Before the release ofPalworld, Pocketpair didn’t really have a notable reputation in the gaming industry. The Japanese studio had released a handful of interesting games here and there, likeOverdungeon,Craftopia, andAI Art Imposter, but none of them managed to gain a sizable fanbase. Because of this, when Pocketpair announcedPalworldduring the INDIE Live Expo in 2021, not a lot of people took the game seriously.Palworld, in some gamers' eyes, looked like nothing more than a comedicPokemonclone with guns. However, the game ended up being much more successful than most people anticipated.
Palworldwas launched in January 2024 on Xbox and PC, and despite having a limited marketing budget, it sold over 8 million copies in 6 days and had over 2 million concurrent players on Steam alone. Many of these gamers were long-timePokemonfans, some of whom were disgruntled with the haphazard state ofPokemon Scarlet and Violetand wanted to give an alternative likePalworlda shot. AlthoughPalworldactually turned out to be a pretty different game fromPokemon, it excelled in many areas where the latest mainlinePokemongames had faltered, like graphics, animation quality, and technical stability. Pocketpair managed to topplePokemonwithPalworldin this regard, and now, it seems like the company may do the same thing again toHollow Knight: Silksong.
Never Grave: The Witch and the Curse Could Be a Serious Competitor to Hollow Knight: Silksong
Hollow Knight: Silksongis, without a doubt, one of the most elusive indie titles of the last five years. Despite originally being announced more than six years ago, Team Cherry’s highly-anticipated Metroidvania has yet to be released or even receive a third trailer. A few weeks ago, Team Cherry confirmed thatHollow Knight: Silksongwould be launched sometime before holiday 2025. However, sinceSilksongwas initially meant to be released in 2023 and was indefinitely delayed afterward, some fans find this new release window hard to believe. If Team Cherry keeps fans waiting much longer, the hole thatHollow Knight: Silksong’s absence has left in the lineup ofupcoming indie gamesmay soon be filled by another promising Metroidvania.
Never Grave is a New Hollow Knight-Inspired Metroidvania from the Creators of Palworld
There are tons of great Metroidvanias out there, but there aren’t a lot of titles that are directly inspired byHollow Knight. That said, one upcoming game, titledNever Grave: The Witch and the Curse, does seem to fit this description quite well.Never Graveis a roguelite Metroidvania that’s being developed by a subsidiary of Pocketpair called Frontside 180. Likemost of Pocketpair’s previous works, this game seems to take a large amount of inspiration from other popular video games; in this case,Hollow Knight.
Never Grave: The Witch and the Curseis a game that looks a lot like a seriousHollow Knightsuccessor, though it doesn’t officially bear theHollow Knightname. The game’s hand-drawn art style, environments, and level design are all shockingly reminiscent of Team Cherry’s hit title, to the point where some people may confuse the two. Although many gamers may be quick to callNever Gravea rip-off, the game seems to have some fairly significant features that weren’t present in the firstHollow Knight.
Thanks to Its Unique Gameplay Mechanics, Never Grave Could Steal Silksong’s Thunder
InNever Grave, gamers play as a witch who can temporarily control enemies with her cursed hat, sort of like Kirby. Throughout the game, players have to collect materials while exploring procedurally-generated dungeons in order to rebuild a ruined village. This task isn’t easy to accomplish, however, so players can team up with three other friends to explore the dungeons and challenge bosses together.Never Gravewas originally meant to belaunched in early access on Steam, similar toPalworld, but Pocketpair recently confirmed that the game will be released in full on all modern platforms sometime in the future. AlthoughNever Gravedoesn’t have an exact release date yet, if the game comes out beforeHollow Knight: Silksong, it may be able to steal its thunder, just likePalworlddid withPokemon.
