No Rest for the Wicked: Revealing new details on combat, crafting, town-building

01.03.2024 - 19:13 / blog.playstation.com / Thomas Mahler

You wake up as the survivor of a shipwreck, with nothing more than the ragged clothes on your back to your name. A short trek away lies the dying captain of the vessel, who mentions the place he was trying to reach– a place called Sacrament. And so, your long and difficult journey begins.

No Rest for the Wicked is the newest game from Moon Studios, creator of the Ori series. First announced at last year’s Game Awards, this PS5-bound action RPG is as visually luscious as their previous work but wrapped in a darker, mature narrative. We sat down with the team for an early preview of the game to discover more about its central gameplay mechanics and world design.

In the harsh world of No Rest, suffering comes on two fronts: political maneuvering by well-connected royals and religious figures in the wake of the King’s death, and a horrific curse called the pestilence that transforms the humans it claims into unholy abominations. As all this happens, the populace is turning to more desperate and illicit means of survival.

Moon Studios is well known for its ability to create compelling worlds and stories, and No Rest for the Wicked explores new territory for the developer. “After having made both Ori games, our next goal was to create our own huge fantasy universe,” says Thomas Mahler. “With Ori, we always relied on using allegory. We told stories that touched people, but we used fantasy creatures that, in essence, had to deal with very human problems. This time, we wanted to actually use humans and craft a Shakespearian tale with very strong human themes like family, trust, betrayal, comradery, and so on.”

To that end, No Rest offers up a very different feel from that of Ori’s warm, inviting natural environments: dilapidated, crumbling fortresses, barren, scarred landscapes, and vicious-looking foes — human and non-human alike — populate the tumultuous land of Isola Sacra. With each sword-slash, you see blood and viscera, illuminating the brutal, painful reality of life here. 

Yet among it all is a strange and compelling beauty, captured in the gorgeous stylized visuals Moon Studios specializes in, the studio seemingly not missing a step with the switch from 2D to 3D: every frame looks like a painting come to life.

“We’re just very much set in not being yet another studio that tries to go for a photorealistic style,” Mahler continues. “We think paintings age less quickly than trying to pursue photorealism. When I see a Caravaggio painting, I’m still amazed by what he was able to accomplish just using oils 500 years ago.”

Starting up the game, you have next to nothing on your person. That changes quickly as you discover a worn one-handed sword and some discarded tools, likely the scraps the nearby bandits