Neva

Parenthood is filled with beauty and tragedy. Nomada Studio’s newest game, Neva, understands this reality well and, through simple gameplay and breathtaking visuals, crafts a honed blade that may well embed itself into your heart.

The journey starts with tragedy. Unable to do anything but move forward, our protagonist Alba and her surrogate cub Neva plunge headfirst into the beautiful and dangerous forest, still reeling from the absence of the mother that meant so much to them both. What else can they do in the face of such chaos but push forward towards the goal they had set out with: to rid this world of the corrupting evil that twists familiar things into unrecognisable husks—an evil with a ceaseless desire to consume everything it touches. With only so much as a trailer, this game generated in me a resonance I have felt with only a few pieces of media. If I had to put a finger on the source of this pull, it would be the quiet strength shown in the face of great evil and the promise of a bond with a beautiful beast that changes over time. Having now played the game, I can confirm it’s a journey worth taking, with many elements executed at the highest standard of quality. Yet, just like the 2D perspective of the camera, there are themes and mechanics that would have benefitted from additional depth and a longer runtime. 

Let’s explore where the game truly excels: the art design and music. Now that the elephant has been introduced, let’s acknowledge what we all already expected to be the case. This game looks and sounds absolutely stunning! This makes it an incredibly easy experience to root for, creating a massive buffer for any small problems you may have. Berlinist’s soundtrack inhabits a transcendent middle ground where it allows space to breathe while still providing emotional gut punches that don’t feel manufactured or manipulated. Just like with Gris, it greatly enhanced my journey through the game and complemented both the calm and tumultuous moments. The art that so greatly contributed to the studio’s success is fully evident here, and that’s not all; an additional grounding into our world has been made in the four distinct seasons framing the different chapters. Not just for show, they tie in beautifully with the changing relationship Neva and Alba share and bring an organic quality to the world they inhabit. With the art being so intentional and alive, I wanted to enjoy the game at a leisurely pace, but the combat element introduced in this title made this challenging. This is the first time Nomada Studios has introduced combat, and regardless of the quality of these scuffles, it creates a drive forward that wasn’t as present in Gris. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, just different, and for me, it made it harder to appreciate the moments of calm sprinkled throughout the experience. 

Unfortunately, the gameplay design as a whole is once again Nomada’s least compelling facet. To be blunt, they have yet to find a way to engage seasoned players consistently with the moment-to-moment gameplay. Although more developed and engaging systems would be advantageous, in an interview with TheGamer, lead producer Roger Mendoza expressed the team’s desire to not alienate the non-gamer fans of Gris. “[With] Gris, we had a lot of players who [had] never played [a] game before, or maybe it was one of their first games, and we didn’t want to, you know, leave them behind.” As much as it would be nice for this experience to push deeper into creative platforming and interesting combat, it would inevitably make it less accessible and pure in its simplicity. This type of inviting beauty that’s still digestible for a wide range of audiences is incredibly important for the wider gaming landscape and should be celebrated as a great introduction to art-focused games.

I personally can attest to this sentiment, as Gris played a big role in transitioning me out of purely entertainment-focused gaming. Until my mid-teen years, the only console my family had was a Wii. The games I loved to play—Mario Kart, Sonic Colours, and Smash Brothers—were all well designed but lacked narrative punch and were labelled by my parents as fun time wasters. This was my perspective on games until I played Gris. Though completely wordless, the story told through colours and song haunted me and engaged my heart in ways the Wii games of my youth never did. At a very influential point in my life, it helped me see the potential of the medium and struck an emotional cord that started a snowballing love of the independent game scene. The deeply personal themes that made Gris so special are definitely still present in Neva, though its brevity and pacing are sometimes to its detriment. Both structurally and thematically, the design feels like flipping through a photo album. It’s a story of parenthood containing moments of exceptional beauty that capture a found family’s journey through a dangerous world filled with uncertainty that doesn’t dwell too long or dive too deep into a singular moment. 

An interview with the games creative director, Conrad Roset, explains the thought process behind this decision in greater detail. “At the end of the day, it’s a very subtle narrative. There is no dialogue, there is no text, so a lot is in the hands of the imagination of the different players. So it’s the player himself or herself who [can] fill in the gaps with their own experience, and we, all the players, can rewrite the story.” This thematic space to breathe requires more effort to connect with, potentially leading to an experience that feels disconnected and shallow if you were hoping for a more filled-out narrative, but, as was mentioned in the interview, it can also lead to personal reflection that fills in the gaps. All of this design DNA was also present in Gris, but because of the simpler scope of that experience and its more consistent tone, it worked better for me than it did in Neva. Calling back to the photo album analogy, some of the story beats feel a little to black and white for a world this colourful and alive, and I would’ve loved to spend more time doing mundane daily activities such as foraging for food or finding a warm place to sleep. I think this would have benefitted the game’s messaging by providing another way to show how parent-child relationships change and morph without just limiting that progression to platforming and combat.