14 DAY TRIAL // 
Throw a firebomb to take down an archer and maybe push back one of his goblin friends. Follow that up with an ice wall that should make it harder to reach any of my characters next turn. One shield bash drives one opponent into a spike trap. My third character drops another bomb, this time acid, and uses a special ability to force one enemy to turn on his friends. Even after this solid of a turn, I have trouble seeing how I can reach all my objectives and make it out with my entire party in good health. Maybe I need to restart the battle and re-evaluate my previous decisions.
Reverie Knights Tactics is created by 40 Giants Entertainment and published by 1C Entertainment. The title is offered on the PlayStation 4 from Sony, the Xbox One from Microsoft, and the Nintendo Switch, but I played it on the PC using Steam.
The entire story is centered on Aurora, a young priestess who has dedicated her life to the quest for knowledge. She needs to travel to another continent to try and find her adoptive dad, Marius, who disappeared during a mission to explore an elven city taken over by goblins. The writers aimed for a mix of levity and depth, and I suspect the narrative will be pretty divisive. The game features choices that will affect how the world and other characters react to Aurora.
Turn-based, hex-driven tactical combat represents the gameplay center of Reverie Knights Tactics. The party, made up of characters with a variety of abilities, will face off against groups of enemies, always outnumbered, never entirely outgunned. Aurora is a powerful cold-wielding magic-user, able to directly attack enemies but also channel their movements and support friends. Success in combat is a matter of careful planning, especially when larger groups of goblins start appearing.
Gamers need to consider health, mana, and focus, which power different abilities and attacks. The battle arenas come complete with traps, obstacles, and rewards. And to introduce even more complexity, Reverie Knights Tactics adds objectives for each engagement, which come with solid experience and monetary rewards. The game really wants players to achieve them, asking for confirmation before moving past battles. This creates an interesting tension between the need to get that extra knowledge and XP and the dangers that the effort can pose to the player-controlled party.
Back at camp, a small cast of supporting characters give access to potions, food, and bombs, all of which are crucial in a close-fought engagement. There’s also quite a bit of party chat to engage with. Locations also have a small number of resources hidden in the landscape, creating a small hidden object mini game for players who want to be as efficient as possible. A mini game for lockpicking feels a little superfluous. Players will have to deal with more puzzles to unlock access to new areas of the game world.
I like the combat sequences in Reverie Knights Tactics quite a bit. The carefully crafted maps, with their environmental hazards and extra objectives, combined with strong enemy forces, create engaging tactical puzzles. I found that running from opponents and using traps is as important to victory as knowing when to gang up on them to unleash the very cool combo attacks that feature all party members.
But all other elements of the game failed to connect with me. I never cared about Aurora or her adopted father. I found the attempts at humor to be mostly grating. The game needs a more interesting world or at least an innovative angle on it.
Reverie Knights Tactics has a look that aims to balance retro and modern concepts, largely succeeding. Characters look fairly good and emote well, with some truly fun and detailed moves on the battlefield. The world, the locations, and the enemies are less engaging or visually interesting. The bigger issue is that everyone simply moves too slowly during battle, which does not help with the excitement level. The battle sounds and the music are the most mediocre parts of the presentation, mostly because they are repetitive.
The Good
- Combat scenarios
- Hand-drawn spaces
- Tension between objectives and victory
The Bad
- Limited narrative
- Slow action
- Repetitive soundtrack
Conclusion
But everything moves too slowly for the full experience to be fun. During combat, I watched the same animations hundreds of times, more if I wanted to hit all the listed goals. On the world map, I had to move from one non-descript area to another. The developer at 40 Giants Entertainment had good ideas for Reverie Knights Tactics but they needed better implementation to keep me engaged in the long term.
Review code provided by the publisher.
