Alabaster Dawn is a 2.5D action RPG where players follow the Chosen Juno, who must save her world from a terrible blight. Read our review of its early-access build to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Everything We Know About Alabaster Dawn
Alabaster Dawn Plot
Alabaster Dawn narrates the tale of Juno, a young Chosen who wakes from her long slumber to the ruined world of Tiran Sol, blighted and turned into a wasteland by the corrupting Nyx. The gods have gone silent; the protectors of the world have gone, and it’s up to her and her remaining allies to save the entire world from the curse that has befallen the land.
Alabaster Dawn Gameplay
As an action RPG, the game has great focus on its combat and exploration mechanics. Taking on the role of the Chosen Juno, players can make use of eight distinct weapons with their own skill trees and infuse them with any among the four available elements in the game. Combat revolves around breaking the enemy’s defenses with special skills and abilities, as well as carefully timed parries for maximum efficiency and damage.
Players also explore a wide map split into easy-to-understand sections, with gatherables, hostile Nyx enemies, environmental puzzles, and even treasure scattered all around, waiting to be discovered.
Alabaster Dawn Release Date
Released on May 7, 2026, Alabaster Dawn is now available to be purchased in Early Access on Steam for $24.99. The developers at Radical Fish Games aim to stay in Early Access for the next two years.
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 Steam |
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| $24.99 |
Alabaster Dawn Review [Early Access]: The Dawn Of A New Hit
A Gem In The Making
I love the pixel art style—8-bit, 16-bit, all the bits—in any media or shape. So when a non-horror game with that kind of style comes out even if it’s only in the form of a trailer, I’m instantly putting it in my wishlist of games to look forward to. There’s just something about it that screams "play me" for some reason. Nostalgia from my childhood? Overall aesthetic? Perhaps both. Put that art style together with an adventure or an RPG or a cozy game, and I’m practically in heaven.
So when I first saw Alabaster Dawn, I knew I was going to be hooked. I had just gotten into Sea of Stars back then, and I was hooked onto that game too for a bit. They looked similar in scope and style, so naturally, I was drawn to them.
I tried my hand at the Alabaster Dawn demo, and I distinctly remember having a blast with it. It brought me in simply with its visuals back then, but I found myself staying for much more than just that—a feast for the eyes already, made even better with an intriguing story and engaging gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, it was way too short (well, it is a demo), but perhaps it did what it was meant to do—keep you on your toes for more.
Now that it’s here, out in Early Access, I’m excited to get to play more about this nostalgia-inducing action RPG that has very much captured the hearts of not only me, but many of those who share the same sentiments. And so far, I stand by my initial impressions. While it doesn’t bring anything innovatively new or amazing to the table, it sticks to the basics and it does all of them really, really well. It ticks all the boxes for a game that surely deserves a spot on your bucket list.
Tiran Sol Against The Nyx
The world of Tiran Sol has fallen into ruin, brought about by the mysterious blight called Nyx. As a result of this catastrophe, humanity has fled to shelters deep underground to protect themselves. Underground, they made themselves scarce, waiting for a perfect chance to strike back.
The playable prologue begins with the Chosen, twelve individuals blessed by the gods with divine powers and weapons, being led into battle by a mature-looking, greatsword-wielding gentleman named Dahmon. They have one goal and one goal only—to eradicate the Nest and to stop the spread of the damning blight. They manage to get to its core after eliminating Nyx's minions left and right, like cutting through weeds. One last thing to fulfill, and that is to shatter the main core. All should be well, and the world is saved, right? There are twelve of these powerful heroes, surely…?
However, things don’t always play out according to plan. At the most critical moment of the entire battle, the very source of their power grew silent. The gods disappeared, taking with them their skills, their weapons, their strength, vanishing into particles. And this…is the end of the world. No, really, that’s the name of the prologue chapter—The End of the World.
