- Publisher: Devolver Digital
- Release Date: Oct 15, 2024
- Also On: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox Series X
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- Unscored
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Oct 17, 2024As in Journey, surely now an ordained saint of artistically ambitious and emotionally resonant video games, that cleaved mountain always looms in the distance, beckoning you towards it. You do eventually reach it, in the dead of winter, beaten down, the world dying around you. I’m still thinking about what happened there. Rarely has a game made me feel so much in a few short hours. It will be some time before I feel ready to play it again, but until I do, I will be recommending it to anyone who’ll listen.
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Oct 16, 2024Neva is a game you won’t soon forget. With stunning visuals, gorgeous art, and an incredibly emotional story, this new classic continues Nomada Studio’s solid reputation and is a must-play in this reviewer’s book.
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Oct 15, 2024Conrad Roset's second game is a visually stunning parable about life and death - very straightforward, but with a touching story and inventive combat.
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Oct 14, 2024I truly think that everyone should play Neva at some point; it's hard to imagine someone not feeling profound emotion from this trim but unforgettable release, which now sits comfortably on the short list of video games that have brought tears to my eyes. If it has captured your attention in any way, then it's safe to say that it's worth your time. It's certainly worth far more than the $20 Devolver Digital and Nomada Studios are asking for it.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played, from the watercolour art style to the clever direction. But it surprised me in its mechanical complexity and combat execution; you always need to keep your fingers fast and mind faster. Add a lifelong vulpine companion to the mix, and you’ve got an all-timer on your hands.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva had me open my heart just to feel the slice of the narrative’s knife all the more keenly. I don’t care what you’re currently playing or what you have on your backlog. Put them aside immediately and play this game. It’s destined to rank among the year’s unrivaled titles.
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Oct 18, 2024Neva is a stunning game that tackles the themes of parenthood and climate change perfectly. With an immersive soundtrack, beautiful art, and an emotional journey, it’s a challenging platforming-adventure that fans new and old will love.
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Mar 25, 2025Grief catalyzes a blossoming partnership that anchors this exceptional action platformer.
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Oct 28, 2024The fights are primarily visual spectacles, which exist to set the game’s striking illustrations in bold, highly dramatic motion.
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Oct 17, 2024Without saying a word, Neva takes the player on an adventure full of emotions. With breathtaking visuals and excellent audio work, the game tells a story about love and coming of age in such a beautiful way that it's hard to hold back tears. Although everything revolves around putting an end to the evil that plagues that world, the combat is very simple, but just the right amount of challenging to present the player with a certain level of difficulty. As for the game's progression, after a slightly slower start, the game picks up a good pace that doesn't let the player lose interest or get bored.
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Oct 15, 2024Neva is another winner from Nomada Studio, but it's also much more than that. It's a drop-dead gorgeous game with truly fun platforming action, puzzles and combat, with hauntingly-beautiful moments. But the titular character is the true highlight, easily encapsulating the biggest strengths as you see this wolf grow up alongside Alba. It's a journey of motherhood that takes the form of one of the year's best platformers, and just one of the year's best games, period.
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Oct 15, 2024While it adheres to genre fundamentals, Neva distinguishes itself through high artistic quality and a simple yet impactful story. The chapter and level design maintains a brisk pace, avoiding repetitive situations that could weaken the overall experience. This skillful management of time and style allows Neva to shine despite its brief duration.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva offers a stunning world, both visually and emotionally. This moving journey grabbed me from the very start, and I never let go. My minor issues with the combat and with a lack of thematic closure do nothing to diminish how it builds a bond with a fictional character while keeping me highly engaged with excellent platforming challenges throughout. This is a world worth taking on, challenges and all.
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Oct 14, 2024With its new title, the GRIS studio does not disappoint expectations at all. The story of Alba and Neva is told very well, with the right rhythms, and manages to touch the strings of the soul without ever falling short. Helped, in this, by an exceptional artistic style, with very few equals in the entire sector, and by music that holds up well in comparison with the rest. To play without a shadow of a doubt, but keep in mind that it has a rather short duration.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is beautifully crafted and deeply emotional, making for one of the most touching and exquisite games of the year. I loved the growing companionship between Alba and her cute wolf pal, as they evolved from hesitant adventurers into confident allies. The visuals are simply breathtaking, with a stunning watercolour aesthetic and lovely little details in its animations. On top of that, combat is satisfying and just varied enough as new abilities get added into the mix. Though it may be a relatively short adventure, Neva leaves a lasting impression that will stay with you long after the credits roll.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is an exceptionally successful example of how games can be aesthetically stunning, speak to the emotions and at the same time function as games in the traditional sense. In fact, it is perhaps Neva's greatest masterpiece, proving that you can take the experiential feeling of games of the 10s and equip them with a mechanical core that makes them also satisfying and detached from the audiovisual and emotional core that defined titles like Journey and Abzu. And satisfying, that's Neva. Simple, yes. And inventive, sharp and well-functioning. But it's the visuals that remain the star, because it's what elevates the narrative, the gameplay, indeed the whole package to excellence. In fact, to a real stronghold of emotional indie escapism.
