"Skies of Nostalgia..?"

Skies of Arcadia is to many people THE best RPG, telling of grand adventures, vast skies to explore, discoveries, an engaging crew of characters, and simply an unforgettable experience altogether. Sadly, the game never got a sequel. There are other RPGs where you travel on an airship and explore the world, but it just isn't the same. Skies of Arcadia has an endearing touch of charm that is missing in a lot of other similar games. While Skies of Arcadia remains an untouchable classic, here we have a little something called Nostalgia on DS, which actually reminds a lot of Skies of Arcadia (and other games), hence "Nostalgia". Not a bad game in itself, Nostalgia is a fun ride through the old-school genre, but unfortunately it doesn't really stand out.

Nostalgia is the story of four kids, who end up embarking on a quest to save the world (surprised?). Eddie is the nice guy out there to save his father (who is basically Indiana Jones), Pad the rebellious street boy who wants to find his missing mom, and Melody has the annoying character role, which allows her throughout the entire game to tag along for no particular reason other than to peck at other characters because she has nothing better to do. Then we have Fiona, the cliche character. Just like Fina (and the name is no coincidence, I'm sure) in Skies of Arcadia, she is the mysterious girl who comes from a far away civilization and she is brought along so they can help her regain her memory (original) and thus defeat the bad guy in the end.

There is absolutely nothing new here, going along themes of friendship and determination, and the storyline is pretty much the worst aspect of the game. Eddie is a terrible main character, although for once they did not give us a silent protagonist, he might have well been silent and it wouldn't have changed anything. Eddie is boring and has nothing interesting ever to say, simply going for the mold of the hero who wants to save the mysterious girl, even though she is just as boring. Pad and Melody are slightly better characters for humoristic purposes, but overall the storyline is absolutely cliched and without any interesting elements or plot points. Get the four tablets, save the world, then let's all be friends. Sure.

The premise of Nostalgia is the airship you fly in for most of the game, yet it's not its strongest apparel. Instead of a world map you walk around on, you must travel between the different locations using the airship, which makes things quicker, but doesn't save you from random encounters. This is where the game loses some points. While the encounter rate isn't really above average, the airship battles take far too long, and are tedious. Instead of having your characters fight the enemies on board, the world map encounters have you fight other airships with your airship. This would be fun if the battles were different from regular fights, but it's really the same. Your four characters still take turns to attack from the ship, but with different attack names. This makes things really boring after a while, considering you have the same type of fights inside the dungeons, but faster and more fun.

The problem with Nostalgia is that it's nothing original at all. What the game tries to go for is just stick to the old-school formula to bring some memories to gamers from past RPGs (hence the title), but it's just so bland and generic that I didn't feel any sort of nostalgia, as I remember most RPGs from past years to be a lot more engrossing. The only real nostalgic feeling was in homage to Skies of Arcadia, so in that sense it did bring back memories, but it pales so much in comparison that it only made me want to drop the game and go re-play Skies of Arcadia instead. Nostalgia is a traditional, by-the-book RPG, right down to the turn-based battles where you take turns, use special skills, level-up your characters and skills, travel from town to town, trek through dungeons, and so on. There is nothing more, and nothing less. Not that this is a bad thing -- I love turn-based fights, and Nostalgia's battle system was simplistic, and fun -- but it's a shame the game is so basic.

Nostalgia takes place in a fantasy set world (with swords and magic), but the locations you will visit all come from the real world. You will start in London, then make your way to Cairo, stopping by a small French village (which reminds of the Black Mage village from the original Final Fantasy), then going all the way to Saint Petersburg, Delhi, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, New York and other places. This is pretty neat for a change, but the way the cities are represented isn't all that accurate, and most towns are very small (a few buildings and empty streets), so it's not really anything special compared to other RPGs with better town designs and more creativity. Same thing goes for the dungeons, they pretty much all consist in caves and temples with maze-like paths, with treasure chests and the most unoriginal puzzles (hit that lever, backtrack to door, hit switch, etc), a lot of random encounters and an extremity linear design.

