I was really anticipated for this release, since i adore moon studios for their ori masterpieces and also love dark fantasy rpgs and character action games in general. since i don't care much about the diablo stereotype of arpgs, their promise about changing up the genre instantly got me hooked. i've bought no rest for the wicked the moment it got released and was genuinely satisfied from what is there already and also really surprised by the sheer amount of negative reviews and overly harsh critique for a day 1 early access release, as it turned out no rest for the wicked is a masterpiece in the making.

what i liked:


(+) immersion and atmosphere is definitely one of it's biggest strengths. everything works out so well and this one will shape into one of the best dark fantasy experiences ever made.

(+) the combat is also one of the major selling points of the game. it's rather slow and "methodical", feels heavy and impactful - which i personally like a lot. enemy attacks are well telegraphed and good to read, which is pretty impressive for an iso game with a fixed camera. probably one of the best isometric action combat systems ever created to date, even in this early version of the game.

(+) build variety is already decent. a lot of different weapons, scaling with different stats and up to 4 weapon arts per weapon, which can be extracted from other weapons to mix and match your favorite setup.

(+) interaction with your surroundings is stunning for an isometric game and feels very well naturally implemented in the best possible way.

(+) absolutely loving the lore and world building - a lot of flavor texts and backstory going on. gimme more!

(+) obviously can't say much about story as a whole, but what's already in the game, is really intriguing and well made. can't wait for more!

(+) level design is magnificent and well thought out. there's a lot of connectivity going and secrets all over the place. exploration will be rewarded.

(+) kinda liking the game-play loop in general. you'll be backtracking a lot after finishing the story for dailies and weeklies, especially at this stage since there aren't as many levels live yet, but things are always changing a bit. enemies grow not only in power level, but will be replaced with other types and variants as well to keep things fresh. hell, i've even had an occurrence where suddenly a hole in the wall which served as a passage got shut down.

(+) superb art style and graphics. the art direction is heavily stylized, grimy and generally very dark - absolutely lovely. lightning and shadows doing a lot of work as well.

(+) ost and sound design is top notch. calm, somber and enigmatic most of the time, but not shy to spice things up at the right moment. vinyl when?

(+) the voice over is genuinely great! they've got a decent cast of voice actors and every single npc in the game is fully voiced, even the more trivial ones, whom don't even serve a purpose for a quest or so. excellent.

(+) dialogue quality / writing is pretty forceful as well. even the more subsidiary npcs got some interesting bits and pieces to say, for the most part.

(+) town development - it's lovely to upgrade the merchants and see the city grow in actuality.

(+) didn't expect player housing at all and i like it. placing can be a tad bit finicky and i can't tell how in depth it will be, but it's a neat touch for sure.

(+) reasonable crafting to soothe the equipment rng. // early access patch 1 added crafting from storage which was basically my only little gripe with the crafting.

(+) physics are so well made. it's always a pleasure to watch a tree falling down a hill or so. small things like that make the game really stand out.


what felt debatable to me:


(~) map markers definitely coming in handy for the various chests and resources, but they're way too limited to make real use of. there shouldn't be a cap for placing markers on the map, at least for the more generic ones. also there has to be an option in the future to show markers only on the map and not on the edges of the screen while playing, it just hurts the immersion and serves basically no real purpose as it is.

(~) people complained a lot about the repair costs in a game with a higher difficulty and souls combat. i can tell you, it's whatever. even if you're dying a lot, the repairs are dirt cheap and you'll have a steady income of money anyway.

(~) another complaint was about the inventory size. let me tell you as much, it's not as restrictive as people make it out to be and part of the character progression. not going to say much more, because of potential spoilers.

(~) missing qol features - it's an early access game. nothing more to say. if you can't handle missing qol, better stop playing early access games in general. you're paying for play-testing an unfinished game. // early access patch 1 added keyboard remapping.

(~) performance issues - performance isn't the best. demanding on the hardware, low overall fps, some frame-drops here and there, but at the end of the day the game is more than playable as it is. haven't had a single crash so far. also same as qol features - this game just released into early access, performance instabilities are more than expected. // performance definitely increased with early access patch 1 and my frame-rate is much better now. people who experienced performance issues on early access release, might give it another go. // performance got further improved with early access patch 2.

(~) equipment weight. it's fine, not much more to say. if you've played souls or which is using a similar approach to equipment weight, you won't have a single issue. then again if you mindlessly put on every single item (especially in the beginning) without activating a single brain cell.. well, you'll be punished harshly for doing so. fighting overweight is no joy. it's kinda funny, the first weapon you'll find after the tutorial is a heavy greatsword (at least in my case), so dipping into heavy equipment weight is much expected. either get a more lightweight weapon or don't equip an armor on every single slot until you put enough points into the appropriate equipment weight stat.

