Reynatis Review (PC) – Fun Action With A Challenge

Reynatis is a game I have had my eye on since I saw the announcement trailer in the Nintendo Direct in February 2024. I was so hyped to see we were going to get a Western release of the game. I even had the opportunity to look at a hands-off preview of the game to help me understand more about it.

Game Name: Reynatis
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PC (Reviewed)
Developer(s): FURYU
Publisher(s): NIS America
Release Date: September 27th, 2024
Price: $59.99

Reynatis has is a world that is similar to our own except for one big detail, it has real magic. Those who can use this magic are categorized into two types of wizards. Wizards who gain the power of magic by a near-death experience are called replicas. Wizards who have magic from their parents are known as legacies. Marin Kirizumi is a replica who gains the power of magic after a car accident when he was 14 years old. His immediate desire is to become the strongest wizard in the world. He believes that with that strength means he won’t have any issues dealing with any of the other factions in this world. There are three factions you meet during your time in Reynatis.

One of these three factions is known as the Magic Enforcement Administration or M.E.A. for short. This faction wants to regulate wizards and will focus on the public safety of Shibuya. The faction that most oppose the M.E.A. is the Magic Guild of Japan. The Guild is a group of wizards that want to protect wizards from the law. As the years have gone on since its inception, The Guild has become more and more extreme. The last faction is the smallest known as Owl. It helps stray wizards against the abuse of the M.E.A. as well as tries to help mitigate the damage that The Guild attempts.

The second important character in Reynatis is Sari Nishijima. She is a replica that works for the M.E.A. Her goal is to utterly remove each and every part of the Rubrum drug factory line. Rubrum is a drug developed and sold by The Guild that can offer those without magic abilities, magic. This magic however comes at a cost, if you use it too much you will lose your humanity and become part of the Damned. Damned lose all sense of control and go berserk on anyone nearby.

Fighting In Shibuya

Combat in Reynatis is pretty simple to learn. There are two forms the character you play as can take. The suppressed form, which is a form where your character hides or absorbs magic. Next form would be Liberated mode, which is where your character can use their magical abilities and skills. Each character in the game has a different type of combo and skills they have access to. Sari has what is like a magic katana. Her combos are fast, and floaty. She has air attacks and her skills generally let her deal damage quickly. Marin has a pure giant beam of fire that makes him fast and concentrated. He generally sticks to the ground and his skills are usually powerful fast swings. These were the two characters I loved to play as in the game most.

The perspective in each chapter shifts between Marin and Sari. Marin has a group of characters that follow him that are connected to Owl. These wizards are trying to help him achieve his goal of becoming the strongest wizard in the world. The method they are attempting to do that with, is going to a world of magic called Another. This world is governed by The Guild and can only be travelled to by wizards. Each time Marin goes to Another, he finds another step forward in his quest to become stronger and stronger.

Sari’s perspective in Reynatis usually covers her day to day proceedings in the M.E.A. She is joined by her two squad members Ukai and Doai. They usually track down stray wizards or those who have become the Damned. Most of the story sections of the game primarily take place in Shibuya. As you travel around Shibuya you can talk to people that have green message texts above their head to unlock message chains from the cast of Reynatis. These message chains can be seen in the phone app. There is an app called the Illegal Wizardry Dispatch app. It is used for finding requests or reporting wizards to the M.E.A. If you are in your liberated form, citizens will be sending pictures and coordinates to the M.E.A. first responders. You stay too long in one spot, you will be caught by very powerful M.E.A. dispatch teams.

One method of getting stronger other than defeating monsters and Damned is looking for Wizart around Shibuya. Wizart is a combination of Wizard and Art. If you see Wizard that is bright on a building or in an area of Shibuya, it means you can view it. Viewing Wizart gives you new skills or even boosts to your base stats, money and experience points. The more you do side quests, the more Wizart that will pop up around Shibuya so make sure to do as many as you can when they pop up.

