Few Nights More - ★✮☆☆☆
There are a significant number of parallels between None Shall Intrude and Few Nights More. Both are published by Grab the Games, both are developed by Aeterna Ludi, and both were released within a day of one another. IndieLoupe knew that the games shared a publisher when we picked them up for review, but I have to admit that we only noticed further down the line that they were also created by the same developer. If a developer dropping two games one day after the other rings alarm bells for you, there might well be a good reason for that. There’s a few other similarities too, and I’ll get into those in the reviews, but given the above, it seemed appropriate that the games were also reviewed together.
We recommend reading our None Shall Intrude review first: it can be found here.
Image: Aeterna Ludi / IndieLoupe
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Developer: Aeterna Ludi
Publisher: Grab the Games
Release: 22 January 2025
Retail Price (Steam): 14,79€/$14.99/£12.79
Playtime upon Review: 6.5 hours
My first impressions upon opening Few Nights More were not great. Despite being “released” - and I use the term loosely - this week, the game’s title screen welcomes new players with a Hallowe’en-themed skin, seemingly a three-month-old hangover from its time in early access. That the developers didn’t even put the effort into removing this (nor changing the game’s “You beat the final boss of Early Access " message) speaks volumes about their treatment of Few Nights More. The timing of its release, one day after None Shall Intrude’s, also doesn’t inspire confidence.
I rather not get into the weeds about the nature of early-access: the developer has stated that their ‘true’ full release was, effectively, last October - but it takes some digging to find that. IndieLoupe are only reviewing Few Nights More as, by technicality or otherwise, it’s come up on our radar as a new release for 22nd January. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that anyone browsing Steam is likely to think that the game has been recently worked on. We did, before we started looking deeper.
“ Few Nights More is a melting pot of a few too many half-baked ideas, none of which are particularly well-explained to the player.”
Okay, so we’ve established it’s not new. Let’s set that aside and accept the developers’ explanation - that the game was, in fact, finished on 24th October. We’re still playing what should be a completed game, and we’ve never encountered it before, so what difference should it actually make? It doesn’t have an impact on the quality of Few Nights More, right? Except that, ultimately, it doesn’t feel like a finished game. Neither of Aeterna Ludi’s do, but with None Shall Intrude, there’s at least a faint slither of hope that they might continue to work on it. That’s just not the case for their vampire, base-building-turn-based-strategy-roguelike.
If that sounded like one too many genres, it’s because Few Nights More is a melting pot of a few too many half-baked ideas, none of which are particularly well-explained to the player. There’s so many parts of the game that I still don’t properly understand, which I could never find an explanation for. Eventually, I gave up looking, and just pushed through the confusing, unclear mess, throwing abilities out and hoping for the best. With so many moving parts, balance effectively goes out of the window, making every fight ridiculously easy right until the point that you’re hit with one that feels impossible.
I also have to mention the sound effects, as they are perhaps the worst I’ve ever heard in a game. I’ve timestamped them from the video review here, but if you’d like to do your ears a favour, perhaps don’t click on it. I managed to brave them for a full seven minutes before muting them for the rest of my playtime.
In both their games, but with Few Nights More in particular, I would argue that Aeterna have thrown in as much ‘content’ as possible, in lieu of more refined game design. Rather than work on an idea and flesh it out, nothing seems to have had enough attention put into it. In trying to do too much, both their games come out with less depth than if they’d taken one core mechanic and built upon it. In the end, they both shake out as unclear, unbalanced grinds through samey content.
I will concede that Few Nights More is currently more of a game than their other offering, but not by much. Few Nights More is awarded ★✮☆☆☆ by IndieLoupe.com.
The reviewed product was provided by the publisher.
