REYNATIS Review

REYNATIS is a character action RPG developed by FURYU Corporation and published by NIS America, Inc. When I saw the game was available to review, I was wondering why it seemed so familiar. However, when I was downloading the game, I remembered! There’s a freaking collaboration with NEO: The World Ends with You! It's how I first heard of it from a Kingdom Hearts-focused YouTuber. Apparently, the game was heavily inspired by Tetsuya Nomura's works in Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, if you haven't been tipped off by the Yozora-like look of one of the main characters. I’m pretty excited, so let’s check it out.

Taking place in a painstakingly recreated Shibuya, Tokyo, the line between fantasy and reality has become indistinguishable and in this world when people nearly die, they get magic powers. The citizens of Shibuya hate magic, fearing its potential for destruction, forcing wizards and witches to conceal their inhuman abilities or face discrimination (or death). Following his father’s words that being the strongest will set him free, the wizard Marin heads to Shibuya, where he meets Sari, an officer of the M.E.A., an organisation dedicated to keeping wizards under control. With magical drugs on the streets, monsters (called M) invading, an overly authoritarian police force, and a guild hellbent on taking over the city, it’ll be up to these two magicians and their friends to protect and achieve their dreams.

I don’t think the story is spectacular and, to be frank, a few character designs give away plot twists, but it’s serviceable and kept me invested. If it isn't clear to you that drugs are bad by the end of the game, you've probably been skipping all the cutscenes and dialogue. Actually, if you just do the main story, it is surprisingly quick with some chapters being only one fight. Just note that the entire game is voiced in Japanese so I hope you like to read.

Fittingly, the soundtrack was composed by Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts composer, Yoko Shimimura and I really liked what I heard. The tracks played are often dramatic and bombastic, if a little repetitive after a while. The same can’t really be said for the graphics though. Don’t get me wrong, the game does look nice, with plenty of flashy effects going on when you’re fighting, but it's shockingly low-quality textures in plenty of places, and I was playing on the highest possible graphics settings. There was some serious screen-tearing all throughout, with no option to fix it in-game, which kinda sucks. Still, I like the overall art style and design. Although, for wizards that are trying to hide who they are, you can probably spot them by how damn fashionable they are.

Let’s move on to the main gameplay now. You’ll be playing as two protagonists: Marin Kirizumi (red boy) and Sari Nishijima (blue woman). They’re in separate parties so they’ll be accompanied by two other companions that you can switch between in battle, as long as they have the MP. They will join forces eventually, combining their parties, and they all earn EXP no matter what point in the story you are, but you’ll switch between protagonists for over a dozen chapters. Each character feels different from one another, but are all just as effective. There are two, though, that feel weird and don’t quite match up with the game’s pacing; Moa and Ukai. Moa has incredibly delayed but powerful attacks (she even jumps with a delay), while Ukai uses dual pistols… and can’t move while shooting. For a very active and fast-paced battle system, they really contrast the design.

Oh, but I should probably tell you how to fight. You have a basic attack, two customisable special attacks, an ultimate move called Final Menace, and a dodge. That's it. The basic attack has some seriously flashy combos and you can perform perfect dodges, but when you get down to it, it is surprisingly very simple and easy-to-understand. Don’t worry though, there is plenty of depth to explore when taking into account the main mechanic: Suppressed Mode and Liberated Mode. In Suppressed Mode, you’re acting as a normal human who can talk to NPCs and spend money at shops without worry. Unfortunately, when in combat, you can’t attack and must rely on defensive moves like perfect dodges to survive. However, at the press of a button, you can switch to Liberated Mode, where you trade all that for all-out offence and better movement capabilities, at the cost of draining MP over time and with each attack. If you’re out of MP, you’re set back to Suppressed Mode, which will allow you to regain your MP so you can go back on offence again. By juggling these two states as well as your party members, it can lead to some real flashy combos, finishing fights in only seconds. It’s great! But I have to say managing your modes in exploration is a lot more annoying. 

