# Vertin (Reverse: 1999)

Vertin (Chinese: 维尔汀; pinyin: Wéiěrtīng) is the protagonist of Reverse: 1999, a 2023 role-playing video game by Bluepoch. She is an arcanist from the St. Pavlov Foundation. As the only person immune to the "Storm", she can travel throughout time and protect those under her care from the Storm. She is also known as the Timekeeper (Chinese: 司辰; pinyin: Sīchén).
Game critics point out that unlike most gacha games where the protagonist is a blank slate character, Vertin is an established player character. Nevertheless, reception of the character has still been generally positive.

## Development and design

On July 21, 2023, Bluepoch announced Vertin's character information, and made her debut in a trailer of Reverse: 1999.
Vertin is a well-established protagonist, moving away from the norm of gacha games. In an interview with GamerBraves, the developers said they used to worry that this could affect players' immersion in the game, but later they believed that "her independent, unique personality is essential to the completeness of the story. It will positively impact the entire narrative, fostering a deeper connection between players and the storyline".

## Appearances

In the game, Vertin, otherwise known as the Timekeeper, is a young girl wearing a dapper top hat. She is the only person unaffected by the "Storm", a magical torrent erasing space, time, and all creation. She bears witness to the deletion of multiple eras and records them. The game's story revolves around Vertin travelling through different eras and recruiting a diverse cast of arcanists to seek out the truth about the "Storm" when it happened on the last day of 1999, causing anything it touched to be reversed, and the time stopping progressing. During the travels, she is supported by the St. Pavlov Foundation, a time-jumping organization. She can put objects and people inside her suitcase to protect them from the "Storm".
In the prologue, Vertin and another St. Pavlov Foundation member, also her chief assistant, Sonetto arrived in 1996 to investigate arcanist Regulus. As the "Storm" is imminent, despite suffering resistance from Regulus before, Vertin protected her arrived in 1929. In the later main chapters, she met other important characters of Reverse: 1999, including Schneider, Druvis III, and Sotheby.

## Promotion and reception

On October 2, 2023, Bluepoch announced in the "Wonder Festival 2022-2023 Shanghai" it would lauch the nendoroid figure of Vertin and Sonetto, produced and sold by Good Smile Company Shanghai. The booth of Reverse: 1999 at Comiket 103 features Vertin's suitcase model. In January 2024, Chinese figurine enterprise APEX-TOYS announced the production of Vertin's 3D portrait frame figure.
Game Donga [ko] emphasized Vertin is an established player character, different from games in the same genre, and praised Reverse: 1999 for overcoming this threshold. Yuichi Shigeta from IGN Japan also noted this point. Sorisu from INSIDE [ja] thought this form provide a high immersion similar to the visual novel, and praised Vertin for its "very attractive" that both cool and enthusiasm, saying she's "like the protagonist of shōnen manga". 4Gamer.net described Vertin as "calm appearance but passionate", and categorized this as one of the main charms of the game. Krmigame [ja] hilled Vertin for her clear character characteristic. YYSTV [zh] stated that compared to most anime-style games developed in China, the character image and design of Vertin are "unique" and "non-mainstream". It thought the separation between the player and the protagonist would prompt players to feel more mood swings, and believed Vertin thus has an "extraordinarily brilliant character arc".