Reynatis

Reynatis Review – Trust The Magic

Not for you if:

  • You're looking for a strategic combat system and high difficulty
  • You want a classic action RPG experience with the usual dodge and attack sequences
7

When I first came across Reynatis, I was unsure how much I would enjoy another action RPG. I covered Dragon’s Dogma 2 a while back, and since then, I have been playing quite a few action RPGs. However, I was sold on giving Reynatis a try when I saw the team behind its development.

We have Kazushige Nojima, the scenario writer behind the narrative of Final Fantasy 7. Yoko Shimomura is the legendary composer behind Kingdom Hearts and many Final Fantasy entries. Yusuke Naora is also the art director behind many Final Fantasy titles. All these amazingly talented designers coming together just had me on the edge of my seat. So just how did Reynatis do, and was it good?

Reynatis Marin

TL;DR

Reynatis is a new action RPG developed by FURYU. It features an all-star development team, smooth, streamlined combat, and an amazing plot. While the game is innovative and tries many new things, not all of the features hit the mark. Reynatis is made with a lot of passion, and if you love games like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, this is the game for you.

Modern Magic

Reynatis takes place in modern-day Shibuya, where magic coincides with reality. Wizards exist in the everyday world, and a large dynamic of the game’s story is how this interacts with modern society. Wizards come in two varieties in Reynatis: those who have powers from birth and those who gain them later in life through near-death experiences.

In this setting, Wizards are discriminated against and outlawed. Being a wizard itself is not illegal, but rather, using their powers in public or for inappropriate reasons is. Additionally, wizards are often looked down on and hated by the public in general.

Reynatis Marin Camera

Being a Modern/Fantasy JRPG, Reyantis has many terms, factions, and in-game lingo that need to be learned right from the start. Wizards born with their abilities are called legacies, while wizards who gain them later in life are called replicas. To police the wizards, the government has created the Magic Enforcement Administration (MEA).

There is also a faction of wizards who rebel against the government’s oppression and form the Magic Guild of Japan. This guild is located in another dimension of reality called “Another.” These dimensions function more like dungeons, and we will go into them in a bit. Finally, we have OWL. These are wizards who operate out of both factions and are more the anarchists of the setting.

Reynatis Shibuya Monster

Reynatis follows two main protagonists. We are first introduced to Sari, an up-and-coming replica who joined the MEA. We follow her as her initial motive is to rid the area of Rubrum, an addictive drug made from wizard blood that will eventually turn its users into monsters.

The second protagonist in Reynatis is a replica named Marin. Marin is a 19-year-old college student who gained his abilities after a near-death experience of his own. He aims to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world, and while it seems basic in premise, the story gradually unfolds into a deeper reasoning behind his motivations.

You start the game shifting between these two protagonists and their own stories and teammates until, eventually, the storylines combine. The plot is a major part of Reynatis, and I will do my best to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

Throughout the game, we meet a wide cast of characters, all with unique personalities and abilities. Each character has interactions, goals, and motivations. I became attached to the various characters, and I feel this is one of Reynatis’s biggest strengths.

Reynatis

Trust The Magic – Reynatis Combat

Reyantis, from the beginning, differentiates itself from other action RPGs. Combat functions with different stances, dodging, unique abilities, and mana. In Reynatis, however, mana is more akin to stamina than mana in other games. As you attack and even just stay in your ‘liberated’ mode, your mana will go down. To recharge it, you will need to be in suppressed mode and dodge attacks. But what are these modes?

In combat, there are two stances for each character, suppressed mode and liberated mode. Suppressed mode increases your dodge capabilities and allows you to regenerate mana. Attacking will switch you to liberated mode. You are only able to attack in liberated mode, and while you can dodge, it’s very limited, and you cannot perform the advanced dodge mechanics.

In almost any other game, when you see an enemy wind up a large attack, you would instinctively dodge away. In Reynatis, this is the wrong choice. Right away, they tell you to “trust the magic”. When an attack is coming towards you from far away, you’ll be prompted to press the dodge button and do a fancy side step or mid-air dodge. Doing so at the correct time will evade the attack fully and regenerate a small bit of mana. 

At close range, this changes quite a bit. When you see a large attack coming towards you, you need to wait until it’s almost too late to dodge. Doing so will freeze the game, and a magic ring will appear on the screen. When the ring appears, you hold down the dodge button until the ring fills up.

When released at the right time, your character will slow down time, perform a perfect dodge, break shields on the enemy, and regain a large amount of mana. When your mana is full, you can launch an attack that will switch you automatically into liberated mode, slow down time, and dish out some big damage to the enemies.

This process took a bit of time to learn, and it was satisfying at first. I thoroughly enjoyed just wailing on the enemies, and when the mana would run out, I would perform flashy dodges and feel invincible. The combat shines when multiple enemies are attacking from many directions.