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Oct 14, 2024It must be a challenge to thread inspiration’s needle in a game like this one. Critics and players might point to Neva’s most obvious references as thematic shortcuts, but the game’s personality and careful sense of craft always shined through. I’m tempted to compare Neva to Playdead’s influential duology of Limbo and Inside, even though the tonal qualities remain quite different, primarily for the impeccable quality of its design and richness of its world, dialogue-free as it may be. It's a brief experience overall, but most players should feel compelled to happily join Alba and Neva in starting the seasonal cycle anew, their screenshot key on a hair trigger.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva, as a symbol of life itself, mirrors the inevitability of change, making the journey feel like a personal allegory for parenthood and the passage of time. In many ways, Neva ends just as it begins, with a poignant reflection on the cycle of life. Although the experience is brief–credits roll after about 5-6 hours–the impact of Neva lingers long after, making it a great choice for those looking to get emotionally gut-punched by a visually stunning and mechanically concise platforming adventure game.
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Oct 14, 2024Almost six years after Gris, Nomada Studio delivers another emotional masterpiece with Neva that tugs at your heartstrings while offering a smorgasbord of vibrant sights and sounds.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is a tale of growth not only within the game’s story but for Nomada Studio itself, showcasing how the studio has evolved since GRIS. With a more action-oriented focus, while retaining its emotional depth, Neva is a masterpiece. It's a must-play for anyone seeking a break from the grind of casual gaming, offering both meaningful gameplay and a heartfelt experience.
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Oct 15, 2024Neva offers a unique, spiritual journey through life’s complexities. While the narrative leaves some elements open to interpretation, its grounded aspects make the characters relatable. Though brief, the adventure is full of memorable moments that will captivate you with each step toward its wonderful conclusion. The emotional and thought-provoking journey blends captivating storytelling with immersive gameplay to deliver a truly special experience.
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Game World Navigator MagazineDec 20, 2024Nomada Studio is very open about Neva being inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s works. And I have to admit – they’ve really hit the mark: the game is very heartwarming and emotional. [Issue#265, p.82]
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Oct 21, 2024Neva is a work of art that you will never get tired of looking at, and that has more craftsmanship than GRIS in every way. I demand that it be exhibited in museums.
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Oct 18, 2024Neva represents a slight change of direction for Nomada Studio, moving away from subjective art and embracing a clearer style without leaving emotion aside. The addition of more complex parkour and combat shows the developer's commitment to improving and evolving its content, seeking to present its works to a larger player base.
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Oct 15, 2024Neva is another proof that Nomada Studio is one of the best studios at telling beautiful, deep and sentimental stories. It’s charming, lovely and gorgeous thanks to the characters, their relationship and how it evolves, all the messages it has and, of course, the artistic direction. It is very short, but the impact will last forever.
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Oct 15, 2024Neva is a beautiful game that hits you right in the feels, with engaging combat and a soundtrack that'll sweep you off your feet.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is another feather in the cap for Nomada Studio, who once again have proven themselves to be artists in the truest sense of the word. Beautiful, haunting, and emotionally moving, Neva is a wonderful experience.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is a truly breathtakingly beautiful experience, abundant with gorgeous, artistic and symbolic landscapes. It tells a touching, emotional story about parenthood, struggle and fighting for a decaying world. It brought me to tears and is a deeply memorable experience. However, I found myself rubbing up against some issues with hitboxes and readability of the environment, which led to unintentional frustration.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is Nomada studio's new gem that chronicles the stages of life as the world decays around you. It does not reach the heights of drama of GRIS, but it surpasses it in complexity of game systems, setting itself as a step forward for the Spanish studio, which has found its way and knows how to stamp its trademark.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is an action-adventure game that tells the story of Alba, a swordswoman, and Neva, a fantasy wolf. Together they save the world from dark creatures that are polluting and poisoning the world. The story is very reminiscent of Princess Monoke, similarly emotional and very visually stunning.
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Nov 1, 2024Neva is not yet a modern classic, but it's one of those games that can be completed in a couple of evenings but is memorable for years to come.
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Oct 21, 2024The most important thing in this type of work is what it conveys. Neva achieves this correctly and clearly, despite occasionally feeling a bit photocopied. It has an identity of its own that at times is diluted in the format so attached to its predecessor. It's a solid experience about growing up and the changing dynamics of motherhood, where we can understand it both as children and as parents.
