Acclaimed Ori devs are swapping Metroidvania for a Diablo rival to create the action-RPG they've been waiting 20 years to play

Ori developer Moon Studios has appeared at Future Game Show to reveal why the team is ditching the Metroidvania genre for a new action RPG. 

No Rest for the Wicked is an upcoming Diablo-style game that will launch in Steam Early Access on April 18. When you're not bopping enemies for loot across the hand-drawn shores of Isola Sacra to quell the return of an unholy plague, you can take a moment to breathe. Visiting the town of Sacrament allows you to purchase property, decorate, fish, or till and harvest food to create meals offering health and state boots. 

All of that, though, is a pretty different experience from what you might be used to when playing Ori and the Blind Forest, a brighter Metroidvania that'll test your platforming skills.

As part of the Future Game Show, Moon Studios creative director, Thomas Mahler, explains why the team is changing things up while showing off some gameplay footage.

For Mahler, No Rest for the Wicked is basically the "dream project" as it's the action-RPG they've waited 20 years to play. You've got soulslike combat systems that strive to be best in class, a fresh approach to exploration that says 'no thanks' to randomly generated lands, and vibey social elements for those who dig farming and fishing.

"It's the kind of game I've always wanted to see someone make, but because they didn't, we're making it now," they say.

Gennadiy Korol adds that the team is combining different genres into one game to iterate on it. The combat borrows from plenty of sources, like Dark Souls, Monster Hunter, and fighting games. The point is that the team isn't just looking to something like Diablo for inspiration.

"We're not trying to follow one game, in particular," they say. "We're just inspired by all these different elements from all these different games. We put them together and try to grow it into the most perfect version we can."

If you’re looking for more excellent games from today's Future Games Show, have a look at our official Steam page.

Deputy News Editor

Iain joins the GamesRadar team as Deputy News Editor following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When not helping Ali run the news team, he can be found digging into communities for stories – the sillier the better. When he isn’t pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new hat, you’ll find him amassing an army of Pokemon plushies.