nous déplacer d'un endroit à un autre sur la planète pour collecter des ressources, que ce soit pour le quotidien du couple ou pour réparer leur vaisseau et quitter cette planète. Cela dit, bien que je n'aie pas particulièrement apprécié cette expérience de jeu, j'ai trouvé que les graphismes et l'environnement étaient plutôt jolis, avec une palette de couleurs attrayante dans les paysages, notamment les teintes turquoise et violettes. L'ambiance sonore du jeu, quant à elle, est agréable à écouter, et le doublage des voix en anglais est bien réalisé. Ce n'est pas nécessairement un jeu à faire "en couple" comme certains joueurs l'ont suggéré, mais si l'alchimie entre les deux protagonistes ne vous séduit pas et que vous trouvez les dialogues plutôt mièvres et puérils, il pourrait être difficile de vouloir aller jusqu'à la fin pour découvrir le dénouement de l'histoire. Au final, cela me gêne de ne pas recommander "Haven", surtout après l'expérience incroyable que j'ai eue avec "Cairn", mais il y a trop d'éléments négatifs (répétitivité, gameplay limité, combats peu intéressants, personnages pas vraiment attachants, etc.) pour que je puisse lui donner un avis positif. Cependant, si vous cherchez à passer quelques heures en mode "chill" sans prise de tête, dans un univers de type "science-fiction" avec des graphismes rappelant les animés japonais, alors peut-être que ce jeu pourrait vous convenir. Pour ma part, je me suis juste ennuyée !