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Oct 17, 2024Nomada Studio follows up on the striking Gris with an effort that's poignant and precise, if maybe just a tad melodramatic.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is a beautiful and emotional journey, with plenty of amazing levels and compelling characters. It's a story that makes you care from its first minute, using only sound and color..
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is still an title that I believe most should dive in to. “Not being a revelation” is hardly a bad thing when what we have here is still a top-notch experience that was able to force feeling out of my dead heart.
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Oct 14, 2024Riding through Neva's landscapes is a balm for the heart. Its pastel-toned world, decadent and melancholic, the bursts of color, and then the darkness to face with a sword—just like in Princess Mononoke—offer an audiovisual experience with few equals. Through the bond between Alba and Neva, the new game from Nomada Studio tells a story of friendship and parenthood, drawing inspiration from the poetic universes of Fumito Ueda. It’s a short experience, and perhaps still too simple, but it leaves a mark thanks to its boundless artistic value.
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Oct 14, 2024After the sublime Gris, Nomada Studio is back with an action-adventure game that, under its appearance of an ecological fable with a young woman and her wolf, actually has a much heavier message. And we liked the way Neva took us by surprise. The latest baby from the Spanish team also comes back with a superb artistic direction, where the nature full of details contrasts with the “emptiness” of certain passages, marked by a surrealism that echoes Gris… In Neva, Nomada also offers - for the first time - action-adventure phases and does more than well. The demons that Alba must face give rise to gripping action phases, well staged, where a certain tension reigns (without ever falling into an excessive challenge). A very beautiful adventure that we recommend.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva is a poignant platformer that's a worthy successor to the award-winning Gris. Its intricate and stunning Ghibliesque world is a visual marvel, and while its combat isn't wholly free from frustration, its stirring narrative ensures no dry eye in the room.
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Oct 14, 2024It's an evocative story that is beautifully told and has plenty of heart, and one that feels increasingly relevant in the context of the world that we live in.
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Oct 16, 2024Neva certainly offers a touching emotional experience, though it may fall short of the standard set by Gris. However, if you're an animal lover, you might find even greater emotional value in this game. The white wolf companion is incredibly lifelike, and the process of nurturing it leaves a deep and lasting impression.
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Oct 23, 2024Neva is a great looking game that provides a few hours of joy from simply being immersed in its world. The gameplay, story, and pacing are a bit more subdued, however.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva may not be the most complex 2D platformer, but it still might make you cry.
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Oct 14, 2024Neva ultimately feels at odds with itself, trying to be too much at once. Its combat and platforming are competent, but not enough to carry the game on their own. Neva’s story seems to be reaching after pure emotional appeal and a more concrete tale at once, but landing awkwardly between them. While the sense of Alba and Neva’s connection is enchanting at first, the game loses focus on their relationship as it wears on. Even its stunning art — the best part of Neva by far — is stuck halfway between some of the most gorgeous depictions of nature I’ve ever seen in a game and less successful dives into surreal yet sparse environments. Maybe I’m being cold-hearted, but even its adorable wolf cub couldn’t keep me interested for long. Neva has its moments when everything briefly clicks, but in the end it takes a half-step in too many directions at once.
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Oct 29, 2024It's much more than a beautiful game. [Recommended]
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Oct 14, 2024Neva prioritizes a meditation on life and loss that too often feels half-baked and pales in comparison to Gris’ execution of the same themes. Much of Neva feels propped up by its predecessor to cover its weaknesses, with familiar themes and the same platforming (flaws and all) from Gris encouraging fans of that game to not look too closely at this game’s faults. Ultimately, when Neva attempts a final narrative twist that fully leans away from the initially compelling and original themes of its story, it’s too much of a shift too late in the game, and only serves to undermine the few unique choices this experience attempts. At least it’s short.
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Oct 14, 2024Between the combat and platforming, Nomada Studio also uses long stretches of almost nothing in a surprisingly emotional way. There are plenty of times throughout Neva where the only thing I’m doing is pushing my controller’s joystick to the left or right — with Neva or without — in an effort to simply move forward. I’ve actually found an element of challenge in these too-quiet moments: Am I going the right way? Does that really matter? I just move forward.
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Oct 14, 2024I am in real danger of sounding ungrateful, because jeopardy was something I wanted more of in Gris. It's present in Neva, but the nuts and bolts need tightening before it hits an Ori And The Blind Forest, game of the year, orchestral tour sort of level of greatness. That aside - which in fairness is quite a big "that" in an action platformer - I think Neva is a step above Gris. The experience as a whole is engaging and bittersweet enough that I'll even forgive the 'it was all a dream' switcheroo.
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