"Stats in Souls don't matter": Ori studio founder and No Rest for the Wicked lead says the "attribute system has to die" in the ARPG inspired by Dark Souls since players don't get it

A warrior clenched her weapon in a screenshot from No Rest For The Wicked's announcement trailer.

Moon Studios co-founder Thomas Mahler isn't finished bulldozing what's left of his Souls-like No Rest for the Wicked after the game collapsed under a mighty, messy update last week. With emergency hotfixes now behind him, Mahler is ready to tackle yet another problem: the attribute system, which he's prepared to destroy.

"One thing that's become abundantly clear to us is that the attribute system has to die," Mahler writes in a lengthy Twitter post. "We've always been a bit wary of using this system, but we wanted to go ahead with it anyway, since it's a system that other big games in the genre use, and we thought that, because of that, people would get it."

"After having analyzed the data, people clearly don't get it," he continues.

Folks,One thing that's become abundantly clear to us is that the attribute system has to die.We've always been a bit wary of using this system, but we wanted to go ahead with it anyway, since it's a system that other big games in the genre use and we thought that because of…May 7, 2025

According to Mahler, making both stats and attributes like health and stamina important is "literally equivalent to giving players rope to hang themselves with," because players conflate having a higher level character with having more powerful attributes.

"The reason why this system works in Souls games is because your stats in Souls don't matter all that much, which is why SL1 runs are a thing," Mahler says.

To adapt No Rest for the Wicked to what Mahler seems to think is a comparable, more intuitive system (though, I do wonder what's more intuitive than just dumping all your points into strength), Moon Studios will begin casually rolling out something new.

"This new system [will go] through an enormous amount of testing and fine-tuning before it ever gets released as an actual patch," says Mahler, having learned his lesson. "Ultimately, I'm taking inspiration from the systems [Final Fantasy 12 director] Yasumi Matsuno came up with in order to fix this situation.

"We will ensure that leveling up feels insanely addictive and that each level up allows the player to only make good choices."

Less than 40 hours later, Bloodborne master completes world's first, no leveling dance pad run of the 10-year-old Soulslike after proving herself with Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring: "I knew this would be a grueling experience."