Moon Studios’ latest effort looks like an extremely ambitious and careful experiment, despite its Early Access status. Net of some small “youth defects” and some technical problems typical of early access, the salient points of the work and the artistic direction are incredibly focused and promise a breath of fresh air within the reference genre. This is how our test of the new title from the creators of Ori went (here is the review of Ori and the Will of the Whisps).
An ambitious audiovisual sector
The game presents itself as a pleasant mix of different gaming experiences, from soulslike to Diablo-style isometric action RPG, with a splash of survival and even some roguelite elements (speaking of roguelite, here is the test of The Rogue Prince of Persia) . From an aesthetic point of view we found ourselves at one of the most fascinating experiences among those to come, which could prove to be among the most valid of the RPG genre in this area. The artistic style and the glance often manage to take your breath away, with very appreciable fantasy glimpses, embellished with precise and punctual camera movements, and a graphic appearance which makes the production cutscenes similar to a painting.
The audiovisual sector already seems extremely satisfactory to us: the attacks are animated excellently and present an accentuated physicality, with the right “screen shake” and extremely precisely reflecting the weight of the weapons and their impact on the armor, shields and bodies of the enemies. From the first moments of the game it will be easy to realize how the system of saves and counterattacks has been thought out down to the smallest details and created in an exquisite manner.
Fighting in No Rest For the Wicked is a galvanizing experienceas long as we accept the rules of a rather severe combat system, which leaves little room for errors of evaluation, and the boss fights demonstrate all this: the enormous monstrosities that we will find ourselves facing during the course of the adventure have ranged attacks huge, which will rarely miss their target and will force the user to perform high-precision dodges.
Even in the exploratory phases we were able to notice a notable effort put into making the character’s movements fluid and harmonious: venturing into the various areas, climbing and jumping is never boring. It is undeniable that, as already happened in Ori, a big emphasis was placed on the artistic component of the product, however the exaggeration of certain movements, especially in encounters with the bosses, often risks compromising the readability of the action. In addition to this, although they are appreciable during the more relaxed sequences, the panning camera movements sometimes stumble during the more frenetic phases and tend to “hide” points of interest on the map, forcing the player to numerous empty turns before finding the right way to go. Despite these small imperfections, we wholeheartedly promote what we have seen on the artistic side of a production that aims to raise the bar of isometric view games.
An interesting mix of genres
Moon Studios’ game presents different “souls” and attempts to harmonize them within a satisfactory progression system, albeit not without flaws. In terms of combat system, the title is closer to a soulslike than to a Diablo-style Action RPG (here is the review of Diablo 4). It is a product designed for a hardcore audience, not very permissive and at times frustrating. The demise of our alter ego is always around the corner, and to complete the adventure we will often have to focus on trial and errorin order to memorize attack patterns of opponents and bosses.
A distinctive element that the Moon Studios title has in common with Miyazaki’s games is the management of stamina. Each attack, dodge or parry will require a portion of the indicator linked to it, represented in the user interface by a green ringand a careless use of this resource will lead to our character being thrown to the ground, making it impossible to carry out any type of fast movement.
This will most likely lead to the premature demise of the warrior, who will then be forced to restart his adventure from the last checkpoint discovered. No Rest For the Wicked is a technical title, with a calm rhythm and in which the resources will be sipped. Net of the need not to waste stamina, the dodges are still rather large and generous from the point of view of invincibility to blows, and it will therefore be quite simple to avoid the enemies’ offensive. Another fundamental and well-kept element of the title is the presence of the parry, curse and delight for many players. In the Moon Studios production, this mechanic is extremely useful, as it allows us to create precious attack windows with opponents and bosses or to defend ourselves without using stamina reserves.
The erratic nature and unpredictability of certain enemies, combined with the presence of attacks on which it is impossible to exploit the parry, makes this technique a double-edged sword, capable of overturning the result of some clashes as well as causing numerous game overs. The thing that particularly struck us during our test was it was precisely the aggressiveness of the opponentsextremely precise from long range and furious in chaining together close-range combos.
Although the game is decidedly simpler as you level up and acquire more powerful equipment, it is still an experience designed for users who love a challenge. However, let’s move on to the actual RPG element. The acquisition of equipment and character progression they will certainly be familiar to fans of Diablo-style isometric view titles.
