Never Grave: The Witch and the Curse – A Fresh Spin on 2D Roguelike Adventure

Never Grave: The Witch and the Curse is an upcoming 2D action game that fuses roguelike structure with Metroidvania-style exploration, enemy possession, and even village building. It is being published by the new publishing arm associated with the developers of Palworld, and early footage has drawn immediate comparisons to Hollow Knight thanks to its moody 2D art, tight-looking platforming, and combat focus.

Rather than simply echoing an existing classic, Never Grave layers on several systems seldom seen together in a side-scrolling action game: a persistent base that you expand between runs, four-player online co-op, and a possession mechanic that lets you temporarily become your foes. The result is a project that sits at the crossroads of Metroidvania design, modern roguelike progression, and light life-sim elements.

Key Highlights at a Glance

• Hand-drawn 2D action with Metroidvania-style layouts and traversal challenges.
• Procedurally generated dungeons for repeated roguelike runs.
• Enemy possession system granting new abilities on the fly.
• Village building and farming to upgrade your character and gear.
• Online co-op for up to four players tackling runs together.
• Published by the team behind Palworld, signaling a growing indie-focused label.

Roguelike Meets Metroidvania: How Never Grave Is Structured

Never Grave is built on a core loop that will feel familiar to anyone who has played a modern roguelite. You dive into a dangerous dungeon, push as far as your skills and build will carry you, then return to a hub space to spend resources, expand facilities, and prepare for the next run. What differentiates it is how closely that loop is knitted into deliberate Metroidvania-style navigation rather than strictly room-based arenas.

In traditional Metroidvania design, players explore a large, interconnected map, gaining movement abilities and combat tools that unlock new routes. Examples include wall jumps, double jumps, dashes, and spells used both offensively and to traverse the environment. Research on the genre points to this core interplay between ability progression and world structure as the defining feature of Metroidvania games.¹ Never Grave borrows this philosophy but rearranges the space each time through procedural generation, so routes and room layouts change across runs.

By threading these ideas together, Never Grave aims to appeal to players who love the deliberate exploration of Metroidvanias but also enjoy the high replay value and tension of roguelike runs where each attempt is meaningfully different.

Art and Atmosphere: Hand-Drawn Worlds with Familiar Vibes

The first thing that stands out about Never Grave is its visual style. Environments and characters are rendered with a hand-drawn look: expressive outlines, richly shaded backgrounds, and a subtle fantasy gloom. Shots of subterranean ruins, overgrown botanical halls, and eerie magical structures evoke the moody feel that made games like Hollow Knight and other atmospheric Metroidvanias memorable.

That similarity has been widely noted by players and press, but the developers are also introducing touches to distinguish their world. Magic is woven into the core of the protagonist’s identity via a cursed hat, and the village-building layer allows for more colorful, domestic scenes that contrast with the darker dungeons. This juxtaposition between cozy hub and hostile depths has become a common method of pacing in modern action games, giving players breathing room between intense segments.²

Visually, the game seems to be leaning on:

• High contrast silhouettes to keep enemies and hazards readable in motion.
• Layered parallax backgrounds to add depth to 2D environments.
• Magic-heavy effects (glyphs, particle trails, spell circles) to make attacks feel impactful.
• Environmental storytelling in the form of ruins, overgrown structures, and relics.

Combat, Magic, and the Cursed Hat

At the heart of Never Grave is a nimble 2D combat system. You move, jump, and dash through arenas while dispatching enemies with a combination of physical strikes and spells. The protagonist travels with a cursed hat that functions as both a narrative anchor and a core mechanical hook.

While full details are still emerging, footage and store-page descriptions indicate that the hat ties together three pillars of the combat system:

1. Magic-centric offense: Spells are central, not secondary. Many of your strongest tools appear to be long-range or area-based magical attacks, encouraging careful positioning.
2. Enhanced movement: Abilities related to the hat may unlock new traversal options, such as hover-like moves or dashes, which are critical in both combat and exploration.
3. Possession link: The possession mechanic (covered below) is thematically linked to the curse, suggesting an in-world explanation for why you can temporarily inhabit enemies.

In terms of feel, the game seems to target a middle ground between animation-rich combat and responsive controls. Well-received 2D action games often prioritize tight input response and readable attack telegraphs to keep deaths feeling fair rather than cheap.³ Never Grave’s emphasis on dodging, spacing, and skill-based encounters appears aligned with this philosophy.

Possession: Turning Enemies into Temporary Allies

One of Never Grave’s most distinctive mechanics is the ability to possess enemies during a run. Instead of simply defeating foes, you can inhabit certain enemy types and temporarily use their move sets, mobility options, or defensive tools to your advantage.

This system introduces several layers of strategy:

• Situational adaptation: Possess a flying enemy to bypass a vertical gauntlet, or a heavily armored foe to push through a dangerous corridor.
• Build variety per run: Different enemy sets in each generated dungeon mean you’ll frequently encounter new combinations of abilities to leverage.
• Risk-reward decisions: Swapping in and out of possession during hectic fights will demand attention; using the wrong form at the wrong time could be fatal.

