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Riviera: The Promised Land Preview
Written by Señor Cha Cha on Wednesday, June 22, 2005
We take an in-depth look at the upcoming Atlus RPG for the GBA.
There's certainly no shortage of GBA RPGs but that doesn't mean we're not hungering for more. Atlus is preparing to bring Riviera: The Promised Land to the U.S. this June, and while it's got a lot of competition to contend with (most notably Nintendo's own Golden Sun series) it's still worth a look, unless the thought of demons give you the shakes.
Ah yes, the timeless battle between good and evil. That old chest nut. It's the foundation of Riviera's story and it's not a thrilling tale but it provides a fairly nice set up. Ages ago the ultimate fight broke out, a vicious battle between gods and demons, or Ragnarok, as the game calls it. The world was basically tossed into a paper shredder as these vile creatures invaded Asgard, which is the gods' realm. On the brink of death, these supreme deities sacrificed themselves to give birth to these super bad ass warriors known as the Grim Angels. Wielding powerful weapons known as Diviners, the Angels swiftly kicked the crap out of the demons and sealed them away, and to drop a cherry onto this tasty ice cream sundae, the gods managed to bless an isle known as the Riviera with their powers. All was good for 1,000 years until the reemergence of demons has filled the Riviera's people with dread. Fearing another war, these guys known as the Seven Magi (who now make all of the decisions since the world no longer has any gods), decide to unleash Retribution, this all powerful and apocalyptic event that will annihilate not only the demons but the Riviera as well.
Apparently you play as one of the two Grim Angels that the Magi send to begin this Retribution, and throughout the course of your 30 to 50 hour adventure you'll discover dark secrets about the land as well as why it may not be such a good idea to theoretically nuke everything, but at this point many of Riviera's details are unknown. It does feature a pretty standard battle system, though items that you equip will produce different results depending on which character is using them.
Riviera's gameplay may be somewhat of a mystery but it's no secret that the game features some very impressive looking visuals. The artists have created a world teeming with beauty as well as evil, and the 2D hand drawn characters and enemy creatures are well done though not overly impressive. The in game action is nothing we haven't seen before, however the cut scenes are fabulously detailed, and supposedly the characters feature roughly 100 different expressions.
It's unfortunate that we've been seeing fewer and fewer releases for the Game Boy Advance but at least we have titles like Riviera: The Promised Land to look forward to. Expect a full review soon after its June 28 release.
posted July 5, 2005