I finished Haven at just 15 and a half hours. Extremely short for my standards but honestly I needed a short game to change up the pace. I didn't expect much besides "Sci Fi couple game" but I ended up liking it much more than I thought. The game never felt stale at all despite there being only just two characters really. I enjoy Yu and Kay's interactions with the planet Source, finding all kinds of different things and talking about them while flowing around and enjoying each other's company with various activities. Plus they talk about thier past lives a lot, so that gives in a lot of lore with the setting and thier backgrounds.
Haven isn't really a plot-focused game at all since much of the time it's just about Yu and Kay exploring around and finding parts for thier ships to be repaired but I found it really cool towards the end of the game, the lore points and thier motivations start to form a plot to tie things up. The endings are very controversial from what I've read but I think the best ending possible to obtain in the game is a nice conclusion for Yu and Kay. Haven isn't a grand Sci-Fi epic with dozens of characters and deep world-building. It is all about the love and romance between Yu and Kay and how nothing can keep thier love apart and I personally think that was what the entire game was trying to emphasize and I think it did very well with delivering that theme, even if I can agree easily way more could be done with the lore points. But I appreciate the story Haven wanted to tell.
My only real complaint is the gameplay. The survival elements weren't too bad and I really really like how not a single living soul dies in the game because essentially every game have death in some sort of way. However, I just found the combat very...clunky? The ATB combat is simple and holding down the button to do commands just doesn't work for me sometimes? And trying to use items is just very clunky to perform. Plus while Haven gets called as an RPG, I just found so many essential RPG elements to be missing that I rather just call it an adventure game. Not to mention, exploration can be maze-like here and there because you have to find a certain flow thread to exit the area and those can be tricky to find. The gameplay isn't awful, in fact, I think it's passable for the most part, but I definitely thought it needed more fine-tuning and polish.
Minor gameplay complaints and false RPG advertisement aside. Haven is a very neat and comfy game and I overall really enjoy and got attached to the romance adventure. I recommend the game a lot if you want something quick, simple, and lighthearted that is still very character focused with the story.
Haven isn't really a plot-focused game at all since much of the time it's just about Yu and Kay exploring around and finding parts for thier ships to be repaired but I found it really cool towards the end of the game, the lore points and thier motivations start to form a plot to tie things up. The endings are very controversial from what I've read but I think the best ending possible to obtain in the game is a nice conclusion for Yu and Kay. Haven isn't a grand Sci-Fi epic with dozens of characters and deep world-building. It is all about the love and romance between Yu and Kay and how nothing can keep thier love apart and I personally think that was what the entire game was trying to emphasize and I think it did very well with delivering that theme, even if I can agree easily way more could be done with the lore points. But I appreciate the story Haven wanted to tell.
My only real complaint is the gameplay. The survival elements weren't too bad and I really really like how not a single living soul dies in the game because essentially every game have death in some sort of way. However, I just found the combat very...clunky? The ATB combat is simple and holding down the button to do commands just doesn't work for me sometimes? And trying to use items is just very clunky to perform. Plus while Haven gets called as an RPG, I just found so many essential RPG elements to be missing that I rather just call it an adventure game. Not to mention, exploration can be maze-like here and there because you have to find a certain flow thread to exit the area and those can be tricky to find. The gameplay isn't awful, in fact, I think it's passable for the most part, but I definitely thought it needed more fine-tuning and polish.
Minor gameplay complaints and false RPG advertisement aside. Haven is a very neat and comfy game and I overall really enjoy and got attached to the romance adventure. I recommend the game a lot if you want something quick, simple, and lighthearted that is still very character focused with the story.