The chibi artstyle of Rewilders: The Lost Spring caught my eye while I was exploring the recent New Game Plus, and the developers were only too happy to let me get lost in the roguelike world that they’re currently creating.
Rewilders: The Lost Spring comes to us from Herobeat Games, a company previously responsible for BAFTA winning title Endling. With an impressive reward under their belt, they’ve clearly continued their streak of carefully crafted worlds here. The world is gorgeous. We play as Abi, on a quest to heal her corrupted world one biome at a time, using mystical creatures called Hantu, creatures hunted to near extinction. Abi fights off creatures threatening to stop and spread the corruption and fights alongside these Hantu, collecting crystals and seeds as she goes.
With every run you make, you heal more and more of the world, with every piece you heal granting Abi or one of her Hantu an upgrade, ranging from more damage to planting new and rarer seeds, making them easier to collect. Should you fall in battle (which I did, because I’m awful), you awaken on Abi’s ship, your main hub, that shows off your collection of Hantu and seeds thus far. You can use the things you’ve collected to unlock permanent buffs for future runs, the usual roguelike stuff, but what makes this system stand out to me is I can physically see the difference and influence I am having on the world around me. Strangely, it reminds me almost of Okami, with its influence spreading the more tasks and corruption you cleanse.
Abi’s movement involves wallrunning, a grapple hook and a glide, and this is my favourite part of getting around. Once the movement clicked, I was flying across entire biomes, and the animations all flow so fluently one into another, it is extremely impressive for a game still in early access. They are currently offering Closed Beta access on their Steam Page, which I’ll leave below, so if you’re interested in shaping this new game, sign up and give it a try. I’m personally very excited to see where Herobeat takes this experience!
Rewilders: The Lost Spring is coming to Early Access very soon, you can find out more on its Steam Page.