Re:Zero: Prophecy of the Throne Review (PC/Steam)

A visual adventure based on popular light novel and anime series of the same name, Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World: The Prophecy of the Throne came out on Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam and PlayStation 4 in late January 2021.

For starters, that name already is a mouthful and I was wondering if this is the longest name any Switch game ever had. If anyone's wondering, the other one being "Reggie, His Cousin, Two Scientists and Most Likely the End of the World".

Anyways, enough about the title. For simplicity's sake I'll mostly be referring to this game as "Prophecy of the Throne" or if that's too long then simply as the "Re:Zero game". Surprisingly, this isn't the very first Re:Zero game out there.

Earlier in 2020, there was a free-to-play mobile game "Re: Zero karahajimeru isekai seikatsu- Lost in Memories", exclusive to Japan. Re: Zero karahajimeru isekai seikatsu- Death or Kiss was launched on PS4 and PS Vita for Japan in 2017.

So, you can imagine my surprise when this game was announced for a worldwide release across major platforms. Simply for that reason alone, I'll ignore all the previously released games and will refer to this as "the" Re:Zero game.

When I saw the trailer for this game for the first time in 2020's New Game+ expo by Atlus and Sega, I was surprised. Seeing the trailer in PlayStation's channel, (and subsequently on Nintendo's channel) I was in disbelief.

The then delayed Season 2 was yet to air and we already got an announcement for a game adaption?! A visual novel? With tactical RPG gameplay?! It felt like a an excellent time to be a Re:Zero fan, a feeling that still exists today now that the 2nd course of Season 2 is still airing and this game being released during this time.

I knew I had to review this game once it comes out (even though we didn't receive a review copy). And here we are.

First things first, I'd like to clear any misconceptions about this games that people who didn't follow it might not know (the marketing for this game was eerily quiet too). Prophecy of the Throne is NOT a direct adaptation of any of the Re:Zero light novels or anime.

Instead it's a brand new original story taking place around the 2nd and 3rd Arc of the original story. Series author Tappei Nagatsuki returns as a supervisor and so does the light novel illustrator Shinichiro Otsuka as an original character designer.

Before I delve right into the story, I should say that this game is really meant for people who are already fans of Re:Zero. While this game can be played even if you've never watched or read Re:Zero, it's pretty obvious that you might not feel the same level of excitement as those who are already fans of Re:Zero.

The game does a fairly decent job of summarizing the plot of the anime pretty well but it also expects you to actually remember the basics of the Re:Zero lore. In this review I'll assume that you've at least watched Season 1 of the anime or read up to the 9th Volume of the Light Novel.

When you make a game based on an anime developers seem to only go with one of two choices. A. Make the game follow and retell the story that the anime already told, or B. Make a completely original story.

Prophecy of the Throne chose the 2nd option obviously. While some people might be disappointed with this game taking an original path in the story, I'm not. Let me explain.

I like Re:Zero's narrative for its unpredictability. Every time it might feel like the anime has already taken the route you've expected it to take and when you least expect it, the anime subverts your expectation.

This sort of unpredictability is difficult to reproduce if you've already experienced the story once. You might say that the game could keep it fresh by adding some minor differences to the original story (and potentially adapting the What IF stories written by the series author).

But if they have to resort to that, why not just go the extra mile and create something completely fresh? And that's basically what Prophecy of the Throne is.

As said before the story is almost completely original. It starts off right near the end of Arc 2 before Arc 3 begins with a big twist. The Royal Selection is one of the most important plot points of the Re:Zero storyline and also in this game.

The entire royal family of the Lugunica Kingdom was wiped out prior to the beginning of the main story through some mysterious plague. Now the Kingdom is in a state of emergency as it desperately needs a new ruler to lead the country.

According to a prophecy tied to the country's history, there will be five priestesses who are candidates to become the next ruler. This important event gets mysteriously delayed. Subaru, Emilia and Rem travel to the capital just like they did in the anime though to find out what caused this sudden delay (except Subaru, Emilia insists that Subaru must receive his treatment for his broken magic Gate just like in the anime).

 

There we meet the various candidates for the throne, including probably the most important character to this original storyline.

 

Melty Pristis is the sixth candidate in a selection which should only have five. Which causes confusion and ends up delaying the event indefinitely (sounds like last year). Naturally this brings up the possibility of a fake candidacy and while we may have a 'vague' idea of who the fraud may be, the blame falls on Emilia.

And it's up to Subaru (and the player) to rat out the actual fraud and secure Emilia's position and reputation. That is basically the premise of the story. Most of the screenshots you'll see in this review are from the first 2-3 hours of the game so you don't have to worry about spoilers too much.

