This Final Fantasy Tactics-like RPG from former Octopath and Destiny devs lets you do the best thing a videogame can: Make a town look cooler while you rebuild it

Never's End | Announce Trailer - YouTube

When I approach a videogame, all I'm looking for is one thing: the ability to construct a small hamlet. This is why I still, in stray moments, catch myself reflecting with a wistful sigh on my time rebuilding Monteriggioni in Assassin's Creed 2 or that one village you build in Breath of the Wild. This is it; this is what it's all about, man.

An overheard view of a battle, showing a flaming werewolf. — (Image credit: Hypersect)

If you're one of the apparently innumerable people who never got over Final Fantasy Tactics (fair play, really), you might want to keep an eye on this one. You're taking turns, you're moving on a grid, you're customising the make-up of your party, and then you're pitting little chibi people against skeletons and ghouls in a winner-takes-all battle to the death.

The gimmick here looks to be that your little guys can mix and match the forces of nature to do unpleasant things to their foes. As a "reincarnated, immortal warrior forged from living metal, able to harness the elements and bend them to your will" you can do things like shuffle heat about the map to create gusts of wind and knock enemies about, drain heat to freeze them, create water currents, and reshape terrain using your command of stone. Which I guess falls under the rubric of 'Earth,' so fine, I'll let you have this one, Never's End.

I'm into it. The possibilities that come from permanently altering the make-up of a map by mucking about with the elements put me in mind of Larian games at their wackiest and most chaotic.

Choosing which business to start in town. — (Image credit: Hypersect)

Plus, there's that hamlet building. "Upgrade towns, temples, and other locations to build businesses, establish trade routes, and recruit new companions to your cause," reads the blurb, and I'm afraid that lights up all the lizard regions of my brain like a solar flare. I simply love doing logistics, and even better if by doing logistics I can progressively make a village look cooler. This is why I was put on this Earth, and it's why I'll be checking out Never's End on Steam when it hits in the… near future?

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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