The Look of Shibuya

The character designs and the portraits of Reynatis do a lot of the heavy lifting. FURYU wanted to focus development to work around the Nintendo Switch. In the graphics department, this definitely looks like they prioritized Switch as the base line. The models are blocky and are reminiscent of games on the PlayStation 2 era of console. Far away the models look fine but as you zoom in on the faces and the minor details, they are not very pretty. Luckily most of the time your characters will be in motion with constant effects and auras surrounding them. The moments of close ups in cinematics can detract from the experience especially as you zoom in on characters where the model is very low quality such as Captain Kaido. Even with the more choppy aesthetics, the character designs and the art are phenomenal.

The FURYU team wanted to show their passion for the city of Shibuya in Reynatis. Shibuya shows a lot of presentation with the neon lights, the crosswalks, the attention to detail of the placement of buildings and even the food. Traveling around the areas gives you a feel of the love these developers had for the city. I do wish we had bigger pictures of the food we could see or even in-game models but I am glad they are there.

The World Ends With You?

One of the surprise announcements in one of the trailers for Reynatis was the reveal there was going to be a crossover with The World Ends With You. Specifically the newest game, NEO: The World Ends With You. Later on in the game, I was about level 43 when I reached it, you will find a pin. Interacting with this pin will take you into the Reapers world of Shibuya. This is where the crossover takes place. Hearing that music hit from NEO: The World Ends With You brought a tear to my eye. You travel around this Shibuya and fight the Noise. The story isn’t integral with the main game of Reynatis but I was so glad they added it in. Seeing Rindo and Marin interact was amazing. Even though the models don’t necessarily look like they belong, it never detracted from the experience of the crossover section.

Performance on Steam Deck was pretty consistent on medium settings. It would run about 50-60 FPS. I preferred running it though on the Rog Ally where I would get a solid 60 FPS consistently with high settings. I am curious on how consistent it will run on Nintendo Switch if the Steam Deck wasn’t a full 60 FPS experience.

The Feel of Shibuya

As an Action RPG, Reynatis does a fantastic job of making combat feel like a dance. When you are in suppressed mode, you are faster and time slows down for a second before you are hit. This allows you to dodge easily. If you are about to be hit in close range, if you hold down the dodge button, you will absorb magic from your enemy. This can reduce magic from the shields and armor from enemies. When you have your magic gauge maxed out you can cause a liberation burst. This slows time down as you enter your Liberated form. You can then do your normal attack combos as well as activate skills. Activating skills will take a sized chunk away from your magic gauge. Once your magic gauge is at zero your character will return to the suppressed state. This becomes more complex and adds a new variety of strategy though when you have a party member with you. If you switch while your character still has a sliver of magic left, they will remain on the field until their magic is spent. The character you switch to however will have most their magic gauge still full as they haven’t used it. This makes big boss fights easier to tackle and honestly in some cases it is the best way to tackle them. Switching to different characters to do more magic attacks lets you dish out more damage and have larger combos.

For the most part, Reynatis does a great job of grabbing your bearings after combat. When you are traveling in Another, or in Shibuya, when you meet up with an enemy, combat starts instantly. You can fight it out, or while suppressed you can just keep dodging and run away from the combat zone. Once combat stops, your map gives you a directional point of what direction you were going and where you are compared to that spot. My issue with combat though arises when you are in a combo and accidentally get out of the combat zone. Once you get out of the combat zone, whether accidentally in a combo or purposefully running away, all the enemies disappear. The enemies also do not return if you go back to the spots they were initially at. There were a multitude of times in my playthrough where I would get into a combo wanting to dish out major damage to an enemy and then hit the enemy away from the combat zone and try running after them just for all the enemies to disappear on me and lose out on the experience points.

Is Life In Shibuya Worth It?

My experience with Reynatis is one I look fondly on. The story has a fun direction it goes with looking into the three factions, even if it can feel like things happen a little too fast at times. The combat is fun and engaging and the score system made me super hyped after each encounter that went well. The graphics are nothing to write home about even if the art does look fantastic. This is a game that I will continually play and will be pumped to see what the other free updates are going to be. I highly recommend picking up Reynatis if you are a fan of good action combat.

Reynatis comes out September 27th, 2024 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Review Disclosure Statement: Reynatis was provided to us by NIS America for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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