 

Besides Melty there are various other brand new characters in this story. They might not be as interesting as the pre-existing characters but they're still fun to interact with and fits in the world of Re:Zero well. But make no mistake; the star of the story is still Melty.

 

All the Royal Selection candidates have some form of quirks to make them stand out among the rest. And Melty's quirk is . . . clumsiness. At least that's the first impression you'll get after meeting her.

You'd think someone who's the potential ruler of a country would be a bit well-reserved, like the rest of the candidates. But as you learn more and more about her you might take a bit of a liking to her.

Re:Zero is mainly a character driven story. And this game does do well into portraying the characters in interesting ways that's different from what you may have already seen.

 

Unfortunately, in other aspects of the game, it drops the ball a bit. If you've seen the anime you'd know that Re:Zero is one of the more gorier isekai anime that exists. Since this game is only rated T the blood and gore is toned down significantly.

I never expected any Song of Saya type moments out of this visual novel but the actual visual representation of any of the Return by Death moments are disappointing.

 

Don't get me wrong though; there are some surprising and shocking moments later into the game. The dialogue delivered by Yusuke Kobayashi is excellent as expected. But the T rating leaves much to be desired if you were actually looking forward to the more "torture porn" aspects of Re:Zero.

 

Another disappointing aspect may be the music in this game. Both Seasons of Re:Zero feature some banger music (especially Season 2) which can add a lot to the overall atmosphere. But in this game it feels as if a lot of the same musical content gets looped for a long time.

This may be a non-issue for visual novel enthusiasts who may or may not already be used to these sorts of things. But my main complaint is about the quality of the tunes. The game seems to be using mostly original tracks and I haven't recognized any returning tracks from the anime.

It's a shame because Suehiro Kenichiro is a good composer. I don't know if he was involved in this project though. What isn't a shame though is the Opening sequence. The animation leaves much to be desired but the actual song used in it, Reline by Mayu Maeshima is as good as the Season 2 OP Long shot if not more.

Graphics-wise, it shocked me to see that the character design of the sprites is based on the original light novel character design as opposed to the more popular anime design. Guess it makes sense why Shinichiro Otsuka's was brought on for this project now.

Even the 2017 game Death or Kiss which was another visual novel used the art-style of Season 1 of the anime. I love the art-style of the anime but going for the light novel art-style was definitely a good call.

The sprites in the visual novel aspect of this game are animated. To compare, they're unlike typical visual novels like the original Steins;Gate or Chaos;Child. But they're not as good as the 3D animated sprites of ROBOTICS;NOTES ELITE either. But what's done here is actually pretty good too.

 

But a good portion of the game is also a tactical RPG which plays significantly different than the visual novel parts. In those sections, the animated 2D sprites are replaced by 3D models based on deformed or "chibi" art-style of the same characters.

The environment is also full 3D in the battle sections. But when there's dialogue (outside the 3D cut-scenes) the visual novel box with the character sprites shows up. The 3D models can be seen in other non-battle segments of the games too where the background is sometimes 2D like inside Roswaal's Mansion.

 

They're not too shabby. Most of the backgrounds seem well made and accurate to the anime portrayals.

Subaru is not the type of main character who fights. Instead the "gameplay" aspect of the game where you have complete control of yourself is mostly you giving various characters who are in the battle with you various advise or items.

Before the gameplay segments begin there's a briefing period where you have to strategize with your comrades. Depending on how you did in your previous loops, you may have more options to combat specific scenarios. This part of the game is highly dependent on the Return by Death mechanic.

 

That being said there are actually Game Over screens in this game, so don't get too comfy about abusing the RBD mechanic as you might be forced to reload previous saves if you mess up in the story bad enough.

This game is highly dependent on you to gather information. It's a bit disappointing that this game is just around 20 to 30 hours long depending on your reading speed which is unlike most highly-regarded visual novels.

A good visual novel can cost you around 60 to 100+ hours in time investment. What's more disappointing is that for a visual novel there aren't any real alternate routes. The game is linear. If you were planning on any Rem-route or Emilia-route you'll have to hold on to that dream for maybe a different visual novel in the future.

 

What's interesting though is that the game implies there may be a New Game+ sort of mode. I haven't replayed it for the second time yet so I'm not sure about how it works. But Re:Zero isn't a story or a game about a guy getting physically stronger, so obviously the only thing I believe that gets carried over is all the information that you gather during your first playthrough.

Re:Zero: The Prophecy of the Throne is a game that's hard to recommend for people other than Re:Zero fans, even then anyone other than hardcore fans might not be willing to shill $60 for this game.

But if it's any consolation, this game features more Rem than the entirety of Season 2 and that might be enough of a reason for a purchase to some people.