"Great looking title marred by repetitive gameplay."

Atlus is known for publishing titles which would normally never see the light of day stateside. Riviera is yet another one of these quirky titles that manages to appeal to certain gamers with a very unique look and feel. This isn't the sort of game that will appeal to everyone but there are many interesting elements that make it stand out from the pack of usual RPGs. It's really what gamers have come to expect from Atlus releases and once again Atlus delivers a title that is out of the ordinary.

Norse mythology has proven to be fertile ground for excellent RPGs in the past. Games like Valkyrie Profile utilized the characters and events in the myths and Riviera does as well. You take the role of Ein, a Grim Angel who is entrusted with the powers of the Gods. Demons have once again begun to stir in the land of Riviera and Ein is sent to prevent them from taking over. To do this, he is ordered to destroy Riviera. Through a series of events, Ein is thrown into Riviera, meets his four party members(all girls) and begins to see that Riviera isn't as terrible as he was made to think it was. He begins his quest to rid Riviera of the demons and to find out if destruction is really necessary.

There are 6 playable characters in the game. Ledah, an angel, is the only other male besides Ein and is with you briefly for one chapter. Cierra, Serene, Fia and Lina close out the cast and range from a spunky witch to a winged character who attacks with a scythe. The character designs are very cute as are the characters themselves. At first the story has a very humorous feel to it which doesn't really fit in with the Norse mythology but the game gets darker as the game progresses. The story itself isn't too bad but the dialogue isn't all to engrossing and has some low grade humor interspersed among the usual character banter. The humor doesn't quite succeed but there are a few funny scenes here and there. Most of the story unfolds as you move through the dungeons. Upon entering a new screen or examining something on the screen, you'll read some super exciting dialogue and then move on to the next screen where this will repeat.

The art in the game is fantastic. Sunaho Tobe does an excellent job with the character portraits. The story is presented via regular cut scenes where text accompanies the facial portrait of one character as he or she speaks. There are plenty of hand drawn portraits that show a multitude of different expressions. The character sprites look amazing for a GBA game. The dungeons are well designed but could use more variety. Each chapter has a different look ranging from graveyards to caves. Still, these dungeons seem to overuse the same rooms so you'll find yourself moving from room to room and not noticing much of a difference. Still, for a GBA game, the graphics are very strong and bright and represent some of the nicest I've seen on the system.

The music is composed by Minako Adachi and Shigeki Hayashi. I don't recall hearing anything else by these two but they do a very good job here. The various dungeon and battle themes are all very ample and have an epic feel to them. There aren't too many repeated tracks. There are plenty of effect sounds as well and these don't get tiresome. Things like icicles falling or characters falling into the water add some nice touches to the overall sound scape. Riviera even contains some voice acting in battles which is a pleasant surprise.

This isn't the standard RPG fare you might be expecting. There are a lot of unique gameplay elements in Riviera that unfortunately don't really work all that well. There is no world map, no random encounters and no standard level up system. Instead, we have a board game type movement system, preplanned encounters and gaining strength via items. Between chapters, you are sent back to the one town that this game has where you can talk to the various NPC characters and maybe have them give you an item or two. There are no stores nor is there really anything of interest in this town. Besides the few minutes you'll spend in town after each chapter, you'll spend the majority of your game time in dungeons.

The movement system of Riviera is quite restrictive. If you have ever played Unlimited Saga then you'll have a good idea of what this game's movement system is like. Basically, there is no free movement at all. You move from area to area simply by pressing in the direction you want to go, your character will then move from this screen to the next. This may sound limiting and boring and well, it sort of is as you are very limited on what you can do. The game does add a look element to the mix. On every screen you can go into look mode and different things may be selectable on the screen by pressing certain directions. These things can range from treasure chests or rubble you can explore. Looking can either be free or cost TP which are gained in battles.

Picking these things will add some additional sequences where your characters talk a bit, gain treasure or participate in a little mini game to dodge or open things. These mini games basically have you either press certain buttons in a specific amount of time or press buttons at specific intervals. They add a little bit of a skill based challenge to break up the monotony of the dungeons.