(~) so early access patch 1 improved the inventory logic for the most part. the separation of cooking items/meals, miscellaneous crafting items and other consumables into their respective inventory tab is a welcome change, but putting runes as well as housing items in the weapon/armor tab is really bad. this one was already quite contested and there is no need to bloat it up with even more things. both runes and housing items could very well use their own inventory tab, but for the love of god, remove them at least from the weapon and armor one / revert this change. // got fixed with early access patch 2.

(~) early access patch 2 added stat "respec" into the game, a very welcome addition.


what i didn't like:


(-) obtaining the resting bonus takes 4 hours and only if you're sleeping in a tavern bad. concept is neat, takes too long to achieve tho.

(-) farming clay is kinda too rng for my taste, especially compared to other resources.

(-) at times the information in dailies is rather sparse and you have to search blindly for the last missing enemy.

(-) food and utility quick slot items reset to a default or random (i don't get the logic) item after every game restart. pretty annoying, i have to admit. should be an easy fix tho. // got fixed with early access patch 1.

what i liked:

+ a love letter to from games, souls-likes and of course, everyone's favorite - dungeon crawler. despite playing this in first person view, it kinda reminds me of another genre classic called "blade of darkness". both games got a similar vibe and atmosphere going.

+ six maps already and the final game should have ten or more. the maps themselves are quite different, providing unique themes, designs and enemies. the level design is excellent as well, with a lot of connectivity.

+ exploration is immersive and rewarding. having a blast delving into the dungeons, fighting enemies, finding all those secrets and more. tons of creative concepts like spraying blood with a spell on some carnivorous plants, acting as chests. the game may feel somewhat empty at first, but there are tons of secrets and details hidden everywhere. a little backtracking now and then is well worth as well.

+ the atmosphere just hits the right spot - dungeons are giving you the creeps, blood is pumping and you'll be nervously checking all the corners - incredible.

+ interesting and well thought out lore. there are a lot of flavor texts and lore drops all over the game. i'm quite intrigued to learn more about these cursed lands and the fates of other damned.

+ combat is fun and engaging. even though it isn't as clunky as one would imagine by the looks, aiming can get a little obnoxious at first. if you've played arthurian legends or similar games, you may feel at home, since the combat is very similar to such games.

+ decent build variety with different weapons and spells. a couple of classes like in dark souls and six different stats in total. honestly i can't say much about the viability of the weapons and spells, since it's in early access and there are almost no resources out there. i'm playing whatever weapon i like and nothing felt terrible so far, but imo the longer the range the better the weapon, since u won't get hit as often. magic is even more fun than weapons, with different schools and some fancy utility spells.

+ fantastic retro pixel artstyle and graphics. i've completely fell in love with the style this game has to offer. early 3d pc and psx era comes to mind, showcasing a well executed masterpiece.

+ awesome soundtrack, mostly calm and atmospheric. just vibin' through the game. very well done and the sound effects are mostly on point as well.

+ decent optimization at this point - constant 240 fps with no lags, crashes, glitches, whatsoever.

+ controls are responsive and far from being cumbersome, which surprised me honestly. the game looks old and plays new! can't get any better than this, can it?

+ haven't had a single bug in my playthrough so far. well, let's be real. there will be some bugs since it's an early access title, but at least there are no major game breaking issues.


what felt debatable to me:


~ power level balancing issues. at first everything was quite tough and scary, but after a couple of hours, i'm basically melting every enemy in seconds. it's still fun, but should be addressed for the 1.0 release or future updates.

~ the hub area could be bigger with a couple of more npcs. would love to see more different characters and even more so, some advanced dialogues for those already in the game, increasing their memorability. the story telling lore skeleton is probably my favorite so far. let the ride never end!

~ please introduce a setting to remap inputs.

~ i'm still not certain if there are boss enemies in the game or not and if not, will there be some? if not, why? would be interesting to hear the developers' thoughts about this topic.

~ the game needs a map so badly. i could see this was an intentional design decision and there will be no map at all. if so, i can respect that, but the devs have to improve the recognisability of some levels to sooth getting lost. catacombs were a pain up to some point, where i could see many people quit the game for no reason. i think there should be a "greyed out" simplified map to help you keep on track, to improve backtracking and without spoiling the exploration too badly.


what i disliked:


- enemy spells shooting through obstacles and walls. spells are darn hard hitting in this game and it's no joke, if they can and will hit you through basically everything.

- fairy spell is kinda out of hand with no maximum amount of summons and on top, they'll track and shoot enemies through walls.

- demon slayer achievement won't be triggered correctly.


lunacid is already a 10/10 by heart. with the early access issues and missing content, let's play fair and give it an 8/10 in this state. definitely one of the most promising upcoming games for me!

i'll update this review after i finished my playthrough, obtained some new thoughts and of course if some big content updates happen.