Riviera: The Promised Land

"Possibly the most FUN you'll ever have playing an RPG."

Tired of the same old thing in RPGs? Do you like playing RPGs, but you find certain aspects of the games to be annoying? Do you wish that there was an RPG out there that focused simply on the aspects of an RPG that make it fun to play? Then Riviera: The Promised Land just might be the breath of fresh air you need. I picked this game up on a whim, more or less, and needless to say, I'm pleasantly surprised in what I found in this tiny cartridge.

Graphics: 9/10

Anyone who appreciates hand-drawn anime over the ultra-realism that so many games for the next-gen consoles go for will love the graphics in this game. The character designs are magnificent...the girls are all very nice to look at. (I can just hear it now... "WHAT??? It's POSSIBLE to make attractive females in video games WITHOUT them being half-naked? You've gotta be kidding me!!!" *sigh*) Also, the landscape of each stage is very beautiful...the colors are all very vibrant. Attack animations in battle look great as well...it's fun to watch those 8-hit combo Over Skills with some kind of massive blast to finish the attack. The only thing I could really nitpick about the game visually is the fact that some areas in the stages look exactly the same, but it really doesn't bother me. The game looks great on pretty much every level.

Sound: 8/10

Some of the sound effects in this game are kind of old-school sounding, but that's to be expected for the most part on a GBA. It's nothing that will make your ears bleed or anything. I liked the in-battle voice acting in this game. I thought it really added to the characters, and just allowed you to get to know them even better. It fit the characters, too (though in the case of Cierra, I think they kind of tried to make her sound a little too badass, which really isn't in her personality). Where the game REALLY shines in the sound department is the music. I found the music of the first stage so catchy that I didn't really want to leave it. Fortunately, the music quality of the following stages rivals the first quite well. And you shouldn't get bored with the battle themes. So many RPGs out there just have an enemy theme, a boss theme, and a final boss theme. Riviera has a Practice battle theme, multiple enemy battle themes, a miniboss/major enemy theme, a boss theme, a theme that plays during a few very specific boss battles, and the two final bosses, as well as the hidden boss, each have their own themes. You also may unlock the Sound Test while you're playing through the game, in which case you can listen to the songs any time you want, which is awesome. Riviera is a pleasure to the ears, no doubt about it.

Gameplay: 9/10

Ah...now THIS is what really makes the game worth getting. As I stated above, Riviera takes what makes an RPG FUN to play, adds its own twists on a few things, and throws all the other stuff out. The end result is an RPG that is stress-FREE. What do I mean? Well, let me explain.

One of the first things you may notice about Riviera is that it is formatted somewhat like an old-school platformer game, like the classic Mario games. By that, I mean that the game is divided into stages, with each stage being divided into areas (1-1, 1-2, and so forth), and each area being divided into multiple screens. There are 8 mandatory areas within a single stage, and also a hidden 9th area. You also get points in this game. No, I'm not talking about Hit Points or Experience Points or anything of the sort. Remember those days when you would play a game just to see how high of a score you could get? THOSE kind of points. I found this to be a very unique and interesting way to format an RPG.

Next, moving around. Riviera has no ginormous overworld for you to get lost in. No more will you have to wander around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go next because the dialogue didn't tell you where you needed to go. As for the individual stages, they are VERY long...I averaged approximately 4 hours per stage. But the length really isn't much of a problem...in fact, in this game, it's a good thing. A conventional RPG would have you go through a dungeon with little or no dialogue during it, making you fight random battle after random battle, even while you're backtracking to certain areas for purposes of getting items you missed or solving a puzzle or whatnot. In Riviera, random battles don't exist: the enemies are all stationed on specific screens. Once you defeat them, they're gone for good, and you never have to deal with them again. Granted, there are a decent amount of enemies in the game, but fighting doesn't get old, due to the fact that there is dialogue in between every single battle in this game. You may be able to access multiple events in between enemy battles as well, which I'll get to in the next paragraph. So the gameplay is very mixed up. It's also nearly impossible to get stuck in this game at all. There are a couple of puzzles, one of which will probably require you to write stuff down unless you have an INSANELY good memory, but using an FAQ or a guide to beat the game shouldn't be necessary. I'd only recommend it for getting the items and events you missed the first time...and I doubt anyone would be able to get EVERYTHING on their first playthrough.

As you're moving around through each stage in Riviera, you can stop and look at various things on each screen, which may trigger events and ALWAYS more dialogue. You may have to play a brief minigame (such as avoiding a trap from a chest), or you may have to make a decision as to what to do or what to say to the other characters (I'll go into more detail about this in the Characters section, appropriately). To me, it's these decisions you make that comprise one of the most compelling aspects of the gameplay, as it makes it feel like you are really "playing the role" of Ein, the main character. And isn't role-playing what you're supposed to do in a role-playing GAME?

