| Reverse: 1999 | |
| Genre: | Role-playing, turn-based tactics |
| Platforms: | iOS Android Windows |
| Developer: | Bluepoch |
| Publisher: | Bluepoch |
Reverse: 1999 is a turn-based tactical role-playing video game developed by Bluepoch.[1] The game has been available in Mainland China since May 31, 2023[2] and was released globally on October 26, 2023.
The game takes place in a universe where magic exists, and humans live side by side with Arcanists, a race of magic users able to use the powers of Arcane. On the last day of the year 1999, a mysterious phenomenon simply known as "The Storm" caused anything it touched to disappear (be "reversed"). As a result, time does not progress beyond the year 1999 and different eras throughout history are disappearing. In this world, there are two factions fighting for dominance: The St. Pavlov Foundation, a massive public organization with several branch offices across the globe, seeks to study and control Arcanists for the benefit of humanity, and to find a way to counteract the effects of The Storm. And Manus Vindictae, an extremist group led by a mysterious woman named Arcana, who seeks to exploit The Storm to recreate the world's history, ensuring that Arcanists reign supreme over humanity.
The game currently has 7 chapters and a prologue, each taking place in a different year throughout history.[3]
The player controls Vertin the Timekeeper, an Arcanist from the St. Pavlov Foundation, an Arcanist organization that protects humanity. As the only person immune to the Storm, she can travel throughout time and protect those under her care from the Storm. As Vertin time travels through different eras, recruiting arcanists from other countries and time periods all while trying to learn the truth about the Storm, she must also battle other Arcanists including The Manus Vindictae, an Arcanist-supremacist group that wants to use the power of the Storm to rewrite history to create a world ruled by Arcanists.[4]
The story begins with Vertin and her coworker Sonetto rescuing a British girl named Regulus from the Storm.
They arrived in 1929 on St. Valentines day to stop a group of humans from attacking some Arcanists. However, they find a girl in a feather dress named Schneider shooting the humans, and stop her. However, one of the humans commits suicide by shooting himself after he realizes that the people who saved him are arcanists.
After talking further with Schneider, they learn that she is being housed by Manus Vindictae and does whatever she is told in exchange for a place to stay. Vertin, Sonetto, and Schneider head to a bar that is being managed by a member of Manus Vindictae and has a few dozen people inside it gambling money. However, the stock market crashes and the Storm begins to affect some of the people of this era, causing them to eat money and consequently sickening them.
As the Storm reaches its very end and begins to completely "reverse" the people of the era, Schneider informs the crowd that she is not a real Arcanist, but has been able to use some Arcane powers for unknown reasons. She hugs Vertin and asks her to comfort her before disappearing. Vertin becomes distraught and wakes up in a hospital bed in the St. Pavlov Foundation. The game then shows a prologue of the current events involving Vertin's early childhood when she was 12 years old.
She became the Timekeeper after an incident in her St. Pavlov Foundation-managed school when she wanted to see the world outside the school, but was prevented from doing so for reasons that she was not told. She investigated and learned that the rule was because of the Storm and the risk of being reversed, which the Foundation has been attempting to keep secret. However, she realizes that she is one of the few Arcanists who cannot be reversed in the Storm, while other Arcanists must take special measures to stay alive during the Storm. She decided to invite her classmates outside before the Storm arrived.
The director of the Foundation realizes this and decides that to best punish her, she should allow the plans to continue, but cause a disturbance in the maintenance schedule that would force Vertin to reschedule the time to a point that she did not realize would be when the Storm occurs. Vertin falls for the trap and heads outside during the Storm, leading to her classmates but not herself being reversed, leaving behind only their clothes. Then, Madam Z of the Foundation arrives and asks her to become the Timekeeper.
The game then goes back to the present, showing that while Vertin is asleep, employees of the Foundation break into her hospital room and get her out of an induced sleep that was preventing her from waking up, then pass a new Foundation policy that will grant Vertin the ability to rescue Arcanists from the Storm by going back in time without the need for Foundation approval.