As usual we will have various tiers of rarity of the objects, with random characteristics and different possibilities in terms of crafting. The novelty, in this case, is the presence of some particularly powerful items which however have large penalties, such as the loss of experience upon death, a higher weight than normal or a large percentage of less health. Balancing our Cerim’s inventory it will therefore not be an immediate undertaking, although the micro-systems of the title seemed simplified compared to “hard and pure” RPGs. Inside Sacrament, the main hub of the adventure, we will have the usual assortment of vendors: blacksmiths, enchantresses and cooks. The main gameplay loop designed by experts consists of buying (or recovering from opponents) weapons and armor, enchanting them with random properties and choosing the ones that best suit our build. In this regard, we particularly appreciate the possibility of choosing, at level up, the statistics on which to invest points. Although traditional classes are not present, each weapon will “scale” on a different statistic and we will therefore be able to create our favorite “fantasy power”.
There are many customization options, and it will be possible for us not only to influence the speed of our warrior (for example by equipping light or medium armour), but also to decide which elements of the gameplay to focus on to overwhelm our enemies. If we are particularly versed in parry, we will be able to attribute particular properties to it, such as the recovery of life or the possibility of hitting challengers with elemental attacks after intercepting their blows. To complicate the micro-management of our virtual alter ego we find “weight” management.
As a result, we will often be forced to compromise with equipment or enhance the “load” characteristic during the level up phase. The variety of builds present in No Rest for the Wicked is remarkable and, although the balance between the various statistics still needs to be reviewed in some ways, we believe that in the future the development team will be able to smooth out the rough edges. We then come to the survival aspect. During our adventures it will be possible use different tools, such as shovels, fishing rods and various types of axesto collect resources such as wood, fish or minerals.
We will be able to use these elements both to create consumables that can be used in battle (cooking, in particular, will be very important for survival) both to “enhance” Sacrament with new functions, so as to gain further enhancement possibilities. In fact, we will use wood and minerals to erect new structures or improve existing ones. In short, within the experience there is both a component of micromanagement (the management of the inventory and character characteristics) and macromanagement (that of the town centre).
Said this, we didn’t particularly appreciate the presence of daily and weekly quests, which are a bit out of place in the Action RPG context of the title. We would have preferred more freedom in tackling the secondary tasks, and perhaps more imagination in choosing them, which are often limited to a generic “kill so many enemies” or “eliminate this mini-boss”. Among the various NPCs that we will encounter in the city we must mention the Observer, who introduces mechanics that in some ways can be traced back to the roguelite genre.
Through this elderly sorcerer we will have the possibility of obtaining permanent enhancements for our character, such as increasing inventory slots or being able to equip multiple rings or weapons at the same time. Since the ingredient required to have these benefits is rather rare and mostly linked to killing bosses, it will be very important to plan our upgrade “path”, similar to what happens in the genre made popular by titles like Hades.
Main critical issues
In addition to the aforementioned balance and camera issues, there are aspects of No Rest For The Wicked that have not impressed us positively at the moment. During the almost 20 hours required to complete the Early Access portion of the adventure, we noticed an uneven level of difficulty. In particular, the title seemed extremely complex and prohibitive in the initial stages and much more permissive in the final stages. Such a distribution of the challenge risks discouraging newbieswho over time may choose not to continue their journey.
Furthermore, the equipment “breaking” system seemed particularly problematic to us. In fact, money will be scarce right at the beginning of the game, the moment in which the greatest amount of “game overs” can be expected, with users being asked to practice a combat system that is not easy to approach. In short, the development team could try to simplify the initial stages, so as to be able to raise the level of challenge in the advanced onesleveraging the experience acquired by the character and player and avoiding premature abandonment by the less tenacious.
Then there is the question of optimizing the experience. Despite a rather powerful configuration, we encountered notable stuttering phenomena during the most excited phases, in the transitions between one area and another and in the numerous panoramic “wide shots” that are offered in some situations. However, we are convinced that numerous steps forward will be made between now and the game’s debut, as the development team has already proposed two improvement patches in the first four days of Early Acess.
Finally, we hope that the endgame designed by Moon Studios will take its definitive form as soon as possible, since this element it could dramatically increase the longevity of the title, providing borderline challenges and extremely powerful gear to collect. However, we are faced with a production that unites different souls in a rather harmonious way, with an exceptional artistic sector and destined to be talked about by Action RPG enthusiasts.
