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Haven - Launch trailer and reviews
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
Damn, this sounds really cool. The artwork and especially the screenshots caught my attention yesterday while checking out what was new on Gamepass. Might have to give it a try after listening to the music now.
I've played for about an hour and I think it's safe to say that it doesn't. The game also doesn't seem to be optimized for the SSD. There are loading screens every time you leave an area, even if you just step right outside of your ship.
So I played for a hour and the entire game seems to be about resource gathering lol.
It's so different from Furi.
It's so different from Furi.
Warning: Disgusting implied sex scenes
As GI said, a lot of the casual dialogue ends up with a twist that they are sexually "turned on".
Their favorite (past time) activity appears to be sex in lots of ways. The game deliberately prevents any interpretation that their relationship could be not sexual, which I think makes the characters shallower as they fled just to have primitive sex "joy".
(Off-topic; reminds me of reading about "Blue is the warmest colour" movie)
As someone who prefers asexual relationships, the handling feels really offensive and reminding of unwanted sexual conversations to me.
Soft porn is not a way to advocate sex positive (or I don't know what the idea is) and this attitude should be noted beforehand in any way.
Edit: implied
A scene describes the characters pressing their genitals against each other. It starts with Kay inventing a story about a resistance group from the apiary (where they fled from) and ends with sex as this is common in this game.
In another scene they find a library in a foreign language and take a "picture book", which could be about nature or what else, is of course a porn book.
In another scene they find a library in a foreign language and take a "picture book", which could be about nature or what else, is of course a porn book.
Their favorite (past time) activity appears to be sex in lots of ways. The game deliberately prevents any interpretation that their relationship could be not sexual, which I think makes the characters shallower as they fled just to have primitive sex "joy".
(Off-topic; reminds me of reading about "Blue is the warmest colour" movie)
As someone who prefers asexual relationships, the handling feels really offensive and reminding of unwanted sexual conversations to me.
Soft porn is not a way to advocate sex positive (or I don't know what the idea is) and this attitude should be noted beforehand in any way.
Edit: implied
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What makes them "digusting"? I'm an hour or two in, and everything so far seems fairly tame, if corny.
Nothing at all. A couple being into each other sexually being called "disgusting" or "offensive " says way more about that specific poster then it does about the game
There's nothing wrong with people that prefer asexual relationships though. No reason to be rude to them.
The depiction of the romantic/sexual relationship between these two characters is miles ahead of the insultingly bad and cringey "romances" in Bioware games that some people seem to fawn over.
Anywho, the game is very charming and the PC version is very smooth to play. The main gameplay loop of fighting and resource gathering isn't really hooking me as such, but there's a kind of zen to the experience that I'm enjoying at the moment. Maybe it'll grow on me as it hopefully expands a bit, but the real time combat isn't working too well for me, a turn based system would have been more fun - but that's just my preference.
I don't think the game is super great in terms of the actual gameplay, but I don't regret buying it either. It's kinda what I expected it to be. I just wanted to play a chill and relaxing game and this one fits the bill. The voice actors are good and carry much of the experience. The music is great and combined with the traversal mechanics it makes for this chill experience that I like.
Anywho, the game is very charming and the PC version is very smooth to play. The main gameplay loop of fighting and resource gathering isn't really hooking me as such, but there's a kind of zen to the experience that I'm enjoying at the moment. Maybe it'll grow on me as it hopefully expands a bit, but the real time combat isn't working too well for me, a turn based system would have been more fun - but that's just my preference.
I don't think the game is super great in terms of the actual gameplay, but I don't regret buying it either. It's kinda what I expected it to be. I just wanted to play a chill and relaxing game and this one fits the bill. The voice actors are good and carry much of the experience. The music is great and combined with the traversal mechanics it makes for this chill experience that I like.
Played a couple of hours and am already very attached to the characters. I love them and the way their relationship is portrayed. I wish more games did this. It was the reason I became interested in the game when it got announced and it doesn't disappoint.
