Reynatis is an upcoming urban fantasy RPG set in present-day Shibuya but with a twist. Magic exists, but is deeply feared by the general public. You play as dual protagonists, Marin Kirizumi, a young wizard who is oppressed due to his power, and Sari Nishijima, a magic enforcement officer who seeks to maintain order.
The game has an absolute powerhouse team of creatives behind it, and we had the chance to speak with Takumi, the game’s passionate creative producer, Kazushige Nojima on the scenario, and Yoko Shimomura on the music. You may recognize Nojima as the writer behind some of the best Final Fantasy games, 7, 8, and 10, as well as the Kingdom Hearts games and many more. Shimomura is best known for writing the music for Kingdom Hearts, so you know Reynatis is in amazing hands.
We started off by asking Takumi about his biggest inspirations for Reynatis, “I received inspiration from the games that I played in my childhood, such as the Kingdom Hearts series.” Knowing this, it’s not a surprise that he sought out Shimomura to work on the music for the game. When we asked her how she ensured the game would have that classic ‘Shimomura feel’, she mused “Perhaps you’re referring to the incredibly tense and pressure-filled [melodic] phrases (she laughs), […] I feel that both have a forward momentum to them that makes a composition sound like one of mine.”
In a recent interview with Famitsu, Takumi mentioned that they performed group interviews with high school girls, so we were curious if the game is targeted to that audience, “No, the target audience isn’t high school girls. […] The setting for this game is the real world, so it was necessary to have the characters be based in reality.”
He then expanded on why these group interviews were important, “Characters like Moa have distinct personalities, so we chose actual high school girls who dressed like Moa and had similar sensibilities and spoke with them to research how they spoke, how they gave nicknames to things, and [we] put those things into the characters.” This is a very interesting approach to character writing, and we’re excited to meet Moa and see if it pays off.
Nojima mentioned in the same Famitsu interview that he was nervous writing dialogue for young modern characters. We were curious if he needed any extra insight from Takumi or to make many changes, to which he replied “I don’t think there was anything he directly rewrote. On the other hand, we did receive advice from ladies who were close in age to the main characters and made fixes based on that.” However, he did echo Takumi that the target audience isn’t all high school girls, “Since all the players of the game might not be in this age group, we made sure not to go overboard.”
Individuality is an overarching theme in Reynatis, so we asked Takumi to expand on why this concept was one he wanted to explore so deeply. “There is an expression in Japanese: ‘The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.’ This is something that I’ve personally experienced in my life, so I wanted to express that in this game. Even though there might be a lot of peer pressure causing people to conform, I want them to be able to express themselves and display their own individuality.” We love that Takumi drew from personal experience and despite the fantastical, magical setting, the game feels somewhat grounded in reality.
Aside from individuality, the game has a heavy focus on the trope of chaos vs. order, as you can see in the characters Kirizumi and Nishijima. Takumi let us know he finds the relationship between the words interesting, explaining with a grin, “‘Order.’ That’s probably an important word to keep in mind as you play this game” Regarding the dual protagonists, Nojima added, “This was the concept we had at the beginning. By depicting the same events from different viewpoints, we figured we would be able to tell a multilayered tale.”
We were also curious about the themes Shimomura wrote for each protagonist and asked if she had a favorite. “Each composition is like my own precious child, so I can’t choose just one.” That’s fair enough, we’re just glad to hear each character has been as lovingly crafted as the next.
Outside of the core game, Reynatis also has a collaboration with The World Ends With You. We were curious how this collab came to be and how it fits into the grand scheme of things. Takumi let us know “Like many of you, I was simply a fan of Tetsuya Nomura’s. When making a game that has Shibuya as its setting, TWEWY crept back into my mind. So, even though I figured it wouldn’t pan out, I thought, ‘I really want to do a collaboration…’ and that was the start of it all. From there, I did my best and had some people connect us, and from there I was able to present my idea to Mr. Nomura himself. The rest is history.”
Knowing that this collaboration came purely from Takumi being a fan of Nomura and TWEWY is a great sign it will be handled with the utmost care. He explains “It isn’t the same world, rather it’s something like a parallel world. In this collaboration, the ‘Shibuya’ that Marin and Moa enter, they meet Rindo and Shoka, and that ‘Shibuya’ is created from their thoughts.”
We were curious as to why Shibuya works so well in video game form. “Because Shibuya is a place interwoven with real magic.” Takumi laughs, “I’d love for everyone to visit it, there are many people and shops that you wouldn’t normally encounter in your everyday life. It truly feels like another world extrapolated from the real world – of course, I mean that in a good way!” As someone who has visited Shibuya, I echo Takumi’s thoughts loudly and believe many iconic Tokyo spots are great video game locales.
Reynatis is set to receive nine free content updates in the future. We were curious about what made Takumi choose this episodic release format rather than including everything in the base game, or charging for DLC. Turns out, it’s all down to spoilers. “Due to the proliferation of social media, the game’s story can be spread over the world and spoiled in an instant. Particularly, for the UK and other Western players, the game is releasing after the Japanese release.”
He continues “In order to prevent spoilers, the truly important, secret episodes will be released once the game has already come out [in the West]. On October 1st, the first of these will be released so that the whole world can enjoy it at the same time. After that, in order for the game to able to be played for a long while to come, we will have new scenarios releasing about once a month.” To conclude on this point, Takumi wants to make sure you don’t clock out early, stating “If players keep up with these things till the very end, there might just be something good waiting for them.”
Finally, as the game already features a collaboration with TWEWY, we asked Takumi if there are any future collaborations with other games coming to Reynatis. “That’s an interesting question.” He laughs, ”[…] It was my strong desire that led to us being able to do this specific collaboration with Square Enix. That strong desire hasn’t changed, so even if [we were able to continue this world], I can state definitively that I have no intention of collaborating with anyone aside from Square Enix. Having said that, I do have an idea for *something* in mind.” We’re going to keep a very close eye on the game and hope we see a collaboration with Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts in the future. If anyone can make it happen, we think Takumi will be the guy to do it.
There you have it, our burning questions answered by Takumi, Kazushige Nojima, and Yoko Shimomura. I’d like to thank them very much for taking the time to answer our questions! For those of you who are looking for something to play while you wait for the Reynatis release date on September 27 in NA and EU / October 4 in ANZ, make sure you check out our list of the best Switch games and the best Nintendo Switch RPGs.