Summary
No Rest for the Wickedis presently in the throes of early access. Here, Moon can continue developing future content it’ll eventually drop into early access while patching and refining everything players can experience at the moment, which is quite a lot given how expansive its handful of systems are. This is nothing short of surprising given the fact that Moon’s seminal IP,Ori, essentially had a polar opposite design ethic compared toNo Rest for the Wicked.
Ori and the Blind ForestandOri and the Will of the Wispsmade phenomenal splashes in the indie scene due to their breathtaking art direction and that same painting-esque beauty is present inNo Rest for the Wicked. However,Moon’sOrigameswere also incredibly elementary as 2D Metroidvanias—Blind Forestdidn’t even feature legitimate combat, for instance, whileWill of the Wispsonly began scratching the surface of combat, a hub region, and side quests. What madeOrispecial was this simplicity, and meanwhileNo Rest for the Wickedcan’t wait to have a hand in every action-RPG cookie jar.
No Rest for the Wicked Might’ve Bitten Off More Than It Needed to Chew
No Rest for the Wickedis being likened to a Soulslike gameon all ends. But while its combat and boss fights certainly have vital ingredients of such hit-and-run stamina management, boiling it down to a Soulslike would be highly reductive if not literally inaccurate given how much other action-RPG influences inspire its core systems.
Once players arrive inNo Rest for the Wicked’s Sacrament they’ll understand how large its scale actually is, and despite there only being a handful of regions to explore in its radius there are several features always at work to occupy players. There’s even a feature dedicated to furnishing owned property with gameplay-oriented decorations and utilities if players can manage looting and hoarding valuable resources beforeNo Rest for the Wicked’s erroneously limited inventoriesquickly become oversaturated.
Moon’s gone to great lengths to concoct an action-RPG cocktail encompassing all of its favorite features from the genre and it’ll be interesting to monitor as development progresses. Right now, these features are engaging individually but on a macrocosmic level they may not have all needed to make it into the gameforNo Rest for the Wickedto excel as an action-RPG:
No Rest for the Wicked Didn’t Need the Kitchen Sink and Could Suffer for It
Moon may have been excited about tackling an action-RPG and withNo Rest for the Wickedalready in development for six years by the time its early access period began it clearly has an idea for how it wantsWickedto take shape. Perhaps Moon would’ve madeOriinto a similarly large game if it had the resources and wherewithal to do so.
That said,Oriturned out to be completely charming with how little it had going on aside from a breathtaking atmosphere and tight platforming, andNo Rest for the Wickedfilling its plate with every action-RPG feature in the book could be to its detriment.
Its full launch won’t be for quite some time, though, and is sure to look like a completely different game by then.No Rest for the Wicked’s early access periodhas been eye-opening to say the least and with multiplayer PvP being added in the near future it’s only going to become even more all-encompassing; if it can find a way to blend all these features seamlessly and have them all coexist organically,No Rest for the Wickedwill have executed an impossibly tall order.
No Rest for the Wicked
WHERE TO PLAY
From Moon Studios, the award-winning developers of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps comes No Rest for the Wicked, a visceral, precision Action RPG set to reinvent the genre.The year is 841 – King Harol is dead. As word of his death echoes throughout the kingdom, the crown passes to his arrogant, yet untested son Magnus.Even worse, the Pestilence, an unholy plague not seen for a thousand years, has returned. It sweeps across the land, corrupting everything and everyone it touches. Madrigal Seline, a ruthlessly ambitious figure in the church, sees the Pestilence as a chance to prove herself in the eyes of her god.These forces converge on the backwater Isola Sacra, where rebel groups and the provincial government fight for control amid the isle’s crumbling ruins.You are a Cerim – a member of a group of mystical holy warriors imbued with remarkable powers and sworn to defeat the Pestilence at any cost. But the task will prove increasingly challenging as you become entangled in the people’s plight and the vast political struggle of this downtrodden land. Chaos will pull you in every direction as you seek to cleanse the land of wickedness and shape the kingdom’s fate.
