Wren's Resurgence is old-school delights for a very specific audience

★★★ | 8 bit daze

Reviewed on: PC (Steam)
Distributor provided a review copy.

Wren’s Resurgence isn’t an emulated Nintendo Entertainment System title, despite outward appearances and a name so 80s it hurts. Instead, it’s a labor of love that emulates the feeling of playing a retro title for both better and for worse. It’s a testament to sticking to your vision, no matter the result.

The Story & Gameplay

Wren’s Resurgence is the story of two sisters, Swan and Wren, battling against an army of monsters who’ve forced their people into slavery. To save their world, the sisters must defeat the forces of darkness and liberate the Watatsumi Fountains, which connect their islands together. When Swan is captured by the enemy, it’s up to Wren to make things right once and for all.

After the briefest of expositions, Wren’s Resurgence throws players right into the action. For those of us who grew up with Nintendo classics like Faxanadu, this feels all too familiar. The story opens up in fits and starts through limited dialog, and it’s remarkably easy to ignore or simply miss it as the game progresses.

This is fine, as Wren’s Resurgence places more emphasis on the gameplay than it does story. The main gameplay loop is in platforming and combat, both of which work fine, if not perfectly, and I’m not entirely certain if the imperfections aren’t intentional.

That’s because Wren’s Resurgence emulates the experience of a retro game so meticulously, that many of my frustrations feel exactly the same as they did 30 years ago. If a jump goes wrong, I can’t tell if it’s because I’m so used to the forgiving mechanics of present day, or because Wren’s Resurgence is just a tad too slow on the uptake. It could be both.

Whatever the reason, Wren’s Resurgence often wildly swings from joyous to immensely frustrating within minutes. While the platforming can be exhilarating, the combat mechanics are dire, especially when they try to emphasize the under-cooked blocking or parrying systems.

Luckily, Wren’s Resurgence isn’t a long experience. At just 10 levels, there’s enough to explore and figure out to keep you occupied for a good weekend, but experienced players can probably breeze through it in an afternoon. It’s never truly dull or horrendous, but this is a quintessentially niche product. One designed for a small subset of players in an already diminishing crowd.

Accessibility

Difficulty settings allow for adjustments between Easy, Normal, and Hard, and further tweaking for enemy health and damage, along with the amount of respawns. It’s a pleasant surprise altogether, as it makes the experience far more palatable to those who didn’t grow up with this kind of difficulty.

Sadly, that’s about it for accessibility settings. It’s understandable though, this is a budget indie title, and even some work on difficulty adjustments is more than welcome.

Technical Aspects

Wren’s Resurgence has a distinct pixel art style that is heavily influenced by early Nintendo titles. It’s mostly pleasant to look at, and the sprites are generally easy to sparse and understand. Some enemies are a little too busy for their own good, which leads to pointless frustration in combat as you try to understand what kind of attack they’re about to do.

But the world itself is pretty and well-designed, and the sound effects are generally well presented. It’s easy to tell attacks apart and the soundtrack is a retro-infused blast.

Unfortunately, the review build suffered from numerous bugs, including crashes and lock-ups that needed hard restarts. Wren would often get locked into an animation loop or an item would disappear preventing progression. At one point, Wren apparently jumped at a wrong point, leading the following screens to not load properly, forcing a restart of the entire game from a brand new save.

These are issues that can be fixed with future updates, but in its present form, Wren’s Resurgence suffers from some notable bugs that should be considered before you jump into this adventure.

Who’s It For?

Wren’s Resurgence is for a limited crowd, but I’m not sure that’s entirely a bad thing. This is a labor of love that understands what it’s emulating. It has its heart in the right place, and there is plenty to enjoy in the platforming aspects. It’s nowhere near perfect, but sometimes passion is enough to cover other parts that fall short.

If you find yourself missing the days of NES action games, Wren’s Resurgence is a perfect antidote to that nostalgia.