Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse

Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse is a 2D action roguelite with Metroidvania exploration, side-scrolling platforming, procedural dungeons, and online co-op for up to four players. Frontside 180 develops the game, while Pocketpair Publishing handles the PC release. The current Steam storefront still uses the original title; no verified rebrand or replacement edition was found.

How the roguelite Metroidvania loop works

Each expedition sends the witch and her cursed hat into changing dungeon environments such as ruins and botanical gardens. Rooms, routes, obstacles, and puzzles are auto-generated, so the path through a region can change between attempts rather than behaving like a fixed platforming stage.

The core loop combines side-scrolling exploration, precision platforming, melee attacks, magic, environmental interaction, and repeated attempts. You search for useful materials and loot, fight through hostile rooms, solve obstacles, and push toward tougher encounters before returning to the village to convert what you found into lasting progress.

Movement abilities are not limited to ordinary jumps. Artifacts unlock actions such as the double-jump, opening new routes and allowing the player to revisit areas with a different set of traversal options. This gives the procedural structure a Metroidvania layer: the map changes, but newly acquired abilities still affect what you can reach.

Combat is built around reading enemy attacks rather than simply overpowering every opponent. The game emphasizes magic attacks, close-range fighting, positioning, and using terrain to create safer opportunities. Traps, environmental features, and enemy placement can matter as much as raw damage output.

The possession system changes every encounter

The cursed hat is more than a story device. Its defining mechanic is the Possession System, which lets you take control of defeated enemies and use their abilities. Different possessed bodies can provide alternative attacks, movement options, or utility skills that change how you approach the next room.

Possession creates a tactical decision after a successful fight. The strongest-looking enemy is not always the most useful choice. A creature with a particular movement ability may open a route, while another form may offer better crowd control or a safer answer to a boss pattern.

The system also prevents the character's combat identity from becoming completely fixed. Your starting witch form remains important, but temporary enemy forms can change the rhythm of a run. Players who experiment with possession will find more options than those who treat every defeated enemy as ordinary loot.

Magic and equipment are connected through trait synergies. The traits attached to spells and items can alter the way a build behaves, encouraging players to combine compatible effects instead of choosing upgrades in isolation. A run can therefore develop around a particular status effect, weapon behavior, defensive option, or possession strategy.

Bosses provide a sharper test of these systems. The encounters demand attack recognition, movement discipline, and an understanding of when a possessed form is useful. Memorizing patterns helps, but the game's emphasis on traits, magic, and enemy abilities means preparation and adaptation also influence the result.

Village rebuilding, farming, and progression

Loot recovered from the dungeons supports a second progression layer outside combat. The ruined village can be restored by clearing rubble and constructing new facilities. These buildings support preparation for later expeditions rather than functioning as a separate city-building game.

Village development includes crafting stations, production activities, and fields where you can cultivate crops. The resources gathered during a run therefore have several possible uses: they can support direct character growth, unlock practical facilities, or contribute to food and potion production.

Cooking turns gathered ingredients into useful preparation items. This gives exploration a material purpose beyond finding immediate combat rewards. A successful expedition can improve the next attempt through what you bring home, how you develop the village, and which recipes or facilities become available.

Character improvement also uses skill trees. These provide longer-term growth and help define the direction of the witch's development across repeated runs. The village and skill systems together make death part of a broader progression loop rather than a complete loss of effort.

This structure is closer to a run-based action game with a persistent base than to a traditional, fixed-map Metroidvania. Procedural dungeons create variation, while village construction, artifacts, traits, and skill trees supply continuity between attempts.

Content model and current PC edition

Steam currently lists Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse as a paid standalone game. It is not presented as a free-to-play title, subscription service, or live-service product. The base purchase contains the main dungeon, combat, possession, village, and progression systems.

The current Steam content listing identifies two optional paid extras: the Never Grave Soundtrack and Never Grave Art Book. These are bonus products rather than gameplay expansions. No verified season pass or paid gameplay expansion was found in the current storefront information.

There is no separate “Definitive Edition,” “Classic” edition, or replacement PC title that players need to search for. Queries using the full original name should lead to the current Steam product, while shortened references to “Never Grave” describe the same game rather than a different storefront version.

The game's commercial structure is therefore straightforward: buy the base game for the playable experience, then treat the soundtrack and art book as optional extras. The replay value comes from changing runs, build combinations, possession choices, village growth, and co-op rather than from a paid content rotation.