After the events of the previous chapters, the foundation forms a team of arcanists consisting of Vertin as the team's leader, Sonetto as the team's chief assistant, Regulus, her partner APPLe, Druvis III a Manus Vindictae defector and Sotheby, an alchemist who Sonetto had met in the second chapter. The team arrives Austria-Hungary in the year 1913, Vertin is forcibly separated from the group and put into a medically induced coma to undergo Artificial Somnabulism Therapy. She entrusts her friends safety to Lilya, a Russian pilot. The others are taken by the Foundation and interviewed by Constantine, who plans to integrate them into the Foundation through SPDM. However, Madam Z instead decides to approach with a draft called 'Storm Reformation: Manpower and Discipline', which gives the group more autonomy and benefits.
After visiting Vertin in the rehabilitation center, Druvis uses her arcane skills to completely overtake the building where Sotheby, Regulus, and APPLe are being held. They decide to use their position to stand their ground and protest against the Foundation with the main objective being to not only gain independence as a group, but also have Vertin released from the Laplace Rehabilitation Center. However they become trapped inside the building with limited food and water all while militant forces are trapping them inside. They then decide to wait it out until the draft results come in.
On October 6th, 1913, Lilya broke into the rehabilitation center to forcefully take Vertin out of the treatment. She retrieved her and took Vertin to the overtaken building to see the arcanists again. In the reunion, Constantine had arrived and announced to Vertin that the draft had been passed by the Foundation, and will be sent to the Pax Security Council for review. With the group now officially registered and now also joined by Lilya, the team is given their first official mission to investigate an island with ties to Manus Vindictae.
Vertin is awoken on a Greek island in the Aegean Sea by a girl named 37 who tells Vertin that her watch is telling the wrong time and that she fixed it. Then Vertin asks what year it is 37 replies that the year is 2007 which leaves Vertin shocked. Vertin then finds out that the inhabitants of the island use mathematics to predict when the "Storm" will occer.[5] The rest of the team then reunits with Vertin and notice that all of the islander are named after numbers. They then participate in a ceremony with other islanders. Sonetto then notices Arcana in the crowd to which she then uses her arcane magic to protect Vertin. 6 questions who interrupted the ceremony and sentences Sonetto to death. The team is then able to clear Sonetto's name and prevent her from being executed.
Reverse: 1999 is a strategy role-playing video game with turn-based battles with combat designed around a card shuffling mechanics to cast incantations.[6] Players will be able to select up to four Arcanists that they own to take into battle with them. The Arcanists each have unique passive skills, two Incantation cards, and one Ultimate card that they will be able to use in battle. In addition, players can equip and build each Arcanist with a "Psychube" for additional benefits, or upgrade their "Resonance" to improve certain statistics. [7] [8]
Once in battle, the player will start with a hand of 7-8 Incantation cards to choose from, and can play as many cards in a turn as there are active friendly Arcanists on the field. Once their turn is done and both sides have played their cards, the player gains extra cards at random from their Arcanists' combined deck. Each card ranges from one to three star-level, and players can upgrade incantations by merging the same cards together, increasing the damage they do, the amount of "Moxie" the respective Arcanist gains from their use, and sometimes unlocking extra effects.[9] [10] When a character gains enough Moxie, they will automatically be granted an opportunity to unleash their Ultimate skill. However, this applies to enemy units as well.
Outside of combat, players have a chance to build their own "Wilderness," an island within Vertin's suitcase made up of hexagonal pieces taken from various sets. From here, players can gain some free Dust and Sharpodonty, as well as build out the Wilderness to their liking, limited only by the sets that they have unlocked for placement and a certain maximum amount of tiles.
The game's first beta test began on January 7, 2022, and the second began on June 10, 2022.[11] On March 23, 2023, Reverse: 1999 was granted an ISBN, which means a permission for its official release in mainland China. The game started a third beta test on April 14[12] before officially released in China on May 31, 2023. The global version beta test ran from August 4 to 13, 2023, and the game rolled out fully on October 26, 2023.[13]
The Official Global Reveal Trailer was announced on July 21, 2023,[14] and on September 23, 2023, the worldwide release was announced for mobile and PC on October 26, 2023
The game garnered a "strong positive reception" at launch, with praises towards its voice acting, character design, artstyle and story.[15] [16]