Now let's look at the battles themselves. One might be a little put off at first, as the game starts you out with very few items, and thus very few options (but isn't that true of most RPGs?). But once you get more party members and more items, you'll find that you have a slew of options available to you. Any of your characters can actually use any weapon or item in this game: it's how effectively they can use them that varies. They may only be able to throw a weapon at the enemy for low accuracy and little damage, or they may be able to unleash a powerful Over Skill with that weapon. Though you can only bring 4 items into a battle, it actually gives you 12 different attacks or abilities, due to the fact that you have 3 party members in a battle and they each use each item or weapon differently. Plus, if they each have Over Skills for each of the weapons, that doubles it to a maximum of 24 attacks or abilities in a single battle. But in reality, that's not even CLOSE to the total amount of options you have. You can carry up to 15 different items with you as you're traveling around Riviera, and you end up with 5 party members. So it's simple math: 15 x 5 = 75. And although this isn't likely, if each of your characters had an Over Skill with each item, that doubles…to 150. So basically, you're choosing 24 options out of a pool of 150 to take with you into a single battle. That's quite a few.

You will want to have this many options, too. You see, unlike most RPGs, every single battle you enter is going to be different. You'll never fight the same exact group of enemies twice, and thus using the same exact strategy to kill them all won't work too well. Plus, every enemy has different weaknesses and resistances to different elements and uses different types of attacks. This is where having 5 party members to choose from comes in handy, as each of your characters excels in a different element. This is a game in which all of your characters are useful; you won't have any reason to stick with just the same three characters for the whole game and neglect the other two.

The formations of both your party and your enemy also need to be taken into consideration. All attacks have a predetermined range: they may hit a single enemy in the front row, a single enemy in the back, all enemies in a single row, a random enemy, or all enemies. So it's important to look at the enemy lineup and determine which enemies need to be taken out first, and what weapons you can do that with. Also, know your characters' strengths and weaknesses, and anticipate which enemies will attack who. Fortunately, if you don't like how your formation is set up, you can change it mid-battle.

So what are these Over Skills I've mentioned before? Well, an Over Skill is basically a superior ability that a character can learn with a weapon or item. The best ones you get late in the game do truly massive damage. To learn them, you just have to have a character use that weapon or item a certain amount of times. At the end of the battle, the character will Skill Up, which involves learning the Over Skill, as well as gaining a boost in stats. This is the only way to “level up” in Riviera; you do not get EXP for defeating enemies. To use an Over Skill, you must have a certain amount of the Over Drive gauge filled, which increases when you attack or take damage. But to even the playing field, your opponents also get their own version of the Over Drive gauge, the Rage Meter, which increases whenever an enemy gets hit, though it slowly decreases over time. When it fills up to Rage, they can use Rage attacks, and when it fills up to Max, the next enemy will use a Max attack. Max attacks from bosses are often nothing short of devastating, so it's not always a good idea to go on full offense against them.

By now, one might ask, “If there are a limited amount of enemies, how am I supposed to ensure that my characters are as strong as they should be?” Fear not, for this is where the Practice battle comes into play. You can fight as many of these as you want, against enemies you've already defeated. Practice battles allow you to make sure that your stats are the highest they can be before progressing any further.

“But what if you get defeated? Won't you have to start back at the last save point and work your way through everything again, speeding through the dialogue on the way?” Again, fear not. For even if you find this game difficult, you can retry any battle you lost, with the option of bringing different characters and items if you like. Also, the enemy starts with lower HP, and your Over Drive gauge will start out a little filled. And if you die again, the game tips the odds slightly in your favor even more. With a system like this, a gamer of any skill level should be able to win. Personally, I wouldn't have minded if the game had been made a bit more difficult…but on the other hand, you do somewhat have a level of control over the difficulty, depending on how many Over Skills you learn.

Regardless of how difficult Riviera is, it is simply a blast to play. And for an RPG, that's saying something.

Storyline: 7/10

Now this might look strange: storyline being the lowest-scoring area in an RPG review. How is this possible? Now, don't panic, a 7 is still quite a good score. I can name several RPGs that Riviera has a better storyline than. It's good, just not superb.

The premise of the game is what I like most about it. It's rather unique. You are Ein, a wingless Grim Angel, who has been sent down from Asgard, the former realm of the gods, to Riviera, the promised land, inhabited by the peaceful Sprites. Riviera has recently started to become overrun by demons again, and is threatening to turn into another Utgard, which was the former realm of the demons. Your mission is to actuate the Retribution, which will unleash the power of the gods to destroy the demons. However, if the Retribution is successful, Riviera and all of its inhabitants will be sacrificed in the process. Will Ein succeed in actuating the Retribution? Or, the better question…will he WANT to?

