No Rest for the Wicked dev explains that its ARPG is - and isn't - like Dark Souls by giving players the "crazy" moves usually reserved for Soulslike bosses

No Rest for the Wicked - a new action RPG from the studio behind Ori and the Blind Forest - both is and isn't like Dark Souls, according to one developer.

Moon Studios CEO Thomas Mahler recently chatted about the team's first venture outside the excellent Ori series to Edge Magazine in issue 395, saying the team wanted to "revolutionize the genre" by bringing together "elements that haven't been brought together like that before, and try to create a new recipe."

That partly manifests in No Rest for the Wicked with a top-down camera angle, which fundamentally changes how you approach the game since, you know, an entire hand appendage is now free. "Your right thumb is always busy rotating the camera [in Souls games] and trying to frame the action, whereas we can craft the camera algorithm to really perfectly frame everything," Mahler explains. 

"Now you can do all these crazy moves, where you can dash backwards or forwards," he continues, likening the player's Wicked movesets to that of typical Souls bosses. "In Souls, you fight bosses like Artorias who have these really cool moves, but you as a player never get these moves - you never look as cool." It seems No Rest for the Wicked aims to flip that dynamic as it continues production in early access. 

Elsewhere, Mahler also explains how its loot game changes for everyone: "In Dark Souls, a chest in Undead Burg will always contain the same item for everybody, but I want players to have a different experience every time. Even if you find, say, the same Blood-rusted Sword, we roll it with RNG, so you might find it with a fire gem or fast tech speed - all which affects your gameplay."

No Rest for the Wicked stands out from its competition in some other key ways too, notably the fact that Moon Studios isn't aiming for Diablo 4's business model with "no microtransactions and battle pass… no $65 horse skins." No Rest for the Wicked is also moderately priced on Steam, as the studio boss didn't want to "create an illusion for the shareholders" with an unneeded $70 price tag.

Blizzard’s former president says No Rest for the Wicked is “exactly where the ARPG genre needs to go to stay relevant.”