Radical Fish Games just launched Alabaster Dawn into Early Access on Steam, and it includes around 8-10 hours of gameplay. It offers something CrossCode fans will love, and anyone else who grew up playing games like Secret of Mana and Terranigma will, too.
The action RPG hits Early Access on May 7, and it already feels like it has a cohesive vision of what it wants to be despite being in such an early state. Inspired by Devil May Cry and Kingdom Hearts, Alabaster Dawn features a system to build your character. You can equip gems into weapons and cores to activate enchantments, ranging from stat increases to situational buffs.
Like many Early Access titles, it has a lot of potential, but it is clearly still very early in the game’s development. This game is a top-down RPG that feels familiar yet fresh, thanks to the quality of its world and character models.
Alabaster Dawn Early Access Starts Strong
The shadow of Nyx has fallen, warping the world into a wasteland. With the gods and their people vanished, Juno, the Outcast Chosen, must work to bring the world back. Alone on Tiran Sol, Juno must work without the guidance of the gods. In the world she called home, she must find a way to rid the Nyx.
Alabaster Dawn is a great follow-up to CrossCode so far, and not only because you can see how far the studio has come since 2018. The world feels more realized, and the level design is highly readable, so you know where to go and what to look for as you move through it. There’s a lot of detail in the character models and world, elevating the overall experience, too. You can tell Radical Fish Games is working on a game they’re confident about through and through.
Combat takes place in real-time, and it’s surprisingly easy to pick up and play. Juno has access to close and long-range attacks, which also must be taken into consideration when dealing with enemies, as most have weaknesses you must exploit. Juno has access to a sword and, later, a crossbow.
Some areas you move through may require fighting a group of enemies to move on, while others have environmental puzzles that need to be solved, like hitting an enemy out of range by bouncing the shot off rocks. Later areas unlock a guard attack, which allows you to bounce projectiles back at enemies by timing the defensive move correctly.
There’s also weapon swapping, and Juno can even swap her elements depending on the situation. You can hold two loadouts for her, including a melee and ranged weapon and weapons can grow with experience. This means you’ll be learning new combos the more you use weapons, but it’s pretty satisfying so far, and I’m curious to see how much and if the system evolves as development goes on.
Boss encounters are impressive so far, too. I’ve faced a few in my time with the early access launch, but they’re ready to test your knowledge and patience. These are multi-phase encounters that can be challenging and require split-second reactions for survival. You’ll get in, take a few swipes, then get out before taking a ton of damage.
Dungeons were a talking point for CrossCode fans — they were either really good or overtly long, depending on who you ask. The biggest issue was that they relied heavily on puzzles, which led to players being split on how they felt about them. Thankfully, Radical Fish Games has retooled dungeons in Alabaster Dawn. They’re still challenging but better fleshed out with more palatable puzzles breaking them up.
There is even a settlement rebuilding option that ties into the main story. Right now, you can start repairing the settlement, and it’s meant to tie into a few in-game systems. As Tiran Sol begins to return to normal, it will add new regions to access. So, it becomes apparent early on that by engaging with the system, you can do really build out the rest of the world as it becomes available.
The animation is highly detailed, and it’s apparent from the moment you begin your journey. There’s an incredible amount of detail you witness here, and it feels like an evolution of what those who grew up on SNES RPGs are familiar with, eschewing the simplicity of the time for something far more bold and beautiful.
The developers intend to work on this project for a couple of years, even after the Early Access launch. And rightfully so, the scope of the game seems a lot larger than I anticipated, and there’s a good chunk available right now.
It’s abundantly clear Radical Fish Games has a lot of work left to do before Alabastet Dawn hits version 1.0. What is presently available is around 8 hours of content, and it’s engaging and thoughtful so far, and it plays exceptionally well, too. This is more than just another CrossCode; it is its own thing, intended to stand on its own and deliver something more mature.
