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Following up an indie action RPG as widely celebrated as CrossCode can't be easy, but that's exactly what Radical Fish Games is aiming to do with Alabaster Dawn, and after playing the upcoming game's Steam demo, I think they might just stick the landing.
With the demo only offering a couple hours of gameplay, it's obviously too early to say definitively whether Alabaster Dawn will be an improvement on the fantasy retro action RPG formula CrossCode adopts, but I'm highly encouraged at this early stage.
According to Radical Fish, the first part of the demo is the very beginning of the game, and progress carries over to the full game. I was admittedly less impressed by this opening area, but only because you're basically just being walked through various tutorials teaching you the ropes before a fairly basic mini-boss encounter where you use a sword and shield to bash, block, and parry your way to victory.
But the map opens up a lot more in the second part of the demo, which is much more substantial and offers a lot more non-linear exploration and systems interactivity. Plus you get a crossbow, which is super cool. This next area also skips ahead in the story, so any progress you make there won't carry over into the full game.
I can only imagine combat will evolve a lot as you unlock new abilities and combos and find new weapons, but even the little slice of action you play in the demo just feels so incredibly right. Movements are slower and feel more deliberate than CrossCode, and the sword lands on enemies and obstacles with a supremely satisfying crunch similar to smashing rocks in Donkey Kong Bananza, and I fully realize I'm only making that comparison because Bananza is my current game of the moment.
The sword's got regular swings and heavy spinning swings that seemingly deal more individual damage and also AoE damage, while the crossbow flings arrows at distanced enemies using the right stick for control, although controls are fully remappable if the default setup isn't clicking. I don't get quite the same satisfying weight to a successful hit from the crossbow, but using it at least feels intuitive.
Oh, and each weapon has its own skill tree, which further suggests to me the demo doesn't even scratch the surface of Alabaster Dawn's combat depth. I did have the chance to try out a few Divine Art abilities that are enabled when a gauge is filled up, and they come in clutch right when I'm starting to feel like a battle is dragging a little.
There's a little bit of slipperiness to the exploration, particularly when climbing and hopping across platforms, but nothing terribly distracting. Otherwise, this game has some of the prettiest pixels I've ever seen, even if there's a lack of scenic variety due to the limited confines of the demo. I absolutely can't wait to see more. Even more so, I am incredibly eager to be reunited with my water pig companion, Cabbage, with the full release, because of anything happened to them, I'd be beside myself.
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