{"id":49364,"date":"2025-06-24T12:03:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49364"},"modified":"2025-06-24T12:03:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T03:03:40","slug":"pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Pocketpair\u2019s new title Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse drops Early Access release in favor of full launch\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Pocketpair Publishing has announced that their upcoming metroidvania <strong>Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse <\/strong>will be launching fully instead of releasing in Early Access as originally planned. Additional versions for the Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and Xbox Series X|S have been confirmed in addition to the previously announced Steam version.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse - Announcement Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rE6bcrTWOVo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Developed by Pocketpair\u2019s in-house <em>Frontside 180 Studio<\/em>,<strong> <\/strong>Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse is<strong> <\/strong>an exploration-driven 2D roguelite action game. In addition to singleplayer mode, it supports online co-op play (with crossplay support confirmed). Never Grave\u2019s key gameplay mechanic is its Possession System, which lets you possess enemies using your cursed Witch hat. So aside from performing basic sword and magic attacks, possessing enemies will give you access to unique abilities to exploit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-001.webp\" alt=\"Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse\" class=\"wp-image-49366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-001.webp 1600w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-001-380x214.webp 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-001-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-001-1536x864.webp 1536w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As you clear Never Grave&#8217;s randomized dungeons, you will collect resources needed to rebuild the world\u2019s ruined village. The materials you collect will allow you to clear away rubble, build new facilities, and cultivate crops.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-002.webp\" alt=\"Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse\" class=\"wp-image-49367\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-002.webp 1600w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-002-380x214.webp 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-002-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-002-1536x864.webp 1536w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Never Grave was originally announced in May 2023, with a demo version releasing in January 2024. It was originally slated for Early Access release via Steam, but it seems it will be releasing fully right away, thanks to the demo version receiving valuable player feedback that was needed to refine the game. The dev team is currently making final adjustments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse is set to launch for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2395770\/Never_Grave_The_Witch_and_The_Curse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>), Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and Xbox Series X|S\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to the game&#8217;s demo receiving valuable feedback from players, Pocketpair has decided to forgo Early Access and release the game in full.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":49368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-49364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie-games","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pocketpair\u2019s new title Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse drops Early Access release in favor of full launch\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thanks to the game&#039;s demo receiving valuable feedback from players, Pocketpair has decided to forgo Early Access and release the game in full.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pocketpair\u2019s new title Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse drops Early Access release in favor of full launch\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thanks to the game&#039;s demo receiving valuable feedback from players, Pocketpair has decided to forgo Early Access and release the game in full.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-24T03:03:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-24T03:03:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-header.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hideaki Fujiwara\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hideaki Fujiwara\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pocketpair\u2019s new title Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse drops Early Access release in favor of full launch\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Thanks to the game's demo receiving valuable feedback from players, Pocketpair has decided to forgo Early Access and release the game in full.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pocketpair\u2019s new title Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse drops Early Access release in favor of full launch\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Thanks to the game's demo receiving valuable feedback from players, Pocketpair has decided to forgo Early Access and release the game in full.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-06-24T03:03:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-24T03:03:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-header.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Hideaki Fujiwara","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hideaki Fujiwara","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/"},"author":{"name":"Hideaki Fujiwara","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/d7c6807a5a0a89cb5f7764ae96ffa985"},"headline":"Pocketpair\u2019s new title Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse drops Early Access release in favor of full launch\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-06-24T03:03:38+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-24T03:03:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/"},"wordCount":276,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-header.webp","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["Indie Games","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/","name":"Pocketpair\u2019s new title Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse drops Early Access release in favor of full launch\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-header.webp","datePublished":"2025-06-24T03:03:38+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-24T03:03:40+00:00","description":"Thanks to the game's demo receiving valuable feedback from players, Pocketpair has decided to forgo Early Access and release the game in full.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-header.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/coop-metroidvania-never-grave-20250624-345948-header.webp","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pocketpairs-new-title-never-grave-the-witch-and-the-curse-drops-early-access-release-in-favor-of-full-launch\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pocketpair\u2019s new title Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse drops Early Access release in favor of full launch\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/d7c6807a5a0a89cb5f7764ae96ffa985","name":"Hideaki Fujiwara","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/261fb30e148f01d8a7b7752437b9edb5-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/261fb30e148f01d8a7b7752437b9edb5-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/261fb30e148f01d8a7b7752437b9edb5-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","caption":"Hideaki Fujiwara"},"description":"Automaton Japan Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Voracious gamer who plays everything. Loved Titanfall 2 and has been playing Apex Legends since its launch.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/hideaki-fujiwara\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49364"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49369,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49364\/revisions\/49369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}