Thankfully, Nostalgia has got plenty of sidequests to complete in-between the dungeons, but unfortunately, most quests just send you back right into the same dungeons you just went through, and several times at that, just to fetch some items for NPCs. Doing the quests is however a big plus, as they will provide you with enough money to buy everything you need, if you can get past how boring the sidequests (and dungeons) are. There's also another type of sidequest that is blatantly the same as Skies of Arcadia's famous "discoveries" and it does nothing to try to hide it. While you soar through the skies with the airship, you may bump into "world treasures", which are basically just hidden places or objects on the world map, and do nothing except complete your Adventurer's Handbook. However, the game has so many tedious airship battles that it's not really fun to just blindly fly around just to find these. It worked great in Skies of Arcadia because you had a sense of immersion as you explored and discovered the world, but Nostalgia is too small of a game to give that same feeling.

Nostalgia is also a tad too easy for something that is trying so hard to be old-school, with bosses that die after a couple of hits, and dungeons that can be finished within a few minutes (if you do the sidequests, you will be severely over-leveled, which makes the game feel very unbalanced), not to mention the towns always provide with new weapons and armors at intervals that make no sense. At some point I was purchasing all the latest gear only to find out in a village 2 steps away from the one I was just in, better equipment sold for about the same price. After a while, it becomes almost useless to buy new equipment, because you know the next town you will visit in 5 minutes has better one, and the dungeon you will visit in-between has even better one at no cost. The game gets harder near the end when you gain the ability to fly higher and reach new cities, but it's still a breeze, and it should have been a lot harder given the fact that it's going for the whole nostalgia theme.

Considering the makers of this game also worked on the FF3 and FF4 remakes, you will find the character models to be very reminiscent, which is a good thing as the FF remakes had some of the best graphics on DS. The cutscenes and airship shots also look very impressive, but strangely, the actual in-game environments look kind of bad. The villages look pixelated and jagged, like something that was stretched out too much, and they just look very bland overall, so it's a mixed bag. At least the world map is fully 3D and looks pretty decent, but everything past the cutscenes and characters is a little disappointing. The music, on the other hand, is probably the only distinctive aspect of Nostalgia. Some of the musical tracks are quite charming, and the game is packed with a great variety of tunes for the different places and situations. Unfortunately, no voice-acting.

To give the game some merit, Nostalgia is a great homage to Skies of Arcadia and the traditional RPG genre in general, with the generic "save the world" quest led by children, a large world map to explore and several towns and dungeons (not enough, though), but it just doesn't take it anywhere. I enjoy the old-school RPG formula very much and Nostalgia was fun to play through, thanks to the classic turn-based battles and a hint of Skies of Arcadia, but the overall game lacks any kind of uniqueness and charm. The characters never get interesting, the storyline never strays, and the locations the adventure takes you to are dull and lack artistic appeal. I was really excited to play Nostalgia at first because it does look like a great RPG from screenshots, but now I'm not sure anymore if it's really all that recommendable. It's a short game though (between 15 to 30 hours, depending), so it's a nice romp between other longer RPGs. There is nothing wrong with Nostalgia really, but there is nothing above average about it either, so it's something you can skip without missing anything. If you're a sucker for traditional RPGs though, you might still want to try it. Just don't expect another Skies of Arcadia.


Breakdown

Presentation The storyline is extremely basic and almost boring, and the characters do nothing to make it more interesting, following the cliche RPG molds. *Yawn* 5/10

Gameplay The adventure is kind of stale, and the towns and dungeons are pretty dull, but the world map is explorable and the battle system is fun. The game wants to be old-school, but it's following the formula a little too closely. 7/10

Graphics The character models and cutscenes look great, but for some reason the actual locations in the game don't look very good, or appealing. 6/10

Music There is some really nice sounding music in there, but sadly, no voice acting or even voice samples. 8/10

Replay Value It's a short and easy game, but with sidequests and everything you'll find a lot of replay value. You can aim to complete the Adventurer's Handbook and there are a few optional dungeons. 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/10

Game Release: Nostalgia (US, 10/23/09)