Summary
Whatever your opinion ofReynatis, it is undeniably a game that exists, and one that is attempting to achieve a very specific version of Japan. Reynatis isn’t afraid to wear its inspirations on its sleeve either, letting you trace the origin of each of its ideas easily.
But maybe Reynatis isn’t enough for you. Those inspirations are strong, maybe a bit stronger than the game’s own identity. Reynatis plays off many different ideas, and just one game might not be enough to sate your appetite. Well here’s a whole host of games for you to try out if Reynatis caught your fancy.
From the second Reynatis was revealed, it had been compared to Kingdom Hearts. This wasn’t an unfair comparison considering, at least aesthetically, Reynatis did not deny the role Kingdom Hearts played in its existence. With such a strong love for Kingdom Hearts, why not play the actual series instead?
Featuring the very same composer in Yoko Shimomura, you start to get a feel for where certain parts of Reynatis' combat came from once you play Kingdom Hearts. From the way you zip around the battlefield to the aerial combat, Kingdom Hearts is a game that birthed many of the ideas Reynatis uses, and has a much longer time to develop them.
Plus, Kingdom Hearts 3 even has a Shibuya world of its own featuring a boss fight against someone who seems like the entire basis for Marin.
Another Square Enix game with Yoko Shimomura as the composer, and another of Reynatis' key inspirations. Final Fantasy 15 may at first glance seem like a game that bears very little relation to Reynatis, though dig a little deeper and the layers will practically unravel themselves.
FF15 began as Versus 13, the clear foundation for Reynatis. FF15 diverged from this idea after a while, though much of the ideas remain such as the city of Insomnia. Plus, Final Fantasy 15 has much stronger party mechanics than those featured in Reynatis, which is a nice change of pace.
While Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy Versus 13 make up the bulk of what people have recognised as the key inspirations behind Reynatis, perhaps the most major of those games that inspired it is The World Ends With You. Such a strong influence did TWEWY have on Reynatis that it even got a collaboration in-game.
TWEWY and its sequel also take in Shibuya and put a very large emphasis on contemporary culture and fashion, threads of which Reynatis also pulls on. TWEWY features a much more stylised version of Shibuya which is a welcome change from the rain-drenched rendition of Reynatis.
With the key Square Enix inspirations out of the way, let’s jump to some games that bear other similarities to Reynatis that you might enjoy. The first of these is Astral Chain, the PlatinumGames developed Switch exclusive. Sari’s police side of the story was paltry compared to Marin, and Astral Chain will give you the opposite perspective.
Pulling even more heavily on ananime aesthetic mixed with some traditional Cyberpunk sleeknessand neon, Astral Chain takes place on an artifical landmass known as the Ark, with you playing as one twin monitoring the Shibuya-inspired city as a deeper mystery bubbles beneath the surface.
Tango Gameworks, recently deceased and now reborn, are best-known as the creators of horror games, though Hi-Fi Rush proved that they could pivot in any direction they wanted. Ghostwire Tokyo was another attempt to shift from pure psychological horror, putting a greater focus on action and folklore mixed with the contemporary world.
Like Reynatis, Ghostwire takes place around Shibuya and its surroundings. It goes for an even more detailed recreation of the city than Reynatis as a single seamless world, letting you marvel in the scale and diversity of Shibuya. Plus the monster designs pull from actual Japanese culture, giving you much more inspired designs.
There really are quite a few Japanese games et in Shibuya, huh? Though it’s only fair for a game to be set in one of the national cities in the country of which your games takes place. Joining Reynatis in that category is Persona 5, though just as much time will be spent in Shibuya as the palaces of corrupted individuals.
In many ways, this is the same structure as Reynatis itself. When you’re not running across the length of Shibuya, you’re exploring the Dominus and Boundary Forests of Another.Persona 5 is a decidedly longer gamethan Reynatis by quite a stretch, though its palaces are a sight more varied than Reynatis' forests.
4Other Furyu Games
While Reynatis came to light due to itssimilarities to Kingdom Heartsand Versus 13, Furyu has developed plenty of games in the past, all following an identical development structure to Reynatis. That is to say that the team developing each game has come from some renowned team and is developing a brand new game in a similar vein.
Monark pulled heavily from the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games, featuring ex-Atlus talent. There’s the Caligula Effect, which also featured writers and composers from early Persona games. Oh, and Trinity Trigger, featuring renowned composer Hiroki Kikuta. And Reynatis has Yoko Shimomura and Kazushige Nojima. It’s Furyu’s modus operandi.
While it doesn’t quite manifest in-game in the same way it was shown in trailers, Reynatis got many comparisons to Devil May Cry and Bayonetta for the character-action flashiness of its combat. It is actually decidedly more simple than it seems, though parts of the systems are still there.
One major aspect of Reynatis is standing still so that time will slow as you are about to be attacked. This Burst Liberation is very inspired by Bayonetta’s Witch Time, rewarding perfect dodges with slowed time. Bayonetta also has a much more involved combat, if you liked the taste of it that Reynatis offered.
Now this one might seem a little bit out of nowhere, but give us a moment to sell you on it. Reynatis offers up a very specific vibe in combat of watching bullets as they dart towards you only for you to slow time and dodge them at the last moment. Does that maybe sound familiar? Max Payne loves slowing down time for some well-placed bullets.
It might be a stretch, but if you enjoyed the sensation of dodging bullets in Reynatis, then you might find just as much joy being on the other end of the barrel, firing off those bullets as the whole world slows down around it. It’s a thrill alright.
Powerscaling is one of the most popular forms of fan comparisons when it comes to determining just how strong a character really is. Lots of ‘my big brother could beat up your big brother’ energy. And Dragon Ball is like the holy grail of powerscaling because it’s built into the series itself. So how does it relate to Reynatis at all?
Well, Marin wants to become the strongest. That is quite simply his only goal in the entire game. To be the strongest wizard alive just because. It’s almost admirable how single-minded he is when an Illuminati-esque organisation is trying to take over the world. So if Marin’s journey to the top appealed to you, definitely check out the many Dragon Ball games. Those boys just don’t stop getting stronger.
