Palworld was a big success for the studio Pocketpair in 2024. Soon, the new game from the developers will be released on Steam, which in some aspects strongly resembles a modern Metroidvania classic.
Which game is it about? Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse is the next game from the publisher Pocketpair. The studio released the title Palworld in 2024, which immediately caused a stir, among other things due to its great similarity to Pokémon.
Never Grave, which is being developed by a team within Pocketpair, is dedicated to a different genre. It is a 2D Metroidvania with roguelite elements, which seemed suspiciously reminiscent of Hollow Knight immediately after the release of the first trailer.
Given that Pocketpair has already actively borrowed from another game with Palworld, there could be an impression that the same principle would be repeated with Never Grave.
Despite all the similarities, however, there is at least one significant difference between the games.
Metroidvania Fun with Friends
What is the difference? Hollow Knight is a pure singleplayer game. However, Never Grave offers a coop feature in addition to the singleplayer mode. With up to three friends, you can explore the dungeons and magical worlds of the game, face enemies, and defeat bosses.
Another feature comes into play here that does not exist in Hollow Knight: You can throw your magic hat at enemies and take them over. This is somewhat reminiscent of Mario Odyssey, where you can also transform by throwing your hat.
If you play in coop, your teammates can contribute to the battle and exploration through this feature. If you transform into an enemy, you can use their unique abilities, which in turn brings new gameplay possibilities.
This way, you will go through various dungeons that look different with each new attempt. There should also be puzzles.
At the end of a stressful day, you return to your base, a dilapidated village that you rebuild using collected materials. Here, food or potions can be crafted to ensure you survive the next outing into the dungeons.
After a demo as part of the Steam Next Fest, the game was actually set to start Early Access in 2025. However, this will not happen, as the developers have suddenly changed their plans.
What are the plans? Pocketpair announced in a recent update on Steam that they do not wish to pursue Early Access for Never Grave. Instead, version 1.0 will be released directly – when exactly, is still unclear.
However, the team is in the final phase of development. A release in 2025 is thus quite possible. In addition to the Steam version, the game will also be released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, and the Microsoft Store.
There should also be crossplay between all systems. Whether Never Grave can measure up to Hollow Knight will be seen at the release. It will also be interesting to see if Pocketpair once again faces legal difficulties because their title is too similar to other genre representatives. Recently, there were news regarding Palworld: ‘Everyone here was disappointed’ – Palworld gives update on the legal dispute with Nintendo, removes important feature
