Consoles: PS5, PS4, Xbox One/ Series X Nintendo Switch, PC
Published:Devolver Digital
Developers: Nomada Studios
Released: October 2024
One of the high profile indie games of 2024, was none other than Neva. The game was announced in May 2023 during Sony's Playstation State of Play. The game was being developed by Nomada studio and acts as their second project behind Gris. Gris was considered a great success for the developers whose sales exceeded their
expectations and the praise was unanimously favorable. Neva was going to be published by Devolver Digital who just like with Gris wanted to support Nomada's latest project.
Ever since the initial teaser reveal, the game stood out duo to its unique art style and presentation. Despite showing little to no gameplay the teaser was enough to make it stand out. Throughout 2023 to 2024 the game was being shown in almost every major game event leading to its release. Turned out Neva was going to be yet another 2D platformer
which would combined puzzle solving. The game was released during Fall of 2024 and it saw a massive success with players and journalists alike. It scored high in most scoring websites and collected multiple positive reviews from gaming journalist earning it multiple nominations in award shows. From the nominations some of them were earned whilst others
were won by other games.
The game was released in October 2024 in the following forms:
Standard
Included the game alone
Deluxe Edition
Included the game, Artbook and Sountrack CD
Personally, the game had gain my interest but i was waiting for the right price to pick it up, and thus i did eatly in 2025.
Story of the Game
The story of the game is hard to explain as its another one of the Wordless games, whose narrative is being shown through its imagery. Although a main plot can be said, there s plenty of hiden messages and interpretation that players can come up with. Nevertheless, the plot follows a young woman called
Alba and her wolf Neva. The two re witnessing the worlds corruption, everything falling to darkness. In that darkness shadow creatures are born and all seem to be worhisping the Queen of corruption. There is no explanation as to why the Queen wishes the death of all life or what her creatures are but all Alba knows is
that the Queen needs to be stopped and that she also has to stay away from her until she has the power to stop her.
Through her journey, we see how Alba and Neva become stronger as their bond deepens. For example at the start of the game Neva's innocent and naive nature makes her run ahead of Alba and often needing Alba's rescue from the enemies. Eventually the young animal is scared to venture alone and follows every step of the player.
Once the season pass a more mature Neva is not only walking ahead of Alba but is also capable of fighting these creatures alongside her. Their bond has grown and they re both doing their best to guide and help each other. Eventually the duo will come across the Queen who seemed desperate to stop the two chasing them throughout
the seasons. Spoilers on The games interpretation
Duo to the oppening cinematic and the ending cinematic being similar, players seemed to have a mixure of opinions. Without going into deep detail, the narrative has split the fanbase into two directions. One part of the fanbase believes that the game's narrative is straight forward and that the main point is that of a loop. Alba
and wolf and its offspring will encounter the Queen with the wolf sacrificing itself to protect the other two scaring the Queen away. Alba with her new child wolf will embark on a jounrey to defeat the queen however the Queen will be rebirth and haunt them yet again keeping the pattern of the loop.
The other part of the fanbase seems to believe that the oppening cutscene is the present with the gameplay section being a flashback as to how the story came to be. Alba shows her bond with Neva, who as a parent looked after the child until its adulthood. Once the game replays the intro cutscene, players believe that what
occured afterworks is the continuation of the evens before falling back into chapter 1. Instead of a loop we have a grief and the pain of loss which is why also believe this one being the canonical reason, however i can see why the other fanbase believe in the loop being the story. After all we ve seen the concept of loops in wordless games
being the main plot in games like the Journey and Mono from Little Nighmares 2.
Thoughts on the story
To say that Neva's narrative is unique is a false statement, afterall plenty of Wordless games such as The Journey, Abzu and others have done this before. However, Neva music and imagery also manages to capture the essence of the narrative.
Keep in mind, the only spoken word that exist in the game is the voice actress call/scream of "Neva". Despite that usage of the music, the imagery and all of the colors set the mood and explain everything. We go from beautifully colored forests to a black and grey forest with corrupted trees and gloomy music.
Thats enough to make you understand the corruption that occured to the life of the world. Yet the light and bond formed between Alba and Neva shows that hope stills exists in the darkest of hours. Furthermore, their battle againts darkness shows their journey to save the forest and blossom a new. Despite eveything
they go through we see through Alba, Neva growing up from a small puppy that needs our protection to a big wolf capable of helping us through battle and through everything. A healthy friendship that will try everything to stop the infaction and restore life.
Gameplay
At its core Neva is a2D Platformer that combines action fighting and puzzle solving. The players get control of Alba, a young woman who carries a sword and is escorted by her two animals, a wolf and its puppy called Neva. Once the oppening act is done, Alba is only left with Neva. Alba's goal is to restore life to the
forest. Alba is tecnically a normal person and thus her movement is limited to her mortality, however the devs did gave her a couple of abilities necessary to make the game playable and enjoyable. Alba is capable of normal movement and she is also capable of jumping and double jumping. In terms of compat, she is capable of
using her sword and dodge by rolling. Airdodge is also available that allows Alba to cover longer distance whilst on air.
