#32 - Riviera: The Promised Land


I apologize for not posting this for nearly 4 months. I guess that's what happens when you try to release things every day - you start to get a little burned out. But I'm in the mood to get back into doing up this list so... yeah, here's the long awaited #32 - Riviera: The Promised Land. It's one of those "love it or hate it" kind of games as it's a different kind of RPG. It has no overworld, you move through dungeons like you move through menus and there isn't a whole lot to battling. That's the kind of thing that'd turn people off of this game (and right back to Pokemon because double standards)...

...but then I focused on everything else and found myself enjoying it. For instance, the story and the characters are quite engrossing. It's one of those games I couldn't put away since the development of these, especially the characters, made things much more interesting. I've also found that although navigation through the dungeons is very simple, the rooms themselves aren't, as there are action triggers which will require you to press a sequence of buttons in order to get some awesome items and not screw yourself over. There's also the Look Mode, which lets you use TP (Trigger Points) to look at objects in each room to hopefully find some cool items to use in battle. These can seem irritating, but they compensate for the lack of battle depth as they require some quick thinking on the former and strategizing on the latter. And eh, I really don't have an issue with the simplicity of combat - just wishing it was a bit more complex if nothing else.

Summary - A simplistic unique JRPG with excellent characters and a pretty good story.
Rating - 8.5/10

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