By By Sean Ewing
It has its kinks, but the new role-playing game Riviera: The Promised Land will entice games with its unique story line. Riviera: The Promised Land does its own thing each step of the way. While the whole thing is very enjoyable, there are a few stumbling points that hold this game back from being a stand-out Game Boy Advance title.
The story is set against a Norse mythology backdrop, but is unique enough to hold the interest of the player. You play as Ein, a grim angel. These angels are chosen by the gods to take on the toughest jobs and enemies. To fulfill these jobs, the grim angels are given magical weapons called Diviners. The catch is each Diviner requires a sacrifice from the person who wields it. This gives the game a nice twist, adding some mystery to the other grim angels you meet along the way, leading to some interesting character development.
As Ein battles demons through the lands of Asgard and Riviera, he meets up with other people who are more than willing to join him, in typical RPG fashion. You gain Fia, the pacifistic fencer, Lina, the childish archer, Serene, a spunky angel and Cierra, an aloof magician. The characters have a very good sense of camaraderie and by the end of the game you actually might care about them. This leads to another interesting feature, depending on who Ein chooses to fight with him, and depending on quick button press minigames and dialogue choices, you can impress (or let down) the various ladies. This will effect how they treat Ein, as well as more practical matters such at stat growth and how well they fight. This is a very welcome addition and the minigames keep the tension high, despite the sometimes sluggish pace of the game.
For the most part, the game just bounces you from dungeon to dungeon, with one town in between. The town scenes provide a bit of character growth, and villagers will sometimes give you items depending on your performance in the previous dungeon, but that’s about as deep as things get in the town. There are no shops, no way to repair items, no inns. You basically go back to town, try to advance the relationships between your characters, then it is right back to the dungeon again.
The dungeon crawling element is done very differently in Riviera: The Promised Land, and if you can’t get into it, then you really will not enjoy this game at all. On each screen there are arrows indicating different directions to go in and red boxes highlighting things you can investigate. That’s it. There’s no walking around and examining things at will. One button press takes you to a new room, one button press takes you to a chest across the room. This definitely expedites the dungeons, and it is an interesting alternative to wandering around endless caverns. However, as a result, the game feels horribly rushed at times and very sluggish at others. When Riviera: The Promised Land hits its stride, it is untouchable, but unfortunately, those times aren’t as often as you’d hope. Sometimes you really get the impression they are just adding floors to a dungeon simply to expend the game. Every game has filler, but it shouldn’t feel like it. Then, when you are in a fascinating environment full of great art and fun battles, you find yourself thinking “I’m at the exit already?”
This isn’t to say the game is unplayable; it’s a tremendous effort from Atlus and very innovative. Each weapon reacts differently depending on who wields it, and certain characters gain special moves from various weapons. Not to mention, the hand drawn graphics are beautiful and would look right at home on Nintendo’s DS. All of the characters have very unique appearances, and attack effects are every bit as impressive as you’d hope. There is even limited voice acting during battles. The music is very serviceable, but none of the songs really stick in your mind long after playing.
At its best, Riviera: The Promised Land is a dark horse contender for GBA RPG of the year; even at its worst, it’s still very playable, but the pacing can really throw you off. If you enjoy RPGs, don’t mind dungeon crawling and are willing to try something different, Riviera: The Promised Land is a no-brainer. But the casual gamer might find the nonstop dungeons a bit too repetitive.
Final Grade: B

Dungeon crawls abound in this game, but if you can get past the repetition, it´s a well-crafted enjoyable venture.