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So I played the copy of Dawn Haven for 4 hours now (thank you very much), and overall it’s pretty good! Dawn Haven is a big ole’ open-world rpg with real time combat and many locations to explore. The game definitely feels like Skyrim in its scale, which is impressive, in rpg maker of all things. In an attempt to add some level of structure to this review, I’ll quicker segue in the story, the exploration, map, gameplay, and then end it off with… Something. I don’t know. All I have is my notes and my half functioning brain. We’re freestyling this thing!

For the main campaign, there some stuff but not much I can talk about for too long. So, the game starts off in a cave, of all places. A cult performs a ritual to summon a god with the player being the sacrifice. They get saved by the guard and make their escape. At some point, the player is rendered unconscious and wakes in a shack. They are then given a task to talk to the King of Hallow Tip who tasks them with killing the bandit king… Or something. I’m sorry if I can’t recall much of the main quest. I think it’s revealed at some point that the player is possessed by a demon, and that if they wait too long the demon will escape and destroy the world? But it really doesn’t matter as there’s no timer or anything like that. And after that, you go to another kingdom, where you’re given the task to collect some McGuffins to do… Something. Yeah, I didn’t pay much attention to the main campaign, sorry. It’s not like I could continue on anyway when the quest marker stopped working properly and pointed to random spot in town. Alas, the game’s strength isn’t in its main campaign (which might not even be finished in the demo. You’ll have to tell on that one). That’s fine, as the player will most likely want to explore!

The exploration in this game is very fun. Doing the run around the map leads to some pretty unique encounters. The npcs you can find on your travels do add some realism to the game, so it doesn’t just feel like an empty world. Still, it would be good to add more interesting characters. Most of the travelers offer little of value when you actually converse with them. They all seem to give the same greetings, the same advice, like they are part of a hive mind. Honestly, I found more value in just killing these people. Like, you have nothing interesting to say so might as well die. Although, I do have to say the one npc involved in the hide and seek quest was pretty fun. I did like the Spider Bite quest guy, you can tell he has an accent. But those are only two characters, out like 100, that I can remember. While we’re on the topic, I do find the “Background” option to be kind of weird. Is that the character talking or just the game giving me a description? Anyway, back to the exploration… So yeah, the map is big and there’s lots of ruins and caves and towns. Since this is a demo, not all of it is complete. To be honest, I think most of the dungeons are incomplete at this point – but that’s to be expected of course. What is there is pretty good. I especially like how there are some items that require you to find them inside of all these caves and ruins. Like the Ice Sword in Twin Cave for instance. Now I do have to say that I think that some of the items make the game too easy. Either that or the really good items are obtained too early on. For example, The Blessed Cape carried me throughout the rest of my playthrough. This was obtained very early on and I think the placement of the items could be more thought out. I don’t know how the system works so I could’ve just gotten lucky. But for this item, it would be better if it was guarded it behind a boss. That way, the player will have to earn it. It’s more rewarding than just, well, happening upon it. I guess another note I will make is the performance of the overworld – how well it runs. My PC is pretty weak, so I wasn’t surprised when the frame rate dropped when entering the overworld. If you wanted users with low-end PCs to be able play better, then I’d suggest making the maps smaller and segmented. Think how the towns are segmented and apply that to the overworld. You that version the “low-end” version of the game, make it a separate package or maybe include it in the final package. But that’s just a suggestion. I’m not sure how well that would work for your game. So overall, while many of the maps aren’t finished, and the npcs could use some work, what is there is good for a start and I had fun exploring.  

The map design is also worth noting. I’ve already said the map is good to explore; it’s also good to look at as well! Some people might criticize the RTP graphics used. I personally think it’s fine and the assets are used quite finely. You avoided the mistakes people usually make when designing a map. The houses aren’t overly spacious, the caves have bends and turns, the forests appear naturally and don’t feel fake, and the maps have little details and touches that I can appreciate. It is too bad that a lot of these places are incomplete and don’t have much in the in the way of content, but the layout is certainly there. So yeah, good job on the maps.

The last thing I will note is the gameplay. I already mentioned the real time combat. It’s a cool thing to see in Rpg maker, I can’t think of many other games that use this. I like how the weapons all have different properties - the gauntlets aren’t very accurate but hit hard, the magic staffs increase your magic attack, the boomerang is a boomerang. I have to admit that I only really used the Axe as my primary mostly because it just hits really hard. The other weapons were ok but the damage per second on the axe out classes them. The magic spells I didn’t find very useful because in every occasion the equipped weapon would always do more damage, and faster. Though to be fair, I didn’t invest that many points into magic attack when I leveled up so take that as you will. The way death was handled in game was fair. You don’t get booted back to the title screen but instead lose some gold and spawn back at the starting area. There’s some stuff I could complain about. Like how the lockpicks don’t seem to work, or how going to Koi jail is essentially a soft lock. There’s also the inability to change which quest the compass tracks (which is pretty bad since the quest logs aren’t very detailed…), or how the fishing mini game is pretty pointless since you can just spam the enter key until the fishy takes the hook. But let’s face it, this is a demo so it’s to be expected that there will be some issues. Overall, the gameplay is good but you definitely should polish.

So my final verdict: Good game, Hella potential here. It just needs polish in the gameplay and text (there were quite a few grammar mistakes, and also some out right strange dialogue) departments. Take all the time you need to finish the game, don’t rush (not like I need to say that with your 8 year development time frame, that’s some dedication right there), and good luck. This is a game I can see myself buying if there was a full and final release.