No Rest for the Wicked dev's CEO boldly compares it to Lord of the Rings, as he lays out why we won't see Ori 3 for a long time

Moon Studios CEO Thomas Mahler has made the always wise decision to frame No Rest for the Wicked as their own Lord of the Rings.

The latest game from Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios, No Rest for the Wicked, launched into early access this week, with our Sherif saying it's made a killer first impression, even if he's worried about all the crafting and survival guff. While the game's 1.0 is likely still a while away, Mahler has made it clear that once it does come out that there will be lots more to come after it. Writing on Twitter, the CEO wrote, "Judging by the questions I'm getting, it looks like some people think that we'll release 1.0 and then we're done? Folks, we're nowhere near done with No Rest for the Wicked. There is so much that we've already built that none of you even know about and we want to deliver this in a masterful way!"

Mahler described the early access phase as "just the beginning for us" and that the studio already has plans for what comes after 1.0. "No Rest for the Wicked is like our Lord of the Rings. And to further use this analogy, what we've done so far is akin to doing a 'test screening' of the first bits. 1.0 will be our 'Fellowship of the Ring'. And as you all know, there's lots to come after that. So to be clear: We'll be working on No Rest for the Wicked for another 5-10 years. This is our Magnum Opus. We always had lofty ambitions and we said we're going to contribute in a huge way to the ARPG genre - and that is our intention."

Those ambitions certainly sound lofty, as it's never really that good of an idea to compare your project to something as beloved as something like Lord of the Rings, even if your thing is actually quite good.

Important to note for Ori fans, though, is that because Moon Studios plans to work on this game for so long, it'll likely be a while before you get a sequel to the popular Metroidvania. In response to one fan asking about a potential Ori 3, Mahler said that he hopes "you folks understand why we won't be making Ori 3 any time soon!"

Last week also saw the arrival of No Rest for the Wicked's biggest hotfix yet, which notably brought in some major performance boosts.