Reynatis [Review]
Action RPG Reynatis is a forgettable experience that never escapes feeling silly despite taking itself very seriously.
Reynatis. Credit: NIS America / Furyu Corporation
Furyu Corporation and NIS America’s Reynatis is an action RPG about wizards in modern-day Japan. In this world, when people have near-death experiences, they wake up with magic powers. The concept is promising on its surface, but the game’s story comes off as silly, with little thought to what this world might actually be like.
The year takes place in 2024, in Shibuya, Tokyo. Laws have been passed restricting magic users after the advent of wizards, making the use of magic illegal. There are two protagonists: Sari Nishijima, an officer in the anti-magic police force, and Marin Kirizumi, a college-aged wizard unaffiliated with any group that wants to become “the strongest.” Fighting the government is a group known as the Guild, which consists of wizards who want there to be more wizards and want to be in the open, but they also traffic in a magic-imbuing drug that incidentally turns people into literal monsters. Hearing that the game calls magic users “wizards” made me roll my eyes, and then learning about Marin’s motivation put me in a place where I could no longer take the game with the seriousness it was carrying itself.
Reynatis. Credit: NIS America / Furyu Corporation
Characters switch between Suppressed and Liberated states, which affect both traversal and combat. When Liberated, you can use magic attacks and move more quickly, but this is impractical for Marin—if bystanders spot you, they will soon report you to the police, who will nearly instantaneously destroy you. It’s counterintuitive because Marin and his wizard friends comically dress like characters out of Kingdom Hearts, while non-magic people look like everyday citizens. So, there’s no reason civilians shouldn’t be able to peg you as a wizard immediately. Sari, as a cop, can run around in this state with impunity.
In combat, you can unleash your total magic fury when Liberated, alternating between your three equipped attacks, found by locating graffiti known as Wizart—yes, “Wizart”—but leaves you open to all damage. You can switch to a Suppressed state when in combat, allowing you to dodge every projectile attack instantly and pause time to defend against proximity attacks. When you defend, if you time the filling of your parry gauge correctly, it restores all your magic power and lets you switch to Liberated state for a flurry of attacks with time slowed down. It makes combat dull because you’ll always follow the same pattern—stand still in Suppressed and wait to parry, then switch to Liberated if successful. There’s no reason to enter your Liberated state unless you have the magic bonus, so you’ll spend most of the time standing still in Suppressed mode, waiting to parry an attack successfully. Attacking in Liberated mode consists of mashing the attack buttons until your magic power drains.
Reynatis. Credit: NIS America / Furyu Corporation
The game’s world just consists of empty areas where you can fight. Nothing is added by using a realistic location like Shibuya because it’s all just window dressing. This game could have learned much about using realistic locations and settings from the Yakuza series, with its busy, lively streets and wide variety of obstacles and objects that you can use in combat. Similarly, the magical world of “Another,” entered by passing fog portals in the real world, is devoid of any interesting level design despite taking place in more magical or fantastical areas.
Reynatis quickly wears out its welcome in its 20-30 hour runtime, which soon becomes a slog to complete. Play Tales of Arise or Granblue Fantasy Relink instead; you’ll have a much better time.
Reynatis is available now for PC (Steam), PlayStation 4/5, and Nintendo Switch.
Overall Score: 4/10
Played on: PS5
