The isometric tactical RPG has seen something of a rebirth over the past few years with games like the Mercenaries series andFae Tacticsout to remind people of the past in the case of Mercenaries and bring the genre closer into the present when it comes to quality of life with Fae Tactics. Compilations have helped bring older games to a new generation, like theNIS Classics Vol. 1release last year, but few have found a way to blend a more traditional fantasy setting with a robust tactical RPG system in modern times. Reverie Knights Tactics does a wonderful job of making things feel more modern while also getting the player hooked into the story right away.
One mistake that so many tactical RPG games make is either having the story be too convoluted for its own good or telling and not showing. Reverie starts off strong with a motion comic showing the goblin invaders taking over the city and killing folks – hooking the player right away with fast action and showing the stakes. Clerics have been sent to try and pass knowledge on and battle the goblins to take the city back and wouldn’t you know it, tactical warfare is the best way to do it. Reverie Knights manages to keep things familiar while still adding some depth to combat.
The basic formula of starting with your troops, mapping out their movements and setting up attacks is intact – but made more action-packed as well. Unlike a lot of classic genre entries, team attacks are possible when allies sandwich foes. This adds another layer to one’s positioning as there’s a risk/reward system at play. Placing the characters too close together can lead to both taking damage in a group attack scenario, but can also thin the numbers out early and offer up an advantage later on. Similarly, having environmental-based attacks comes in handy when you may not have allies nearby, but do have things like thorns in an opponent’s path that you may draw them into to chip away at them when paired up with something like a freeze spell. There’s a lot of depth to the combat, but the learning curve is sloped fairly, and the player never goes into a tough battle without the skills needed to do well.
In a slightly odd move for a game that’s so menu-heavy and has an on-screen pointer for the world map, there’s no touchscreen support on Switch. This first comes up as being odd when selecting actions during a turn as that’s done with the left face button – but uses small icons that seem like they should be pressed as well since they’re fully highlighted. It’s nice to have the full highlight, but does seem odd to not have them touchable as well. It could just be a matter of the icons being too small to touch with ease without using a stylus, but touchscreen support would help speed up combat pacing. The weirdest time to not have a touchscreen is the overworld area where a cursor pops up and that would be ideal for touchscreens, but that isn’t used at all. Having parity between different versions is fine, but it seems like an odd omission to not have touchscreen support for parts of the game that would logically include it if it was in the game.
One downside to Reverie Knights' robust animation for movement is its slow pace for combat. In a lot of classic SRPGs, movement animations are minimal, but the actual movement speed is brisk. Here, because the goal was to add a sense of reality to the events, every character has their own animations. Movement is different for everyone, as are attack animations – resulting in turns that can take a while if the player finds themselves up against a large quantity of brutish foes. Hopefully, this can be amended down the road with an update to speed this up and maybe remap it as having it on the select/back button just feels odd compared to putting it on a right bumper or trigger.
Flaws aside, combat is rewarding, and effort is made between battles to build up the world itself, the player’s allies and make dialogue more important. you’re able to skip through it but doing so will lead to poor decisions and affect how your avatar Aurora is viewed by allies. Actions also have consequences when it comes to battle, as there are chances to avoid combat entirely with special objects – but doing so will deprive you of XP gain and possible item grabs too. The risk/reward is always there and present in both battles and dialogue sections since everything is so intertwined. For a thinking-person’s RPG sub-genre, it’s a smart move to keep the player engaged even if the dialogue itself isn’t always the most riveting.
Visually, Reverie Knights Tactics is impressive in terms of offering rich colors, high levels of detail and surprisingly robust movement animation. This is something we don’t normally see in a tactical RPG, but it shows how much care was put into the end result. The vibrant colors for every part of the battlefield and world map itself are impressive, while the rich black outlines make every character stand out against the environment and prevent issues where models blend into the environments. There’s a downside to the visuals though and that comes in the form of still art being used for dialogue that makes things feel lackluster. Other than that, it’s got a satisfying visual presentation.
Reverie Knights Tactics features impressive voice work that isn’t used all the time, but is used to augment cutscenes and tell the story. The voice acting is dramatic but doesn’t veer into overly dramatic as can be the case with fantasy land-set games. When that happens, the overly-bombastic voiceover can take the player right out of the experience, but a nice balance is struck here that allows the story to be taken seriously. The soundtrack has a good variety to it with some basic orchestral tunes for music and more intense songs for battles, but never gets to the next level.
Closing Comments:
Reverie Knights Tactics is a good tactical RPG experience, but one that falls short of a top-shelf one overall. The attempts to bring more story into the genre are admirable, but not as memorable as games like Disgaea that have done it with more gusto. There’s a lot of depth within the core gameplay, though, and having decisions impact character interactions make that content more engaging overall. It looks fantastic and sounds good, but none of the soundtrack sticks with the player after a session. Still, for someone craving something new in the genre, there’s a lot to enjoy in an imperfect package.