Getting spotted in Liberated Mode or talking to NPCs will raise your Stress meter. The more stress you accumulate, the more your attack goes up and your defence goes down. Reach 100% Stress, and you're forced into Liberated Mode. This is bad if you want to stay incognito, as getting reported on by the public through social media will make life extremely difficult. If you've managed to hit #1 Trending, you'll get the M.E.A. set after you and they are not playing around, being able to one-shot you before you can even act. The only way to go back into stealth is by either heading to a hiding spot (which there is only one of in each area or none at all) or by exiting the map. This is a problem because there are tons of street fights, main missions, and side quests that will make you overt forcing you to run away before you get caught. It’s a minor hindrance in the grand scheme of things, but it is really annoying having to leave or find a hiding place. At least it does integrate into the story, making you feel restricted when you can do so much more, but because of the rules you can’t, and I consider that kind of cool.

But speaking of the streets, let’s talk about the main setting and where you’ll be spending most of your time: Shibuya. If you’ve gone to Japan and explored the place in real life, you could probably recognise each of its landmarks and get to where you need to go without the map. Scramble Crossing, Center Street, Miyashita Park, Dogenzaka, Spain Hill, they’re all here. It's not exactly the nicest-looking version of Shibuya, with the aforementioned low-res textures, but it is cool to explore and check out all the very real restaurants and shops dotted around. Seriously, I actually recognised a few of them like Don Quixote and Ichiran! That being said, with save points and items being so frequent and plentiful for free (last time I checked, I had 117 cans of soda), you'll rarely need to stop by a restaurant, as they’re only good for healing. If anything, you’ll probably buy most of your items from vending machines.

I feel like it could've gone a little more into virtual tourism but it's fine overall. And hey, you're very much encouraged to wander around and not use fast travel as you can find graffiti called “wizart” (wizard art) scattered throughout the walls of the city, which will give you money, EXP, or new abilities to use. You can’t just get them if you find them, too, as they require lowering the Malice Level, which can only be done by completing side quests. I wish there was a way to track them in-game though, so I don’t have to constantly check for what I’ve unlocked.

However, you won’t always be in Shibuya. At times, you’ll be travelling to another magical world called… Another (real creative name right here…). They are very copy-and-paste with fairly generic environments that don’t really inspire much awe. You have forests, deserts, museums, and factories. It's not procedurally generated in any way, which would've made it a little more interesting when you want to head in to grind materials (for unlocking ability slots) and items, but it feels nice being able to fully let loose since there are no civilians around to bust you and plenty of monsters to fight.

That being said, REYNATIS isn’t too challenging. Apart from the beginning, I wasn’t getting killed and I was getting perfect ratings in every fight, even though I generally struggle to get anything close to S-Ranks in other similar games. I did need to focus a little more when faced with tougher enemies, but overall I was practically steamrolling through everything. Even some bosses went down after one Final Menace. Maybe it’s because I’ve been going out of my way to do all the side stuff and I was getting over-leveled, plus the DLC items I received, but I was sorely missing an option to change the difficulty.

On to performance. The game genuinely ran completely fine, even on the highest graphics settings with multiple characters and magical effects happening on screen. Loading screens are often very quick and rarely break the pacing. But for other issues, I felt a little baffled. No glitches, but some really annoying things you’ll have to deal with throughout. As mentioned before, there is some really bad screen tearing. It’s not too noticeable while in a battle, but you can’t ignore it when you’re simply exploring Shibuya and Another. Also, since many fights can happen in alleyways and cramped spaces, the camera will hate you especially when using lock-on.

REYNATIS is really, really damn fun with simple yet awesome gameplay mechanics. Fights are frantic but never out of control and exploring Shibuya is a great treat. However, it is held back by certain design choices that left me a little confused. It’s a magical romp through the bustling streets of Shibuya that is worth going through its less-than-stellar areas.