Reverse 1999 is an amazing turn-based card battler that puts you in the shoes of a girl in a messed-up timeline. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Reverse 1999 Review Overview
Reverse 1999 Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Superb Voice-Acting Excellent Musical Pieces Deep Gameplay No-Nonsense Storytelling Fair Gacha Rates For Its Time |
Game Is Unfriendly For Busybodies Unskippable Miscellaneous Lore |
Reverse 1999 Overall
A first-class mobile game. It stands apart from the many releases of its time, proving that you don't need the best 3D models or the freedom of an open or semi-open world, or even the backing of an established community to be superlative. It knows what it wants to be and spares no effort in providing the best version of itself. And although its gameplay may not be entirely appropriate for those who typically resort to mobile gaming for entertainment, the quality of its entire design makes it a strong, if not a niche contender for one of the best releases of the year.
Reverse 1999 Story
Like renowned warriors in real life and fiction, Reverse 1999's story has no waste in its narrative style. The main plot carries more than its fair share of weight, with abundant intrigue and twists that keep the narrative fresh and gripping. Lastly, its pace varies appropriately with the events surrounding each scenario, which wonders for the readers' immersion. It is truly a storytelling wonder on the platform.
Reverse 1999 Gameplay
Patience and forethought are the skills necessary to master Reverse 1999's card-based gameplay. Owing to its randomized card-based combat system, one wrong or even untimely move in combat can easily spell the end of your run on higher difficulties. It's a surprisingly deep and complex gameplay that, while very engaging, might not suit the mobile gaming audience.
Reverse 1999 Visuals
Although Reverse 1999's imagery uses simple live 2D at best and still artwork at worst, it delivers an outstanding visual experience with quality art and vibrant special effects. The character designs are particularly noteworthy, as their themes are cohesive and consistent with the story's setting. It uses what technology it possesses to the fullest and succeeds in breathing life into the world and characters it has created.
Reverse 1999 Audio
Perhaps the game's strongest suit, Reverse 1999's overall audio is an experience to behold. It perfectly encapsulates the game's theme without overstepping its boundaries. Instead, it invests all of its excess efforts into making some of the best tunes mobile gaming can offer. Not only that, the game has some of the best voice acting I've heard in a long time.
Reverse 1999 Value for Money
Reverse 1999 is a free-to-play mobile game that earns money through gacha fueled by microtransactions. This is similar to how the vast majority of prominent mobile games operate nowadays, particularly those from Asia. Fortunately, Reverse 1999's gacha rates are pretty appealing compared to other games nowadays.
Reverse 1999 Review: Ahead Of Its Time
Mobile games are steadily evolving. They are no longer confined to cheap-looking still images on the screen with equally simple audiovisual effects. In fact, some recent and upcoming games have started to blur the line between mobile and console/PC games by having such quality that they are basically indistinguishable from all but the highest-budget games out there.
That was why the release of Reverse 1999 baffled me somewhat. How could a game that played like it was more at home during the mid-2010s possibly compete against the recent big names?
Armed with doubt, I fired up the game on release. And, damn, was I blown away.
I've never seen a game so at peace with what it was for quite some time now. At least, not since Punishing Gray Raven and Honkai Impact 3rd. Story-wise, the narrative wasn't loquacious; visually, it made full use of live 2D and stills to create imagery that seemed more like art than game; and aurally, it featured incredible voice acting and music that threatened to spirit you away to its world. The gacha rates are nice, too!
Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect in any measure. Its combat system, for example, does come with a fair bit of fatigue, and the Wilderness feature, which allows you to manage and develop an island for resources, doesn't mesh well with the setting. However, the core gameplay is profoundly satisfying and challenging in equal measure.
I was immediately hooked by what I experienced. It truly felt like the developers tried their best with what they had, and I applaud them for it.
Pros of Reverse 1999
| Things Reverse 1999 Got Right |
|---|
|
Superb Voice-Acting Excellent Musical Pieces Deep and Thought-Provoking Gameplay No-Nonsense Storytelling Great Gacha For Its Time |
Superb Voice-Acting
Have you ever read a character's dialogue from a fantasy novel and thought, "Man, that sure sounds cringe in real life?"
I have. That is why, whenever I play a title from Asia, I tend to choose either the original dubbing the game had (such as Korean for Counter:Side or Chinese for Genshin Impact) or the Japanese dubbing if available. The reason is simple: with one of my primary languages being English, it's far easier for me to lose my immersion whenever I hear voice acting that falls short of my expectations. Of course, that doesn't mean that I consider myself utterly oblivious to the voice-acting quality of other languages, but it's more challenging to detect without much knowledge.
