Date A Live: Rio Reincarnation Review – Trapped With Some Cute Spirits

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Genre – Fantasy, Romance, Slice of Life Play Time – 35 hours Developer – COMPILE HEART and STING Steam VNDB

Spirits In Love

Being a spin off of the Date A Live franchise, Rio Reincarnation is saddled with a set of pre-existing expectations from fans while also not having the ability to progress the overarching narrative of the series. In many ways this is an impossible situation for a game to produce something meaningful out of and many similar titles have ended up as throw away junk. However, Rio Reincarnation manages to avoid this outcome through leaning into what made the franchise popular in the first place, its girls, and providing an emotional core story which wraps up in a way that means it has no impact on the original work. It is a tightrope walk to maintain this balance and it comes at the cost of any attempt to appeal to potential new eyes on the series, yet there is something undeniably charming about its open love for the source material. Is it able to keep this up over the course of the three games contained within the package or does it collapse under the weight of expectations? Let’s go on a date and find out.

Utopia and VR – Narrative and Themes

The first two games in this package, Rinne Utopia and Arusu Install, form the majority of its content and follow a similar structure. Each is made up a series of character routes with a final true route to act as a conclusion for their respective stories. Adopting this structure lets these titles focus on what Date A Live sells best, its cast. The Player’s pre-existing attachment to them is a convenient avenue to an easy form of engagement where familiar events and personality traits are paraded around in this new context to feed a sense of nostalgia. It would be easy to fall into the trap of simply rely on this technique as the sole hook for the game, but these titles realise they need to go beyond this starting point in order to be something that is worth coming back to again and again. To achieve this they have small character arcs with suitable dramas attached that provide a unique direction to each route. They act as a means to enhance the memorable traits of the characters by playing up what the player has come to expect from an entirely new angle. A lot of effort has also been put into ensuring they do not in any way effect the greater cannon of the franchise and so it can exist as a form of throwaway yet distinctive fun. Throughout all this hints of the greater plot of the game are sprinkled in and these reach a crescendo in the final true route. This serves two purposes, firstly it helps draw together what are otherwise of disconnected character interactions and secondly it acts as an incentive to play all of the routes in order to get the full picture rather than just the ones focused around characters the player likes. Promoting another angle of engagement as well as a proper conclusion helps add some much needed texture to the game and allows it to form an identity of its own within the franchise. Just like the character routes, the final route also makes sure to end in a way where its events can be reasonably not mentioned in the main series which could irritate someone who was looking for something more substantial from the narrative.

A theme park is always a fun location for some character silliness

Bringing these two game together is the final part of the package, the titular Rio Reincarnation. This is a much smaller affair and aims to tie up some lose ends in order to offer a complete experience. In many ways this is as far as these games ever drift from the core cannon of the main franchise and must instead rely on the investment the player has developed over the course of the previous titles. It seeks to encapsulate all that the Date A Live series is from its own angle and leave the player with a lasting impression to encourage them to come back again. A lot of its success can be attributed to the way it weaves in small nods to the arcs each character has been on throughout this package and relates them back to its own new characters in a way that heightens the drama surrounding them. They are obviously somehow related to the cause of what is going on yet the sympathetic light the game thematically places on them makes the player wish that the inevitable confrontation and resolution be put off for just a little longer. Rio Reincarnation bears a lot similarities to the true routes of the previous two games and so it can at times feel rushed as a result since there is not as much time to space out events and give them the proper room they need to express themselves. Even with this issue, it serves its overall purpose of acting as the package’s binding element and the experience of play through the games is enriched by its presence.

Hmmm, I wonder if it is important?

Balancing Emotions – Characters

As a title firmly aimed at existing Date A Live fans, the original characters are the primary focus as it is their antics that most players are here to see. Each one is an incredibly faithful rendition of their cannon counterpart with all the reactions and playfulness expected from them. Since they are given their own routes, they have the space needed to sell a more intimate look at the emotions which underlay their actions and their relationships with the rest of the cast. Their character arcs are a natural extension of this closer perspective and tend to focus on single familiar angle on their personal conflict. It offers just enough development to make the arc feel like it has substance while not stepping on the toes of any future changes in the character. The results are somewhat uneven with characters who possess an existing source of tension to tap into, such as Kurumi and Origami, fairing far better as the narrative gains an inbuilt source of drama it can easily lean into in order to create a powerful impact. Other characters, in particular Tohka, can run into the issue of having nothing substantial to do and fall into a pattern of repeating the same basic elements of their personality to act as a distraction. It is also worth noting the increased presence of previously minor side characters who are here given a sizeable spotlight through optional side events and their role in the main characters' events. Through their inclusion the world of Date A Live is given an additional texture, each one provides a glimpse into the lives of people not directly involved in the Spirits conflict and humanises both themselves and the Spirits they interact with.

