Polygon called Neva the best dog game nobody plays, and the description undersells it. Alba’s companion is a wolf cub, not a dog, and the three hours you spend raising her across four dying seasons hit harder than most twenty-hour games manage. Nomada Studio, the team behind Gris, built another game about grief that never says the word out loud. Once the credits roll, the natural next move is a list of Neva alternatives that carry the same painterly weight without repeating the exact story.
The seven games below share Neva’s DNA in different ratios. Some come from the same visual lineage, some swap the wolf for a different kind of companion, and one trades the forest for a plague-ridden countryside. All run on Windows; most also run natively on Mac.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free plan | Starting price | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gris | The closest match, same studio | No | $14.99 | Wordless grief story with no fail states |
| Journey | Shared wordless connection with a stranger | No | $14.99 | Anonymous online companion, no chat |
| Spiritfarer | A longer companion story about loss | No | $29.99 | Dozens of spirit friends, each with their own goodbye |
| Sable | Open-world exploration over linear platforming | No | $24.99 | Hand-drawn Moebius-inspired desert world |
| Ori and the Will of the Wisps | Platforming skill with emotional stakes | No | $29.99 | Metroidvania traversal built around a lost companion |
| A Plague Tale: Innocence | A human companion instead of an animal one | No | $39.99 | Sibling bond carried through real combat consequence |
| Little Nightmares II | A smaller, stranger companion bond | No | $29.99 | Six holds your hand through a fairy-tale nightmare |
Why Neva fans want more
Neva runs about three hours, which is short even for the genre it belongs to. Players who finish it tend to want two things at once: another game that treats hand-drawn or painterly art as the emotional engine, not decoration, and a story with a real arc rather than a vague mood piece. Nomada Studio built Neva around raising a wolf cub across a year of seasons, and that structure, watching a relationship change over time, is rarer than it sounds.
The comparison isn’t really about jumping and dodging. Neva’s combat is simple by design; the puzzle-platforming exists to serve the relationship between Alba and Neva, not the other way around. The games below get picked for the same reason: a companion, a visual identity strong enough to carry the game alone, and a run time that respects the player’s evening instead of demanding a season of it.
The alternatives
Gris — Best for the closest match, same studio
Gris is Nomada Studio’s first game and the clearest sibling to Neva. There’s no dialogue, no combat, and no fail state; the entire experience is built from platforming, light puzzles, and a slowly returning color palette that mirrors the protagonist’s grief. It runs about four hours, close enough to Neva’s length that fans of one tend to finish the other in a single sitting.
Where it falls short: No companion character at all, so the emotional hook is more internal and less relational than Neva. Some sections lean on repetitive platforming beats.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $14.99, frequently discounted to around $4
- vs Neva: shorter, gentler, no combat at all
Platforms: Windows, macOS
Download: Steam
Bottom line: Pick this first if Neva’s art style is what stayed with you and you want the studio’s purest version of it.
Journey — Best for shared wordless connection with a stranger
Journey replaces Neva’s wolf with an anonymous human player who might join you for a stretch of desert and vanish just as quietly. thatgamecompany built the entire game around communication without text or voice chat, just chirps and proximity, and it still lands as one of the most quoted emotional beats in games. The two-to-three-hour run time matches Neva’s pacing almost exactly.
Where it falls short: The companion is optional and unpredictable since it depends on matchmaking with another live player. Solo playthroughs lose a meaningful layer of the experience.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $14.99, often under $4 during Steam sales
- vs Neva: shorter, no combat, companion is a stranger instead of a raised pet
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Download: Steam
Bottom line: Pick this when the wolf’s presence mattered more to you than the platforming did.
Spiritfarer — Best for a longer companion story about loss
Spiritfarer stretches Neva’s core idea, caring for someone before letting them go, into a twenty-to-thirty-hour management game. Thunder Lotus built a boat you sail between islands, ferrying dying spirits who each get their own personality, questline, and farewell. It trades platformer pacing for something closer to a cozy sim, but the emotional through-line is the same one Neva runs on.
Where it falls short: Much longer than Neva, and the crafting and resource management add a layer of busywork the source material never had. Pacing sags in the mid-game.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $29.99, regularly discounted to around $5 to $8
- vs Neva: far longer, management-sim mechanics instead of platforming, same farewell theme
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Download: Steam
Bottom line: Pick this when three hours wasn’t enough and you want the same emotional register stretched across a full game.
Sable — Best for open-world exploration over linear platforming
Sable swaps Neva’s linear seasonal path for a wide-open desert that a teenager crosses on her hoverbike during a coming-of-age ritual. Shedworks built the world in a flat, hand-drawn style clearly indebted to Moebius, and there’s no combat and no fail state anywhere in it. The scale is bigger than Neva by design, closer to twelve or fifteen hours if you chase every landmark.