However, Reverse 1999's voice acting, especially its English dubbing, is a wonder to listen to.
They have overturned my thoughts on the voices of characters in fantasy. Although strictly speaking, Reverse 1999's setting is loosely based on the real world, there still exists a strong disconnect between our reality and that of the game. After all, literal magic doesn't exist. But, the effort and quality of work that the voice talent behind each character has put in can actually make you think otherwise.
Magic is real. Arcanists exist. The world is in peril.
Though quite excessive at times and falling flat on others, hearing those words, with their voices, actually sounds convincing. They deliver real, gripping emotions from their chests and into your hearts. Each line of dialogue oozes with the personality of the character they are trying to depict, which is only made even more convincing by the sheer variety of accents that would realistically exist within the game setting.
Absolutely stunning work.
Excellent Musical Pieces
For some, music is merely an accessory, something to enjoy while they engross themselves with the gameplay. For others, music is inconsequential, a minor aspect that developers often overemphasize. There are many opinions regarding the matter, particularly for non-rhythm games or other genres where sound doesn't take center stage.
In my opinion, though, music is the last barrier between a great game and an excellent one. And, to take the game they are representing to that level, the musical pieces must also be excellent. But that's not to say they just have to be wonderful to listen to. They must also represent their game very well. I mean, what's the use of slow orchestral music when it's representing a hectic party game? Or what about trance music on a game about living on a quiet, deserted island?
For Reverse 1999, you could say that their pieces serve a unified purpose: to take you back in time. Fortunately for them, they have done a magnificent job at doing so. In fact, they have done such an outstanding job that simply listening to their tracks alone can take you into the game. Yeah, no need to play the game, really. There, it will place you beside the protagonist to revel in a fantastical version of the rewinding eras while indulging in the shenanigans of your compatriots from across history.
Listen to their music. It will live up to your expectations and then some.
Deep Gameplay
With the growing popularity of RPGs and shooters in the mobile gaming industry, such as Honkai: Star Rail, Project NIKKE, and Snowbreak: Containment Zone, it's certainly a breath of fresh air to get another card-based game again. Though they were prevalent back around 2014 or so, the advancement of tech and the ever-increasing demands for better-looking games meant that 2D cards were simply becoming less popular.
Even if you could argue that they're 3D if you could flip them.
Although Reverse 1999's gameplay certainly isn't completely limited to two dimensions, the philosophy behind your actions remains the same: match cards for better effects, play cards you need to use, and try to win through combinations or pairs. However, you must pay careful attention to how the battle develops. On tricky or difficult stages, enemies can stomp your team if you aren't prepared to stop them. You must also weigh your options between using a card or waiting to pair it up for stronger effects. This will force you to consider your every action and the options available to you after one, two, or even three turns in the future. On top of that, only certain characters have the necessary abilities to control your enemies, forcing you to create teams that do not simply rely on violence like a brute.
Meticulous consideration for what your team can do is essential for success. While this is true for most of the major gacha games at the moment, this is especially true for Reverse 1999. That's because the game's nature as a card battler means you cannot pre-plan what RNG will provide you with. There is no such thing as "my enemy's going to hit back next turn, I'll get rid of it before then," when the game has the possibility of providing you with an entire hand of non-offensive cards.
Of course, you could create teams that follow certain gimmicks, such as a lineup that completely relies on buffing one type of damage and removing your opponents' resistance. But still, that's enough consideration to put you above the average layman who simply considers "high numbers equals good."
No-Nonsense Storytelling
With fierce competition between live service games, especially mobile ones, it's no surprise that the ways they try to outdo each other have surpassed the point of simply making a better game. Nowadays, an excellent story has become a requirement for them to make it big. After all, what's the use if you have a great game when there's the possibility that players can just stand up and leave after they've accomplished everything you can offer?
Thus, practically every major gacha game release now has captivating narratives. And there's quite a variety of them in terms of style and approach. While it's true that some follow a standard format (which eventually makes them dull, really), they are often well-written nonetheless. However, there is a trap that a lot of them fall for: excessively verbose narratives. Hence, you get a lot of games where a single story arc can take an absurd amount of time to read through, even when nothing really happens.
Reverse 1999 does not fall for this. Instead, their scenes are described succinctly while flourishing with just enough poetic embellishment to not make it read like some cheap web novel. While each of their arcs does stretch for a long time, it's because there are a lot of events that transpire within each chapter.
This makes reading the game's story an engaging and tireless treat. You are always rewarded with a fresh scenario before the previous one overstays its welcome.
And it only helps that Reverse 1999 has a great story to tell.
