There ain't [No Rest for the Wicked] thread, so now there is

Noggin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiwmiqzW6gs

No Rest for the Wicked is a Diablo-like, Souls-like Action-RPG by Moon Studios (Ori) launching on Steam early access on April 18th. It will also release on PlayStation and Xbox later, at full release.

From watching previews (some included below), most emphasize that the combat feels more like "Souls" games, but the loot and perspective feel more inspired by "Diablo" games.

The "Souls" influence is apparent in weapon-based, "classless" builds, commiting to attacks, exploring for secrets/shortcuts, and armor affecting movement/dodge... but XP is NOT lost on death. The "Diablo" elements mainly include their take on an isometric perspective and the random loot with random affixes, which they want to be clear, not "5% dmg to undead on Sunday afternoons" (paraphrasing)

Some of the cool twists I've seen include
- allowing heavily armored characters to shoulder bash enemies sounds fun
- general combat actions regenerate your energy for using abilities
- You can play with controller, or WASD+mouse
- Some items will be "cursed", providing a stronger affix with a negative trade off

There's also a huge focus on buiding up a single town and investing into it alongside your character by interacting with the NPCs, crafting, upgrading, fishing, farming (later?), and setting up your own house. The world is deliberately crafted, instead of procedural, but it sounds like there may be a "Hades-like?" endgame activity (at launch? later?) that would be procedural.

They plan to add multiplayer in the first update.

That's what I know for now, so I'll be back to update this as I am able to dig into it tomorrow and this weekend. For anyone else interested in jumping in, they are offering an affiliate program where you can buy into the early access at about 20% off with part of the sale supporting a streamer, but I'm not sure if it's cool to explicitly list all that detail here. It should be easy to find on their website or social media.

Finally, here are some previews from streamers you may know, an overview from IGN, and an interview with the devs by Rhykker.

Force Gaming (pretty spoilery about early secret areas, but good info)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q57GpuLJFCQ

Darth Microtransaction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSdA05B8P-o

Ms 5000 Watts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvSAiARn91Y

MrLlamaSC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSDwx37yBDw

IGN Overview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPpAU4EOhEQ

Rhykker - Dev Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFDa0dmh3XA

Noggin

A special note that I did not realize and wanted to share for awareness, taken from a post in another thread by Brolo.

Brolo wrote: »

No Rest for the Wicked is developed by Moon Studios, a special note about them:

founders Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol. Moon Studios
https://venturebeat.com/2022/03/18/despite-its-beautiful-ori-games-moon-studio-is-called-an-oppressive-place-to-work/
"Moon developers told GamesBeat that they found the studio’s culture oppressive. They alleged that the leaders used calls for an open and honest workplace as a pretense for abuse. The founders criticized the work of employees in public chats and were stingy with praise. So far no one is suing or claiming unlawful behavior, but many workers are fed up with what they see as inappropriate behavior by the founders.

As an example, Mahler and Korol regularly made unprofessional and offensive comments.
“Tyler is the only person who is aware of my devious plans to kill the Jews by making them work to death through game development,” Mahler “joked” in a text chat that was available for anyone in the company to read."

BahamutZERO

A shame. I was sort of interested in this, but yikes those founders sound awful.

Noggin

BahamutZERO wrote: »

A shame. I was sort of interested in this, but yikes those founders sound awful.

I’m torn. I was really looking forward to this, and another quote from the article sounds similar to opinions I've seen in other instances...

Moon Dev talking about Ori wrote:

“We really created something special, and I know the only way I was able to reconcile it was I was able to watch people on Twitch and watch other people get moved by it, and that was actually part of my healing process,” said one developer. “Because maybe my suffering was worth it because other people felt something. In the end, I mean, so many of us were burned out.”

... but man, that's bleak. I think I'll probably still grab it, but ugh. Going to follow it either way and hope for the best.