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Reverie Knights Tactics – Taking a Page from DOS 2

Reverie Knights Tactics Gameplay & Features Overview: Fantasy Turn-Based RPG. In this Reverie Knights Tactics Gameplay & Features Overview, I’m going to go through the story and impactful choices you’ll be making, the intricate combat mechanics, and the heroes who will fight alongside you in this tactical turn-based RPG. The game was developed by 40 Giants Entertainment and published by 1C Entertainment. Reverie Knights Tactics will be released on PC via Steam, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch tomorrow on January 25, 2022.

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Reverie Knights Tactics Gameplay & Features Overview: Fantasy Turn-Based RPG

  • Name: Reverie Knights Tactics
  • Platforms: PC (Steam, GOG, Epic Game Store), Xbox One, PlayStation 4
  • Developer: 40 Giants Entertainment
  • Publisher: 1C Entertainment
  • Release Date: January 25, 2022
  • Genre: Fantasy, Isometric, Tactical Turn-Based RPG

 

What is Reverie Knights Tactics?

Reverie Knights Tactics is an isometric, tactical Turn-based RPG where the choices you make affect the story and characters involved. The outcome of your decisions changes the tide of the narrative and gameplay because it affects your moral alignment, similar to how it would in King Arthur: Knight’s Tale, for example.

Reverie Knights Tactics Moral Alignment Chaos and Order
Chaos and Order Moral Alignment

However, what makes Reverie Knights Tactics stand out is its actual combat. Not only are your positioning skills put to the test, but you also have to develop your environmental acuity to take advantage of the battlefield, much like in Divinity: Original Sin 2. Moreover, you’ll find out how quickly the difficulty ramps up after an encounter or two, which pushes you to be very strategic in terms of what you should do next. Will you use a potion to heal your main character at the cost of foregoing your next attack or will you instead, damage several opponents using Spiked Flowers without restoring your HP?

Reverie Knights Tactics Glanced Attacks in Combat

Reverie Knights Tactics features 4 playable heroes (three of whom you’ll meet through exploration), character customization, highly interactive and varied battle phases, 2 difficulty modes, and the looting and crafting system.

Reverie Knights Tactics Overview and Setting

Reverie Knights Tactics is set in the continent of Lamnor. You embark on a series of adventures in the hopes of saving your father from the hobgoblins who continue to ravage the once glorious Elven City of Lennorien.

Reverie Knights Tactics Intro Cinematic

Initially playing as the main character Aurora, you’ll encounter other heroes who will join your cause such as Brigandine, Fren, and Hellaron. What’s interesting is that each of them has unique personalities, skills, and playstyles to offer, which can tip the odds of combat in your favor if used correctly. Aurora is a mage who’s able to deal damage at melee and ranged distances while disabling enemies, but doing so quickly depletes her Mana as well.

On the other hand, her best friend Brigandine acts like a tank in that she’s able to taunt targets and remove the status effects of her allies provided that they’re near her. The latter point is huge given that these negative effects accelerate a character’s undoing. The seemingly brash Fren can charm an enemy to fight alongside him for one turn or make them bleed. Meanwhile, the loyal Hellaron is a healer and support hero who can cure and restore an ally’s HP while removing their status effects. He’s also able to conjure a copy of himself to distract enemies.

Reverie Knights Tactics Dialogue with Brigandine

These are just some of the things that heroes can do. The skills they have aren’t limited to the ones I mentioned since you’ll be unlocking more as you all level up. Furthermore, having them around makes the exploration aspect of the game varied and interesting. You not only learn who they are and how they think, but you also get to capitalize on their strengths, which turns combat into an engaging and exciting experience.

Reverie Knights Tactics boasts fantastic hand-drawn, cell-shaded textures in terms of its landscapes, characters, and overall environment. As such, the visuals beautifully capture the magic behind the fantastic world of Lamnor, from the thorough details behind each encounter, to the artistic style of every character and creature you meet. It’s certainly impressive to see 40 Giants Entertainment make use of rich and bright colors to bring the story and fantasy theme of the game to life.

