Fans of Japanese action-RPGs, I bring two pieces of good news: Reynatis, the game a team of Final Fantasy veterans showed off during last week's Nintendo Partner Direct, isn't Japan- or Switch-exclusive, and it's been confirmed for a worldwide launch later this year.
If you weren't watching the Japanese version of the Nintendo Direct, you would've missed Reynatis, and even if you did see its stylish reveal trailer you might've assumed it was Japan-exclusive. Not only that, but since it was revealed during a Nintendo Direct, it was fair to think it might be Switch-exclusive. Thankfully, it turns out none of that is true: Reynatis is confirmed to launch on Switch as well as PS5, PS4, and PC worldwide in fall 2024.
Anyway, Reynatis's vibrant recreation of modern day Shibuya aside, the main reason I'm psyched is its development team. It's written by Kazushige Nojima, a legendary developer known for writing the original Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 10 and 10-2, as well as the mainline Kingdom Hearts games and the forthcoming Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. He's joined by Yoko Shimomura, a veteran composer responsible for so many iconic scores it's hard to list, but whose biggest highlights include Street Fighter 2, Super Mario RPG, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy 15.
Admittedly, Reynatis looks a little rough around the edges at this point, with some noticeably low-poly character models and what look like frame rate issues even in the PlayStation version of the trailer. The story also seems a little all over the place, centering on, I think, some wizard cops looking to crack down on the city's "rubrum" addiction problem. There also appears to be some portal in the Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo that takes you to a magical realm, and I have no clue how that ties into the story.
Very little combat is seen in the trailer, but it looks like what you expect from a very JRPG-looking action-RPG. There's some fast-paced, Musou-esque sword fighting, precision dodging, special abilities with AoE damage, and even a little bit of gunplay. Certainly nothing groundbreaking from what I've seen, but there seems to be enough depth that I want to know more about how it all works.
I'm also very much drawn to the world, but that might just be because I'm a total sucker for games set in Japan, especially when there's some sort of mysterious phenomenon going on, which there almost always is.
Basically, I need to see more from Reynatis, especially since its developer has been absolutely pumping out releases of varying quality in recent years. I'm very, very encouraged by Nojima and Shimomura being on board, but they're only two pieces of a much bigger puzzle, so we'll just have to see how it all comes together when it launches later this year.
Here are the best JRPGs to play in the meantime.
