A unique take on the RPG genre with outstanding production values, but Riviera has a few flaws holding it back.
The story begins much like an ordinary day for most people. As an angel it's your job to destroy the land of Riviera in the name of the gods to prevent demons from coming back into power. Your sidekick is a cat that must have previously been owned by the Son of Sam's neighbor, as it relays orders to kill from the gods. Suddenly you're whisked away by the protector of Riviera, you're declared the fated hero that will save Riviera, and you awaken in a quiet town with total amnesia. You soon meet up with four girls who constantly vie for your attention as they convince you to help save the land you were trying to destroy. Yes, you're going to save the world. Shocking, indeed.
Combat and even leveling up revolves entirely around items. Virtually every item has a set number of uses before it breaks, and most notably each item has a different effect when used by each person - while a wand will result in a magical attack in the hands of one character, another will use it to heal a party member. While every character can use every item, some characters are more proficient at certain items than others. Ein, the main character, can deal a good bit of damage using swords, but a magic user like Celine will do less damage and have a high miss percentage. All of this is done without targeting as well. Swords will always hit the nearest enemy, scythes hit all enemies on the front row, bows will hit an enemy in the back row, a healing wand will heal the person with the least health, and so forth. The strategy isn't in which enemy to target, but in which weapons you select in order to take out the biggest threat first.
This is an unusual game in that avoiding battles won't necessarily slow down your character growth rate, as you get no experience from fights. Instead, some items will have a special move that can be unlocked for certain characters. If Ein uses, say, a sword six times, he'll learn the special attack for that sword, and gain health and some stats. These moves use up a set amount from your overdrive gauge, which fills up as you deal damage and take it. As such, acquiring as many different types of items as possible is key, even if you never plan to actually use them, as your power is totally dependent upon them. It's certainly a refreshing change of pace from just repeatedly killing random enemies to boost your stats.
Given that you can only take three of your five characters into battles and only four of your fifteen items, a lot of care must be taken as to what you bring into battles. Since all battles are scripted, and some items are virtually useless wastes of time against most enemies, plus the limited number of uses and the deceptively small carrying capacity, you'll find yourself using the practice mode an awful lot. These are fights against weaker enemies from previous areas that you can start whenever you want, and no item uses are consumed. In order to keep your overall power up to speed against the enemies and especially the chapter bosses, you'll likely enter practice fights every time you pick up a new item until each character that can learn a skill does so. Unfortunately this somewhat necessary technique gets tiring very quickly, and you'll find yourself burning time on these fights more than you'll spend on the actual progression fights. It's an interesting concept, for sure, but it would have been much better if the game were balanced so that you wouldn't have to spend nearly as much time in these fights.
Outside of battles, Riviera draws a few ideas from adventure games. Most notably, you never directly control Ein; you select an action for him to perform instead. You move from one screen to the next, where your characters will converse, a battle will take place, or you'll find some environments to interact with. Most of these interactions require one TP, which you earn after scripted battles - the better you perform, the more you get. The most common thing you'll find is a chest, which you'll always want to open for the possibility of new items. Naturally, most have traps, which are overcome with simple rhythm games. However, if you don't enter the correct sequence fast enough, you'll usually take a small hit on your maximum health and still get the item, and that health recovers back to full before too long. This certainly cheapens the whole idea behinds these traps and disarming them, as failing to do so will usually have little effect.
Regarding the environments, they're simply beautiful. All of the background are hand-drawn and are among the best you'll ever find on the GBA. Each background captures the mood of the area very well, from a spooky abandoned castle to ruins high up on some giant trees. The only bad thing that could be said of them is that they do repeat occasionally within each area, but it isn't overdone nor does it take away from the beauty of each screen. Given how quickly you move through some areas, it's understandable and almost good you'll get a little repetition. The character sprites are also detailed and exceptional, and have a wide range of animations. Each character also has portraits, which displays various emotions that appear when they speak, and they are also detailed and done very well.
The audio of Riviera is of the same very high quality of the visuals. The music itself is rather catchy and upbeat in general. A few tracks really stand out, like the anxious and regal music near important shrines, or a mysterious song in the final level that reinforces the quiet solitude. The quality of the tracks is also great; they certainly sound less synthesized than pretty much any other GBA game. Also included are short voiced lines for each character that are heard at the start and end of battles, and during the special moves. The sample quality of these lines are great considering the capacity limits on GBA cartridges, and sound better than many lines on PlayStation RPG's by comparison.
The game's seven areas will take a total of about 24 hours to finish on a playthrough, including all the practice battling. However, there is some replay value. For one, the game keeps track of a score you accumulate, so finishing with a higher score is an option, though there's no practical purpose for this system. Also there are about eight special features to unlock by collecting special items in the game, two of which I completed on my playthrough - one an item statistic list and another a collection of portraits. It's also possible to get different additional scenes during the ending. Throughout the game there are ways to get the four female characters to like you or dislike you depending on how you respond to various situations. The character that likes you the most will get a special ending with you. This turns a situation like deciding which party member will stand on a switch to open a door for the rest into the equivalent of being asked "Honey, do I look fat?" Oddly, there seems to be an option very late in the game that will skyrocket the character you choose way ahead of the others. With probably not enough time for another character to catch up, this virtually nullifies any of the work you did previously in the game with the friendship values.
Riviera set out to try something different and succeeded. However, while this new style eliminates some of the common weaknesses of the typical Japanese RPG, it creates a few new ones of its own in the process. The unique style and the wonderful production values definitely make this game worth checking out. A few little tweaks to the mechanics would make this system work great, but for a first attempt Sting certainly did a good job. The story is decent, the depth of the characters is great, and the progression through the game is set up great for a handheld system. Any RPG fan with a GBA will definitely want to consider giving Riviera a try.