What happens when you let the development team behind the great Ori series unleash it on the brutally fast world of ARPGs? If you believe the studio: a real genre revolution. When it comes to ARPGs, most people now go to the Diablosthe Path of Exiles and the Last Epoch think, i.e. fast-paced dungeon crawlers in which you decimate entire screen loads of monsters and then enjoy a rain of loot.
No Rest for the Wicked also has the title ARPG and is shown in the familiar isometric perspective, but the gameplay could hardly be more different from other genre representatives. The combat system is based heavily on the popular ones Soulslikeswith all the powerful attacks, dodge rolls and challenging enemies.
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According to Moon Studios, No Rest for the Wicked is intended to reinvent the genre of action RPGs – even though it only went into early access a few days ago.
This revolution is probably taking place more in the gameplay than in the story, because at least so far it clings to well-known narrative threads. In No Rest for the Wicked we play as a Cerim, a follower of a group of mysterious warriors whose sole mission is to defeat the Pestilence.
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The Pestilence is again an unholy plague that has returned for some reason after a thousand years. Of course we want to carry out our age-old duty, but in the meantime we get caught up in a political struggle involving rebel groups, the provincial government and the Inquisition.
So we roam the countryside, trying to beat back the plague and at the same time helping the residents of the city of Sacrament. For example, by cutting down trees and mining ores in the world and then using them to upgrade the various traders. We also buy a fancy house and furnish it according to our wishes.
Thrilling Soulslike battles in an iso perspective
Besides our existence as interior designers, there is only one more effective way to fight the plague: of course with dodge rolls, light and heavy attacks, and optionally really big swords. Different from traditional ones APRGs Fights in No Rest for the Wicked are very methodical.
Source: Moon Studios
In classic Souls style, even the normal enemies are really threatening and can send us to the graveyard in just a few hits at the beginning. So we have to learn their attack patterns, rely on our dodge roll or parry and eliminate the opponents with clever counterattacks.
This is particularly tricky at the beginning when we face more than one opponent at the same time. Depending on the weapon equipped, which ranges from nimble daggers to powerful broadswords to bows, wands and even katanas, we have to approach such situations differently and play to our strengths in order not to bite the dust.
This means that Moon Studios has managed to make the popular one Soulslike Combat into the isometric perspective without major losses. One could even say that this takes the combat system to a new level, as you can fully concentrate on the opponents in front of you without having to constantly reposition the camera.