(This is an early diamond in the rough!!! See summary at very end for who I think would enjoy this game in early access.)
I was DEEP-diving Steam games for two hours last night, looking for the most hidden of gems. I was hoping to find the unicorn of games: the tiniest of indie games, with a unique art style, preferably open or semi-open world with an exploration focus, with creature-collecting, and—the kicker—full controller support. I really thought it didn’t exist. Especially the controller support thing. Until I spotted Mystal Haven.
Too good to be true? Few reviews, and I didn’t see much action on the Steam store page. So I visited the Discord to see if the channel was still “alive.” I kid you not: IMMEDIATELY upon joining the Discord channel—literally within a split second—Todd welcomed me with the cutest animated sticker. Who is Todd? I scrolled up and discovered that he’s the sole developer of Mystal Haven. I’ve never been greeted so instantly on Discord. We began chatting a bit. This game is his “baby,” in addition to his (new!) real world baby. :) Mystal Haven is Todd’s “dream game,” ever since playing Pokémon Red as a child. It’s a passion project, and for those of us who have the patience for Todd to develop Mystal Haven, we can come along for the ride.
I’ve played for a couple hours or so since last night, and here are my early impressions!
What I LOVE:
+++ Mystals. They are ADORABLE and there are a bunch of them to collect. The designs are so charming. They each make sounds as well. I’ve had such fun running around just filling out the sizable mystal vault (like a Pokédex). I’m not even remotely close to completing it! I think there are over 50 species; they all have evolutions (some are locked behind development placeholders). And it appears that each species and evolution also comes in a variety of elements (nine elements), actually totaling *hundreds* to collect. You can pet all of the mystals, and, you can RIDE the larger mystals!
+++ Mystal evolution. As it stands currently you don’t have to engage in combat to evolve your mystals. You can simply collect their favorite food and feed it to them over and over. There doesn’t seem to be a limit to this. So if you wish to avoid combat, but also wish to collect the various evolution forms, you can. As someone who enjoys creature collectors for the collectathon aspect and not as much for the combat, I appreciate this option so much!
+++ Art direction. Has a wonderfully hand-drawn look that makes me so nostalgic for childhood.
+++ Nine biomes to match the nine elements. Each biome has different music, as far as I can tell. They are graphically somewhat (not entirely) same-y when it comes to the components, but the color, tree, and water variations are really beautiful. The shadow rhealm is my favorite, as it has a really beautiful lavender-grey aesthetic. It looks a bit spooky. The water rhealm is also a standout, with beachy vibes. The biomes are mapped as you move, with a few key points of interest marked.
+++ Fast travel! You can quickly teleport to whichever biome you wish, even if you haven’t yet located the portal gate. Perhaps this will be changed in a future patch, but as someone who just wants to kick back and relax, I actually enjoy this. Especially since mystals each like particular food, and so you can easily travel biome to biome to collect their favorites.
+++ Challenges. Each biome appears to have two unique challenges to complete so far, in addition to collecting all of the mystals in each biome. In each biome, you can challenge a trainer’s mystal in order to earn the elemental shard. And in each biome, you’ll find an NPC with a quest to complete.
+++ Controller/Handheld support. Everything is mapped; no blind-mashing buttons hoping for the right one. It’s flawless on a handheld. I’m playing on my Lenovo Legion Go (SteamOS; controls nearly identically to my Deck). It feels made for handheld. I have the graphics settings turned up and everything is buttery smooth. There are a couple of graphics settings you can toggle if you need.
+++ Bang for buck!!! Five dollars. Seriously. Even this very early version of the game has far more than five hours of content (20-ish?) if you’re happy roaming in a really relaxed manner, collecting and evolving mystals.
What I know OR suspect is under development:
••• Character customization. While you have great variety for your starter mystal, and you are able to choose one of three classes and some hair colors for yourself, there are not yet skin tone options. I asked Todd about this and he said that adding skin tone options is top priority for him in the next patch.
••• Combat. It’s turn-based as is typical for creature-collectors, but—unless I’m totally missing something (and PLEASE correct me if I am!)—it appears to me that the combat for your mystals so far only includes four types of moves. Regardless of the mystal you’re playing, the moves are always the same four. I don’t quite understand this, unless it’s a placeholder for a much more robust system (with a variety of moves all tied to the various elements). I *suspect* that it must surely be a placeholder. At the top of the combat screen I see what appears to be the future makings of a more robust elemental system.
••• Camera angles. These are mostly great. You can rotate the screen 360° and also zoom in and out. I’d like to be able to zoom out a little further though; sometimes the mountains and trees obstruct my view as I move around.
••• *Minor* bugs. My experience has been really seamless overall, especially considering this is a solo-developed project in very early access. I have seen a graphical glitch here and there, such as a wild mystal running to attack my bonded mystals and moving straight through a stone wall lol. Another time I ate a mushroom (recovers health), and ended up teleporting back to town. Magic shroom?! Also, it can be tricky to isolate a bonded Mystal who is accompanying you. If you have more than one (up to three), they sort of clump together. I’ve been able to separate them (for the purposes of petting, feeding, healing, etc.) by running away from them, and then they’ll sort of separate based on their individual movement speeds.
••• Audio levels. They’re adjustable in the options screen, but they always reset to “low” each time I exit and restart the game.
PRO TIP: Despite the combat being quite simplistic right now (again, unless I’m missing something), *I recommend that you start as the class with the healer ability.* This class allows you to heal and revive your mystals for free. No potions necessary. This has allowed me to freely engage in combat and mystal collection without needing to pour money into potions, returning to town over and over to acquire potions, etc.
WHO WOULD ENJOY THIS GAME IN EARLY ACCESS?
I ***highly*** recommend this game for someone who genuinely loves the relaxing pure fun of creature-collecting. There are so many mystals to discover and evolve. Their designs are endearing and I can’t believe that one guy designed all of them. As long as the combat system isn’t something that concerns you much, and you are up for a super duper cozy time roaming biomes in search of new mystals, I think you’ll have a blast. Boot this up while you’ve got an audiobook or movie playing in the background, and you’re in for really relaxing evenings. I have just two hours in this game, and despite Todd having major plans for all sorts of things in future updates, I easily have plenty more hours of entertainment left in just the current build, running around to fill out the robust Mystal Vault.
And if you’re in the simple-collectathon-fun category, you’ll additionally enjoy this if you appreciate experiencing the early stages of a game like this. Todd told me that he’s happy to talk to anyone about his game. He’s super nice and I encourage anyone with questions or suggestions to go find Todd on Discord. :)
