Reverie Knights Tactics

My first impression of Reverie Knights Tactics was of a game that clearly loved its own world more than it had the budget to show it. That is not a dismissal. It is actually what makes this debut from Brazilian studio 40 Giants Entertainment interesting: the lore feels dense and lived-in because it is. The setting draws from Tormenta, a D&D-inspired tabletop RPG with over two decades of development behind it, and that depth seeps through even when the game's systems can't quite keep up with its ambitions. The structure is a visual-novel-meets-tactics hybrid running roughly 10-15 hours. You play as Aurora, a young cleric scholar, leading a four-person party into goblin-occupied elven territory to find her missing father. The squad is compact but well-considered: Aurora functions as an ice mage capable of high damage output, Brigandine is your frontline tank, Fren the elven scout fills the long-range role, and Hellaron, a living golem artifact, rounds out support. Each character has a distinct personality, and the banter carries genuine warmth. An Order versus Chaos alignment system threads through dialogue choices and gradually shapes which skills become available, adding a lightweight but real replay incentive. The writing is aimed at a younger register than some players will want from their tactical RPG, and a handful of reviewers pushed back on that, but I found the character dynamics charming enough to carry the lighter moments. On the battlefield, the game surprises you. Positioning matters: backstabs deal bonus damage, Team Attacks trigger when you flank an enemy with multiple allies, and environmental hazards like crumbling bridges and narrow tunnels give individual encounters a puzzle-box quality. Each fight also carries optional sub-objectives that reward Cogni, a progression currency, creating a tension between safe play and ambitious execution. The preparation phase lets you arrange your units before combat begins, which gives every skirmish a considered, chess-like opening. What works less well is the resource economy across encounters: HP and MP do not fully restore between fights, enemies always start fresh, and with no option to replay stages for grinding, a bad string of fights can quietly paint you into a corner. There is no re-spec option for your three-stat skill tree, so early allocation choices matter more than the game initially communicates. The hand-drawn art is the thing that will make you take the screenshot. Battle maps have variety and color, character portraits are expressive, and the visual-novel cutscene stills hold up well. Animation quality inside combat is choppier and repeats often, which becomes noticeable over a full playthrough. Pacing also falters in the final act, where the rhythm of fight-walk-fight loses the story breathing room that made the middle chapters enjoyable. The ending lands on a sequel hook rather than a satisfying conclusion, which is a gamble 40 Giants hasn't yet cashed in on. For someone who reads "visual novel tactics hybrid" and feels genuinely warm about that combination, Reverie Knights Tactics has real craft inside it. It will not challenge Tactics Ogre for strategic depth or Final Fantasy Tactics for story ambition. But there is something tender and sincere in this world, and if the Tormenta universe gets another digital entry someday, this is the origin worth understanding.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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