No Rest for the Wicked arrived in Early Access in April 2024 as Moon Studios' follow-up to the Ori series. A precision-combat ARPG in an isometric perspective, with a dark fantasy setting about a plague called the Pestilence and a warrior order called the Cerim. It looked like nothing else Moon had made. This piece from the team at Tyrian Games covers ten games that share pieces of No Rest for the Wicked's appeal, and where HAWKER sits in the adjacent space.
TL;DR
- No Rest for the Wicked is Moon Studios' dark fantasy ARPG, in Early Access since April 2024.
- The game combines Soulslike combat, isometric perspective, and island-based exploration.
- Closest matches include Hades, Diablo IV, Elden Ring, and Victor Vran.
- HAWKER sits adjacent: grimdark fantasy, ARPG elements, but with shop management layered on top rather than pure combat focus.
- No Rest for the Wicked is in HAWKER's Steam reference library because the tonal register overlaps, even though the mechanics differ.
The ten
1. Diablo IV (Blizzard, 2023). AAA isometric ARPG, darker than most in the category, with continued season expansions. The category benchmark against which most isometric ARPGs are measured.
2. Hades (Supergiant Games, 2020). Top-down perspective rather than isometric, but the combat-plus-hub structure and the dark-mythological setting overlap significantly with No Rest for the Wicked's shape.
3. Path of Exile 2 (Grinding Gear Games, Early Access 2024). The other major 2024 ARPG Early Access. Deeper systems than Diablo, darker setting than most. Players who love No Rest for the Wicked often play Path of Exile 2 alongside.
4. Grim Dawn (Crate Entertainment, 2016). Older isometric ARPG in the Titan Quest lineage. Deep dark-fantasy setting, long runtime, continuing post-launch content through 2024's Fangs of Asterkarn expansion.
5. Elden Ring (FromSoftware, 2022). Different perspective, same tonal territory. The dark-fantasy ARPG benchmark. No Rest for the Wicked's combat owes more to FromSoftware than to Blizzard.
6. Lies of P (Neowiz, 2023). Soulslike that proved the non-FromSoftware category could deliver. Precision combat, dark-fantasy setting. Natural neighbour to No Rest for the Wicked in any library.
7. Victor Vran (Haemimont Games, 2015). Older isometric ARPG with a darker register than Diablo. Underrated in the category and worth picking up on sale.
8. Salt and Sanctuary (Ska Studios, 2016). 2D Soulslike with ARPG elements. Smaller scope than No Rest for the Wicked but similar commitment to precision combat in a dark setting.
9. HAWKER (Tyrian Games, September 2026). Our game. Grimdark ARPG with shop management. Different mechanically from No Rest for the Wicked but tonally adjacent. Wishlist on Steam.
10. Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem (Wolcen Studio, 2020). Another isometric dark ARPG. Mixed launch reception, post-launch patches improved it significantly. Worth playing for completionist fans of the category.
What No Rest for the Wicked does that others don't
Four design choices that make Moon Studios' entry distinctive.
The combat philosophy. No Rest for the Wicked treats combat with FromSoftware-level precision. Stamina matters. Parries matter. Positioning matters. This isn't the Diablo "hold left-click" approach. The combat is slower, heavier, and more demanding than typical isometric ARPGs.
The art direction. Moon Studios' visual identity from the Ori games translates into dark fantasy with surprising success. The Sacra Menta island setting has a specific hand-painted quality that isometric ARPGs rarely achieve. This is the studio's specific signature.
The crafting and base systems. The game includes town rebuilding, crafting stations, and specific progression mechanics that aren't standard Soulslike but aren't generic ARPG either. The mid-game runs on these systems heavily.
The Early Access approach. Moon Studios shipped No Rest for the Wicked in Early Access and has been developing it openly with community input. The approach is unusual for a studio with Moon's pedigree and has been generally well-received.
Where HAWKER sits adjacent
HAWKER isn't in the same mechanical space as No Rest for the Wicked. We're a shopkeeper roguelite with a thirty-day deadline. No Rest for the Wicked is a Soulslike ARPG with open-world exploration. The gameplay loops don't overlap.
But the tonal register does. Four specific overlaps.
Dark fantasy setting without generic fantasy tropes. No Rest for the Wicked's Sacra Menta island feels specifically located rather than generically-fantasy-drawn. HAWKER's Ysward is the same: a specific ruined duchy with specific history rather than generic fallen kingdom. Both games commit to the specificity of their settings.
Precision combat. HAWKER's combat isn't Soulslike, but it's not Diablo either. The parry system, the dagger-and-flintlock weapon pair, the timing-based defensive play all point toward FromSoftware lineage. See our parry piece.
Art direction commitment. Moon Studios puts extraordinary art effort into No Rest for the Wicked, and the result is visually distinctive. HAWKER's team is smaller but we've tried to apply the same principle: specific colour palette, specific silhouette design, specific environmental identity. The ambition is scaled but the commitment is similar.
Early Access transparency. Both games are shipping or planning to ship in Early Access, and both teams have been open about the development process. This is a specific relationship-to-player that not all studios adopt. HAWKER's Early Access in September 2026 will be part of this broader trend.
Why players who love No Rest for the Wicked might love HAWKER
The recommendation isn't that HAWKER replaces No Rest for the Wicked. The two games do different things. But the audience overlap is real because the underlying taste alignment is real.
Players who liked No Rest for the Wicked's combination of precision combat, dark-fantasy atmosphere, and town-rebuilding systems are likely to respond well to HAWKER's combination of precision combat, grimdark atmosphere, and shop-management systems. The genres differ. The sensibility doesn't.
