Watch Your Head – the Hat’s a Witch!
Releasing just today, Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse is new to the scene and comes with lots of witchy charm. Developed by Frontside 180 and Published by Pocketpair Inc., Never Grave is a Metroidvania x roguelite platformer set in a fantastical world where a curse has wiped out a nearby village. You, a cursed hat (yes, a hat) must utilise possession and magic to destroy your enemies and re-build the village. So, that cute anime girl in the header? Yeah, you’re the hat. Despite my complete lack of skill holding me back, I was thoroughly enchanted with Never Grave and cannot wait to fully complete this game. Is Never Grave for you? Read along to find out.
In Never Grave, we play as a sentient witch’s hat. As a humble hat, we must possess living beings through who we can move and channel magic. Conveniently, a young girl lies beside her giving you a body – this young girl is our pseudo-main character. Playing as who I will henceforth call Blondie, we must traverse dungeons and possess enemies to gather resources and rebuild in the rubble of ruined villages. Nested dungeons and an arsenal of magic spells serve us action and adventure in surplus. Village building and resource management serve us cosy RPG vibes. It’s a whole buffet of playstyles in wrapped in a witchy fantasy aesthetic.
This is not a story-heavy gamie, although it does have a driving narrative to encourage the player to progress. Building is limited by blueprints, which can be achieved only by levelling up and exploring maps, encouraging players to enter dungeons even if they prefer to play house. Additionally, building facilities and buildings provide character buffs creating incentive to build. There is a balance between gameplay necessary to progress, giving users the opportunity to explore all aspects of the game.
As a platformer, Never Grave has multiple great enemies available for combat. Battles with bow-weilding mummies, blobby slimes, and high-tech robots – and sometimes all three at once – are plentiful as you travel through dungeons for resources and portal access. Each enemy type has a set attack pattern, making it easier to time attacks or dodges. Souls are currency in the dungeons though, so farming is inevitable. You can however dodge enemies and maintain your health when in a tough spot. Up to two spells and one tool can be equipped at once, powered by mana which must be rejuvinated, adding to the tension of longer battles as you encounter larger enemies.
Possession is necessary to sustain your dungeon run and use the techniques of the enemies you control. This is such a unique and fun mechanism that makes gameplay more strategic. Between spells, a tool, possession, and reanimation, you’d think controls would be overwhelming but they’re surprisingly well placed. This is a controller game, so push aside the keyboard and mouse. Multiplayer is also an option! Where you can create a party of four to share resources with your friends and journey together.
Repetition is necessary to play Never Grave, with final-bosses being hidden in the depths of nested dungeons. This can be frustrating if, like me, you failed to kill the boss many times and had to survive three dungeons before you can meet him again. Luckily, this is a roguelite game, so these are good opportunities for resource farming and perfecting your battle techniques. The enemies spawned are also varied enough to keep things interesting each time. Just don’t be terrible like me and this won’t be much of an issue.
Aesthetically, the game is stunning. The use of colour is amazing – I love the darker tones used in the backgrounds, allowing the aura of magic to really radiate from the witch and her obstacles. The soundtrack also provides the perfectly whimsical RPG vibes for immersion, making the game even more enchanting. The character styles are adorably fierce and their animation cycles smooth, really emphasising the unique charm of each one. Performance-wise, Never Grave performed smoothly so I could admire the beautiful artstyle throughout. It’s a fairly small game, taking only 4GB space, so it should run on most systems (check the minimum requirements though, I take no responsibility if you can’t run it).
To put everything I said into one sentence: I bloody love this game. Never Grave is aesthetically pleasing, has good combat, and requires strategic thinking. It allows me to fulfil my homesteading urges whilst still being a badass witch (pun-intended). If you don’t like repetition and farming, avoid this game as you would not survive the repetitive dungeon-slaying. Otherwise, anyone who likes Metroidvania x roguelite games are sure to enjoy this game. Platformer fans will also appreciate the challenges created by Never Grave’s complex dungeon systems and enemies. The cute and witchy aesthetic only adds to the experience, regardless of your preferences. Never Grave is a game I will certainly be revisiting. One could even say its bewitching!
The code for this review was provided by Pocketpair Inc. This review has been cross-posted to OpenCritic.
