“Reynatis” is an interesting game for a review around Halloween because it is one part “Harry Potter” and one part Kingdom Hearts.
You’re a wizard Marin and so is most everyone else in this version of Shibuya Ward. This game could be seen as a sociological study of some social events going on in Shibuya that Westerners may not know about because there is a vast reference to drugs.
Rub the item in the question creates some interesting fights with dealers and those affected by the substance, one of the first fights is an M.E.A. woman capturing someone dealing. M.E.A. are the magical government police in Reynatis.
Story
The story is tied into two characters that eventually merge into one main story. Marin is the primary character and the player follows him as he encounters the M.E.A. monsters like D.s, corrupted rub addicts, M.s which the game calls Another dwellers, and the guild and their M. forms.
Another is an area inside a veil of fog that magic words can trigger a forest most of the time where M.s live. These creatures function like heartless in Kingdom Hearts. There are doors that unlock more fog to unlock Reynatis, which is similar in scope to Kingdom Hearts for this familiar with the game franchise. Marin’s goal is to be the best wizard and that puts him in conflict with M.E.A. and the guild to which he is picked up by OWL, a stray wizard group. The story progresses to day-to-day life of the Owl group doing missions and unlocking Another doors to find Marin’s goal of becoming the strongest and seeing what’s beyond the fog. This leads to the Reynatis event and the end results of a lofty goal.
Wizart
The interesting series of skill progression is based on magic graffiti or Wizart. The guild created it to turn rub addicts into wizards but Marin and the other five can use it to collect and build skills and get bonuses like extra money. These pieces of art are found across the environments of the city of the game. There is some story to the creation of this art as well so it’s also a key focus of the plot.
Sidequests and SMS
SMS is interesting as this game is about interactions and part of that is getting text messages, which adds a level of lore to the game. There is no affinity system for these messages, though.
Sidequests, are key to understanding the world of Reynatis. There are a lot of gaps in story that sidequests fill. Some are easy while others are harder. These events do give Marin and the OWLs a chance to gain needed levels and get money and drinks that can heal for 500 hp. That seems like not enough but it’s easier to get these through quests than to figure out how to spend the money buying food to cure the party. Unfortunately, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, handles this problem better by letting the player walk into a convenience store and use money for drinks and food. Reynatis seems to only have restaurants open for supply buying for boss fights.
Graphics
Reynatis is interesting art-wise for how Furyu uses cell shading. The game is clearly a PS4 game that got ported to the next generation and the issues can be seen. The Neo: World Ends With You collaboration is one such case. The models look off compared to Square Enix and the base game and the faces are an issue across the board that most players will notice.
The environment, though, is detailed and lived in for all parts of it from Shibuya to the levels of Another.
Music
Music is a good part of Reynatis. The soundtrack works really well and there are parts of the game that it feels like listening to Kingdom Hearts music in the background. The sounds are amazing.
Combat
The game is an action RPG in which the player builds a party of six characters with skills and there is a button for each skill and a dodge button.
Grade: B-
