Ori dev's No Rest For The Wicked hacks-and-slashes onto Steam Early Access in April
Co-op to come post-launch
The two Ori games were gorgeous platformers that challenged your dexterity while tugging on your heartstrings. The next game from developers Moon Studios seems more likely to do the former than the latter. No Rest For The Wicked is a Souls-ish action RPG that apparently thinks you're extremely wicked.
It also got a release date today during a showcase stream: April 18th.
Here's the full showcase:
Towards the end of the stream, Moon also outlined some of their Early Access roadmap plans, at least in brief. The first major post-launch update will add co-operative and competitive multiplayer, for example, while the second will add a new region and enemies.
Katharine already got her hands on the first 90 minutes of NRFTW, in which she described getting whomped by powerful enemies while getting to grips with the dodge-and-parry, but still being compelled to persevere:
Even though it's hard as hell, it's also a lot more generous than its FromSoft source material. On death, the only penalty you incur is some durability loss on the weapon you've got equipped, and you can scamper back to restore your health at the periodic Whisper save points without automatically bringing the surrounding vicinity back to life. When these zombo lads go down, they stay down, even if you also go down at the same time - and as someone's who's consistently struggled to make any significant headway in a Souls game before now, this is, quite honestly, a huge relief.
Personally, I found Ori a bit too punishing, particularly in its in-my-eyes ill-communicated chases and boss fights, such that I never bothered to persevere with it despite the rave reviews. I suspect No Rest For The Wicked isn't for me, then, but it is still gorgeous to look at. Moon Studios know how to make a storm.
You can find more on its Steam page.