When you’re working a 9-to-5 job, everything can feel a bit like a horror movie. For Neverway’s protagonist Fiona, however, that’s just reality.
More about the psychological horror life-sim was unveiled during Nintendo’s Indie World showcase on Thursday. Developer and publisher Coldblood Inc. thrusts us into the stomping combat boots of Fiona, a down-on-her-luck young woman who’s just quit her job to start a new life on a farm. This is pretty much the premise of every farming sim out there, from Story of Seasons to Stardew Valley. Hey, why fix what ain’t broke, right?
Coldblood Inc./Steam
Only, it isn’t just carrots and turnips that Fiona will be collecting with a slash of her sword. In this gritty game, Fiona is also going to have to deal with the fact that she’s now become “the immortal herald of a dead god.” Just an average Monday working retail, if you ask me. What this means is dealing with eldritch horrors, crawling into places that I wouldn’t go with a gun, and searching for the Neverway, a grotesque and nightmarish reality that is slowly bleeding into the real world. Oh, and you still have to pay off your debt; to whom, it hasn’t been established yet, but it does feel like Neverway’s already doing a great job at capturing the feeling of debt and owing someone being the real horror we made along the way.
What really excites me about Neverway is how it describes itself as a “slow-burning horror RPG.” As a horror fan, I’ve grown tired of horror that relies on cheap tricks like jump scares to instill fear in the audience as quickly as possible. It does the job, but it’s far from memorable, and most of the time just lacks sustenance. So, the idea of a slow-building dread that emanates from Neverway’s setting, its music, its characters, and only continues to grow over time, is something that ticks all my boxes.
Furthermore, the inclusion of relationship building and love interests is interesting for a game that, even at just a glance, is so focused on the psychological horror aspect. It isn’t the first upcoming video game that will let you embrace both horror and romance at the same time, but I am curious about whether it will be able to pull it off – especially because you can choose to lie throughout the relationships you build. It sounds messy.
Lucky for Neverway, I do love mess.
Neverway will release sometime in 2026 on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and Windows PC.