Then come the battles. At specific points in the dungeons, you'll be faced with enemies that you have to fight. You have the option of running but that simply sends you back to the last screen so you have to fight them anyway to progress. After choosing to fight, you are sent to the formation screen where you pick three of your five characters to use in battle. Each has weapons they are good with and elemental strengths/weaknesses which adds some strategy when you are picking who to use in battles. Then you go to the item selection screen, pick 4 items and begin battles. Yes, 4 items, you can only bring 4 items into battle and you have to use those 4 items and only 4 items in that battle whether they be healing items or weapons. Your inventory itself can only hold 16 items so you'll be throwing out a lot of items as you move along. Almost all the weapons and items have durability which means that after a certain amount of uses, they'll break and cannot be used again. Running out of items to use isn't really a problem as you find plenty of items and weapons in dungeons and from enemies.

Now, the battle begins. It's basically a turn based system with a wait system playing into things(each item has a different wait which affects when your characters get their own turns). You pick which of the 4 items you want your character to use(items are shared amongst all three) and start the turn. You attack, the enemies do their attack and you repeat the process. As you battle, there are two bars you have to look out for. The overdrive bar builds up as you attack/get attacked and allows you to use overdrives, special attacks that you learn from your weapons. The bar itself builds up to level 3 and overdrives take away a specific amount of the bar as you use them. Level 3 will send it back to 0, level 2 will send it back to 1 and so on. Your enemy also has a similar bar that allows them to use a strong attack when it is built up. These overdrives are graphically impressive and also include a nice character portrait each time you use it. Thankfully, these portraits can be turned off so if they bother you, you can get rid of them. At the end of each battle, you are graded based on your performance, basically the time you took and the finishing move you used. Higher grades mean more TP and a better chance to get an item.

Items and weapons play a huge role in the leveling system of Riviera. Each time you unlock an overdrive from any item/weapon, you gain some stats depending on the type of item it was. Unlocking overdrives is done by leveling up the weapons, ie. using the weapon over and over. Some weapons may unlock an overdrive after three uses while others may take more. Not all items/weapons have overdrives to unlock but there are many that do so you'll want to use as many possible weapons/items in battle to gain strength. Thankfully, the game adds a practice area where you can use fight without the durability of your items being drained. This way you can unlock overdrives for items for all your characters without worrying about the durability. Another nice thing is that each character has different attacks/overdrives for each weapon/item. Ein may have an overdrive to unlock for a sword while one of the girls has no overdrive for that sword. There are lots of items to find and since the amount of items you choose to level up is left up to you, it's you who controls the difficulty. Even if you don't level with every item you find and rarely use practice, the game still remains quite easy. While the battle and movement systems may sound complicated, they are pretty easy to grasp.

There is also little dating sim aspect to the game that affects what ending. Throughout the game, you'll be given choices during dialogue segments that affect how much each of the female characters like you. Use in battle with these girls also affects this. It's a nice little addition that adds some replay value if you want to see the multiple endings but doing so depends on your ability to dredge through the same dungeons and read the same dialogue yet again.

Still, the game gets very repetitive very quickly. You'll basically move from one room to another, reading dialogue in most rooms, look in each room to see if anything can be selected and move to another room where you may fight a battle. If not, simply move again, all through areas that look all too similar. The level up system also gets tiring rather quickly as it is based on repeated use of the same items. The little timing mini games that are sometimes triggered when looking or during story sequences don't really add much to break up the monotony of the dungeon crawling.

Yes, the art is amazing, the music is well done and the characters are pretty cute. Other than that, the story and dialogue are not particularly strong and the gameplay doesn't have too much depth. The whole thing gets very repetitive as you move from dungeon to dungeon. Still, I managed to enjoy at least the early portions of the game before the repetitive nature of the game brought it down for me. If you're an RPG fan to begin with then you should take at least a quick look at this game. However, if you're not into RPGs then this probably won't change your mind.

Recommendation: It's one of the weaker Atlus releases I have played. If you're a fan of quirky RPGs with a cute cast of characters or if you're starved for a portable RPG and have played all the other GBA RPGs then you might like what is offered here. As it is an Atlus title, it'll probably be rare pretty soon so if you plan to pick it up, now is the best time. Otherwise, there are better games out there to look into.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/05, Updated 07/19/05