2018’s CrossCode was a delightful surprise to many, with its SNES-style pixel graphics, fast-paced action combat, and .hack-like pseudo MMO setting. Now Radical Fish Games is back with Alabaster Dawn, a spiritual successor to CrossCode that looks like a fantastic sophomore entry for the German developer. I recently had a chance to check out a demo for the game, and I’m pleased to report that it only left me hungry for more.
Alabaster Dawn is set in Tiran Sol, a world beset by a dark curse known as Nyx. One fateful day, this evil force rains down on the land, transforming the once lush and beautiful world into a desolate wasteland. Tiran Sol’s people are forced to hibernate in shelters until the Chosen, special warriors blessed by the gods, can fight off Nyx and restore life to the land. Unfortunately, something goes horribly wrong, and our hero Juno wakes up alone. Referring to herself ominously as the Outcast Chosen, she is seemingly the only one left to fight back the darkness plaguing the land. With the aid of Cabbage, an adorable capybara-like spirit guide, she sets out to bring life back to the world and save her people.
The first thing you notice about Alabaster Dawn is how utterly beautiful its pixel art graphics are. The opening cutscene is simply gorgeous, even if it depicts a terrifying meteor shower of evil energy. Environments are colorful, character sprites and anime-style portraits are charming, and animations are silky smooth. The top-down 2.5D presentation is clearly reminiscent of CrossCode, but everything looks like it’s gotten a significant visual overhaul, in part because of the jump to 32-bit graphics. It’s not just technically impressive, though. The art design is lovely, and alongside the “restoring nature” aspect of the story, it gives me serious Okami vibes, which is a very good thing.
The demo is split into two parts: Alabaster Dawn’s prologue and a dungeon sequence set a little further into the game. The prologue section is actually a bit meatier than I was expecting, and it does a good job of introducing you to the story as well as traversal, combat, and customization mechanics.
Battles, in particular, are a lot of fun, and the system feels easy to pick up but will likely require effort to master. You have access to melee and ranged weapons with obvious strengths and weaknesses. For example, some enemies are armored and take more damage from your hammer than your sword; other enemies fly out of reach or perch on ledges above you, so you need to use your crossbow or chakrams to hit them. You also have to pay attention to what enemies are doing and learn their attack patterns to be effective in combat. Some attacks are simple to just dodge, others hit fast and wide so you’re better off guarding, and certain attacks can even be deflected back at an enemy with proper timing. You’re usually dealing with a lot of enemies at once, so being able to parse everything coming at you is important, but one-on-one boss fights can also be quite challenging.
Like any good RPG, Alabaster Dawn also lets you upgrade Juno’s skills and repertoire. Gaining experience from combat and completing quests allows you to not only level up Juno herself, but also her weapons. This means that in addition to the standard skill tree offerings, like increased health and defense, you can also unlock new techniques for your weapons. This is an interesting setup, but at present, the weapon upgrades are a little limited. I was able to unlock most of them during the demo, and while there are going to be more weapons in the final game, I do hope their growth trees expand a bit. You can also equip Juno and her weapons with various gems that improve her stats or give her added perks. While you can’t make your own gems in the demo, you can gather the essences required for them, so I presume that gem crafting will be a significant part of the full game. Hopefully, this will allow for some cool customization options and unique builds for different weapons.
The end of the prologue section of the demo gives a small taste of the settlement-building aspect of Alabaster Dawn. After driving the curse of Nyx away from a region, villages are left in ruins and need to be reconstructed. Juno can take on quests to help, and completing these quests improves the community level of the surrounding area, which includes building new structures and unlocking new resources. Since this is the point where the demo skips ahead, it’s not clear how involved this process is. But you do get to briefly see the end result of your work, and it has the potential to be a neat way to further interact with the world after you save it.
The last part of the demo gives a brief introduction to Alabaster Dawn’s puzzle-filled dungeons. These puzzles take the form of working with a partner to manipulate the environment and create a path to the next area. I really enjoyed this sequence. The puzzles aren’t terribly difficult, but this is an early dungeon and you can see the building blocks for some pretty fun challenges later on. This dungeon also introduces the concept of imbuing Juno’s weapons with additional elements, both to solve puzzles and fight enemies. The demo barely scratches the surface of this mechanic, but it seems like it will add an extra layer of depth to both exploration and combat.
If it looks like I’m struggling to find something negative to say about this demo…well, I am. Honestly, the most glaring issue with this taste of Alabaster Dawn is that the in-game text and script are clearly not finished. There are noticeable typos and lots of placeholder text. But given the early state of the game, this isn’t unexpected, so it’s not really a con so much as it is commentary on where Radical Fish Games are in the development process. Other than that, the music isn’t doing much for me right now, but again, this is an early stage of the game, and I’m sure there’s a lot more to see and hear.
If anything I’ve said in this preview has piqued your interest, then you’re in luck. The Steam demo of Alabaster Dawn is available now on Steam! If you’re a fan of CrossCode or similar retro action RPGs, I absolutely recommend checking it out. The full version of Alabaster Dawn doesn’t have a release window yet, but Radical Fish Games has said that they are considering an Early Access release. Stay tuned to RPGFan for more news on this promising indie title!
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