I've been playing this for a few times and its great despite how repetitive and tedious the gameplay is. Yu and Kay's relationship really does carry it and the VAs do a very good job with playing them. Still though, the resource gathering gets tiring very quickly.
Is there a difficulty setting to make this aspect easier? I don't like this kind of stuff.
YIKES
I hope those themes are dealt with well but that regardless of that the backstory sounds pretty cliché
No, doesn't seem like it. I think difficulty only affects the combat.
Don't think we have an OT for this? Guess this thread is it.
Just finished up, fantastic game! The writing is great with Yu and Kay both holding their own as great characters and their relationship and chatter is a fun way to peel back layers of the story.
Just finished up, fantastic game! The writing is great with Yu and Kay both holding their own as great characters and their relationship and chatter is a fun way to peel back layers of the story.
Ended up with the severing the bridge ending, curious to see how the other ending(s?) play out, does Ozias show up? This was a fine gappy ending atleast, was getting a little worried at the end there.
Started playing this tonight with my partner. The main characters are a bit corny at times but we have been enjoying their dynamic. They are much more genuinely in love feeling than most game characters are imo.
The resource gathering is very laid back so far but I have been finding it fun, and the main aspect of the game seems to be exploration to me.
The only real complaint I have is the camera and controls feel a little loose, there's some odd momentum going on imo.
Playing on Series X and the high framerate mode play very smoothly, but the grass density is much lower which mites the gorgeous aesthetic a bit. Still torn on which to use.
As someone who loves No Man's Sky this game gives me similar vibes of being a great laid back exploration/resource gathering game with a pleasing sci fi aesthetic.
The resource gathering is very laid back so far but I have been finding it fun, and the main aspect of the game seems to be exploration to me.
The only real complaint I have is the camera and controls feel a little loose, there's some odd momentum going on imo.
Playing on Series X and the high framerate mode play very smoothly, but the grass density is much lower which mites the gorgeous aesthetic a bit. Still torn on which to use.
As someone who loves No Man's Sky this game gives me similar vibes of being a great laid back exploration/resource gathering game with a pleasing sci fi aesthetic.
Came back here for the same reason lol
Did one of your characters get injured in the ending? If so, who?
Played about 10 hours so far on PC through Gamepass.
I'm really enjoying it.
I generally don't like having to gather resources, but I feel like it's pretty light here so I don't mind it at all. You get plenty of resources quite easily. Overall I really enjoy the gameplay - there's definitely repetition but as someone else said, it brings me into a sort of zen-like state. The atmosphere and the music really work well along with the flowing movement. The combat isn't the most fun, but it's ok and I do sort of like the feeling of having to control them both and do things in sync or so that both have as little downtime as possible.
I also really like how the relationship is portrayed. Feels very realistic and there's certainly a lot of very obviously implied sex, but I think it's done tastefully in the sense that it's not there just for the sake of "sex sells" or anything, but they're a young couple who really love each other so it's pretty natural they also have plenty of sex. And really it's not like they have sex all the time - there's plenty of sexless cuddling and snuggling too. It's also great that the sex parts aren't just focused on the woman as a target of Kay's attraction, but she is also allowed to be the one to initiate and Kay be the target of her attraction. Actually I'm pretty sure that a younger me, when I unfortunately used to be a manbaby, might've been uncomfortable at some of such situations.
Also I really enjoy how the characters are written and portrayed. They're not superheroes or anything. They're normal people who both have their weaknesses and strengths and silly and rational sides. The man is also allowed to be weak and emotional.
I'm really enjoying it.
I generally don't like having to gather resources, but I feel like it's pretty light here so I don't mind it at all. You get plenty of resources quite easily. Overall I really enjoy the gameplay - there's definitely repetition but as someone else said, it brings me into a sort of zen-like state. The atmosphere and the music really work well along with the flowing movement. The combat isn't the most fun, but it's ok and I do sort of like the feeling of having to control them both and do things in sync or so that both have as little downtime as possible.
