Some of the best and most enjoyable games on the market got their starts trying to create an homage to a particular creator or franchise. There's an important key factor: The homage is going to be compared to the original. Reynatis is a game that clearly owes a lot to the works of Tetsuya Nomura, ranging from massive inspirations from The World Ends with You to a number of callbacks to Kingdom Hearts. It's not a terrible idea, but Reynatis makes one important fumble: It makes me wish I were playing those games instead.

Reynatis is set in an alternate version of the modern world, focused on Shibuya in Japan. Wizards exist and can perform powerful magic, so they are strictly regulated, with a Magic Enforcement Agency hunting down and "eliminating" rogue wizards. The story follows Marin Kirizami, a stray wizard who is seeking a way to become the strongest wizard in the world, and Sari Nijishima, a member of the M.E.A. The two end up embroiled in a conspiracy that involves the entire wizarding world and must work together to discover the source of the drug Rubrum.

The narrative in Reynatis is firmly average. It doesn't really break any molds or do anything particularly special. You can pretty much figure out who is evil and who is good within five seconds of meeting them, and it never pulls off a special twist. The cast is largely likable, with the bulk of their characterization told through unlockable instant messages. The weak point is Marin, who needs more of a personality than he has, especially as characters tend to circle around him as a "chosen one" figure.

One of the biggest problems is that Reynatis evokes the idea of Shibuya as a stylish, cool and interesting place but never does anything with it. It makes Shibuya shockingly boring, which is a genuine issue. It's impossible to not compare the game to The World Ends with You, which has a very similar concept but is dripping with style. Reynatis actually crosses over with The World Ends with You for a bonus quest, which does the game absolutely no favors. It adds to the sense that Reynatis feels like a cheap copy.

As for combat, you have a basic attack, a dodge, and two equippable spells, which are also known as Wizarts. These spells can be changed out, with some spells being available to all of your characters and some being exclusive to specific characters. Any attack or spell will drain the MP bar, with stronger spells taking more MP. You have a party of three, with only one character being out at a time, but you can swap between any character as long as they have MP. The character you are controlling will temporarily remain on the field after a swap, so you can't swap back and forth instantly. There's also a shared super bar that can be used to execute powerful cinematic attacks.

In Reynatis, there are two modes: Suppressed and Liberated. In Suppressed mode, you can't attack or do anything but dodge, but your MP replenishes naturally. In Liberation mode, you can attack and use spells, but your MP drains over time. You can swap between these modes at will, but if you run out of MP, you'll be temporarily forced into Suppressed mode. On the other hand, if you go from Suppressed to Liberated when your MP is full, you'll temporarily slow down time and be given a few precious extra seconds to attack unhindered.

Dodging in Reynatis is odd. There's a standard dodge button that works as expected, but when you are in Suppressed mode, that changes. Time slows down significantly when an enemy attack would hit, aside from certain special glowing attacks. If it is a ranged attack, you need to tap to dodge, but if it is a close-ranged attack, you need to hold down the button until a circle fills on the screen. Release it too early, and you just dodge. Release it too late, and you get hit. Release it at just the right time, and you'll not only dodge but also steal MP from enemies.

In theory, the idea seems to be that you blow all of the MP in Liberation mode and then swap to Suppression mode to replenish it. Rinse and repeat. However, there's no real negative to being in Suppression mode since you can swap to Liberation at any time and vice versa. Instead of feeling like a push/pull, it feels like it is an unnecessary extra step to what is otherwise a standard "perfect dodge" mechanic. If you were in Liberation mode all the time and close dodges replenished MP, you'd have functionally the same combat system, but it would flow smoother. I can't even say it makes action combat more accessible for gamers who aren't used to it because this dodge mechanic is more awkward and harder to instinctively time than usual.

The combat system in Reynatis feels like it's getting its own way. I spent a good chunk of the game thinking about how much better it would play if it were more generic. I got used to its foibles, and there are some genuinely fun moments to be had, especially when you're dodging between bullets like Neo from The Matrix. It doesn't quite thread the needle between being an RPG and a standard action game.

Outside of combat, there's not a lot to do. Shibuya is fully modeled, which is neat, but it isn't any kind of Yakuza-style experience where you're visiting places. Most of what you do is accept side-quests, and when completed, they lower the level of malice in Shibuya. Doing so causes makes Wizarts available, so you can learn and use then. To improve Wizarts, you need to find multiples of the same, and that usually means dropping malice as low as it can go. Side-quests revolve around going to a place and beating up a monster or magic cop, and only a few side-quests have any personality.

Reynatis isn't helped by having a lot of genuinely baffling design choices. For example, the game's Wanted system sounds like a fine idea. If you use magic in public, it'll attract attention on social media. Attract too much, and the police will come and stop you. The actual execution is bewildering. There's no reason to use your magic in public unless you're ambushed by a random encounter, which promptly starts a countdown. If you go to another area, everything is reset. The fast-travel option is not disabled during this countdown, so if it happens, you can instantly fast-travel to another area and back to where you were with no consequence. Even if you let magic max out and the super-police kill you, you can restart where you died with no consequences. This means that every random encounter forces you to waste 15-20 seconds resetting the police meter.

There are also some things that only feel like they were in the game because they were in The World Ends with You. There are a ton of diners where you can stop and get food to heal yourself, but there's genuinely no reason to ever do this because anywhere you can visit a diner also has a save point which will fully heal you for free, and it doesn't give any dialogue or bonuses. There's a "crafting" mechanic that amounts to selling a bunch of items to a shop so you can unlock a bonus slot for your character. This must be done one item at a time, even though you can sell everything at once. There's also a "stress" mechanic that feels tacked on, with stress rising slightly if you talk to NPCs or hang around too long when your Wanted level is high. If stress goes down, the functionally means nothing at all to the game.

These nagging problems aren't necessarily game-breaking, but they show a genuine lack of cohesive design that leaves the experience feeling half-baked. Most of the individual mechanics can be good with some polish, but none of them flow together. I really like the concept that using magic draws attention, but there's no reason to ever do it. Likewise, Wizarts are a great pun and a cool concept, but unless you're retracing all of Shibuya every time the Malice level goes down, you'll probably only grab them if they're near a plot point — or if you're keeping track of them by writing them down.

One area where Reynatis falls flat is the visuals. The character models are poorly animated, and there's a huge gulf between the small selection of main characters and anyone else, frequently leaving you talking to important characters who are animated like a PlayStation 2 model. Combat animations look better, but any time the game focuses on a face, it drives home how basic it is. Cut scenes are incredibly basic, frequently cutting to black or focusing on the cast watching something happen off-screen so it doesn't have animations. Shibuya is well modeled, but it's also a case where I've seen it done better in other games, so it doesn't stand out as much. I will say the music is largely excellent, as one might expect from a game composed by Yoko Shimomura.

Reynatis breaks the cardinal rule of not reminding players about better games. Everything from the concept to the gameplay feels like a less engaging version of The World Ends with You, and the fact there's an in-game crossover between the two makes it not feel like a coincidence. There's very little that makes Reynatis stand out, and there are quite a few baffling game design choices. I can see players gleaning some fun from it, but only if they've already experienced its better inspirations.

Score: 6.5/10