Where it falls short: The open structure means less narrative momentum than Neva’s tight seasonal arc. Some players find the traversal repetitive without combat or puzzles to break it up.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $24.99, frequently down to $6 on sale
- vs Neva: longer, open-world instead of linear, calmer pace throughout
Platforms: Windows, macOS
Download: Steam
Bottom line: Pick this when you want Neva’s art sensibility applied to a world you can wander instead of a path you follow.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps — Best for platforming skill with emotional stakes
Ori and the Will of the Wisps raises the platforming difficulty well above Neva’s while keeping a companion bond at the emotional center. Ori and the owlet Ku share the opening hours before the story splits them apart, and Moon Studios built a metroidvania around finding a way back together. The traversal skill ceiling is much higher than anything in Neva.
Where it falls short: No native macOS build; Mac players need CrossOver or a similar compatibility layer to run it. Combat and platforming demand more precision than Neva ever asks for.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $29.99, often $7.49 during sales
- vs Neva: longer, harder, same companion-loss emotional beat
Platforms: Windows only (Steam); no native macOS build
Download: Steam
Bottom line: Pick this when you want Neva’s emotional stakes wrapped in a much more demanding platformer.
A Plague Tale: Innocence — Best for a human companion instead of an animal one
A Plague Tale: Innocence swaps the wolf for a little brother. Amicia protects Hugo across a plague-ravaged France, and Asobo Studio builds real consequence into every kill, the same way Neva makes combat feel earned rather than casual. The historical setting and higher body count give it a darker register than Neva, but the protect-someone-smaller structure is close kin.
Where it falls short: No native macOS build. Longer and more combat-heavy than Neva, with stealth sections that occasionally break into forced fail-state fights.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $39.99, frequently down to $9 to $12 on sale
- vs Neva: longer, more violent, same protect-a-companion core
Platforms: Windows only (Steam); no native macOS build
Download: Steam
Bottom line: Pick this when the companion bond mattered to you more than the wolf specifically, and you don’t mind more combat.
Little Nightmares II — Best for a smaller, stranger companion bond
Little Nightmares II gives Mono a companion named Six who holds his hand through a fairy-tale dystopia built from oversized, unsettling rooms. Tarsier Studios leans on puzzle-platforming and stealth rather than combat, closer to Neva’s rhythm than Plague Tale’s. At around seven hours, it also respects the same short, complete-arc pacing Neva fans tend to want.
Where it falls short: No native macOS build. The companion mechanic is more about traversal utility than the raising-and-bonding structure Neva builds its whole story around.
Pricing:
- Free: no
- Paid: $29.99, often $7.49 on sale
- vs Neva: darker tone, similar length, companion is a guide rather than something you raise
Platforms: Windows only (Steam); no native macOS build
Download: Steam
Bottom line: Pick this when you want Neva’s short runtime and companion presence with a horror edge instead of a seasonal one.
How to choose
Pick Gris if the art style is what pulled you into Neva in the first place; it’s the same studio doing a shorter, gentler version of the same idea. Pick Journey if the wordless connection mattered more than the wolf itself. Pick Spiritfarer if three hours wasn’t enough and you want the farewell theme stretched across a much longer game. Pick Sable if you want the painterly sensibility applied to open exploration instead of a fixed path.
Pick Ori and the Will of the Wisps if you want real platforming difficulty alongside the emotional stakes, and don’t mind that it’s Windows-only on Steam. Pick A Plague Tale: Innocence if the sibling-protection dynamic is what you’re after and you’re fine with more combat and a darker setting. Pick Little Nightmares II if you want something close to Neva’s run time with a stranger, more unsettling companion bond.
Mac players should start with Gris, Journey, Spiritfarer, or Sable. All four run natively; the other three need Windows or a compatibility layer.
FAQ
What game is most like Neva?
Gris is the closest match since it comes from the same studio and shares the wordless, painterly approach to emotional storytelling. Journey is the closest match for the companion dynamic specifically, since both games build the experience around a bond that changes as you travel.
Are there Neva alternatives that support macOS?
Yes. Gris, Journey, Spiritfarer, and Sable all run natively on Mac, matching Neva’s own cross-platform support. Ori and the Will of the Wisps, A Plague Tale: Innocence, and Little Nightmares II are Windows-only on Steam.
What is the cheapest Neva alternative?
Gris and Journey both list at $14.99 and regularly drop under $4 during Steam sales, making them the cheapest picks on this list and both less than Neva’s own $19.99 price.
Is there a sequel to Neva?
Nomada Studio has not announced a sequel to Neva as of 2026. The studio’s catalogue currently consists of Gris and Neva; anyone wanting more from the team should start with Gris if they haven’t played it.
Which Neva alternative has the shortest playtime?
Journey and Gris both run two to four hours, close to Neva’s own three-hour length. Little Nightmares II runs about seven hours; the rest on this list run considerably longer.
Do any of these alternatives have combat like Neva?
A Plague Tale: Innocence and Ori and the Will of the Wisps both include real combat systems, more demanding than Neva’s. Gris, Journey, Sable, and Spiritfarer have no combat at all; Little Nightmares II leans on stealth and evasion instead of fighting.