I also really like how the relationship is portrayed. Feels very realistic and there's certainly a lot of very obviously implied sex, but I think it's done tastefully in the sense that it's not there just for the sake of "sex sells" or anything, but they're a young couple who really love each other so it's pretty natural they also have plenty of sex. And really it's not like they have sex all the time - there's plenty of sexless cuddling and snuggling too. It's also great that the sex parts aren't just focused on the woman as a target of Kay's attraction, but she is also allowed to be the one to initiate and Kay be the target of her attraction. Actually I'm pretty sure that a younger me, when I unfortunately used to be a manbaby, might've been uncomfortable at some of such situations.
Also I really enjoy how the characters are written and portrayed. They're not superheroes or anything. They're normal people who both have their weaknesses and strengths and silly and rational sides. The man is also allowed to be weak and emotional.
Yu got pretty messed up by the rust in my ending after crossing to the flow bridge. Game had me sweating there that shit was about to get real bad.
Yeah Yu got injured in my playthrough too, taking the hit for Kay. I'm wondering if the confidence thing some dialogue choice get you affects the ending, cause otherwise I don't know what it does.
I've played only a few hours but the game really cements the fact that The Game Bakers are one of the most underrated developers this gen, even with only two console releases under their belt.
The gameplay is nice and chill and Kay and Yu may just be two of my favorite characters of all time. Games have a very bad track record of showing genuine relationships and love and boy do they knock it out of the park. These two actually feel like a couple and the game wouldn't work if that wasn't so apparent.
The gameplay is nice and chill and Kay and Yu may just be two of my favorite characters of all time. Games have a very bad track record of showing genuine relationships and love and boy do they knock it out of the park. These two actually feel like a couple and the game wouldn't work if that wasn't so apparent.
Maybe this should deserve its own thread, but since I haven't played the game yet I feel I don't have all the cards at hand on the matter.
The Game Bakers issued an apology regarding their handling of a character and more generally the harm they might have brought to the LGBTQ+ community:
www.thegamebakers.com
The Game Bakers issued an apology regarding their handling of a character and more generally the harm they might have brought to the LGBTQ+ community:
– Haven – Apology
www.thegamebakers.com
Note: This contains spoilers for the game Haven
It has been brought to our attention some aspects of Haven setting in relation to the character Erena and the Matchmaker are tone deaf to the reality the LGBTQ+ community is facing.
To players who have felt hurt or unwelcome while playing our game: we're sorry. This goes against our inclusive values as a team and the theme of the game, and we regret this.
Haven is a game about love and freedom. Our intentions have always been to advocate for freedom of love regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, class etc. Our two heroes being heterosexual, of different classes and ethnicity, we designed Erena to achieve a wider representation within our limited options.
We realize we should have brought some clarifications earlier in the game:
Thank you for your support and understanding,
The Game Bakers
It has been brought to our attention some aspects of Haven setting in relation to the character Erena and the Matchmaker are tone deaf to the reality the LGBTQ+ community is facing.
To players who have felt hurt or unwelcome while playing our game: we're sorry. This goes against our inclusive values as a team and the theme of the game, and we regret this.
Haven is a game about love and freedom. Our intentions have always been to advocate for freedom of love regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, class etc. Our two heroes being heterosexual, of different classes and ethnicity, we designed Erena to achieve a wider representation within our limited options.
We realize we should have brought some clarifications earlier in the game:
- We understand now that Erena can come off as the "villain" which reinforces stereotypes used against LGBTQ+ people. In our story arc Erena is not the adversarial force. She is doing what mums do: try to save the skin of her child. Being pragmatic, she tries to make her accept the rules – and we understand this also lacks sensitivity. In the extra content planned for the game, Erena becomes a very positive force fighting for freedom of love.
- We realize that The Matchmaker recalibration program brings up references to "conversion therapy". The reasons why the Matchmaker exists cannot be unveiled at this stage, but they are not ideological and not about forcing people to a relation with a person of a specific gender. The Matchmaker choses couples independently of their gender and sexual orientation. Erena and her mate were matched together, Yu and Ozias were too.