This is essentially what the game is for the first stage. At the end of the first stage, things happen that cause the situation to change. Without explaining anything in detail, I'll just say that Ein has to go on a quest to destroy the four Accursed. But he won't go it alone. He'll have the help of not one, not two, not three, but FOUR beautiful girls. And it just so happens that they ALL like him. If that is not a formula for fun, I don't know what is.

Here is the weakness in the game's plot: nothing really changes at all from stages 2 through 5. Destroy the Accursed, that's all there is to it. Rather, the game opts to chronicle, in detail, the journey that these five characters undertake. I actually really appreciated the amount of detail, mostly because it served to help you to get to know the characters better and better. But I really think it would have heightened the Riviera experience had there been more to the plot during the meat of the game. It's a little weird, because one would think that the story would have a little more to it for as much dialogue as the game has.

Fortunately, as with pretty much any good story, it is eventually revealed that there IS more to the plot that you and the characters didn't know about. Just about all of the game's plot twists occur in the last two chapters, and the situation becomes far more perilous than before. This is when the game really grabs hold of you and doesn't let go, not until the final boss breathes its last breath.

The ending is probably about average for an RPG. Nothing really unexpected occurs. Honestly, it left me wanting a little more (aside from the fact that the game was over). On the good side, though, there are 6 possible endings, which certainly gives Riviera replay value. And the game IS fun enough for one to want to play it 6 times through.

Characters: 9/10

Ah, the characters…my other favorite part of this game besides the gameplay. Riviera's characters are extremely well developed, due largely to how much dialogue there is between them all. You get to know them pretty quickly, and you'll only come to grow fonder of them as the game goes on. This is important, because Ein can get an ending with any one of the four girls. This is determined by Ein's responses and actions during the game. Some responses or actions will increase one or more of the girls' trust in Ein, while some will decrease it. Your goal then will be to be as nice as possible to the girl you like most. Now, this sort of affection system has been utilized in RPGs before; Final Fantasy 7 comes to mind. However, far more often than not, these systems come off as nothing more than gimmicks, or an “added bonus,” if you will. In Riviera, however, it is masterfully integrated into the gameplay. There are many, many points in the game when the player has to decide what response Ein should make, and you'll likely gain a certain satisfaction out of pleasing your favorite girl. It's very interesting and fun to participate in. Anyway, on to the characters themselves.

Ein makes a very good main character for this game. He starts out being very inexperienced and naive, and prefers to deal with whatever is troubling him alone. But as time passes, he becomes stronger, figures out why it is he wishes to fight, and becomes more open with the others about what is on his mind. He generally tries to be a very nice guy, but every now and then says or does the wrong thing, often having no idea what he did. He's also just a little bit of a pervert at heart (this game IS rated T for a reason, you know). Of course, a significant portion of Ein's personality will be determined by the player via the dialogue choices that the player makes, but he certainly doesn't lack his own personality.

Rose is Ein's familiar, who takes the form of a cat. Early in the game, she kind of shows Ein the ropes, and acts as a mentor. Later, we see that there is a much stronger bond between them, and that they are really very close friends. Though she can't fight, she is there to support Ein whenever he needs it.

Ledah is another Grim Angel that accompanies Ein on his mission to actuate the Retribution. Ledah is initially much more powerful and experienced than Ein, so Ein kind of has to rely on him for help. I found Ledah to be one of the coolest characters in the game. He's just one of those characters that you have to admire for his kickass-ness. Plus, later in the game, you find out that there's more to him than you probably initially thought.

And then we come to…THE GIRLS. Fia and Lina are the first ones to join you. Fia is the sweetheart, very kind, very thoughtful. She always thinks of everyone's safety and is overly cautious. Lina, on the other hand, throws caution to the wind. Cute, adorable and childlike, her curiosity sometimes gets the better of her, and she ends up paying for it. Her constant energy and easy excitability never cease. A little later on, you get Serene, last of the Arcs. She's the tomboy of the group, and also probably the funniest. Some of her comments are so extremely blunt that they end up being humorous. She and Lina go at it a few times throughout the game, which is usually pretty entertaining. And last, but not least, you get Cierra, the smart, sexy Scarlet Witch. She can tell you pretty much anything that has to do with magic, and is very knowledgeable about the world as a whole, though her sense of direction leaves something to be desired.

I won't talk much about the game's villain, for fear of spoiling anything. Needless to say, he's evil. Despite the fact that he remains off screen for most of the game, he's still someone you can hate, particularly because of certain things he does or reveals toward the end.

And that is probably just about all I have to say about Riviera: The Promised Land. In short, this game is different from other RPGs, and that's a very good thing. It lacks the gameplay components that typically just bog an RPG down, and amplifies the gameplay components that make an RPG fun. In addition, the characters have some of the most well defined personalities I've seen in a game, and you'll really come to befriend all of them. If you buy one GBA game in your lifetime…well, make it ZOE: The Fist of Mars. But if you buy two…then definitely get Riviera as well.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/17/05