Reverie Knights Tactics Combat Visuals

In terms of the audio, Reverie Knights Tactics does offer decent soundtracks, however, these are limited. There’s not much variety in the music that you hear from one encounter to the next or even outside of combat so it tends to be repetitive after a short period of time. But this isn’t the case for the sound effects, which I enjoy listening to. Every skill of the hero sounds distinct and weighty. In fact, the enemies themselves are differentiated by the attacks they execute.

Reverie Knights Tactics Gameplay Features and Combat

Impactful Choices and Exploration

In Reverie Knights Tactics, the choices you make will align with Aurora’s chaotic or orderly nature, affecting the narrative as well as how the other heroes will react to her. If she’s more chaotic by selecting rash options that may cause harm, then they’ll think of her as either courageous or impulsive. But if Aurora adheres towards order by choosing logical reasons as opposed to emotional ones, then her companions will either warm up to her or judge her as a pushover.

Reverie Knights Tactics Dialogue with Fren

Moreover, these choices could negatively impact everyone. For instance, there was one situation where due to Aurora’s certain alignment, she was able to disarm a trap. As such, the party left the scene unscathed. Had her disposition been different, this could have led to the start of an encounter. This is simply one example of what may happen depending on who Aurora ends up becoming. Is she going to be a rational individual or will she succumb to her dangerous impulses?

Reverie Knights Tactics Disarming a Trap

When it comes to the game’s exploration aspect, it’s rather straightforward. You won’t be looking over your characters while directing them here and there to move from one location to the next. Instead, you have to select specific points of interest that serve as ways to progress in quests. Think of it as traversing an overworld map. When the party arrives at their destination, they’ll have a small discussion about the place and then decide what needs to be done.

Reverie Knights Tactics Overworld Map

Sometimes, you’ll engage in mini-quests like lockpicking to find out the contents of locked chests and to progress the narrative. Exploration in Reverie Knights Tactics isn’t that extensive so don’t expect to see sprawling vistas when you’re traveling in Lamnor.

Character Customization

In the game, you’ll be managing 4 heroes in terms of their attributes, skills, and equipment. There are only 3 attributes to invest in, namely Might, Finesse, and Defense. Might improves your overall damage as well as the effectiveness of certain skills, whereas Finesse enhances your chances of dealing critical damage and taking glancing attacks, which lessens incoming damage by half. And finally, Defense also reduces the damage you receive while boosting your resistance against status effects.

Reverie Knights Tactics Aurora Character UI

Note that the decisions you make in this game extend beyond the scenarios I talked about in the previous section. They also affect the available skills you can select every time you level up. If you have fully oriented yourself towards one moral alignment, you’ll be presented with either chaotic or orderly skills. It all depends on what you choose to become.

Reverie Knights Tactics Equipment

Lastly, the gear you equip raises your attributes or stats such as HP and Mana, thereby improving survivability while increasing the number of times you can activate some skills.

Combat and Difficulty

Combat is where Reverie Knights Tactics shines the most due to the strategies you have to employ. Every encounter may feel punishing until you fully understand how to utilize optimal positioning, environmental hazards and obstacles, and your skills.

Reverie Knights Tactics Optimal Positioning

At earlier levels, you often have to retry the battle if you make a single mistake as they will probably lead to your downfall. For instance, if you trudge along the arena filled with destructive monsters, you’ll most likely get devoured and poisoned by them. At the start of most encounters except for ambushes, you’ll be able to position your heroes accordingly. However, similar to Expeditions: Rome, you only have a small area at which you can move around so make use of it wisely. Afterward, the actual combat will begin.

On the right-hand corner of the screen, you’ll notice that there are several objectives to accomplish to acquire extra XP and Cogni. These are not mandatory but they’re worth completing to make succeeding encounters manageable since you’re able to progress and level up faster. And they also make combat much more challenging and fun.

Reverie Knights Tactics Combat Objectives

For instance, two objectives have you “Defeating an enemy with an obstacle” as well as “Collecting an item from an obstacle”. If you complete both, you’ll gain 10 XP and 70 Cogni on top of what you receive by default. Meanwhile, Cogni is used to decipher Tomes via the Scribe at camp, thereby granting access to passives, which you wouldn’t otherwise gain. Be mindful that the AI in this game is smart. Sometimes, they race you to complete one of your easier combat objectives such as unlocking a treasure chest.