When there are only a couple of enemies, the combat takes a bit of a hit. I would find myself just standing next to the enemies until I performed three perfect dodges and then wail on them some more. Outside of key fights, I found myself spamming attacks and abilities and switching to other characters in the party to keep on attacking.

All Wizard Party

Throughout Reynatis, you will be introduced to new party members, each with their unique combat styles and abilities. Nika was one of my favorites because she could attack in large areas dealing with multiple enemies at once. Your party can hold up to three members at once. Each character starts with two unique skills that can be equipped, but you can find new skills throughout the world through Wizart. This is one of the main methods of progression in Reynatis.

Wizart is exactly as it sounds, it’s wizard art. These are magical forms of graffiti that you can find throughout Shibuya, and examining these will give your party several boons. Most will reward you with money and experience, but many will also reward you with unique attacks and passive buffs to equip your party members. Initially, you’ll only be able to equip one passive augment, but throughout the game, you will find means to unlock more slots and customize your party how you like.

Not all Wizart is initially available to you, however. You may come across greyed-out graffiti around Shibuya, but these art pieces won’t be obtainable by the player until the over ‘malice’ decreases. This is another form of progression in the game.

At the start of the game, the public Malice meter is 100%. This malice meter is the public opinion towards wizards. As you complete side quests, the overall malice meter will decrease, and a more powerful Wizard will be revealed. And this makes the more tedious and less interesting side content worth it.

Shibuya Side Quests

Reynatis has a very compelling main story with a large cast and a beautiful setting. The setting is the same, but I found the side content to be very lackluster. In every chapter, you’ll get an in-game notification on an app that will notify you of wizard sittings, errands, and public complaints.

Each of these missions involves going to a location and killing something, talking to some people, or, the worst of the bunch, finding posters. The only reason I did these was to lower the malice level. There is some interesting dialogue that helps build the world out, but it hardly does much to flesh out the characters or setting.

Similar to the monotonous feel of the side quests are the ‘another’ dungeons. Initially, the change in scenery is cool, and it provokes an eerie feel. All too often however we have to backtrack through these ‘dungeons’.The paths are long and linear, with offshoots that contain items that aren’t worth picking up most of the time. While there are different colour shades of the forest, it’s mostly just the same environment. This is a stark contrast to the level of detail seen in the main map of Shibuya.

Visiting Shibuya

Probably one of the most stunning parts of the game is the level of detail in the environmental design. Most games would have these knockoffs McDaniels, Starcups, or Hamburger Prince. Not Reynatis. We have iconic brands of all types, like BOSS Coffee and Mos Burger. It’s so impressive to see the level of detail in the shops and environment in Reynatis. It feels like Shibuya at night, albeit with fewer people.

The scenery, coupled with the soundtrack, makes for an immensely immersive experience. Yoko Shimomura has crafted an amazing soundtrack that calls back to Kingdom Hearts. Honestly, the aesthetic qualities of the setting and atmosphere carry so much of the gameplay experience.

Miscast Spells – Gameplay Critiques and Rough Edges

Overall I had a great time playing Reynatis, and while these issues I’m about to talk about were not game-breaking, they may be issues for some of you. First off is the combat systems. I love the ‘trust the magic’ system. Once you get in the flow of attacking, switching stances, and doing perfect dodges, there is a method to make the game infinitely easier.

For the most part, you can just stand still next to the enemy and wait for them to attack. Launch your attacks and special abilities, and when your mana is gone, you can swap and spam more attacks, or you can just wait. It took any sense of danger or tension out of many of the fights for me outside of some key boss fights.

I would say the ‘trending’ system is more of an annoyance than anything that I feel adds to the game’s value. It has an amazing premise: If you enter your liberated state while in public, you will begin trending on an in-game social media meter. Every time you move up the trending list, and if you hit number one on trending, the MEA will dispatch an elite squad to fight you.

 I’m sure the squad is beatable, but in all my encounters, I’ve gotten obliterated with hardly a fight.  Fighting this team could potentially be a very good challenge after I complained about difficulty, but what I dislike is how inconsequential this seems to be to the game. Simple, fast traveling or moving to a new area cancels the trending state right away.

Conclusion

The game has a lot of innovative and cool ideas that I love to see in bigger titles. Too often, we see cookie cutters of the same games with hard innovation. I love the combat systems in place, and most of my issues come from the non-innovative sections in the design space.

The aesthetics, the soundtrack, and the story are all I can ask for in an action RPG, and I found myself thoroughly invested in the story. If you are a fan of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and the Tales series, I feel you will enjoy Reyantis, and it is worth picking up.                                                          

Special thanks to CLD Media for allowing us to review this game.

Alex Kivitz

Posts published: 26

I'm an avid gamer, both digitally and physically. I love to spend my time playing RPGs and open-world games. I have a passion for JRPGs as well and enjoy revisiting old titles and remasters. Physically, I am a huge TCG fan, having played MTG, Flesh and Blood, Lorcana, Grand Archive, and the One Piece TCG.