Reynatis, Review of the Japanese version of the new Furyu title

After Crymachine, the same developers as Furyuthey thought well to develop something different from the past, not so much for the genre, since it is still an action RPG, but more for the setting and for the much larger structure compared to the previous titles. Yes, because Crymachineas well as Crystar che is always part of the same universe, they were simple dungeon crawler ends in themselves, where futuristic worlds were explored and then returned to base to take stock before starting again. Reinatis Instead, the latest creation of Furyu just released in the land of the Rising Sun, and that It will be released in English at the end of Septemberis completely different, as it is a semi open world, where you can explore mostly the Shibuya district of Tokyo. Set in the present day but with a magical theme, it will also take us to parallel worlds through portals, as well as deserts and much more.

The Plot

So what is this new project about? The game tells the story of a magician by name Marine who like other wizards lives as an outcast, in a society where wizards are seen as dangerous people, and therefore to be removed from society. Forced to hide his identity along with the other wizards, he will have to escape the MEA (Magic Enforcement Administration), an organization that punishes magicians and those who use various types of witchcraft for beneficial purposes, however it does so by using negative magic with the aim of transforming human beings into horrible monsters, and sowing death and destruction throughout cities, taking possession of drugs and other illicit trafficking.

But Marin, will ally with other wizards and with rebels from the MEA organization themselves, including Sariin order to live peacefully without hiding in a Tokyo that does not allow diversity, defeating the forces of the organization forever.

Ready to take the pad

We could say that at the level of actionthe combos performed by the various characters that make up your party – as in previous titles created by Furyu – They are created by combining the square, triangle and circle buttons, while the X button will be used to jump, the R1 button to dodge and the L1 button to transform using the bar Burst. In combat, to attack you will have to transform into your “magical” or “awakened”, that is, awakened, using the Burst ability.

However, to transform you will need some MP (Magic Points) which will be found exactly only in your health bar, the one of the HP (Health Points). The peculiarity of this game compared to other productions is that you cannot be constantly transformed on the streets of Shibuya as well as during the fights, but you will be human and without the ability to attack enemies, but only dodge them. So how can you transform to be able to fight?

This all revolves around the fundamental mechanics of the game, which consists of placing a counter (countermove) to a specific attack given by the enemies, which is precisely counterable with it. It is only by making the countermove that it will be possible partially fill the MP bar in order to transform and attack using the various skills. However, once you are transformed and attack the enemies that surround you, this will quickly run out, after which you will have to repeat the process to refill it. Even if you fill it completely without using it, you can stop time for a short time and give rise to a real slow motion in which you can kill your enemies using the slowdown (obviously it can also be useful against the numerous bosses of the game). You can use three characters at a time among those of the party, and switch from one to another at any time creating devastating combos. However, once you have changed it, you will have to wait for the meter to fill up before you can replace it again.

Each character will obviously have some specific featuressome will be more inclined towards melee attacks, while others will be more oriented towards magic attacks and ranged attacks. Each of them will also have unique super moves that they can activate called Last Manacewith exceptional power. Like any self-respecting action/rpg, we will have experience points to collect by killing enemies and completing secondary missions, which will make us level up, also unlocking other skills (which can also be found wandering around the streets of Shibuya, where you would least expect them, such as on the walls of skyscrapers, or even on the roofs of cars, in the subway, or in narrow urban alleys).

This mechanic immediately brought to mind a great game that came out several years ago which was Neo: The world ends with you, which is also among the collaborations of the game. In this regard we will not reveal anything else, but don’t worry! If you loved it you will have one more reason to buy Reynatis with your eyes closed. Other titles similar in mechanics that we absolutely must mention are the excellent Dusk Diver of which two chapters have been released, but also the famous Kingdom Hearts Of Square-Enixset in the Disney worlds.

A leisurely stroll in Tokyo? No way!

If you were thinking of wandering around Tokyo as cheerfully as you do in YakuzaShenmue or other productions set in the Japanese capital, you are very wrong, because this time it will be exactly like living Assassin’s Creed or Metal Gear Solidbut inside an Anime Game. In fact, it is true that you will be able to freely tour the Japanese neighborhoods of the entire city, but they will be filled with enemy forces of the MEAbut also of many human beings who are actually monsters, and who will attack you without batting an eyelid. In the meantime, you will be busy shopping in the various Japanese shops to refuel the party, after the exhausting battles faced, or while you are completing various secondary missions chatting with various characters and running from one neighborhood to another.

The real problem is that once they have forced you to fight, and once the fight is over (and therefore they have forced you to abandon the human form transforming you into your true magical form), an indicator of stress will gradually increase until it reaches its maximum. Fortunately, it is possible to reduce it using specific objects, or by hiding in the appropriate safe spot during your forays into Shibuya, which if you try to make them as stealthy as possible without being seen by the enemies scattered along the path, will certainly make you have less to deal with this annoying problem.

So moving from one place to another it is possible to reduce it, but sometimes we happened to reach the maximumand at that point the MEA forces intervened to kill us, and that’s how one of our first incidents happened Game over of the game, since it is a circumstance from which it is impossible to emerge alive, and indeed, you must absolutely prevent this from happening by all means.

Speaking of getting out of this alive, we can guarantee you that the game is very challengingespecially if you are not leveled enough, if you obviously have not equipped the right skills, and if you have not used the most effective characters with certain enemies and bosses or chaotic situations. In these you will have to play strategy to get out of the most complicated situations, because we assure you that the damage you will receive will be huge, and we recommend that you stock up on healing items (there are various systems to fill up and farm certain items).

As is now standard practice for every fast-paced action game like this one, even Reynatis does not escape the problem of a camera not always up to par especially when you are close to the wall in narrow alleys where you are forced to fight with huge bosses and other fearsome enemies. Another problem that is not so negligible, but that we hope will be fixed with the next patches – which are also adding special missions as free DLC – is the total lack of a selectable difficulty levelor in any case that we are proposed to lower, given the numerous Game over.

Technically different

There duration of the game stands at twenty or thirty hours depending on how many side missions you’ve completed having no End Game content after the main story credits (aside from a little shop with some cute kittens that will ask you for specific items so you can increase your characters’ slots for adding more skills). There is not even a form of New Game Pluswhich we would have appreciated instead.

That aside, the game is technically never has any frame rate drops to ensure that the action is always frenetic even in the most hectic moments filled with enemies and special effects. This is possible, as in the case of Crymachinethanks to Furyu’s choice to opt for a graphics engine that does not handle current-gen graphics, but almost cell-shaded graphics in anime version, therefore very light for a high-performance hardware like PS5 where we played our entire adventure in the Japanese version.

We also tried the demo on Nintendo Switchwhere actually the gamefor obvious reasons, runs at a lower frame rate, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable. On the audio side, the music is always very rhythmic and engaging, and honestly if the type of fast and frenetic combat had already reminded us of that, they also reminded us a lot of Kingdom Hearts Of Square-Enixeven for the appearance of the protagonist Marine in a transformed version that looks a lot like Sister.