Rinne and the other new character are a bit too obvious in their importance

Each of the titles in the Rio Reincarnation package includes at least one new character who acts as the focal point for that game’s plot. They get a lot a screen time to fully flesh themselves out since the game cannot rely on the player’s pre-existing understanding of them as it does with the old cast members. As a result they stand out against these almost static old characters and naturally draw attention to themselves which is both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side it makes them far easier for the player to empathise with due to the sympathetic struggles and growth they are allowed to undergo as well as the intimate emotions they express. Each feels as if they are not bound to the same obligations to continuity as the old cast and this freedom to be themselves gives a concrete anchor in order to bond with them. However, it is precisely the way that they stand out which introduces a lot of narrative weaknesses to these games. Most prominent among these being the complete inability to hide anything about how the plot is going to play out. It is obvious from the start that the new characters are responsible for what is going on and often it is easy to call exactly how the plot will play out. This results is an overall weaker feeling narrative experience as the player knows the outcome long before it happens and so the games rely even more on the player’s love for the characters to carry the story.

Normal Life In An Abnormal World – Visual, Audio and Technical

Capturing the essence of the Date A Live anime, rather than the original light novel, was clearly the intent when it came to the visual and audio of Rio Reincarnation. Its art style relies heavily on its expressive Live 2D character sprites to sell the idea that these are the same characters the player is familiar with. In this role they do a brilliant job through all the small movements as the characters emote from tilts of the head to their whole body bouncing up and down, all of which are tweaked to help showcase the subtle difference in the cast. It makes sure these movements and character designs are a close to the source material as possible from their casual clothing to their spirit form and the new character designs follow these design principles to the point of appearing completely natural along side the old characters. While the audio does not pull as directly from the anime as the visuals do, they still remain faithful in terms of the tone and mood they set. Slice of life with a splash of action are the ingredients that define Rio Reincarnation’s soundtrack. Light melodies echo as the cast laughs and silly antics play out which switch into dramatic and sweeping tracks as the stakes rise and characters assume their spirit forms. Overall the OST is not particularly original or memorable but instead it focuses on do its job in the moment and exists as something to reinforce the experience in its entirety rather than be able to stand on its own.

Where to go next?

Choices are made in two ways, either the standard list of choices during dialogue or through which character the player choose to spend time with on the world map. This dual level of consideration required in order to get onto the character route the player desires presents one of Rio Reincarnation’s biggest problems. Since the player must not only choose their desired character every time they appear they must also guess correctly what choice is the desired one during that event. This can lead to a level of confusion where it can be unclear which one the two is more important to getting the desired route. Couple this with various bad ending which the player can accidentality stumble into specific to each character and the result is somewhat confusing to navigate smoothly. Making it feel as if you have to look up a guide to get the ending you want is never something desirable for a visual novel and it is unfortunate that this package accidentality stumbles into this trap.

Conclusion

Many tie-in visual novels struggle with the competing demands of their obligations to the original material and the need to create something new and Rio Reincarnation showcases a shining example of how it can be done correctly. It adapts the existing Date A Live cast smoothly into its structure and gives them each a small character arc for their route which allows them to show off their personalities while not interfering with cannon. Visuals and Audio are something the package utilises to further draw on its connection to its source material and immerse the player in this setting. New cast members are made empathic and flexible since they stand out due to their more expansive emotional development and this helps make them memorable despite being only featured here. The titular Rio Reincarnation part of the package acts as a nice round up for the games’ plots and characters in one last concentrated form. A somewhat confusing to navigate choice system is the most noticeable flaw which does bring the player out of the experience to look up a guide. This is a game made for fans to tie into an existing franchise and the alterations made by Rio Reincarnation are about as far as the developers could have pushed the material without upsetting the people they are selling the package to.

Verdict –

A package made with a clear love for the series and a desire to please fans while offering something slightly new to add some spice. It assumptions about the player’s attachment to the characters means it alienates people not already invested in the franchise.