Great Gacha For Its Time
Reverse 1999's gacha features a relatively staggering 1.5% chance of getting you a character with the highest rarity (at six stars). While that may not sound like such a fantastic deal, let me remind you that the most popular mobile gacha games currently feature appalling rates that go as low as 0.6% or even lower.
While sure, you can argue that you're still under the mercy of a 50-50 split when pulling for an event character, that's not uncommon in the year of our lord 2023. In fact, practically every major gacha game forces you to flip a coin for the character you're trying to pull.
What's more, Reverse 1999's soft pity, which is the point where the game will slowly raise your chances of getting a max rarity character, and hard pity, where the game gives up and just throws you a max rarity pull, is set at 60 and 70 pulls respectively. That's quite an improvement compared to recent releases.
And we're not even at the best parts. In Reverse 1999, pulling duplicates isn't required. That's because the only reward you get for obtaining dupes is a minor increase in their stats, unlike other games where getting one or two duplicates makes or breaks the character. Moreover, there is no separate banner for you to pull for other things, such as character-specific weapons. There is only you and the character you want for every banner rotation.
Cons of Reverse 1999
| Things That Reverse 1999 Can Improve |
|---|
|
Gameplay Is Unfriendly For Busybodies Unskippable Miscellaneous Lore |
Game Is Unfriendly For Busybodies
As mentioned, Reverse 1999's gameplay requires at least two brain cells to play. That means you'll inevitably need to sit down to use your noggin to progress through the game. It also doesn't have an Auto-play function and instead uses a replay feature similar to Arknights. This means that if you want to clear The Poussiere stage repeatedly, for example, you'll need to manually clear that stage at least once.
Due to the game's narrative-heavy nature, it also means that you'll have to occasionally set aside a few hours to run through the game's events or story. Otherwise, what's the point in playing a game that sports an abundance of intrigue?
How is that a problem? Well, it depends on the person, but the original idea of mobile games is that they're meant to be a quick fix for boredom. It's not just a problem with Reverse 1999 as well. With their rapidly developing and expanding scope, most mobile games have started to invade even people's prolonged free time.
Not that I have a problem with it.
Unskippable Miscellaneous Lore
This is a minor gripe more than anything, but why can't you skip miscellaneous lore segments? I don't mean being unable to press a button to get to the next bit. While Reverse 1999 doesn't have those either, there's not much difference between pressing once and pressing multiple times to skip content anyway.
There's a reason why some games stash these items into places where you can go through them whenever you want. That's because, ironically enough, making them optional increases the immersion. After all, if you were to imagine yourself in the shoes of the main character, it doesn't make sense for you to end up running into every detail about the world or characters around you.
Fortunately, these sections are narratively delivered very well.
Is Reverse 1999 Worth It?
Yes. Play it. Do it now.
Reverse 1999 is definitely one of the best mobile games of the year. Its overall quality as a game goes beyond simply stretching what modern hardware can achieve. I mean, it plays like a game that came out during the early 2010s or so. However, it stands as a testament to what a game can be if it fully embraces what it is. Despite a very rocky testing phase, it has put its best foot forward on its release and tries its utmost to be great in its limited capacity.
I highly recommend giving the game a try.
Reverse 1999 Overview & Premise
The game's story starts on December 31, 1999 where a mysterious event known as "The Storm" suddenly messed with the progress of time and caused The Storm Syndrome
.
The Storm Syndrome caused bizarre changes in people and the world around them. As the character of each era in the 20th century changed, so did the corresponding syndrome in people. These changes were like an illusion or the mirage of their time.
Players will take on the role of the Timekeeper, Vertin, a girl immune to the effects of the Storm and who has witnessed the beginnings and ends of countless eras. During her time travel, she makes friends with arcanists from different eras and countries and then guides them to escape the Storm.
Reverse 1999 FAQ
What is Reverse 1999's Gameplay?
It adopts a turn-based card battler system where your moves are decided by what skill cards the game pulls for you. During each turn, you may move cards around to pair them or consume them to attack your opponents or support your allies.
Is Reverse 1999 on the PC?
Yes, Reverse 1999 was released as a cross-platform game between PC and mobile. It uses its own client, which you can download on their official website.
Game8 Reviews
Reverse 1999 Product Information
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| Title | REVERSE 1999 |
|---|---|
| Release Date | October 26, 2023 |
| Developer | Bluepoch Co.,Ltd. |
| Publisher | Bluepoch Co.,Ltd. |
| Supported Platforms | PC, Mobile |
| Genre | Cards, Visual Novel, Turn-Based RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | TBA |
| Official Website | Reverse 1999 Website |
