elcome to the home of Haven's Saga. Let this website will be your guide on a journey into the heart of adventure. Within you will find sample artwork, demo tracks, information, and eventually program downloads, during the development of Haven's Saga.

In all likelihood, you came here via the link on my profile, or perhaps you followed my e-mail signature, however, given the remote possibility that you have stumbled upon this page completely unaware of what you were getting into, let me just explain that this is the home page of Haven's Saga, a careful blend of old school console and modern cinematic RPGs with a helping of PC style being produced with CrystalSpace. The game is intended to be low cost shareware, and will include a fully playable trial, most likely of the game's first act.

One thing you'll probably notice right off the bat is that there's no "plot", or "story" section. Yep, I refuse to give away any information regarding the game's gripping, epic drama.*
I will post character information, however, as you may already have guessed, I will not spoil any plot elements therein. (On that subject, did anyone else notice that the Xenogears manual actually gives away things that the game reveals only after 20+ hours of play?) Screen shots (of the non-spoiling kind) and music samples will also be posted as they are produced.

"But wait!" you cry. "How can you expect us to download your demo if you won't tell us anything?!"
Aww, ya' got me there... Well, okay. I will say this: the overriding concept of the game is realism. No, it's not a sci-fi RPG, and we don't try to explain magic as a scientific force, it's just a game that takes things seriously. Don't expect any legendary heroes or magic princesses on a quest to reclaim Excalibur/Masamune/Ye Olde Legendary Sword** and slay the generic evil dude. You still have your dragons and elves, kings and sorcerers, knights and knaves, and all the fun fantasy stuff, it's just taken seriously. Characters have strong motive behind their acts; Things exist for a reason, not just because they're there; The world has an actual political system, rather than a collection of scattered, independent towns and an Empire. In planning this game we drew from a collective twenty years gaming experience, as well as a great resource, a compiled list of all the cliches found in commercial RPGs. We made a strong effort to eliminate as many cliches as possible from the game, while turning the best of them to to our advantage, resulting, hopefully, in a better final product. Instead of trying to support skeletal characters with an overused plot, our game focuses on the characters, the way their lives are affected by what comes to pass, the way the past shapes them, and the way they shape the future, rather than trying to stick to any formula beyond Campbell's basic Hero Cycle.

As you may also be aware, Of Light And Darkness is the second chapter of the Haven's Saga Quintology. This game is intended to introduce you to a world that you will hopefully revisit many times over.


Actually, I think Garth Algar said it best.
"I just hope you don't think it sucked."

-Charles Faraone (aka Devon), co-writer/composer/tile artist/coder/webmaster, Binary Symphony.


Game Features
  • Interesting cast of fairly non-stereotypical characters

  • Multiple difficulty settings, from Squaresoft to Nightmare

  • Groundbreaking Well-Designed Game System™ which ensures that the game will actually be worth playing.

  • An epic plot that is not only well written, but is actually epic***, unlike, say, Final Fantasy VIII's.

  • Multiple solutions to "plot nodes" allow you to direct aspects of the game effecting both events and characters.

  • Grow your characters your way. Choose from character-specific skills and attributes that fit your play style.

  • Craft your own arms and armor. Combine elemental components to create spells.

  • Numerous Way Cool™ graphic effects in and out of combat. (Why? Because we can.)

  • Partially animated cinematic sequences with specific musical accompanyment.

System Requirements
Platform:Windows 98, XP
Processor:Minimum requirement unknown
Memory:Expect 128MB bare minimum.
Graphics:Geforce4/Radion8000 class, 64MB minimum
Sound:DirectX compatible soundcard.
HD Space:1GB not unlikely.

* Binary Symphony cannot be held responsible for any damages incurred by unhappy gamers flying into a blind rage after playing Haven's Saga(tm) and failing to find it gripping, epic, or dramatic.
** Ye Olde Legendary Sword, despite the misspelling, is a trademark of Carpcum. This is a very obscure joke, so if you got it, good for you. (Unless your name is Fritz, in which case you're probably cheating)
*** We define "epic" as meaning "of grand scope", whereas Square seems to define it as "handfull of characters save small world".
Haven's Saga, the Haven's Saga logo, and all character names and likenesses are trademarks of Binary Symphony. Any unauthorized usage will result in horrible, horrible mutant lemmings being sent to devour all that you hold dear.