"Humorous, entertaining, a little bittersweet and over all too quickly."

Possibly one of the most pleasant surprises that I have happened upon in the twilight hours of the GBA is this game. Riviera: The Promised Land, a creative and fun amalgamation of an anime and a complex RPG, delivers on almost every front it puts forward. Granted, it's not entirely perfect, and the game's attempts at adding challenge generally end up translating to frustration for the player, but for all it's worth this obscure little treasure is worth hunting down and playing.

Riviera presents a very impressive aesthetic sensibility; the music is par-for-the-course and creatively arranged, punctuated by plenty of well-acted voice bytes. Some of the characters don't sound particularly parallel to their in-game roles (Cierra!) but the work is generally competent and not too terribly unbearable. The graphics are downright stunning, with fully realized settings and atmospheres and intricately-drawn and expressive face portraits. The player is even occasionally treated to some fantastic looking CGs, which look surprisingly good on the small screen and certainly don't hurt the overall visual appeal of the game. The only complaints I have are the occasionally muddy-looking character sprites and the rather repetitive monster design.

The game manages to be much deeper than its surface package by presenting a very interesting new meld of gameplay. It becomes an interesting cross between dating sim, adventure game and full-blooded RPG. In Riviera: The Promised Land, our main character Ein is accompanied in his journey to save the world by a bevy of babes who, in anime harem tradition, all seem to have a little something for him. As most anime girls are, these women are set off by the slightest of things, which causes their omnipotent Affection meter to plummet -- or, if you've done something to earn their favor, feel free to watch it rocket up in the blink of the eye. (Don't think you can get away without offending anyone though. It can't be done, Don Juan.) You'll be presented with plenty of choices to court the girl of your dreams, all of which figure into the end result of the game. This is definitely not a part of the game that I expected, but I enjoyed it regardless.

Harvest Moon jaunts aside, expect to be enthralled by the surprisingly deep and entertaining combat. Riviera packages plenty of challenge into its battles by allowing you to take only three of your five characters (one of whom will usually be Ein) into combat, and you can only split four items from your twenty-slot inventory between them! Because of the extremely pressing item micromanagement in this game, it becomes increasingly hard to hang on to some weapons or commodities, and one may find themselves parting with something they really hate to. This, more often than not, becomes very frustrating if you toss a set of 10 Elixirs in favor of a new bow. Ultimately, though, you're best served by having an item screen full of weaponry. Once you've finally overcome your heart-clenching moral dilemma of what to part with, you can finally take your spoils into battle, where you select four items that will best serve your combatants in the heat of battle. Be careful, though -- the items aren't indestructible! If you have all three characters relying on a powerful weapon, expect it to vanish relatively quickly. Unfortunately, this presents a somewhat disappointing issue with combat: the characters tend to be very unbalanced. Lina, for instance, is most proficient with the Bow. Not only are Bows fairly mediocre weapons (useful only for their ability to select a specific target), but almost every character can use the Bow as well, which means that you might find its durability swiftly waning. As a result, Lina's bows are either rendered obsolete or completely eaten faster than the player would like. Serene's weaponry, on the other hand, seems tailored specifically to fit her stats and proficiency levels, and subsequently she never has troubles in combat. (Her hulking STR doesn't hurt much either, I imagine.)

Despite this quirk, however, Riviera's engaging combat is followed up by another interesting facet of the game: the exploration. Each screen is bursting with things that you can explore or accomplish, but at the cost of TP that you get for winning battles. Running out of TP can be one of the most disheartening experiences in the game, so make sure that you obtain plenty of S ranks. The sense of exploration in the game makes the very linear gameplay feel much more interactive than it might normally be. The game completely rails you along with not much variation in setting. Though there are plenty of scenarios for your little party to encounter (most of them fairly humorous), the game does occasionally become a little repetitive. This is especially prevalent when one notices that there are only about 15 unique monster designs in the entire game, bosses aside. Palette swaps abound but most of the baddies even share attacks with their lower-level compatriots...lame.

To be honest, the plot of Riviera is fairly stock-standard and really only highlighted by its wonderful cast of characters. It's your typical "hey I'm bad but oh wait bad is bad so let's be good after a sudden crisis" sort of deal that you'd find in half of the RPGs out there. The plot is just about as linear as the gameplay, with Ein basically bouncing from location to location in search of his old friend Ledah or some clue about the monsters he needs to extinguish. Fortunately, the characters are a lot more fun, adding plenty of life and vigor to the story. This is one of those rare games where none of the playable characters pissed me off unnecessarily, and that's always a definite plus considering how often this happens.

I enjoyed Riviera: The Promised Land very much. It's worth owning, simply for its abundance of charm, fun gameplay and beautiful graphics. Good luck finding it, though; not a whole lot of copies were manufactured. And if you're ever presented with the question "Ein, what will we do with this poisonous mushroom?", don't say "It'll be your snack" unless you're not a fan of orange-haired loli girls.

Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Plot/Characters: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/05