With Alabaster Dawn, the German indie studio Radical Fish Games makes an impressive return, aiming not only to replicate the success of its acclaimed predecessor CrossCode but to surpass it significantly. The action RPG, which enters Early Access on May 7, 2026, already demonstrates in its current Early Access build, that has a clear vision, strong ambition and is more than just a further development of what we were able to enjoy in CrossCode. It shows they learned a lot from their previous game even in these early stages of development.
The premise of Alabaster Dawn is as classic as it is effective: The world of Tiran Sol lies in ruins after a catastrophe caused by the mysterious entity Nyx. The gods have vanished and humanity has retreated to shelters, after the twelve Chosen made their last stand and lost to the Nyx, leaving behind a corrupted and desolate wasteland. Players take on the role of Juno, the so-called “Outcast Chosen”, tasked with restoring this fallen world, after being mysteriously being woken up.
Where did the Nyx came from? What happened to the twelve Chosen and why did the gods leave them? And what about Junos own past?
While this setup draws heavily from traditional epic fantasy narratives, it distinguishes itself through a key twist: rebuilding is not just a narrative theme, but a core gameplay mechanic. Cities rise from ruins, regions evolve and flourish again and progress feels tangible and impactful.
This aspect gives the world a sense of life rarely seen in comparable RPGs. Advancement is not just about completing quests, it’s about witnessing the rise of civilization again.
From a gameplay perspective, Radical Fish Games stays true to its roots, delivering a top-down action RPG with a strong focus on skill and precision. The combat system blends fast-paced action with tactical depth, with its multiple weapons, elemental synergies and combo mechanics.
Simple button-mashing won’t carry players far. Instead, timing is crucial. Attacks can be modified by holding or delaying inputs, leading to different combo finishers. This layered system ensures that combat remains engaging even after many hours and introduces a meaningful learning curve.
Additionally, players have access to multiple weapons and elemental abilities, each suited to different situations. Enemies react differently depending on the tools used, encouraging players to actively switch strategies mid combat.
While combat was also a big part of CrossCode and the fluidity was a big part of it, Alabaster Dawn’s combat evolves even further. From the get go the game makes clear to learn enemy weaknesses and behaviour, because enemy design plays a key role. Positioning, attack patterns and timing make even basic encounters feel dynamic and challenging. Being too cocky will let the enemies overwhelm you even in later encounters.
Beyond combat puzzles and dungeons are yet again a central part of the experience. Not surprising if you think back to CrossCode and its giant dungeons. While I enjoyed them a lot in CrossCode, they also got a lot of criticism for being too complex and long and big. But the developers from Radical Fish Games stated already that they learned a lot from CrossCode’searly access period and pacing to not overwhelm the players again and pace dungeons and puzzles better in Alabaster Dawn. And from what I played in the Early Access build, I can agree so far. There is one mayor dungeon and a lot of smaller puzzles integrated into the world, and they evoke the classic action adventure-design, where observation and logic are just as important as reflexes. And I can happily say that the timings so far have been more than fair with mouse and keyboard and controller. I really enjoyed the dungeon introducing a second element to the player and you had to juggle around both elements to make your way through the dungeon.
Visually Alabaster Dawn represents a clear evolution of its predecessor. The blend of detailed pixel art with 3D environments creates a modern aesthetic while preserving the retro charm. It’s incredible to see what the team is able to create all the way back from their RPG-Maker roots to now. Beautiful stunning vistas, breath-taking details everywhere. A big shoutout also has to go to the character designers and artists, every single character art in the dialogue oozes style and looks phenomenal.
The quality of animation is particularly noteworthy. Characters, enemies, weapons and effects look stunning, and you can feel the impact. Combined with the fluid camera work, especially during intense sequences such as boss fights, make the game feel even more dynamic.
This attention to detail extends to the soundtrack as well. Deniz Akbulut, who previously also worked on CrossCode, does a spectacular job to enhance both quiet and action-heavy moments, significantly contributing to the game’s atmosphere.
At the start of the Early Access, Alabaster Dawn offers around 10 hours of gameplay, covering roughly up to the middle of Chapter 2. The full release is planned to include about 40 hours of content across seven chapters.
This clearly indicates the game will stay in early access for some time and Radical Fish Games are quite clear about this upfront. However, many of the core system are already in place, but balancing content, and polish will continue to evolve over time. With optional content like the Roguelite content, that will get expanded over the course of the early access, people who enjoy the combat of Alabaster Dawn will also have a reason to come back from time to time and unlock all features of it, while waiting for the next main story, side quests and regions to be added.
Radical Fish Games already proved that their ability to incorporate community feedback into the development process, with the Early Access of CrossCode, so I am quite confident that Alabaster Dawn’s Early Access period will be smooth as well.
Even in its current state, Alabaster Dawn demonstrates that Radical Fish Games rank among the most ambitious indie studios in the RPG space. It successfully combines precise gameplay challenging puzzles and a living world into a cohesive experience that appeals to both classic RPG fans and modern players alike. The Early Access version delivers a strong first impression and shows that its not only a worthy successor to CrossCode, but also a standout title on its own.
Alabaster Dawn hits Early Access on May 5th 3pm CEST on Steam.