The world is dying from a blight; humans are still hiding away underground, probably never to see the light of day, and this is where our main protagonist comes in. Enter Juno, a former, outcasted Chosen (as she frequently likes to remind herself of, especially the former part) who ends up being one of humanity’s last bastions against the enigmatic phenomenon. She awakens from her long slumber to a ruined land. Her homeland, one that she must now save, with the help of her Divine Marble, a water pig she herself named Cabbage. Most of the story seems to be following her journey across Tiran Sol and destroying these Nests—the very same Nests that the previous batch of Chosen were not able to stop—and also to reawaken humanity from their underground lives and return to the surface.
There are quite a few layers to Alabaster Dawn’s storytelling, the pacing not too slow to be boring nor too fast to be inherently confusing. They frequently keep you intrigued by giving teasing snippets of the past, motivating you to follow through with the story to get the full picture. For instance, we know from the get-go that Juno was an outcast Chosen (and I say "was" because she’s technically the only one left), yet the reasons for it are not clear. The game also often highlights important text in bright yellow, which only serves to fuel your curiosity even more. And so, there’s nowhere to go but forward, slowly picking up the pieces of the fragmented world as well as the scattered history of Juno and her mysterious past.
As an Early Access title, the current version of the game only allows for a playthrough until the middle of Chapter 2, the second out of the planned seven chapters at full release. Unfortunately, it might take a while before we really get to know Juno and her allies, but there’s that giddy anticipation for more.
Engaging, Fluid Combat
Alabaster Dawn is a top-down 2.5D action RPG, and one of its standout features is its deep and engaging combat system. Right off the bat, combat is smooth and fluid, with snappy, intuitive controls. Everything feels great and responsive, moves and combos coming together so well that battling enemies is satisfying all the time. Juno moves around effortlessly, so speedily that it adds to the feeling of adrenaline you get when you take down enemies in mini hordes.
You can equip Juno with any of the eight Divine weapons, provided that she is equipped with one melee weapon and one ranged weapon assigned to a specific element, one among four. Each melee-ranged pair is infused with one element, but with the use of a handy-dandy weapon switch button, changing weapons and elements is a breeze. It even has the superbly useful slowing-time function to stop those pesky Nuemera (Nyx monsters) from tackling you down mid-switch.
And in lieu of direct stat windows to add points to, players instead build on Juno’s combat skills through individual skill trees, one for each weapon, and enhance weapon and armor through the use of Gems, which are like equippable stat modifiers. There’s quite a bit of progression and customization going on, which is always a nice touch.
Combat mainly focuses on actual strategy and timing, not just bludgeoning your foes to death by mashing the X button or the left mouse button until you get tired. Timing, perfectly timed parries, and making use of the proper attack are crucial in weakening the enemies’ defenses.
All enemies have a break meter that stuns them for a time when filled up, but hordes of enemies can easily get overwhelming if you’re not prepared. Different weapon skills do different things—there is an attack specifically for adding stagger to the break meter, another one best used for maximum damage on an already incapacitated foe, one for an extra counterattack after a perfect parry, and more.
Luckily, for simplicity’s sake, the skill combos are all the same no matter what weapon you use. Melee weapons all have the same skill buttons, as well as ranged weapons. There’s no need to memorize a dozen various combo types for numerous abilities! The only main difference is the appearance, the animation and the speed of it all—swords don’t move the same way as hammers do, after all, and its nice that these weapons all feel weighty in their own skin. Additionally, in the name of simplicity and more accessibility, I appreciate that there are options in the settings to tweak the enemy’s attack speeds, health, and overall difficulty. Action isn't everyone's cup of tea, so it's nice that the game allows players to customize their own "easy mode" so that no one gets left behind simply because of differences in skill.
Foes are a dime a dozen in this game, but the combat doesn’t get stale as quickly, or not at all. Given the points above as well as the decent variety of enemies with varying attack patterns, battles, even repeated ones, don’t feel like a chore and just come off as a hurdle to overcome, preferably with a resounding victory. It’s that fun to beat up these little critters.
Even at Early Access, everything feels so polished with little to no evident stutters, and the smooth combat and exploration go hand in hand to create a great gameplay experience.
