So, you love traditional RPGs, do you? Well, if you do then I've got a perfect game for you. Oh, and everyone else, everyone that can't stand turn-based combat, cheesy characters and a so-so story, get the hell out before it's too late.
Okay, now that I've got a room full of RPG enthusiasts, lets talk about Nostalgia. This DS title runs the gamut of traditional RPG action. Graphically speaking, it's on par with DS titles trying to push the 3-d potential for the little hardware. Actually, booting this game up after spending so much time recently with nice looking titles for the consoles makes the DS' technology seem pretty dated. Nostalgia looks solid enough for what it is, but the steam-punk feel might have come across better with some fancier looks.
Set in the 19th century, Nostalgia is about a boy's quest to reunite with his father. His father is one of the greatest adventurers the world has ever seen, and he's gone missing. You take the reigns as the boy and you make three friends and take to the skies. This story is never really bad, but it's never really good either. If you're looking to take Nostalgia for a spin, the story is likely one of the last places you should rest your hopes and dreams. It's definitely enough to keep the gears turning, but you'll never find yourself on the edge of your seat. More appropriately, however, you'll find yourself guffawing at dialogue and plot twists. Yes. Guffawing.
You'll spend the bulk of the game completing quests in order to earn gold and gain status as an Adventurer. The quests typically toss you into a dungeon type area in order to find something or kill something. The creatures within, however, are rather varied depending on the environment. Cursed mummies in the pyramids, rats in the sewers, poisonous mushroom people in the caverns; it all makes sense, really.
When storyline quests appear you'll rock them in order to, well, advance the story. These quests feel much stronger than the side-missions, but their variety is only set in place because of the plot. When it comes down to it, you're basically walking around and engaging in turn-based combat. Like I said, unless you're a fan of traditional RPG elements, you should probably stay away.
While this shouldn't be considered a traditional equipment grinder, you will enjoy hours of slaying dudes for gold. The gold you win is spent to buy items and equipment. Standard stuff. You will find equipment out in the wild, but you'll mostly be buying it from shops as they "get new shipments".
Characters level and earn skill points necessary to further advance attacks and spells. Experience is the drug that feeds the leveling process. Nostalgia is crammed full of that "only one more level-up and then I'll turn you off" feeling. The tougher the baddies, the more experience you earn. Standard stuff. I will say that I found it a little frustrating that the TNL (experience required to earn the next level) was never shown in the battle-outcome report. I'd see gold, experience earned, items found, but never how much experience I needed in order to level my character. A bit obnoxious having to pull up the status screen every time I wanted to see the TNL for myself.
Speaking of "TNL"; this game is packed with abbreviations for elements in the RPG world. EVA, AP, DP, M. AP, M. DP... right, and the thing is that these are, by and large, traditional abbreviations. I can't recall any explanation for them being provided in the game itself, some things forced me to turn to the manual for help. It's all there, though, so don't fret if you don't know what it means off hand. Look it up in the very thick manual.
Perhaps the most unique element of Nostalgia is the sky based combat. Early in the title you score an airship. The airship may as well be a character of its own. You'll use it to traverse the overworld (which is actually planet earth; these exploration bits are quite fun) and move from city to town to dungeon and so forth. The thing is, traversing the overworld gives you tons of opportunities to fight in the air. Okay, so when I said it was "unique" before, I was really only talking about the ship itself. It's unique because it's a ship. Take it and apply character rules for an RPG and presto, it's traditional again. Turned based combat in the air. Only this time your party members man an attacking component of the ship. They take turns using their parts and the battle progresses. Once your ships lost health, you crash. The ship itself can be upgraded with items, just like the party members.
.jpg)
At this point you should probably be able to guess where this review wraps up. Nostalgia is for RPG lovers, plain and simple. The game never tries to be something else; it's a pure RPG for those that love the genre. If you've never played a traditional RPG title before, this one does pack in all of the best components, so that makes it the best contemporary traditional RPG available.
But, be warned, those that love the art and concept (which are both fantastic) and don't necessarily enjoy RPGs will likely be let down by Nostalgia. And if you can't old stand old school, turn-based combat, except for Pokemon, then get out. If you must play a RPG, make it Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.
Nostalgia isn't for everyone, but if you love traditional RPGs then consider this one worth a 9.0.
CraveOnline Rating: 7.0