From a design standpoint, this mechanic addresses a common roguelike challenge: keeping each run fresh not only through numbers (damage, health, etc.) but through qualitatively different play styles. By tying alternative move sets to enemies rather than static items, Never Grave encourages players to approach familiar spaces in new ways when different enemies populate them.

Village Building, Farming, and Long-Term Progress

Between dives into the dungeons, you return to a ruined village that functions as your hub. Rather than remaining a static base, this settlement is something you actively rebuild over time. You remove rubble, construct new buildings, and gradually turn it into a bustling, functional town.

Key village features include:

• Facilities and Shops: Structures that provide gear upgrades, unlock new magic, or offer services like crafting and enchanting.
• Farming Plots: Fields where you grow crops used to produce food, potions, and potentially other consumables.
• Production Buildings: Locations where raw materials gathered in dungeons are turned into useful items.

This loop mirrors successful patterns in other roguelites and action games where a persistent hub gives a sense of long-term achievement even when individual runs end in failure. The difference here is the explicit emphasis on agriculture and village expansion, drawing light inspiration from farming and life-sim systems without attempting to become a full farm-management game.

From a broader industry perspective, this blend of action and base building reflects a trend toward hybrid genres. Market reports from organizations like the Entertainment Software Association note that players increasingly engage with games that combine multiple gameplay styles, including social, creative, and competitive elements, rather than sticking to strict genre lines.⁴

Four-Player Online Co-op: Shared Runs, Shared Risks

Another standout feature is online co-op for up to four players. Co-op in side-scrolling action games is nothing new, but combining it with procedural Metroidvania maps, possession mechanics, and a shared base gives Never Grave a distinct angle.

Potential benefits and challenges of the co-op design include:

• Synergy between roles: One player might focus on high-damage spellcasting while another leans into tanky possessed forms to hold enemy attention.
• Coordinated traversal: Platforming segments require coordination; players who specialize in certain movement abilities may scout ahead or open routes.
• Shared resource decisions: Loot distribution and base upgrades must be negotiated, which can foster cooperation or friendly friction.

Online co-op brings its own technical demands: netcode, latency handling, and fair difficulty scaling for various party sizes. Although those details are not fully known yet, the promise of tackling difficult dungeons with friends is likely to be a major draw, especially given the success of co-op systems in other action-oriented titles in recent years.⁵

The Role of Palworld’s Developers as Publishers

Never Grave is noteworthy not only for its mechanics but also for who is helping bring it to market. It is being published by the label associated with the creators of Palworld, a game that quickly surged to major popularity on PC and console. That success has given the studio new visibility and resources, and Never Grave appears to be one of the early projects benefitting from this publishing arm.

This move reflects a broader industry trend where successful development studios expand into publishing to support other teams, often focusing on distinctive indie projects. These arrangements can provide smaller teams with marketing, quality assurance, and platform support while allowing the publishing studio to diversify its portfolio beyond a single hit.

For players, the involvement of a known developer-publisher can serve as a soft quality signal — not a guarantee of success, but an indication that a project has passed some internal evaluation. It also means there may be cross-promotion between Palworld’s large player base and Never Grave, potentially giving this 2D roguelike a strong initial audience.

Who Is Never Grave For?

Based on what is currently known, Never Grave seems tailored for several overlapping groups of players:

• Metroidvania enthusiasts who enjoy intricate 2D exploration, challenging bosses, and ability-based progression.
• Roguelike fans who want the high replay value of runs with new layouts, enemies, and builds each attempt.
• Co-op groups looking for a game that supports coordinated action in a side-scrolling format rather than just top-down or isometric views.
• Players who enjoy light life-sim systems and the satisfaction of building a home base over time.

If you were drawn to the atmosphere of games like Hollow Knight or similar hand-drawn Metroidvanias but also enjoy experimenting with systems-heavy roguelites like Hades, Never Grave aims to land in the space between those experiences.

Frequently Asked Questions About Never Grave

Why Never Grave Matters in the Current Indie Landscape

The indie action scene has become fiercely competitive, with numerous games vying for attention by combining high-end 2D art, satisfying combat, and novel mechanics. Never Grave stands out because it does not stop at a single hook. Instead, it stacks several layers:

• A familiar but well-loved foundation in Metroidvania exploration.
• Roguelike structure for replayability and tension.
• Enemy possession as a differentiating mechanical twist.
• Village building to anchor long-term progression and give players a tangible sense of growth.
• Four-player online co-op to turn what might have been a solo challenge into a cooperative experience.

Executed poorly, such a blend could feel unfocused. But if these systems interlock cleanly — with possession feeding into creative co-op strategies, village upgrades meaningfully shaping how runs play, and procedural generation maintaining interesting spaces to traverse — Never Grave could carve out a distinctive niche among 2D action titles.

As the game moves closer to release, details like difficulty tuning, progression pacing, and technical performance will determine whether it reaches that potential. For now, it stands as a striking example of how developers and publishers are continuing to push experimentation in the roguelike and Metroidvania space rather than leaning solely on nostalgia.