Fun Exploration Full Of Puzzles and Gatherables
And of course, what’s an RPG without exploration? Alabaster Dawn definitely does not disappoint in that department. The game is not an open-world, but it has a decently sprawling map with tons of locations and landmarks to visit, each with its own quirks and uniqueness to them that not one location feels exactly the same.
The environmental puzzles are entertaining to play, some insanely easy, some needing more thinking outside the box and a pair of observant eyes to truly understand. The balance is great, having a little bit of everything. I’m a big fan of the almost soccer-like puzzles where you make Juno kick a weird Nuemera plant ball into these specific tendrils shooting out from the ground, accounting for angle and number of moves. There are also several semi-platforming sections, which require careful examination of the landscape to get to a chest or an area that looks out of bounds.
You are also free to collect resources like cooking ingredients or gem components to your heart's content; the resource nodes are readily available, as well as an almost unlimited supply of enemies to grind for Essences (used in gem crafting).
Nostalgic Visuals, Punchy Audio
The 2.5D retro visual look is incredibly appealing, especially to old-school RPG players. It feels and looks retro but with that lovely twist of a cleaner, more put-together modern flair. The overworld sprites, along with the dialogue sprites, are designed well and look charming.
One of the things you’ll notice immediately even from the game’s prologue is how smoothly everything runs. Pixel art styles have the slight tendency to look a bit awkward at some points due to their nature, but Alabaster Dawn covers that up perfectly with smooth animations. It’s sleek, it does its job well, and it's incredibly pleasing to the eyes.
The color palette doesn’t blind either, with most of the game in muted but not dead colors—just the perfect touch of vibrancy that almost feels cozy. If you ignore the hordes of Nyx minions, that is.
The audio is impactful as well, from the very fantasy RPG-esque background tracks as you trek around the world to the solid sound design. Every swing, shot, or throw of your weapon feels weighty and meaningful, which adds to the whole immersion. Combine that with the satisfying combat gameplay, and you actually feel like a true hero coming to save the world.
Unpolished Bits Coming Through
Although of course, despite all that lovely content, it’s inevitable that there are a few things that have slipped in through the cracks as a game still in active development. They’re mostly minor details but nevertheless still something that should be brought to attention.
Firstly, there can be instances of placeholder text plainly declaring that they are, indeed, placeholder texts. One of the tradable items you acquire early on clearly denotes it in red and in all caps: "placeholder text and icon" in its inventory description. Minor and hilarious, but it’s still something that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Secondly, when loading up a demo save file, it already counts your demo run through the Silver Peak area as completion, locking you out of a few puzzles that you could have benefitted from on your Early Access run. It escapes my mind at the moment to remember if there was anything substantial from solving them or what not, but nevertheless, the experience was a bit jarring. It’s an issue quickly solved by making an entirely new save file, but for those who still want the full experience on their demo file could find a problem with this.
A Tale To Look Forward To
Alabaster Dawn is shaping up to be one of this year’s action RPG indies to look forward to, especially if you’re already a fan of action RPGs and old-time classics like the earlier The Legend of Zelda, Breath of Fire, Lufia, and the like. While slightly different in scope, it captures the essence of a retro game while still being modern and stylish. Stunning visuals, solid audio presentation, an intriguing story, engaging combat, and overall gameplay mechanics—there’s little to dislike about the game aside from the fact that it's in early access and I’ll be sitting here, waiting (im)patiently for more.
If you’re still on the fence, a free demo is available on their Steam storefront, with the added bonus of being able to directly load your demo save file into the game should you decide to purchase it for yourself.
While waiting for more of Alabaster Dawn, I might as well give its spiritual predecessor from the same developer, CrossCode, a whirl too.
Game8 Reviews
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Alabaster Dawn Product Information
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| Title | Alabaster Dawn |
|---|---|
| Release Date | May 7, 2026 (Early Access) |
| Developer | Radical Fish Games |
| Publisher | Radical Fish Games |
| Supported Platforms | Steam |
| Genre | Action, RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Alabaster Dawn Official Website |