Thank you for your support and understanding,
The Game Bakers
I really wish this game would have offered same-sex options for the protagonist couple. Like, if you'd genderbend either of them you'd still get the same core plot and relationship dynamics, no?
I have really loved what I have played of this game so far and I find the relationship between the main characters incredibly sweet and a good example of a positive relationship. I have run into a bug late in the game that has halted my progress so I have to wait for them to hopefully patch it so I can wrap it up.
I think my only real complaint with it so far gameplay wise is that I find there to be a few too many narrow passages, edges to maneuver around which is either way too slow if you walk, and the glide is way too fast causing the camera to freak out as the characters 180 back and forth.
I think my only real complaint with it so far gameplay wise is that I find there to be a few too many narrow passages, edges to maneuver around which is either way too slow if you walk, and the glide is way too fast causing the camera to freak out as the characters 180 back and forth.
I think they're telling a specific story with specific characters they created, are they not?
And it being a heterosexual couple is... relevant to that? I mean, it didn't stop Mass Effect from giving you options. From what I understand it's a game about love where one of the major gimmicks is to have you play it co-op with your partner, if you have one.
This probably wouldn't have been feasible from a budget perspective. You'd need double the voice acting, double the character artwork and a lot of script changes at a minimum.
The dev has commented on the same sex "problem" in an interview.
I've seen nothing in the game, that wouldn't have worked with a same sex couple, with nearly only changing the pronounces. Especially since same sex is accepted in the world, so you wouldn't even have to deal with further social issues they would face compared to a hetero couple.
It is more of a budget thing in the end. And I guess, they just wanted to tell that one specific story with this two specific characters.
I've seen nothing in the game, that wouldn't have worked with a same sex couple, with nearly only changing the pronounces. Especially since same sex is accepted in the world, so you wouldn't even have to deal with further social issues they would face compared to a hetero couple.
It is more of a budget thing in the end. And I guess, they just wanted to tell that one specific story with this two specific characters.
This is kind of a huge debate in general. Both sides have valid points.
As a creative, it's not an easy process creating characters. Most of the time you don't just come up with something quick, but you build the characters up with time and you think of all kind of details related to their life and story. Often, among those things, is how their sex and gender have affected the characters. Even though the significance of such details might not be directly visible in the final product, they can still feel really important from the creative's point of view and can be large factors on a lot of design decisions. Suddenly when you made such a thing as sex optional for one person, it'd affect a lot of smaller things (and other characteres). It could also be argued that it would affect some of the themes. Obviously money can play its part too as pointed out above.
However, on the other side, representation is really important and it's very understandable how minorities can feel frustrated about how majority of characters in games don't represent them at all in ways that are important for them. As a cishet white man, it's often something you don't come to think or feel strongly about, because from your birth you get used to seeing people a lot like you everywhere around you and in media. But a minority person might be the only person of that minority group in their local communities and it's quite common that starting from young childhood, you're even bullied and discriminated for it. So it easily becomes an important part of your identity. Because of that you can easily feel left out when you so rarely see characters of that same minority in various media and even more rarely have those characters be the main characters.
There are also a lot of issues because minorities often don't have the equal opportunities to get into the positions in which they could make the decisions about characters and stories.
So overall it's a very good thing that some games strive to have options for people and I completely understand how people would also like Haven to do that. For a lot of gamers, the details and themes might not matter so much and it could be argued that because we live in such an unequal world, representation should be the highest priority. On the other hand, I completely understand the developers' decision too. It's a complex issue, but obviously consumers have the right to ask for the options, and developers have the right to make their own decisions.
I don't think the devs had bad intentions regarding the issues they've apologised for, and I can buy the limitations on player characters being budget related. I hope that if the game does well, they could perhaps expand it. I feel like the point of this game isn't as much the love story between two specific characters as it is about the actual love story and love being a driving theme throughout the entire experience. Which is why it would have been amazing if there had been options for different couple combinations by featuring genderbent variants of both characters. Crossing my fingers they can implement this at some point.
