Reynatis review - an imperfect, but fascinating, reality based on a fantasy

After all these years of waiting, the game you've all been eagerly anticipating is here: Final Fantasy Versus 13. It's been stuck in development hell for so long now, everyone thought it was never going to be released, but it's very real, and...wait, hang on, I think I'm getting a bit mixed up here.

After all these years of waiting, the game you've all been eagerly anticipating is here: Final Fantasy 15. It's been stuck in development hell for so long now, and has had a bit of a name change, but...wait a minute, this isn't right either, I'll try again. After all these years of waiting, the game you've all been eagerly anticipating is here: Kingdom Hearts 4...okay, now I'm definitely getting ahead of myself here. Sorry, I remember what I actually played now, it's Reynatis, but I think if you took one look at it, you'd forgive my confusion.

Reynatis is a game that is deeply steeped in its influences. Director Isobe Takumi hasn't tried to pretend the RPG hasn't taken queues from the later revamped Final Fantasy Versus 13, and with Kingdom Hearts writer Kazushige Nojima and series composer Yoko Shimomura fulfilling the same roles on Reynatis, you'll obviously find some similarities there too. But as much as this modern fantasy RPG borrows from some familiar favourites, there's still a big question left: what is Reynatis? Let's try to answer that question.

For starters, we'll take it quite literally. Reynatis is an action-RPG developed by Natsume Atari and FuRyu, set in contemporary Shibuya, but with a twist - magic is real, and wizards are an oppressed people judged and criminalised by society and the law (though that same law is propped up by wizards too). There are six playable characters in all, but the focus is put on two to start, Marin Kirizumi (whose design is definitely not Inspired By Sora from Kingdom Hearts), a stray wizard who wants to become the strongest, and Sari Nishijima, a wizard cop with a quest for vengeance.

At the outset, the plot doesn't come across as anything wholly unique, though the way it develops is, a point I'll loop back around to. Important to set up before we get into that is how combat works, which is both excitingly fresh and frustratingly cheesable. No matter which character you play as, each one has two modes: Suppressed, and Liberated.

In Liberated mode, you can use your magical powers, which translates to Kingdom Hearts-esque melee, and NEO The World Ends with You-esque abilities, but you have a limited amount of MP, which constantly drains while you're in said mode, and large chunks of it are depleted when you use an ability. In Suppressed mode, you are offenceless, unable to attack, but when projectiles or close-range attacks are about to hit you everything slows down, letting you dodge them to regain MP. When your MP is full, you can even make everything slow down completely for a short time, allowing you to go hard with rapid attacks while impervious to damage.

Reynatis - Announcement Trailer | PS5 & PS4 Games

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It's a system I've never seen in any other action RPG, and when everything connects just right it feels, for lack of a better term, magical. Switching between the two modes is instantaneous, so if you're quick you can enter Suppressed Mode, swiftly escape an attack, get some MP back, and continue attacking in Liberated mode. The one big issue is the fact that, if you want to, you can cheese it all by mostly staying in Liberated mode, as the slow-mo is a little bit too helpful. With some extra tweaks or time in the oven, I think this probably could have been overcome, but it does mean that those who end up not enjoying the combat might be encouraged to play it safe.

The thing I find most interesting about these two modes is the way they tie into the game's broader narrative. As I alluded to earlier, using your magical powers is illegal, actually, and so when playing as Marin, even if you're forced into battle by the story, once you've finished the fight NPCs will start reporting you for illegal wizard activity. There's even a stress meter that forces into Liberated mode when it gets high enough, and the police - who are essentially impossible to beat - will come after you. So, from very early on, I wondered, "hang on…is this game attempting a bit of commentary on real-world law enforcement?"

This question immediately made me nervous, because narratives like these often end up going the direction of saying "no, the police aren't bad, there's just a few bad apples that ruin the bunch." More complicated still, as mentioned, one of the game's main characters, Sari, is a cop, a seemingly by-the-books one too. And yet, in time, without veering too heavily into spoilers, there is some serious reflection on Sari's part, and Reynatis does acknowledge that police forces tend to serve the status quo and punish the marginalised.

It's a stance I was totally taken aback, by because it's so rare to see something so radical in a game of this profile, let alone in games at all (except for you, my beloved Disco Elysium). I have to admit that the game does not handle this perfectly - a big part of the storyline is that there's a drug that gives people magical powers, but is addictive, leading to these people to be known as "damned." Reynatis is sympathetic to these people, and never frames them as bad for struggling with addiction, though you can only kill them in gameplay, never materially help them.

Still, Reynatis generally feels like its heart is in the right place, even with how misguided it can be, and I felt lucky enough to not be frustrated by the end of the story, even if it veers away slightly from its political implications and more focuses on typical, world-altering JRPG sorts of things. But the whole time I was playing, even with all of these interesting conversations around the police and the requirement to fit into society, I couldn't help but think about one thing: Final Fantasy Versus 13.

This is a game born from a desire to see the pseudo-cancelled Final Fantasy title, it is the potential presented in all of Versus 13's trailers manifested into one theoretical way it could have gone, another director's idea of a fantasy based on reality. It's an exploration of potential, and ironically, a game full of the stuff, yet it never quite manages to deliver on everything perfectly. There is one key difference compared to that retitled Final Fantasy game though: it actually exists.

Yes, it's flawed. Yes, the camera can be incredibly janky in tight spaces, and the level design is mostly quite dull even if Shibuya is lovingly rendered, and at times I couldn't tell if the odd pacing of cutscenes was down to the localisation or it's just how the game is in general. But it's also a dream made real, one that hoped to capture a feeling so many people experience when they first saw Versus 13. It has something to say about oppressive systems, in a way I don't think a Final Fantasy game ever would, or Versus 13 ever could. Reynatis is just fascinating to me, partially because of its flaws.

Those that have seen the secret ending for Kingdom Hearts 3 know that Kingdom Hearts 4 could very well be series director Tetsuya Nomura's attempt at making his vision of Versus 13 made real, but I'm so glad that we have Reynatis as another interpretation of that vision, and to be honest, I hope even more developers make their own interpretations of Versus 13. Reynatis is a reality based on fantasy, and though it's far from perfect, that's enough for me.