Wizard police, criminals, and those often forgotten in between are some of the many themes covered in the magical RPG, Reynatis. Although one of the developers, Furyu, is known for their middle-of-the-road RPGs, they all tend to have a couple of interesting ideas that they play with. Whether playing with combat mechanics or complex themes in their stories, the initial first look is almost always interesting. So with Reynatis, does it crack through the wave of average RPGs?
The story of Reynatis revolves around wizards who are typically under one of three factions: the M.E.A., the Guild, or Strays. The M.E.A. acts as the police force in Shibuya, maintaining order and shutting down any hint of rebellion. The Guild, on the other hand, is a rebellious faction aiming at obtaining rights for wizards all over, albeit at the expense of innocent humans. Finally, there are the stray wizards, who haven’t signed up with either organization, preferring to stay on the down low.
As such, the story initially takes two points of view, following an M.E.A. officer called Sari and a stray called Marin. Both protagonists have their storylines that you’ll play through, whether it’s tracking down and arresting rubrum dealers or defeating the Damned (people who succumb to their addiction to rubrum and change into creatures unable to control their actions) and helping “Fools”. Their stories will intertwine, especially as the game progresses.
Like many Furyu titles, the story is its strongest asset, although even this game does tend to stumble in a few places. A lot of setup is provided when it comes to the M.E.A. and stray wizards, since you are following members of both classifications. But when it comes to the Guild, all you’re seeing and getting tends to be very surface-level. Along with that, several aspects of the characters’ backstories, motivations, and even goals are barely brushed on outside of bold statements. “I want to be the strongest.” “I want to eliminate all rubrum.” It would have been nice to see these statements built upon from the start, rather than hearing them every once in a while to remind the characters and ourselves of their goal.
When it comes to the side quests, they all tend to have the same general premise: a criminal, stray wizard, or someone in between needs to be tracked down. Sometimes there will be a battle at the end where you take down the criminal. As such, they all tend to blend together to the point where you can’t tell one quest from the next. The only positive is that these quests help build out the world of Shibuya in Reynatis, telling and showing what life is like for all those in the city. On top of getting rewards from completing quests, you also lower the malice meter. By decreasing the malice meter, you can acquire new skills and abilities to attach to your party members.
The same can be said about the text message feature, although this gives you more of a peek at the characters that you follow throughout the game. Outside of providing a glimpse at the personalities of the characters and their relationships with each other, the texting functionality mainly acts as team chatter. You can completely ignore it if that’s not an aspect you enjoy.
Reynatis is an action RPG that makes use of a mechanic known as Liberation and Suppression. Swapping between both modes is a major part of combat, with you building up your MP gauge in Suppression mode so that you can go on the offensive in Liberation mode. There are two attack skills that you make use of in battle that you can change out as you obtain more skills during exploration.
When it comes to exploration, the game takes place in Shibuya. Many sections of the city are broken up into zones that you can move into. Along with Shibuya, you can also navigate into another realm known as Another, where monsters roam free and mysterious doors stand locked.
During combat, you’ll control one of three characters in your team against enemies. You can swap between any team members at any time, provided they have enough MP before you switch. There are two modes that you’ll switch between in the game: Liberation and Suppression mode. Liberation mode is the offensive mode, where you can attack enemies using your skills. With every use of a skill, your MP gauge decreases. But even if you don’t attack, your gauge slowly depletes. Once the MP gauge is fully depleted, you’ll switch back to Suppression mode.
In Suppression mode, you’re on the defensive. The only thing that you’re able to do is dodge enemy attacks. However, it’s important to dodge at just the right time in order to boost your MP gauge. When dealing with long-ranged attacks, there is a red circle that appears at the precise time that you’re meant to dodge. With melee attacks, a large red circle will appear, letting you know that you’ll need to hold the dodge button until that red circle turns yellow. If you release too soon, you’ll simply dodge the attack without the boost to your MP gauge. If you release too late, you’ll take damage.
But of course, there are exceptions to dodging when it comes to bosses. Bosses will have some attacks that won’t trigger the dodge indicators. With these attacks, the enemy will appear purple. And unfortunately, all you can do is move out of the way.
The inclusion of the Liberation/Suppression system, however, feels very clunky. Just as you’re getting into the rhythm of attacking, your gauge will fully deplete, throwing you back into a cycle of dodging before rinsing and repeating. On top of that, it feels as though this mechanic ends up inflating battle times to be longer than they need to be. There is a way to elongate the time that you’ll have to attack the enemy but bouncing from one character to another right as their MP gauge is about to run out. With most mobs, you’ll be able to defeat them by the time you switch to the third character.
