REYNATIS Review – WHAT VERSUS XIII COULD’VE BEEN?

As a lifelong Final Fantasy fan, the name Versus XIII has been brought up in conversation thousands of times. From that first initial trailer with Noctis sitting on his throne all high and mighty, to the blatant shot-by-shot trailer remakes found in the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind, this is one concept that Tetsuya Nomura and developer, FuRyu have refused to leave behind. Reynatis is a blend/remix of these ideas, packed into a somewhat cohesive action RPG—chequered shirts and belt buckles included.

I don’t know how they did it, but the devs managed to rope in three of Square Enix’s most celebrated talents. From the likes of scenario writer, Kazushige Nojima, to key artist, Yusuke Naora and composer, Yoko Shimomura, you can immediately heed their styles from the outset.

The City Never Sleeps

Reynatis, at its core, is all about wizards breaking free from oppression in Shibuya at night, with the story, characters and gameplay all revolving around this core notion. It’s a strong overarching theme, though not all of it comes together, including the soundtrack. Albeit, for the most part, the character dialogue is written surprisingly well, with fantastic Japanese voice-acting and a solid balance of gravitas and silly banter when the moment calls for it. However, a few main characters don’t exactly get much of the spotlight.

The two leads, Marin and Sari, fall on opposite sides of this wizarding world. Marin is the Noctis look-alike, all angsty and alone at first as he manifests illegal magic. Whereas Sari is a part of the Magical Enforcement Agency (M.E.A), who actively hunt these stray wizards. Now, one could draw allusions to the original Versus XIII concept, where Noctis and Stella (not Luna) were tragically opposed by fate, albeit that’s not quite the case here.

These two characters and their friends are actually searching for similar things: one seeks the power to be liberated, while the other wishes to rid the world of strays and a pervasive, life-destroying drug named Rubrum. All in all, it’s a finely implemented scenario that will posit many thoughts from players. Having said that, it certainly could’ve been fleshed out further.

What Am I Looking At?

Upon starting a new game, the first thing you’ll notice is how dated the visuals are. Not that I was surprised considering that FuRyu made Reynatis, but the PS2-like graphics can become downright atrocious at points that it almost hurts to look at the screen. Good grief!

The game does run exceptionally on PC, would you believe it? Though anything outside of the game’s painstakingly-recreated Shibuya is either a low-effort texture remap, or a low-poly count character model that’s one step away from being cursed, especially during cutscenes.

The name ‘Dominus Forest’ will haunt your nightmares too, as you constantly trek through this cheap-looking, godforsaken hallway of copy-paste assets throughout the game—back-tracking for days! And speaking of copy-paste, the first major boss fight will repeat 4 times in 2 hours! What were they thinking here? That we wouldn’t notice this stuff? This has got to be some of the laziest video game design I’ve seen in years.

Hitting Shibuya’s Pavement

Most of the side quests are handled in Shibuya. But when they’re not, you can bet your bottom dollar that you’ll be running through that forest yet again. That being said, the side quests found in Shibuya are pretty decent, with a cheeky crossover with NEO: The World Ends With You for good measure. Even if they mostly involve running from Point A to B, or fighting a group of enemies who can be defeated in 2 seconds, they do help to flesh out the cast and their backstories.

I don’t know why, but the chat/messaging system between party members is always out of order. They could’ve made all the latest messages appear on top, yet apparently, that was too hard to implement. I’ll admit, the general silliness in these DMs provides a good laugh or two. However, because it’s so unorganised, you’ll eventually just stop bothering to read them.

What’s annoying is that almost anytime you initiate combat in Shibuya, people will start filming and alert the M.E.A to your location, which all too quickly results in a tough battle, particularly towards the start of the game. Funnily enough, the fast travel mechanic practically nullifies this system, since it resets once you move from one section of the city to another. So it ultimately becomes a royal pain more than anything, especially if random NPCs start picking fights.

Keep the Fire Burnin’

How does the combat system work? Well, it’s honestly not that complicated. Each character in your party of 3 can be swapped in real time as you hack-and-slash foes to bits. Alongside two active Wizarts (skills) and 5 passives, characters need to balance their constantly draining MP gauge in Liberated Mode (fighting form), otherwise they won’t be able to attack in Suppressed Mode (jumping and evading only). I can’t decide whether I enjoy this system or not. Nevertheless, to keep things topped up, players need to dodge assaults and hold the evade button at precisely the right time to restore MP and stun/break an opponent’s shield. However, this system can be finicky as fudge. Whenever I came across a random enemy with a shield barrier, I would immediately nope right outta there or cheese it with a limit break. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Speaking of cheesing; even though you’ll encounter several absolutely cooked boss fights along the way—where your brain can barely process what’s happening—they can essentially be tanked to death. Since Reynatis lets you carry around an astronomical number of consumables, you can practically mash buttons until you win. Regardless of how many repeat bosses there are (and there are a lot) the combat can be incredibly fast and flashy, with 6 potential party members who all fight a bit differently. That being said, the hammer lady, Moa and her ridiculously slow swings don’t quite fit this game’s speedy combat—particularly the latter bosses. She’ll be getting bodied left, right and centre before she even thinks of swinging.

To level the playing field; if you max out a party member’s MP gauge and then switch to another person, you can slow down time like Ms Bayonetta and wreak some trigger-happy havoc, stress-free. Each character also has one, powerful limit break they can bust out after a certain amount of damage is taken/received. Yet, don’t expect to be cranking out crazy combos like uncle Dante; it’s mostly about pressing the attack button as you mix things up with Wizart skills. A tad simplistic, but still just enjoyable enough. Hopefully, the dodgy camera doesn’t ruin the show.

Decision

Even with the help of three Square Enix vets, Reynatis has regrettably fallen short. Its dated PS2-like graphics, copy-paste environments, blatantly reused boss fights and annoying mechanics inevitably damper this 12-hour action RPG. While Shibuya looks lovely, the combat is flash and the narrative about wizards overcoming oppression is intriguing, the gameplay, story and certain characters could’ve been fleshed out further. The drama does have its moments and the Japanese voice-acting is high quality, it’s just a shame that the experience leaves much to be desired.

By Anthony Culinas – Reviewed on PC

Playable

Reynatis touts its Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy Versus XIII inspirations proudly, but it doesn’t exactly leave a lasting impression. While it does feature a few good aspects like a realistically rendered Shibuya, solid character writing and a couple of intense boss fights, this 12-hour title definitely needed more Donald Ducks in the oven.

This game was reviewed using a download code provided by NIS America. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.