Saturday, September 14, 2013

A Brief Review - Riviera: The Promised Land (PSP)



I first played Riviera when it came out on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance.  Although I didn't finish the game in that playthrough, I remember being impressed with the characters, plot, and gameplay (especially this last category - it really pushed the GBA to its limits!).  So when my brother got me the PSP port for Christmas one year, I was understandably excited.

From what I understand, not much has changed in the PSP version - the sprites and graphics are basically the same, just a bit clearer on the PSP due to the backlit screen.  There is added art in a number of scenes, but the biggest change comes in the form of voice acting for the characters.  In the American localization, you can even choose whether you want the characters to speak in English or Japanese!  Rose, the talking cat, was especially hilarious in Japanese.  

The music also gets a bit of an overhaul, updating the instrumentation to be more suitable for the PSP.  Each track creates its own ambience, and the final battle music is one of the best I've heard.  The normal battle music can get annoying after a while (especially during training...), but the soundtrack suits the game very well.  

Overall, even though the port doesn't do much to enhance the original game, I would still give this a 4/5 rating.  The GBA version is harder to find nowadays, so one might as well go for the PSP port. 

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