Interview: Kazushige Nojima Talks About Reynatis’ Story and Influences

NIS America and Furyu’s next big game is going to be Reynatis, a JRPG with a story from Scenario Writer Kazushige Nojima. While Nojima’s work on entries in the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts involved fantasy worlds and fictional locales, this one brings us into the heart of Shibuya. To better understand what that involved, Siliconera had the chance to ask a few questions about the game’s development.

Jenni Lada: What led to you working on Reynatis? 

Kazushige Nojima: My encounter with Creative Producer TAKUMI’s enthusiasm is what started things.

What was your biggest influence when writing the story?

Nojima: The town of Shibuya itself. It’s a place I’m familiar with, so I walked around it thinking about what kinds of things could happen in which places.

What kinds of efforts did you take to balance realism and magic and the supernatural in the story?

Nojima: Aside from the magic, wizards, magic organizations, and the other world that exists because of magic and monsters, I made sure to keep everything else grounded.

After launch, Reynatis is getting additional story episodes. What did the development and creation of those look like?

Nojima: I think FURYU Corporation is very generous. During development, we tried to make sure that no one would think, “Couldn’t this have been in the main game?”

Given these are post-launch story episodes, what sorts of opportunities came when deciding what they’d cover and address?

Nojima: Events that happened before and after the main game. I wanted to make sure all the side story-type content went into the main game.

Do you feel like you accomplished all you wanted to with Reynatis, or do you feel like there’s opportunity for more to be explored in a possible sequel?

Nojima: It’s always difficult to tell a linear story in a game with an open map structure. I encountered this issue with Reynatis, but I don’t think I quite solved it. I’d love to take another crack at it.

Also, we weren’t able to put in episodes for the individual characters, so if there were the opportunity to do that [it would be great].

Reynatis will come to the PS4, PS5, Switch, and PC in North America and Europe on September 27, 2024, and then in Australia on October 4, 2024.