In the encounter itself, you have to maximize the positions of your heroes to take less damage. For example, there was a scenario where Aurora had to swap places with an enemy using the Mystic Fog Skill to avoid his telegraphed attack. Not only did she dodge this but also, that same enemy received great damage as a result. Another essential technique is to corner your targets using two or three of your heroes to execute team attacks, which inflict massive damage. You can also backstab them for extra damage. The sooner they die the better, especially if you have a lot of other cohorts to deal with.

Reverie Knights Tactics Swapping Places Using the Mystic Fog Skill in Combat
Aurora’s Mystic Fog Skill

Remember that for every turn, each of your heroes only has 2 Action Points. They’re then consumed when you move and attack. Similar to Expeditions: Rome and Disciples: Liberation, you have the freedom to decide which among your characters will act first, giving you a distinct advantage. Additionally, not all enemies in the arena are aware of your presence. But they’ll be alerted after 2-3 turns or if you attack them.

Next is improving your sense of environmental awareness based on the obstacles and hazards available in the encounter. This, coupled with your smart use of skills, will help keep you alive. In one instance, Aurora attacked a Spiked Flower, which resulted in hitting an icicle on the ground. This then inflicted Chill against adjacent enemies, reducing their AP in the next turn by one. There are so many combinations you can come up with that reminds me ever so slightly of Larian Studios’ fascination with environmental interactions in Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Reverie Knights Tactics Spiked Flower Chill Status Effect in Combat

In terms of Reverie Knights Tactics’ difficulty, you can select between Normal or Story Mode. In the Normal Mode, your HP won’t regenerate after an encounter so you have to rely on potions and skills to improve survivability. It’s also advisable to complete as many combat objectives as possible to level up quickly. This difficulty tier is highly recommended for experienced RPG players who intend to challenge themselves. Conversely, in the Story Mode, you’ll be focusing on the plot rather than combat where you’ll regain your full health regardless of whether or not you’ve leveled up.

Looting and Crafting System

Looting comes in many forms. For instance, you can unlock treasure chests and attack obstacles in combat, which may provide you with items such as herbs for crafting. What Reverie Knights Tactics does differently though is to incentivize you to click as many items in the background as possible. Those that you wouldn’t otherwise select are valuable loot. For instance, some of the mushrooms you see are obtainable. Plus, it gives you time to appreciate the wonderful art of the game. Nowadays, this isn’t as common in RPGs where, more often than not, pertinent items are shining, begging you to take notice of them.

Reverie Knights Tactics The Camp

In the camp, which is also considered your haven, you’ll be able to interact with NPCs such as Halyeras to craft bombs and Garlos to cook food. Bombs provide you with more options to damage and debilitate enemies whereas food restores HP and Mana as well as removing status effects. Remember to keep coming back to them to replenish your stocks.

Reverie Knights Tactics Final Thoughts

Reverie Knights Tactics revisits challenging combat mechanics of classic isometric turn-based RPGs while weaving fresh systems into it. Although this may be difficult for those who aren’t familiar with the genre due to the uneven learning curve, completing every encounter, including the combat objectives, feels very satisfying. It’s also commendable to see the developers incorporate smart AI who equally take advantage of environmental hazards and obstacles to your detriment, making combat tougher but more fun.

Reverie Knights Tactics Visuals

If you’ve been searching for a beautiful and interesting tactical turn-based RPG where the choices you make don’t only impact the story but also, the gameplay itself, then consider checking out Reverie Knights Tactics. You can use the link below to help support the channel if you’re picking up the game on Steam.


What do you find most appealing about Reverie Knights Tactics? Will you be playing the game on the first day of launch? Let us know in the comments below! If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out our recent previews Sands of Salzaar Gameplay Preview – Action Adventure Sandbox RPG and Thymesia – A Bloodborne-Like Action RPG Coming Next Year (2022).

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