Tetsuya Nomura comments on Reynatis and NEO: The World Ends With You collab and why he agreed to it 

In a recent joint interview with Denfaminicogamer, Reynatis director Takumi Isobe spoke with Tetsuya Nomura, Tomohiko Hirano and Tatsuya Kando, the core team behind Square Enix’s NEO: The World Ends With You. The developers revealed details about Square Enix’s involvement in development and how the unlikely crossover came to be in the first place. 

Asked about how he was approached and how he reacted to a proposal for collaboration, Nomura explains, “Hirano, who’s also here with us, handed me the proposal. I looked over it and thought, now that’s impressive (laughs).” He goes on to explain that Isobe’s proposal was “dense” and overflowing with the creator’s passion. Isobe apparently expressed his love for the TWEWY series in a way that filled Nomura with a desire to help him as much as possible and see him succeed. 

As for the nature of the collaboration itself, Isobe mentions that he did not want to go for a superficial crossover that simply adds elements from NEO TWEWY to Reynatis. To that end, he even decided to extend the original development period for Reynatis to make sure that they could deliver a crossover that deeply intertwines the two titles’ worldbuilding and characters.

This included having Akiko Ishibashi, the original writer of NEO TWEWY, supervise the scenario for the project. According to Isobe, the storyline unfolds in parallel to the main story of NEO TWEWY, but in its early stages, around the time when Rindo and his friends form the Wicked Twisters. While taking care not to spoil things, Isobe hints that the story will involve Rindo and Shoka being transported to another world and having to work together to find their way back.Isobe describes the crossover’s setting as “an in-between world” that fuses the worldbuilding of Reynatis and NEO TWEWY. 

In addition, the collab will include original BMG tracks from NEO TWEWY, as proposed by Square Enix. Interestingly, the graphics for Rindo and Shoka were not created from scratch at Furyu – as Square Enix sent them all the data to adjust and use. Isobe comments that, as both games are developed in Unity, this made original data easier to adapt and utilize in Reynatis. 

Reynatis is scheduled to release on September 27 for the PC (Steam), PS4/PS5 and Nintendo Switch.