Along with your MP gauge, there is also a final attack gauge that you are filling by dodging and attacking. While your attack will deliver more damage if used when your MP gauge is used, you can also use the final attack when your bar is deleted. The only caveat is that your final attack can’t finish off bosses, leaving them with one hit point.
You’ll be running around Shibuya outside of battle whether it’s progressing the main story or doing side quests. The entire map is split into different zones, so there are loading screens when you need to go to a new zone. There’s not a lot to explore when it comes to Shibuya, so thankfully there is the ability to fast travel to areas that you’ve already discovered.
There is another area that you’re able to navigate through, known as the Another. These areas can only be accessed by interacting with portals of fog. Unlike in Shibuya, you’re not able to access a larger map to see where you are and where you need to go. The only upside is that the areas in Another tend to be linear paths, making it impossible to get lost. On the other hand, this makes it so that these portions of the game are not memorable in the least. Outside of the occasional areas that are completely different in terms of atmosphere (forest vs. desert vs. city scape), these long corridors all feel the same. And it doesn’t help that they all follow the same rules, where navigating into an open space will spawn enemies that you need to defeat before continuing forward.
When it comes to navigating around Shibuya, the M.E.A. and stray wizards have different levels of accessibility. While both can typically walk around without any issues, both will occasionally be stopped by enemies to fight in battles. But for stray wizards, there is a downside. After a battle, the people around the stray wizards will start taking videos and pictures, thus starting a countdown where you’ll begin trending on social media. As your trending rank grows, you’ll start attracting attention from the M.E.A. To stop trending, you’ll have to either navigate to a new area or find a hiding area in the zone that you’re currently in, which appears as an eyeball on the map. There is also a stress meter, which can increase as these “stressful” moments occur in the game. Stress can be decreased by drinking drinks from vending machines. Outside of setting the tone of how stray wizards are always on the move and can never let down their guard too much, these mechanics don’t add anything to the game.
As with most RPGs, you gain experience as you battle enemies, which can increase your level and thus your stats. You can grind in a way, as there are always enemies that have spawned in particular zones. But that’s not an effective use of time and there isn’t much use grinding, as you tend to be at an appropriate level to fight against bosses. Outside of leveling, you can increase the level of your skills and attributes using skill points. Skill points are gained by leveling up. You can also unlock ability slots, which allow you to equip more passive abilities. Much like the combat though, upgrading doesn’t end up feeling very satisfying.
Reynatis uses 3D models for the characters and environments while using 2D character sprites next to dialogue boxes. Both the character models and the character sprites are unique in their art style, really standing out from the sea of JRPGs that are on the Switch. The 3D models are very distinct, with the characters having big eyes The UI isn’t much to write home about, although when it comes to the text that appears after a battle is won, it is a bit smaller than expected.
There is partial voice acting available in the game, primarily playing in cutscenes, and whenever the characters are conversing among themselves as you’re exploring Shibuya. The voice actors were all good, although, for those looking for English options, you will be disappointed as Japanese is the only voice option available.
As for the music, many of the tracks lean into the orchestral. Composed by Yoko Shimamura (Kingdom Hearts, Xenoblade Chronicles, Super Mario RPG), there are a lot of great songs in the OST. The main theme is a heavy hitter in the entire OST, but many of the tracks are bangers, definitely putting the player in a fighting mood.
Perhaps not a shocking revelation, but Reynatis does suffer from moments of lag. These moments are most evident when moving from one area to another, or when dealing with a lot of enemies in battle. Along with issues with occasional lag, there were also moments where the screen would just flip to black after a cutscene and then remain stuck there. Thankfully, the game’s autosave appears to save after a cutscene concludes, so no progress was lost in those moments.
Reynatis unfortunately doesn’t do much to stand out or remain interesting throughout a playthrough. While the story has some interesting aspects when it comes to the hierarchy of people based on their magic status and the politics between the Guild and the M.E.A., it doesn’t truly portray it in a way that’s enthralling. The combat and exploration are by far the weakest aspects, remaining one note. Whether you’re falling into the same attack/defense cycle or running back and forth between what feels like the same 5 zones, everything feels as though it just…happens. It’s a game that will have its fans, but for most people, it’s simply another JRPG to join the crowd.
Reynatis gets a 7/10.
