Reynatis is a curious undertaking. It entails notable inventive abilities linked to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, together with Yoko Shimomura, the sequence’ acclaimed composer, and Kazushige Nojima, who wrote all of the core Kingdom Hearts titles and the scuttled Last Fantasy Versus 13. This can be a conspicuous coincidence, as Reynatis deliberately borrows a number of visible motifs from what little was proven of Versus 13. Reynatis’s director Takumi Isobe has said that this was all very intentional. With a director eager on resurrecting this fabled misplaced fantasy working alongside its author, what may probably go unsuitable? The reply, sadly, is a stunning quantity.
Reynatis is an motion RPG set in a model of our world the place magic exists, however can solely be wielded by a choose few. Those that are with out this reward worry those that are extra magically inclined. This paranoia led to the formation of the M.E.A., a corporation tasked with policing magic use. If this sounds slightly just like the X-Males to you, that’s as a result of it’s mainly the identical premise. Reynatis has two protagonists: Marin, the rogue wizard, and Sari, a rising star within the M.E.A. Theoretically, they supply a unique perspective on the continued battle taking maintain of Shibuya.
Presentation Issues
Shibuya itself is pretty properly realized, if slightly sparsely populated. If there may be pleasure available in Reynatis – and that may be a large if – you can see it whereas bumming across the metropolis. As you do, you’ll be accompanied by Yoko Shimomura’s fantastically crafted compositions. There are solely a small handful of tracks, so that they do find yourself repeating very often, however what’s right here is unquestionably stable. Sadly, as you wander the streets of Reynatis, you’ll be rapidly confronted by the sport’s many issues.
Visually, Reynatis is a large number on a stage not often seen. All the pieces clips via the whole lot, the geometry is crude, and there may be an abundance of jaggies. The best way mouths animate can also be shockingly primitive. Jaws flap open and shut, making sure characters look extra like dwelling nutcracker dolls than human beings. It’s tough in all of the methods you’ll anticipate a PS2-era recreation to be. Whereas nothing to jot down house about, the assault animations are undoubtedly higher. Which is sweet, as you may be seeing loads of them.
The Fight Engine That Rescued Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory
Reynatis’s fight seems promising at first. It looks like an action-RPG reinterpretation of the ATB system. As you battle baddies you have to to freely swap between your ‘Liberated’ mode to dish out injury, and your ‘Suppressed’ mode to regain stamina. That is nearly a really cool fight engine. Sadly, all of it falls aside with the inclusion of Burst Liberation, which is that this recreation’s model of Bayonetta’s Witch Time.
Within the recreation, your stamina is known as MP, however for the sake of this overview, I’m going to discuss with it as stamina as that’s the way it features.
Activating Burst Liberation will regain a considerable quantity of stamina, decelerate time, and shut the gap between you and your enemies. However not like most video games which have this mechanic, you don’t activate it by timing an ideal dodge. As a substitute, in case you are in your Suppressed Type, the display will decelerate when an assault is about to attach. You don’t must do a factor to provoke this. As soon as time slows, you merely must press and maintain the dodge button. So, the optimum solution to play Reynatis is to face nonetheless, look forward to an enemy to assault, look forward to the Burst Liberation mode immediate to pop up, activate it, dish out injury, then rinse and repeat. This ‘technique’ will carry you thru to the top of the sport.
Even when the fight wasn’t ruined by Burst Liberation, you wouldn’t want to regulate your strategy a lot anyway because you struggle the identical enemies over and over. And I’m not solely speaking about common enemies. The Titan is a big rock golem who acts as the primary boss within the recreation. And the third boss. Oh, and the fifth boss. I genuinely misplaced rely of what number of instances I fought the Titan. However I can verify that one of many final boss encounters in Reynatis is in opposition to this similar rocky monstrosity. And earlier than you ask, no, it’s nearly fully unchanged from the primary time you fought it.
The Titan does get the flexibility to summon weaker monsters partway via the sport. So there’s that.
That repetitiveness carries via to Reynatis’s dungeons. These are all set within the ‘One other’, which is, you guessed it, one other world that exists in a magic dimension or one thing. Practically all of those dungeons take the type of a path in a forest. You will notice the identical forest once more, and once more, and once more. Actually dozens of instances. Practically each battle you’ll struggle shall be fought in that very same forest or the streets of Shibuya. You’ll often get to journey to a unique location, however that’s exceedingly uncommon and primarily happens on the very finish of the sport. Practically the entire excruciatingly tedious elective dungeons are additionally situated in that very same forest. Fear not, when you play Reynatis to the top, you’ll finally develop numb to all of it.
From Dangerous To Abysmal: The Story
Properly, the gameplay could not encourage gamers to progress, so thank god now we have the legendary Kazushige Nojima penning the script, proper? Properly, sadly, Reynatis is Nojima at his absolute worst. The narrative tries to deal with some fairly heavy themes, coping with drug dependancy, class battle, and bigotry. However it’s all dealt with exceptionally poorly, particularly the drug dependancy stuff. ‘Rub’ addicts, you see, are destined to show into very literal monsters, at which level you merely should kill them. You’ll encounter dozens of Rub customers, and although the sport alludes to there being some type of therapy, the one decision ever practiced is to stab them to dying. Usually, the implication is that you’re doing them a favor. Evidently, the advanced concern of drug dependancy is not dealt with brilliantly right here.
The first thrust of the narrative is Marin’s quest to be the strongest wizard, which is as puerile because it sounds. Sari is motivated by her hatred of medication, and her a part of the narrative does not quantity to something. By the midway level of the sport, she is rendered fully superfluous. The entire story is a hodgepodge of contrivances and tropes that, as a rule, felt just like the writers had been making it up as they went alongside.
Twists and turns come faster than the plot can help, making the whole lot really feel haphazard and rushed. A betrayal occurs within the first third of the sport, however the traitor in query is so poorly established that what the sport tries to promote as a giant second feels weightless. As a rule, Reynatis tries to persuade you {that a} unhappy second is going on by wheeling out the compulsory piano observe. There simply isn’t an oz of workmanship in the entire slapdash mess. The story reads like notably amateurish fanfiction. Each second of it’s agony. Which is, sadly, the story of the sport as an entire.
I am unsure what occurred with Reynatis. Yoko Shimomura and Kazushige Nojima are legends. It looks like FuRyu had the whole lot they wanted to ship an ideal JRPG. Nonetheless, recreation improvement is tough, and a few tasks are sure to overlook the mark. That occurred right here in a giant manner. Reynatis is likely one of the most depressing experiences I’ve had with a recreation in a long time. It’s an unpleasant, repetitive mess that homes a few of the worst writing the medium has to supply. Outdoors of the OST, there may be nearly nothing of worth right here. If that is, the truth is, something like what Last Fantasy Versus 13 was purported to be, then I can comfortably say that Last Fantasy followers dodged a bullet.
