Neverend hands-on Preview
Garrett, 2005-09-02

In the world of brave knights and beautiful virgins there roams a lonely creature Agavaen - an ancient fairy with broken wings. Humans are afraid of her and despise her so she found her place among the thieves. It is not a fairy-like life but however… at least she belongs to someplace. Until a day when it all changes. Most of the thieves are gone as well as all the money and the drunk captain decides to turn his anger on her. It has to be mentioned that just before he died, he realized his mistake, but Agavaen stays alone again to step on her uncertain journey for happiness in the magic world of Neverend.

Neverend is a fantasy RPG game in the style of Final Fantasy that takes you to a world of fairies and knights. You will control a fallen fairy Agavaen and guide her on her mysterious path.

...that is as Mayhem's website introduces us to Neverend...and it does a good job, so I decided to quote it here, even though I have a few things to add after I have played a preview version of the game.

As mentioned before, you play the role of Agavaen, a fairy-thief in a fantasy world in which you control her by the arrow-keys instead of the mouse...a little uncommon, but you get used to it quite fast. Overall, the game feels and plays a little like an adventure game...adventure game, keyboard controls, a thief...does that ring a bell? Reminds you of Quest for Glory? Yes, it does...Neverend plays quite like Quest for Glory, except you can play a thief only.

Next to the adventure-like areas there are areas in between those, which are travelled from a bird's eye, but also with keyboard controls. It is in these areas you will encounter many enemies and random encounters, which will lead you to the combat screen, in which you can summon creatures, attack, cast spells or just retreat. It is also reminiscent of Quest for Glory a little and also of Final Fantasy, as it is advertised on the developers website!

As the preview version was not too long, I can't say anything about the story of the game, but if it develops as nicely as the preview version does, this is a must for everyone who likes Quest for Glory or any good RPG/Adventure experience! Let's wait for the release of the game, but it looks like something to keep an eye on...