Alabaster Dawn earns strong early impressions

Radical Fish Games’ Alabaster Dawn picked up a wave of favorable early hands-on coverage on May 14 and May 15, as YouTube creators and social-media posters published impressions after extended play sessions. The action role-playing game entered Steam Early Access on May 7, according to the developer and the game’s Steam page. Radical Fish, the Saarbrücken, Germany studio behind CrossCode, is pitching the new title as a larger action RPG with fast combat, puzzles and exploration. ### Which reactions drove the latest round of attention? May 15 brought one of the clearest endorsements when ThunderStash Gaming posted a YouTube review titled “Alabaster Dawn Review – The Next RPG From CrossCode’s Developers!” The video description said the game “might be one of the most impressive indie RPGs I’ve played in years” and described “fast-paced combat, Zelda-style puzzles, deep RPG systems, and gorgeous pixel art.” (radicalfishgames.com) The user-provided context also points to posts on X and YouTube on May 14 and May 15. Search results available through web sources surfaced the ThunderStash YouTube review directly, but did not reliably return the cited X post text in searchable form, so the strongest verifiable public impression in this set is the YouTube review published May 15. ### What is Alabaster Dawn, exactly? (youtube.com) Radical Fish Games describes Alabaster Dawn as an action RPG that builds on “the best aspects” of CrossCode, with a combat system, puzzles and an exploration-heavy world. The studio’s press sheet says the game uses a 2.5D art style combining pixel art with a subtle 3D perspective and follows Juno, “the Outcast Chosen,” in a world damaged by Nyx. (youtube.com) The Steam page says players can switch between divine weapons, solve puzzles and explore a changing world. Radical Fish also says the project began around the release of CrossCode’s “A New Home” downloadable content and was previously known as “Project Terra.” ### Why are people comparing it to CrossCode? Radical Fish Games is making that connection directly in its own materials. (radicalfishgames.com) The studio says Alabaster Dawn is built on lessons from CrossCode and highlights exploration, jumping, puzzles and combat depth as returning design priorities. ThunderStash’s review echoed that framing by identifying the game as the next RPG from CrossCode’s developers and by highlighting combat, puzzles, systems and presentation. (radicalfishgames.com) That overlap helps explain why early reactions have focused on the studio’s design roots rather than only on the new game’s story setup. ### How much of the game is available now? May 7 marked the start of Early Access, and Radical Fish said version 0.1.0 includes the first 1 1/2 chapters of the story. (radicalfishgames.com) The developer’s launch post said players should expect about five to 10 hours of gameplay in the initial version, depending on play style and completion habits, and described that build as roughly 20% of the full game. (youtube.com) The same update listed the full first area, the first dungeon, a large new area after that dungeon, a second settlement, optional dungeons, side quests, bosses, a new element, a new weapon and a roguelite mode near the end of the available plot. ### What do the early market signals look like? Steam showed Alabaster Dawn with 1,300 user reviews and a 95% positive rating as of May 16. (radicalfishgames.com) SteamDB separately listed the game at about 90.10% positive from roughly 1,000 reviews and showed a May 7 release date. Those figures are platform snapshots and can change over time, but they indicate a strong initial reception from early buyers. Price tracking sites and Steam listings indicated a $24.99 list price, with a 15% launch discount that brought the price to $21.24 around release. Radical Fish has said on Steam that it expects Early Access to continue for at least two years, with more content added until the story is complete. ### What comes next from Radical Fish Games? Radical Fish Games says Early Access will continue with additional story content, side quests, localizations and other updates as development proceeds. (store.steampowered.com) The studio said English and Chinese are available now, with German prioritized for the following months. Steam’s Early Access section says the developer expects the process to last at least two years, and the store page says the price may increase during Early Access or at 1.0 release. (isthereanydeal.com) For now, the next public checkpoints are Steam updates from Radical Fish Games and additional creator coverage as more players move beyond the opening build released on May 7. (store.steampowered.com) (radicalfishgames.com)