Neva as the title suggests, is also a core part of the gameplay. At the beginning of the game Neva is a small puppy that is careless and fragile. Neva runs around the forest searching for new smells to experience and new food to try out. However when enemies come out, Neva needs Alba's protection. At the end of the battle Alba's
cry heals Alba's damage. Eventually Neva grows into a a normal size wolf and is capable of fighting alongside Alba. During Combat Neva will appear on her own and attack enemies that try to attack Alba. Eventually the player will be able of ordering Neva to attack certain types of enemies. When the wolf pins down an enemy, the player
can go and cut the enemy down or let Neva deal the damage. Moreover, Neva and Alba can fight as one meanning that with each swing of the sword a spiritual form of the wolf will appear and attack alongside Alba. This combo is has two forms and is considered Alba's pick fighting condition. Last but not least, the player can now ride Neva
which allows the player to use all the platforming abilities(minus climping) and attack/dodge with the attack button.
The game offers a small variety of enemies. The enemies are black liquid looking silhuettes similar to the Menos Grande of Bleach or studio Chibli No face. These creatures of Darkness are responsible for the decaying of the forest and the loss of lives. These beings follow and worship the Queen of
Corruption whose goal is to stop Alba. These beings of darkness try to stop Neva by all means. Some attack head on, others re hiding waiting for the perfect moment to strike and others joined together into a bigger unit to take down the hero. The enemies attack the player with a specific pattern of behavior and the player can only use Alba's
chain of attacks. Dodging their attacks grants frames of invisibility. Alba has three flower heart points and each time she receives a strike she loses a point. If she touches an enemy she once again gets hit and enviromental damage also deals one point. Life can beregained by dealing damage, reaching a check point or even listening to Neva's cry
after combat.
Thoughts on the Gameplay
Neva's gameplay is reminding me alot of the After us. It doesnt do anything to stand out but it also feels genuently enjoyable. The compat of the game although may feel slow, it does feel enjoyable. Using the mobiity and the limited attack of the heroine againts the dark creatures feels really enjoyable. Looking how Alba and Neva
grow up together and learn new tricks is very satisfying. The way healing works make you want to advance with an attack instead of simply doghing and waiting. The enemy variety is not much but atleast they have their own ways to be dealt with. On the other hand, platforming which is its main genre feels like its the games weakest part. There are little to
none platforming sections that felt challenging, the only platforming that was considered to be hard was to obtain certain collectables which themselves werent that challenging. However, the game did had some interesting game mechanics that made the other way easy platforming a fun experience. For example, using portal like teleporters and using the reflection
off of the water to see otherwise invisible platforms. The puzzles themselves are very easy and none challenging. The majority of them are using the mechanics and power ups that were just obtained or are simply straight forward.
Post Game Content
The game barely has anything to do after completing the campaign. Theres only type of collectibles and these re the blooming flowers. Small glowing flowers that once Alba gets near them will blossom. Theres a total of 29 flowers to collect. For those who want the 100% completion, you can also do small easy tasks such as calling Neva's name or finding
birds and breaking statues. There is not much to do honeslty.
Sound and Graphics
As mentioned in the prologue, the game stood out because of its Art style. The game has a washed-out color pastel look that can be a bless and a curse. The game looks beautiful and every frame can be considered an art on a piece of paper. The game director and Artist Conrad Roset who also worked on Gris wanted to outdone himself and thus a good looking game with that choice of
art wouldnt have been enough. Thus the presentation of its narrative was proceeded with more focus on clearing the objective. Nevertheless, the peculiar choice comes out as a bless and a curse. Even though the game looks clean on both platforming and gameplay's prespective some areas suggest the opposite. For example in both The Fall and the Winter chapters, the games art follows
a main focus on dark Black and grey and white focus bakgrounds that make it hard to see things on screen in comparisson to the Summer and Spring chapters. The few cutscenes that exists are well drawn and even within the gameplay the push the narrative forward. It is worth mentioning that Neva's art style and direction were heavily influenced by Studio Ghibli: Princess Mononoke.
On the sound department the game doesnt dissapoint. Afterall, all the wordless games rely on their imagery and sounds in order to pass down their message and Neva doesnt dissapoint. Cheerfull sounds can be heard during good moments and gloomy sounds when sad things occur. However, the music of Neva is made by the Berlinist who also worked on Gris. According to Nomada studio they
worked with Berlinist ever since the concept Art of Neva. They talked about the two main cast members and also mentioned the four seasons that would also play a major role in the game. Nevada also worked with Ruben Pon(again from Gris) who also recorded his husky's growls which were used as Nevas voice. Overall, the audio and the imagery work together in harmony without one overtaking the other.
All work balanced and well.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, Neva let me in confused state of mind. The game offers a nice narrative with about a lone warrior and her wolf versus the Queen of Corruption in an attempt to protect the forest from decaying, however on a deeper meanning a its a story about partnership and growth, how one helps the other and keep each others company againts all the odds. The gameplay compines 2D side scrolling sections
with a couple of puzzles. The platforming sections and the puzzles are not hard solve or to manuver duo to the fact that the game wishes to push a narrative instead of focussing on making a challenging platformer. The combat of the game is fun and it evolves as the two main characters grow with the passing of time. The game doesnt have any spoken dialog and thus everything is being narrated by the
games imagery and its melodies. This means that the games plot may differ from players to players interpretation. Nevertheless, the majority online seems to agree with plenty of common elements. The game doesnt offer much to do once the players successfully finish the main narrative and it can be 100% within five hours making it a very short game. Whether or not the game is worth its price tag
is for you to decide, however on a sale i would recommend it.
This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game
