Neverway Is The Ultimate Fusion Of Creepy & Cute (Preview)

Developed by Coldblood Inc., Neverway might be one of the most intriguing new games of the year. After losing her job, the isolated Fiona speaks to a stranger on a train and finds herself pulled into the mysterious realm known as Montgomery Island. While she makes friends with the locals and begins to cultivate a farm, her adventures into the nearby space known as the Neverway gradually reveal monsters she must defeat and a dead god who decides that Fiona will become their new herald.

This underlying fusion of Stardew Valley and Eternal Darkness is an unexpected combination that works wonders, thanks to the creative teams, delivering a well-constructed game experience while also telling a compelling narrative through great pixel art and MIDI music. Clever, charming, and creepy in equal measure, Neverway is already shaping up to be one of the year’s best horror titles.

Neverway’s Cute Art Never Fails To Horrify When It Wants To

One of the most instantly engrossing elements of Neverway is the pixel art, courtesy of lead artist and designer Pedro Medeiros. Perhaps best known for his work in Celeste, the design and visuals of Neverway lend it a charming design aesthetic that easily draws the player into a quietly creepy world. Little touches, like the limited color palette and the creepy transitions, add a sense of unease to a game that never quite loses the sense of charm baked into the characters and presentation.

The result is a game that can, across the course of a relatively short demo, shift from slice of life to horror to adventure from scene to scene. The design for the characters leans into the approachable cartoon-style designs of games like Stardew Valley, but with just a touch of darkness crawling in along the sides. It lends the game an instantly memorable aesthetic that only becomes more effective as players grow accustomed to the world along with Fiona.

The cutesy sprite art style doesn’t mean the game’s horror is toned down either, as some genuinely nightmarish monster designs and dungeons make sure the player never loses sight of the more horrifying aspects of the world of the game. Instead, the art design and world-building only make those elements stand out even more, especially as players begin to unearth the darker history of Montgomery Island and the supernatural forces that exist within it.

The art design, coupled with a score by Disasterpeace that takes full advantage of the throwback MIDI soundtrack elements without ever feeling like a step back creatively, is a really stunning piece of work that would deserve your attention even if the underlying game wasn’t good. Luckily, that isn’t a problem for Neverway, thanks to its strong game mechanics and shocking amount of depth.

Your Farm, Your Life, Your Elder God

As players venture into the larger world of Montgomery Island, the game reveals that the full adventure goes beyond just being a horror-tinted take on Harvest Moon. The game’s dungeon crawler elements take cues from classic 2D Legend of Zelda games, with an emphasis on exploring dungeons, solving puzzles, and defeating enemies to collect resources. On top of dealing with health, though, players have to keep an eye on their stamina and the time of day, as both can also impact what happens to the player and what else they can do before needing to send Fiona to rest for the night.

Using their resources, the player is able to spruce up their farm and collect a bigger harvest, all while forming bonds with the supporting cast of other island residents. Thanks to some in-depth dialogue trees, players can interact, befriend, and even romance many of the other citizens, lending the game a Stardew Valley vibe that helps broaden the world beyond the typical fantasy adventure game. It’s all very cute, with tightly constructed gameplay mechanics benefiting the sense of adventure that comes inherent with the exploration. The encounters range from charming moves through the forest to monstrous encounters, hinting at the full scope of the game.

Neverway‘s art style is a delight, serving as a fitting realization of the game’s intention. However, none of that is meant to downplay the game’s subtle horror touches, which can come in surprising bursts. The use of pixel art and limited colors comes together in some effectively unsettling ways, with some of the locations creating feelings of claustrophobia and the monster designs filling the player with dread as needed for the plot and presentation. Scheduled to hit Steam and the Nintendo Switch in October, Neverway may be the perfect spooky take on the life-sim and fantasy adventure game for the season. Even beyond the stunning work put in by the art team, there’s a lot going on under the surface in Neverway that I can’t wait to dive further into.

A preview Steam code for Neverway was provided to ComicBook.com for the purposes of this preview.