You wake up as a survivor of a shipwreck, with nothing more than the ragged clothes on your back with your name written on it. A short distance away is the dying captain, who mentions the place he is trying to reach – a place called the Sacrament. And so your long and difficult journey begins.
No Rest for the Wicked is the latest game from Moon Studios, creators of the Ori series. First announced at last year’s Game Awards, this action RPG for PS5 features the same stunning visuals as their previous work but wrapped in a darker, more mature story. We sat down with the team for an early preview of the game to discover more about the game’s central gameplay mechanics and world design.
In the harsh world of No Rest, suffering appears on two fronts: political maneuvering by well-connected royals and religious figures following the death of the King, and a terrible curse calling is a plague that turns the people it claims into evil abominations. As all this happens, the population is turning to more illegal and desperate means of survival.
A world of amazing beauty and indescribable suffering
Moon Studios is renowned for its ability to create compelling worlds and stories, and No Rest for the Wicked explores new territory for the developer. “After making both Ori games, our next goal was to create our own giant fantasy universe,” said Thomas Mahler. “With Ori, we always relied on the use of allegory. We tell stories that move people, but we use imaginary creatures that, by their nature, have to solve very human problems. This time, we wanted to really use people and create a Shakespearian story with very strong human themes like family, trust, betrayal, comradery, etc.”
To that end, No Rest offers a very different feel than Ori’s warm, inviting natural environments: crumbling, crumbling fortresses, barren, scarred landscapes, and Vicious-looking enemies—human and non-human alike—dwell the chaotic lands of Isola Sacra. With each slash, you see blood and viscera, illuminating the brutal, painful reality of life here.
Yet among them is a strange and fascinating beauty, captured in the sumptuously stylized images that Moon Studios specializes in, which seems to have left no stone unturned in moving from 2D to 3D: every step of the way. The frame looks like a painting come to life.
“We were very determined not to be another studio trying to pursue an optical style,” Mahler continued. “We thought the paintings would age faster than trying to pursue photorealism. When I see a painting by Caravaggio, I am still amazed at what he was able to achieve using just oil paint 500 years ago.”
Humble beginnings
Starting the game, you have almost nothing on you. That changes quickly when you discover a worn one-handed sword and some discarded tools, possibly scraps that nearby bandits didn’t bother plundering from their victims. Picking up your knife and using some of the ingredients you find to cook a basic stew, you prepare to fight your way through the bandit-controlled area in an attempt to reach Sacrament.
There are many ways to engage enemies – attack them head-on or try to hit them with a sneaky ambush – but once you engage them, you’ll need to fight smart, as the health meter Endurance will ensure your every action counts. A careless swing, a bad dodge, a failed parry, or a broken guard can quickly become extremely painful. If you’re in a difficult situation, a well-placed Rune attack can help you turn the tide, but at the cost of concentration.
Luckily, you have a variety of equipment at your disposal—which you can find, buy, or craft—and a stat-building system that lets you invest points where you choose to level up. Unlike many action RPGs that require you to choose a class early on and limit your equipment based on that choice, you’ll develop as a class in No Rest for the Wicked more naturally.
“We just wanted to provide players with an incredibly diverse set of gear that they can find to fulfill all their fantasies about the characters they want to play as in an RPG,” Mahler notes. ”. “We start players off with fairly simple moves, but as they progress further, they’ll be able to upgrade those moves and combine various combos, special attacks, and spells together . In terms of leveling and stat building, in general our approach is to want things to be as active as possible. We believe players want every improvement to be felt rather than just seeing some increased numbers that may not immediately impact your gameplay.”
Shape your adventure
Aerial views of the action help the environments in No Rest for the Wicked feel epic and atmospheric, while also giving you subtle hints about secluded paths or hidden nooks hide. Background objects can be more easily destroyed than initially assumed, often yielding some valuable loot as a reward for our testing. Touching odd-looking walls and odd-looking geometric pieces can reveal passages filled with valuable treasures – and sometimes even their guardians.
Besides combat equipment, you can buy a lot of other items such as food for cooking, wood and ore for crafting, and other sundries. With tools like axes or pickaxes, we can cut down trees and harvest ore – but first you need to make sure the area is clear of any hazards. Otherwise, a flaming bullet to the face could disrupt your gathering.
The harvesting and crafting elements become more and more apparent as the game progresses, and eventually, you can choose to engage in Sacramental rebuilding. “We have a lot of different mechanics thrown into this one game, then we all have to work together,” Mahler explains. “The idea is simple: We create certain needs for players and then we provide a lot of tools to meet those needs. For example, if players choose to farm and engage in house building, crafting, etc., they will be able to bring the results of those interactions into battle.”
“The ultimate goal here is again to satisfy that RPG fantasy and ultimately create a game that is about more than just slaying enemies. We want you to have a variety of jobs that you can do all the time. Tired of fighting? Well, let’s go get some resources instead. Or go and help rebuild the Sacrament. Or participate in housing construction and build yourself a dream house, which constantly generates resources for you. Or go fishing. There will be no ‘Or’ ending in this game.”
The first steps on a long road
The demo ends with a boss battle against a plague-infected Warrick, who has been disfigured and transformed beyond recognition. This is not an easy fight, but learning the parrying signals makes the fight more manageable, turning the damaged creature into a sitting duck for a few precious seconds. So ends the beginning of what could be a very, very long journey.
Thomas Mahler hopes players will enjoy the game his team spent months creating. “During development, we looked at what current ARPGs offer players. Our goal is to take all the aspects from all the games we love, combine them together, and create a new formula that will ultimately become the game we always wanted. play!”
