Highlights
- No Rest for the Wicked is a complex action-RPG with vast systems and stunning art similar to Moon's previous work on the Ori games.
- Moon Studios may have arguably overextended with No Rest for the Wicked by trying to include too many action-RPG features, potentially impacting gameplay while the dust settles in early access.
No Rest for the Wicked is 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 to No Rest for the Wicked.
Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps made phenomenal splashes in the indie scene due to their breathtaking art direction and that same painting-esque beauty is present in No Rest for the Wicked. However, Moon’s Ori games were also incredibly elementary as 2D Metroidvanias—Blind Forest didn’t even feature legitimate combat, for instance, while Will of the Wisps only began scratching the surface of combat, a hub region, and side quests. What made Ori special was this simplicity, and meanwhile No Rest for the Wicked can’t wait to have a hand in every action-RPG cookie jar.
No Rest for the Wicked’s Brutal Mobs Have a Crucial Silver Lining
No Rest for the Wicked strains quite a bit regarding encounters with multiple enemies, so thankfully its checkpoint system is a worthwhile reward.
No Rest for the Wicked Might’ve Bitten Off More Than It Needed to Chew
No Rest for the Wicked is being likened to a Soulslike game on 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 in No 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 before No Rest for the Wicked’s erroneously limited inventories quickly 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 game for No Rest for the Wicked to excel as an action-RPG:
- Precision-based combat managing stamina and health, which is where its Soulslike comparisons are typically drawn.
- Rotational bounties and challenges as well as quests given by NPCs.
- Looting and crafting as a means of furnishing Sacrament with merchants and other functions as well as equipping players’ Cerims with better gear and upgrades.
- Interior decoration of owned property that applies similar gameplay functions as Sacrament NPCs.
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 with No Rest for the Wicked already in development for six years by the time its early access period began it clearly has an idea for how it wants Wicked to take shape. Perhaps Moon would’ve made Ori into a similarly large game if it had the resources and wherewithal to do so.
That said, Ori turned out to be completely charming with how little it had going on aside from a breathtaking atmosphere and tight platforming, and No Rest for the Wicked filling 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 period has 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 Wicked will have executed an impossibly tall order.
No Rest for the Wicked
From Moon Studios, creators of the Ori franchise, is an ARPG-style game called No Rest for the Wicked. The plague Pestilence has swept over the land and King Harol has died, leaving the land in turmoil. Players become a Cerim, a member of a group of holy warriors sworn to take up arms against Pestilence and cleanse the land.
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S
- Developer(s)
- Moon Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Private Division
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- Number of Players
- 1-4
