How long to beat Neva? "It's almost double" Gris's playtime

The other day we attended the Neva presentation in Barcelona, where the artists and devs over at Nomada Studio showed us the game (here are my hands-on impressions with Neva) and where we could catch up with both Conrad Roset and Roger Mendoza from the studio in the videos below - but also with Berlinist's musicians and even Devolver's CEO, in soon-to-be-published Gamereactor interviews.

"I had this idea when COVID exploded", creative director Conrad Roset recollects in the video, "and at that time we were all locked down, and it seemed like the world was sinking, so that had a huge influence in Neva. And Neva talks about two things, first of all, about this kind of context, and there is also the relationship of a mother with a wolf, so this is the combination of these two things, since I had just also become a father during that time, the combination of these two things is the result, Neva."

But Roset himself wasn't the only one from the team becoming a daddy...

"We have to be very grateful to Devolver for this because they gave us all the time in the world", co-founder and programmer Roger Mendoza adds in his own interview about no overtime coming from Gris. "It's like, listen, if you want to take an extra month to polish it, just do whatever you need. Because also, one big change from Gris is that we're actually older. Yeah, and it shows. And a lot of the programmers have kids, for example."

The mother-pup relationship is key to both Neva's storytelling and gameplay, to the point that its brand-new combat relies more on the growing wolf than on the sword-wielding lady:

"So that was one of the main focus for developing the game is let's make Neva bring the new gameplay opportunities and not so much unlocking abilities in Alba", Mendoza confirms. "So the combat, what we have actually is (that) you can interact more with Neva during the combat, and also the scenery, the background itself is going to change how you play the combat. We try to make each combat unique, so there's going to be different mechanics through the whole game that affect the combat also."

No, Alba won't end up confronting Neva

With the wolf becoming bigger, stronger, and more aggressive, we also wondered if it would go to a heart-breaking extreme:

"No, not specifically. No, no, no", Mendoza insists about the possibility of having to fight an out-of-control Neva. "No, because that would kind of make you resent her maybe in a way, and that would break the bond that we're trying to build through the whole game. So no, you're not going to fight Neva. She always fights with you".

You can play the full interview for more on how the puzzles will be in Neva compared to Gris and how Berlinist's music will play an active part on those. With that, combat, and platforming, and the fact that it's a longer story, we also asked Mendoza about Neva's length. As per his estimation:

"It's around 4 to 5 hours, 5 and a half maybe, depending. Gris was 2 to 3 more or less, so it's almost double the game. But it's still a small experience. It's still something you can finish in one afternoon in one sitting if you want."

Another thing artist Conrad Roset comments on given the clear references, with enemy creatures specifically, is the work of Hayao Miyazaki.

"Yeah, there's no doubt that one of the main inspiration sources is Studio Ghibli", he replies towards the end of the video, "with Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, but we try to give it our own special touch, with not that much watercolor, and playing more with light".

"I would love to [release Neva on the Switch 2], if it exists. Which I guess it does".

Neva will release very soon, on October 15, on Switch, PS5, Xbox, and PC. In the first interview Mendoza explains how they scaled up from Nintendo's platform, which runs at 1080p60, to the others up to 4K120. And besides framerate there's a little touch for those who use Sony's DualSesne controller...