Riviera: The Promised Land Review for Game Boy Advance (GBA) || Portable Review

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Game Information | Preview | Review | Screenshots | Forum

»Riviera: The Promised Land
"RPG or Dating Sim? Both!"

Graphics: 7

Gameplay: 8

Sound: 9

Replay Value: 8

In a times of turmoil, who better to save all of existence from destruction than a group of plucky teenagers and a talking cat? It’s this group of protagonists that you will come to love in Atlus’s Riviera: The Promised Land. You take the role of Ein, a grim angel in the service of Asgard. Armed with a diviner, the holy weapon of a grim angel, you and your band of groupies battle demons across the length and breadth of Riviera, attempting to save it from destruction.

The first thing you will notice about Riviera are the beautifully detailed visuals, backgrounds appear as gorgeously rendered, hand-drawn backdrops, making the game very easy on the eyes. Whether you find yourself in a town, a dungeon, a forest, or a (nearly) deserted coliseum, you’ll be wishing other GBA games were as visually appealing as Riviera. The downside is that the developers decided to recycle the backgrounds over and over again That’s not to say that every single screen will look exactly the same, but there was definitely more than one spot where I found myself experiencing déjà vu.

While nowhere near as detailed as the backdrops, the sprites themselves hold up very well on their own, with generic animations that sprites usually have: moving, opening chests, digging in the ground, which looks remarkably like opening a chest. With such great looking visuals all over, you may kind of wish that the sprites were the little more interactive with the environment. As it stands, you can definitely see that they are moving over the backgrounds, rather than on them. At one point, I selected ‘Climb stairs’ on the movement screen; while I did ‘climb stairs’ to the next screen, it appeared as if I were walking on the roof. It’s this kind of display that makes a lot of the movement and activity feel disjointed.

While the visuals found in Rivieraare good, the sound is even better. The instrumentals consist of moody, environmental fare that does much to immerse the player into the game’s universe. In fact, it’s like this with pretty much every other RPG on the market. It’s great to listen to, could possibly be converted to real orchestral and sound better, and each midi file fits the context in which it takes place. It may be formulaic, but it is very enjoyable.

In addition to the numerous musical scores, Rivieraalso boasts a wide variety of voice talent. Special attacks are all announced, many scenes and victory stances have their own voice clips, and even the title screen introduces the game with crystal clarity. These are a bit higher quality than what I’ve heard in other GBA RPGs. (*cough*Tales of Phantasia*cough*)

Riviera doesn’t really play like a traditional RPG. Sure, it starts out slow, taking you through a much appreciated and painstakingly detailed tutorial that spans the first two chapters. After the first few battles, you’ll begin to notice that Rivieraborrows elements from a wide variety of sources, combining them into a cohesive whole. It’s really more of a point-and-click adventure, with roleplaying elements thrown in. You inspect the environment, which uses up action points you gain from combat, which is based on ‘grade’ you get, which is in turn based on how efficiently you finished combat. This kind of annoyed me, because there were times in the game where my sprites obviously weren’t in any rush, and I couldn’t inspect that one overturned stone because I was out of points. I was sad.

Leveling is handled in roundabout way as well, which is tied directly to weapon skill. You would think this would be counterproductive in the game that involves item decay, but they work around it. You can initiate practice anywhere you like. Anywhere. Is the water level rising, forcing your party to flee? Oh wait; let’s practice on the Rose Whip. Practice battles allow you to battle monsters without the fear of item decay, so battle away all you want. It is kind of nice to be able to level up when you want, how you want, but sometimes it will take three or four battles just to level up one item. It can get annoying as hell.

As you master weapons, not only do you level up, but you gain overdrive skills as well. These are powerful attacks that do massive damage while draining your overdrive bar, which fills up when you take or deal damage. Pretty straight forward, eh? There are three levels of attacks, and three levels of the bar. The more powerful the attack, the more it drains the bar. No curveballs there. There is the Execution Level, a generally more powerful attack, but it shatters the bar as well, causing the loss of its use throughout the rest of the battle. Great for a last ditch attack.

The battle system itself is a little quirky, which takes a little bit to get used to. Like many other RPGs, you’re not allowed to take your entire cadre into a single battle: you are limited to your choice of three out of five characters, arrayed however you choose. However, you can only select four items to bring with you as well, in any combination of weapons, equipment, or support items. Choose wisely, because not everyone can use every item effectively, and even have different properties. This makes for a much more challenging game than the typical game with unlimited item uses and a wide variety of choices. I commend Atlus for releasing an RPG that challenges me rather than caters to the more casual audience.

I have mentioned item decay once or twice before, and you really shouldn’t worry about losing your items as much as you would think. Sure, it’s annoying when your Flamberg bites the dust, but by the time it does, you’ll be in the next level, finding bigger and better weapons. The game does a great job of pacing item placement. At some point during the game, I even started relishing that item decay. My last major gripe in is the fact that you can only hold fifteen items. Period. I found myself throwing away a useful piece of equipment more than once, and sometimes kicking myself in the rear at a later date. It happens, but you are allowed to ‘redo’ combat if you die, with the enemy usually at a reduced hitpoint count. Not too shabby.

While combat takes up a good portion of the game, Rivieradoubles as a dating sim. You’re constantly caught up in conversation that will have you favoring one of your companions over the others, ultimately leading into a relationship. This is designated by heart/breaking heart bubbles that appear above their heads after you make a choice in conversation. The only real effect this has on the game are some subtle text changes, and the ending of the game. What? Does that mean there’s more than one ending? Hell yes! Depending on which woman you decide to woo, you get a different ending. On top of that, there are different paths to be taken, unlockables to be had (nothing terribly spiffy…voice samples, picture galleries, etc.), and all that good stuff. If you’re into seeing the many endings, then by all means, play through it five or six times.

Rivierais a great entry into anyone’s collection. At this point in time, it may be a bit hard to come by as it was a limited production run from May/June 2005. In the end, you will most likely end up getting fifteen to twenty hours out of this game for one run through. It’s a great addition to anyone’s collection who enjoys RPGs, and a fun twist on an old formula.

Article by: getahl
Posted on: Jun. 22nd, 2006

Review Recap

Gameplay

It’s a fun little point and click adventure, with the occasional annoyance of not having enough points.