Neverway Demo Impression

This game is not just weird, it is late ’90s mindscrew anime weird.

Last week, I received a Steam demo code for Neverway, not knowing what I was getting myself into. After the demo concluded, I checked its Steam page to see if I could learn more about what I had just gotten myself into. This did not help much, beyond the certainty that what I’d played was weird with all caps and curlicues.

Neverway describes itself as a ‘nightmarish life sim RPG,’ and all those elements were definitely present. Whether it was due to the limited nature of the demo build or some interesting narrative concept choices, however, the game does not do much to explain how these things are supposed to work together.

 

 

Is it a life simulator? Evidently so, as the opening sequence is all about main character Fiona’s struggles to get out of her apartment and complete basic, necessary tasks when it’s obvious the kitchen cabinet of her mind is running low on spoons. A little while later, it introduces a different sort of life simulator in the form of a quaint island township that she must help renovate, and there is evidence of social link game mechanics with other characters.

Is it an RPG? Fiona does gain incremental experience in such skills as Violence, Scavenging, and Industry based on her actions. Sections in the middle and end of the demo devote more time to whacking hallucinatory entities with sticks and pipes, so it could even be called an action RPG. Actions run on stamina, which replenishes for combat actions but not for constructive activities without resting.

 

 

Is it nightmarish? And how. This game is not just weird, it is late ’90s mindscrew anime weird. Not only that, it’s more like three different flavors of mindscrew anime and I’m not sure what the relationship is between the chronic depression simulator of the early prologue, the Junji-Ito-esque WTFery of the subway sequence*, the setup for a dark cozy island catastrophe towards the end, or the «insert various confused modem noises» of the final segment.

And somehow it all works in this game’s odd quasi-GB pastel faux monochrome world, where off-color flashes herald weird stuff incoming. Except for Fiona’s perfectly normal phosphorescent cyan eyes. Nothing to see there…

In the meantime, I am very peeved that the demo ended where and how it did. I have too many questions, and Neverway in no way provides answers that easily.

 

 

*(I would have included screenshots from the freaky subway sequence, but they refused to upload from my Steam Deck, and I don’t know why…)

 

Disclosure: This article is based on a build of the game provided by the publisher.