We've seen this in playtest data. Testers who mentioned Moon Studios as a favourite or No Rest for the Wicked as a recent play usually respond positively to HAWKER's tonal register even when the specific mechanics don't map. The "dark fantasy that takes itself seriously without being grim for its own sake" register is the shared sensibility.
A first-hand Hawker design note
One of the specific influences from No Rest for the Wicked on HAWKER was around NPC relationships in a dark fantasy setting. Moon Studios' townspeople in the game have specific arcs that develop across the Early Access updates. They're not quest-givers in the Blizzard sense; they're people whose lives intersect with the protagonist's journey.
Our NPC writing in 2024 and 2025 drew on this approach. Duval isn't a quest-giver; he's a character whose life intersects with the Hawker's. Sulon isn't a fetch-quest NPC; he's an Aurelian dragoon whose survival depends on the Hawker's choices. Belissant is a scholar with her own agenda.
The register we're chasing is the one No Rest for the Wicked hits consistently: NPCs who matter beyond their mechanical function. This is hard to write and easier to get wrong than right. Moon Studios has proven it's possible at a specific scale. Our scale is smaller but the ambition is similar.
The 2026 state of the dark ARPG category
The category is growing. No Rest for the Wicked continues its Early Access development with regular content updates. Path of Exile 2 extends its Early Access. Diablo IV continues its season cadence. Grim Dawn gets expansions. Several smaller indies are shipping dark-ARPG adjacent work. The audience has been solid across the 2020s and shows no signs of shrinking.
HAWKER's September 2026 launch sits in this context. We're not competing with No Rest for the Wicked directly, but the adjacent space is where our audience lives. Players who enjoy dark fantasy games with precision-combat sensibilities will find HAWKER's specific combination interesting even if our shopkeeper-roguelite structure isn't what they came for.
FAQ
What is No Rest for the Wicked?
Moon Studios' dark-fantasy isometric ARPG, released in Early Access in April 2024. The game is set on the plague-struck island of Sacra Menta, with FromSoftware-influenced precision combat.
What are the best games like No Rest for the Wicked?
Diablo IV for isometric ARPG benchmark. Path of Exile 2 for depth. Elden Ring and Lies of P for Soulslike combat. Grim Dawn for older dark-fantasy ARPG.
Is HAWKER like No Rest for the Wicked?
Adjacent rather than direct. Different genres (shop-roguelite vs Soulslike ARPG) but shared commitment to dark fantasy, precision combat, and specific NPC writing.
Is No Rest for the Wicked finished?
Still in Early Access as of the time of writing. Moon Studios has been developing the game openly with community input and regular content updates.
When is No Rest for the Wicked fully released?
Not officially announced. Moon Studios has been deliberate about not rushing the Early Access period.
Does Moon Studios have other games?
Yes. The Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps platformers are their previous work and are tonally very different from No Rest for the Wicked.
Spoiler wall
Everything above keeps to the demo-line framing for Hawker. The NPC relationship approach, the precision combat, and the grimdark atmosphere are all shown in the first seven days. Specific post-demo content and the late-game Keridann material sit behind this wall.
The art-direction lineage worth knowing
Moon Studios' visual work on No Rest for the Wicked sits in a specific lineage that matters for understanding why the game feels different from most isometric ARPGs. The hand-painted quality, the use of colour, the way silhouettes read against the environment, all point back to specific European illustration traditions. Arthur Rackham's fairy-tale watercolours, Kay Nielsen's Nordic illustrations, the French BD tradition through artists like Moebius and Enki Bilal. Moon's art direction pulls from these rather than from the cleaner digital-painting lineage that dominates most ARPG studios.
This matters for HAWKER because we've drawn on adjacent traditions. Our art lead's reference folders include Le Braz's illustrated editions, nineteenth-century French engraving, and the Breton illustrators Louis Duveau and Olivier Perrin. Different specific tradition, but the same principle: the art draws on deep sources rather than recent videogame influences.
Small indie teams can't match Moon's production resources, but we can match the principle. Referencing deeper artistic traditions produces a visual identity that doesn't look like the current indie-fantasy default. Generic is the enemy. Specific is the goal. The art direction on HAWKER is specific in a way that, at our scale, is unusual.
A production note on Early Access
Moon Studios' choice to ship No Rest for the Wicked in Early Access has been instructive for us. The studio has substantial resources (Ori's commercial success funded them) and could have shipped the game finished. They chose Early Access deliberately, and they've been open about why: the combat feel and the systems balance benefit enormously from community feedback at scale.
HAWKER's September 2026 Early Access launch draws on this reasoning. Our combat feel and our shop systems are specific enough that we need players across the full range of playstyles to refine them. A closed beta of fifty people can't catch what ten thousand players will catch. The Early Access period is part of how the game reaches its final shape.
This approach trades short-term polish for long-term quality. Players who buy at Early Access launch get a rougher experience than they would at 1.0. We're transparent about this. The bet is that enough players value being part of the development process to make the trade worthwhile, and that the feedback loop produces a better game than a closed development cycle would have.
Moon Studios has proven this bet works at their scale. Smaller studios running similar experiments (Owlcat Games, Larian before Baldur's Gate 3, and others) have proven it works at adjacent scales. HAWKER's scale is smaller still, but the principle applies.
Closing
No Rest for the Wicked is one of the 2020s most interesting dark-fantasy releases. The ten games above share pieces of its appeal. HAWKER sits adjacent, different mechanically but similar in sensibility, and worth knowing for players who enjoyed Moon Studios' take and are curious about adjacent design space.
Next read: Grimdark indie games in 2026, or Games like Lies of P.