Finished the game. Overall really enjoyed it.
I think that just depends on which one you're controlling at the time? I was controlling Yu there so Kay took the blow. But dunno really.
Just finished the game. Had a really good time with this one, better than I was expecting. The mix of light relationship sim, collectathon and turn-based combat is a super interesting one, and it actually works pretty well most of the time. The writing is really sweet, and the game's very frank, open approach to sex was incredibly refreshing in a medium where developers usually seem terrified of the subject.
If I had to be critical, the controls sometimes didn't work as well as I'd like, and the game can feel a little voyeuristic at times. While I'm totally on-board with the casual attitude towards sex, I'm not sure how I feel about some of those moments being framed as rewards for completing a task.
For the ending, I got the same one as several others did, i.e. Kay getting rusted during the final race to cut the flow bridge. Satisfying ending overall, and I love the flower boots.
If I had to be critical, the controls sometimes didn't work as well as I'd like, and the game can feel a little voyeuristic at times. While I'm totally on-board with the casual attitude towards sex, I'm not sure how I feel about some of those moments being framed as rewards for completing a task.
For the ending, I got the same one as several others did, i.e. Kay getting rusted during the final race to cut the flow bridge. Satisfying ending overall, and I love the flower boots.
Just finished the game a little while ago and have a quick question - is there no way to continue playing after you've beaten the game, or am I just dumb and can't find it? I completed the epilogue where you're back on the starting islet but after I finished that and the credits rolled the only options I had at the main menu were Epilogue (which replaced the Continue button) New Game, or Load Game (which, again, puts me at the epilogue). I had a lot of undiscovered isletss and ones that I hadn't cleared the rust from, as well as items I hadn't collected. I figured I'd be able to just do all that post game but it doesn't look like it.
Finished the game this weekend. Playing through it with my SO was one of the best gaming experiences we've ever had together. Such a relaxing and uplifting game. The art was beautiful, the characters were extremely charming, and the story was very well done and unique. Really bummed it doesn't seem to be finding too much of an audience as even though it tied up nicely in the end I would love to see a sequel just to spend more time with these characters. Hopefully it is a slow burn to popularity kind of like Furi was.
I'd give this game a 9-9.5/10 for co-op and a 7.5-8 for single player.
Not yet, they said they want to fix that in an upcoming patch.
I'd give this game a 9-9.5/10 for co-op and a 7.5-8 for single player.
Not yet, they said they want to fix that in an upcoming patch.
Ah perfect, thank you! It's a really great game to just chill out with, so I'd genuinely like to go back and explore the rest of the islets.
Just finished this game and really enjoyed it. I loved Furi but I really admire that they went a totally different and more calming direction here.
It was a really nice game to slowly progressing, and Yu and Kay are really nicely written. I believed in the dynamic of their relationship more than most relationships in games or even a lot of media. It was really nice, and I know there's been a lot of talk about how steamy it is is but honestly it felt very true to a young developing relationship, I actually really appreciate that this doesn't feel like a relationship being edited around the more adult stuff, it dives into all the stuff that is cute, and considerate, frustrating, and intimate about this kind of relationship, all packed in a game that is just really calming to play. Absolutely loved my time with it.
It was a really nice game to slowly progressing, and Yu and Kay are really nicely written. I believed in the dynamic of their relationship more than most relationships in games or even a lot of media. It was really nice, and I know there's been a lot of talk about how steamy it is is but honestly it felt very true to a young developing relationship, I actually really appreciate that this doesn't feel like a relationship being edited around the more adult stuff, it dives into all the stuff that is cute, and considerate, frustrating, and intimate about this kind of relationship, all packed in a game that is just really calming to play. Absolutely loved my time with it.
the flower drawing was a really nice epilogue too
I've started playing recently and it's a good time. I really enjoy the writing and the characters, although I do think the combat and resource gathering drags a little bit.