Batora: Lost Haven Review (KattKatastrophe)
First of all this is NOT a roguelike/lite, if anyone was wondering, despite it's combat encounters and map transitions action fighting and such kind of giving that impression, like say hades.
The game is completely linear, there aren't side quests or collectibles or optional boss fights(just optional major story events that can lead to missing some fights your first play threw).
It will take around 6 hours of play time to complete the entire game form start to finish assuming u don't read dialog very slowly, or have trouble grasping the combat and puzzle mechanics(which are rather straight forward with good explanation tutorials and forgiving for failure), however it is worth playing threw a second time due to the way New Game+ effects the game and to do the other story choices you didn't do the first time threw, so it'll be at least 12 hours of game play give or take. Personally i have played threw it three times as of posting this, cuz i love the combat in new game+ play troughs.
The story choices, being only two at every major event, including the end, ultimately do not change the endings, my 1st play threw i chose what i want, the 2nd i chose what i didn't my 1st, the 3rd i did all of one type of choice to try and get the maximum effect of a speific type of choice, but it resulted in nothing different that i hadn't seen in my other two plays, despite their being a tracker of how many choices you've made of the 2 diffrent types.
While disappointing, having played under tale for example, that there isn't much impact in your choices, just different events to encounter, to the point to make a 3rd 4th or 5th play threw meaningful for new experinces, new game+ on 3 or more play threws does let you play threw the game difrently from a combat perspective if u want to try beating the game in new ways.
The combat is more exciting from your 2nd play threw and onward using new game+ than it is your 1st time threw since u don't start with next to nothing and slowly build up threw the game but start with almost everything from the start and enemies that can survive it and still kill you as well as more diversity in the way you change your stats or the way skills work having brought some stuff from previous attempt along with you.
The only issues i have with the game really, is on new game+ QoL wise, or for speed running a fresh play threw, there is a lot of dialog u can only button mash threw and not avoid entirely, and some cut scenes u can't skip because they are basically used as loading screens leading into dialog, as well as the fact the mandatory puzzles can't be skipped if u have already done them(tho this is less relevant for speed runs which would still want to do the puzzles), which results in making a new game+ only slightly faster than the 1st time threw, more so on your 3rd time or more where u have done both choices to every event and just want to experience the combat.
The main issue i have that isn't simply QoL experience would be the A.I that follow and fight with you at some points in the game dying too easily, more so on New game+ where enemies are higher level, on occasion sometimes nearly instantly in multiple round fights before u even kill the first wave, making you have to play more dangerously to protect them or risk them dying, which isn't that fun, which, if they die, it results in you failing as if u had died, but the setback to dying is about as stressful as the setback to failing a part of the puzzles, and doesn't really result in much loss even on purely auto saves due to the way checkpoints are done.
There is no loot or grind, all stat changing things are pre-determined at points throughout the story so you can flow threw the game from one point to the next only backtracking because the story tells you to, there are some chests to loot for currency for shops and sell-able junk which u don't really need to go out of your way to get a lot of.
boss fights don't change on new play threws(tho you can't encounter them all in one), though they do gain more health and damage on new game+ cuz levels keep going up(but should max out after your second, making your 3rd max level form the beginning, so combat wise a 3rd time can be fun), which can make you change your fighting style.
The orange/purple physical/mental melee/ranged swapping combat is rather unique and well done, while matching the color of your enemies does more damage u can do dmg with both, except for most bosses you have to match but they have health of both types, and some enemies are multi colored. you also have a different health bar for taking physical or mental damage regardless of the form you take it in and die if either gets depleted not both. The puzzles also utilize the swapping system in various ways. Ultimately the game isn't very difficult just fun.
I do think 25$ is a bit much for only 6~ hours of gameplay, 12~ if u play twice for full experience, there isn't much that can change how much time it takes to play it. but the story and combat is worth playing. Buy it on sale. Hopefully they will add more endings/New game+ experience in the future or extended content/features with DLC. However i would expect a sequel or expansion continuing the story after the ending, telling the story that came before the start of the story, or the same theme universe and combat in a completely separate game with different characters like final fantasy does. more than alternate endings alternate paths or new features since this is a liner story with completed beginning and and end not a rogue like. Great game regardless, while you could simply watch the story on a let's play and get as much out of it as playing it, the combat however short lived is fun to do yourself.