Who should play Never Grave?

Never Grave suits PC players who want Metroidvania exploration with the unpredictability of a roguelite. It is especially relevant for players who enjoy learning enemy behavior, experimenting with builds, unlocking traversal abilities, and improving through repeated attempts.

The game is also a strong fit for small groups. Up to four players can enter dungeons together through online co-op, coordinate attacks, share the pressure of difficult rooms, and work on village progression as a team.

Players who prefer a carefully authored world with a fixed route may find the procedural structure less satisfying. The game repeatedly reshuffles dungeon layouts, so route memory is useful but never replaces adaptation. Likewise, anyone seeking a purely combat-focused roguelite may consider farming, cooking, village construction, and facility management an unnecessary layer.

For a more concentrated single-player interpretation of fast procedural 2D combat, roguelite action-platformers such as Dead Cells offer a useful comparison. Never Grave differs through its possession mechanic, village systems, and multiplayer focus.

PC features, controls, and availability

The PC version is distributed through Steam and lists full controller support, Steam Cloud, Steam Achievements, Family Sharing, and online co-op. Controller play is a natural fit for its platforming and combat design, while keyboard and mouse remain available for players who prefer traditional PC input.

Steam also identifies the game as a single-player title with online co-op. The current storefront does not list local co-op or split-screen multiplayer, so players should not assume that several people can share one PC without separate online connections.

Steam's current language table lists interface and subtitle support for English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese. Full audio is not listed for these languages, so the PC release should be understood as offering translated interface and text rather than a broad voice-localization package.

No separate third-party launcher or dedicated competitive anti-cheat system is identified in the current storefront data. The practical PC ecosystem centers on Steam, its cloud-save service, achievement support, controller configuration, and online multiplayer functionality.

The presentation uses hand-drawn 2D animation, painted backgrounds, and a picture-book visual approach. That style is not merely decorative: layered scenery, vertical routes, terrain hazards, and changing dungeon spaces support the game's exploration and platforming identity.

Similar games on PC

Never Grave sits between several established PC categories. Its side view, ability-gated exploration, and platforming connect it to Metroidvania design, while its procedural dungeons and persistent upgrades place it firmly in the roguelite space.

Players interested in a more fixed-world, exploration-heavy alternative can compare its broad 2D adventure structure with hand-drawn Metroidvanias such as Hollow Knight. Hollow Knight places greater emphasis on one interconnected authored kingdom, while Never Grave changes the dungeon route and adds enemy possession, village rebuilding, and online party play.

Rogue Legacy 2 is another useful comparison for players who enjoy platforming, randomized runs, and long-term progression. Never Grave is less centered on hereditary character variation and more focused on switching abilities through possessed enemies and assembling traits across a run.

These comparisons clarify the game's niche. It is not simply a Hollow Knight-style adventure, nor is it only a Dead Cells-like combat loop. Its identity comes from combining procedural exploration, enemy control, village development, and four-player online dungeon runs.

Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse FAQ

Is Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse still the current PC name?

Yes. Steam currently uses Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse. No verified rebrand, renamed definitive edition, or replacement PC storefront title was found.

Is Never Grave a Metroidvania or a roguelite?

It combines both structures. Procedurally generated dungeons, repeated runs, changing traits, and persistent upgrades provide the roguelite foundation, while artifacts, ability-gated routes, puzzles, and platforming supply the Metroidvania layer.

Does Never Grave have online co-op?

Yes. The PC version supports online multiplayer for up to four players. Steam does not currently list local co-op or split-screen support, so the verified multiplayer format is online party play.

What makes possession important?

The cursed hat can possess defeated enemies, letting you use their unique abilities. Possession can change combat options, movement, and route access, so choosing which enemy to control is part of the game's tactical decision-making.

Does the PC version include gameplay DLC?

The current Steam content listing shows the paid base game plus optional soundtrack and art book products. No verified paid gameplay expansion or season pass is listed, so the core playable systems are contained in the standalone game.

What language support is available on PC?

Steam lists interface and subtitle support for English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese. Full audio is not listed for those languages.

What is the real progression loop?

You enter a changing dungeon, fight enemies, use magic and possession, solve obstacles, gather materials, and pursue deeper objectives. Afterward, recovered resources support village facilities, farming, cooking, potions, skill trees, and future expeditions.