One of the top picks amongst the indies in PAX Rising in PAX Aus 2024 is The Rewinder 2, a sequel to 2021’s The Rewinder. I fell in love with the look and atmosphere of this game ever since I saw it way back during PAX Aus 2019! I played it as soon as it was released, and I loved it! And I’m not alone; The Rewinder was well received by most players, earning an “overwhelmingly positive” overall rating on Steam with over 95% positive reviews. Its story was self-contained, but it definitely held the potential for a sequel or a “second episode”, due to the protagonist’s nature as an agent of the Underworld who travels the world to wherever the world has become unbalanced. And it looks like this is exactly what we’re going to get in The Rewinder 2!
The demo available at PAX Aus covers the beginning events of the game and introduces some of the new gameplay mechanics the sequel will offer. This sequel is set two years after the events of the first game, but it can be played with no knowledge of The Rewinder, as the two stories are separate (though the developers say that there will be plenty of connections for those who did play the original).
It’s immediately apparent that the world of the Rewinder has gotten larger. The first game is entirely set within a single mountain village, and its genre is pure puzzle. But after The Rewinder 2 demo’s call to adventure — things have gone wrong in the Underworld, and a new protagonist Skye is tasked by the ‘Black and White Heralds’ to fix it — I was thrust into a gorgeously designed misty location for some exploration and some light survival, both new aspects to The Rewinder. The Rewinder 2 is from a top-down perspective this time, which lends itself better to exploration and some spatial puzzles. The developers tell me that the gameplay within villages will still be heavy on the puzzle-solving, though.
As is the case with the first game, the pixel art looks phenomenal and steeped in atmosphere. The area available to be freely explored is coloured in a very muted way to convey mist, while the Underworld, which is home to the pantheon of Chinese mythology, features much more rich colours as well as cool-looking mythological creatures. As a “rewinder”, you have the ability to enter the memories of people to change their memories of the past to affect the present. This won’t help you in combat though, so to fend off monsters you have a spiritual bell that can ward off monsters, but doesn’t do a lot of damage. The demo even features a short boss fight, which is definitely new for the series.
While exploring the surrounding area, I found a bunch of herbs which could be collected, which the developers explained were currently used for healing; but they also hoped to implement a cooking system too!
Currently set to release on Steam in Q1 2025. The Rewinder 2 isn’t the only exciting thing we found on the PAX show floor, so check out Checkpoint’s other highlights!
About the Author
Edie W-K
she/her
If it isn't video games, Edie doesn't care about it. She's been playing games since the N64 era, and only spent enough time away from her 3DS to earn a Bachelor in Games Design from RMIT.
