Nostalgia - JRPG for the nostalgics

HAZ CLIC AQUÍ PARA LEER ESTA ENTRADA EN ESPAÑOL.

Hello everybody! After the last entry dedicated to the 2D fighting game Chaos Code for PS3 and arcades, in this entry I´m going to talk about a game that belongs to another of my favorite genres: the RPG, and more specifically about the Japanese version of this genre, known as JRPG. Although nowadays this genre is not as relevant as it once used to be (except for Japan, where this genre has always remained popular), probably due to the problems that many Japanese developers experienced in the late years adapting to the new platforms and the demands of a new public with new expectations, and to the rise of western RPG games such as Fable, Oblivion, Skyrim or Fallout 3, in the 8, 16 and 32-bit era the JRPG genre was one of the most prominent genres in the game industry, and in this genre we can find several games that have achieved the status of classics of the game industry such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire, Illusion of Time, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Suikoden, Vagrant Story, Wild Arms or the Tales Of series among many, many others. As I was saying, nowadays this genre is not as popular as it once was, playing a secondary role in the actual industry, with the exception of a few titans that still manage to gather the attention of the media and the public, such as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, although this has not stopped the genre from delivering interesting new games from time to time, especially in the portable platforms, which seem to have become the new home for this kind of titles, and this specially true with the Nintendo DS, the console that received the latest entries of several important franchises of the genre such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Valkyrie Profile and Suikoden, as is precisely inside the catalog of Nintendo´s handheld that we can find the game I´m going to talk about in this new entry. The game is Nostalgia.

Nostalgia, published in Japan as Nostalgio no Kaze (Winds of Nostalgio), is a classic style RPG developed and published exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS by Tecmo, Red Entertainment and Matrix Software, being perhaps these last the least known from the trio, however, on top of being the creators of Playstation´s classic Alundra (and its sequel), they are also the developers of the excellent remakes of Final Fantasy III and IV for Nintendo DS, and the superb Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, also for the Nintendo DS, on top of having among their ranks several developers that participated in the development of several titles of the golden era of JRPG games such as Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, Landstalker, Lady Stalker o Dark Savior, so we are talking about guys that know that they are doing when it comes down to JRPG games. As I was saying, Nostalgia is a classic style RPG, at its title comes precisely from the nostalgic feeling the game aims to evoke in the players, for according to the developers, their goal was to create a game that gathered some of the concepts that often appeared in the golden age of JRPG games to create a game that felt and played just like the classic JRPG games did in every single aspect, starting with the story of the game. Instead of taking place in a fantasy world, the story of Nostalgia takes us to an alternative Steampunk version of the real world of the XIX century. In this world we will play the role of Edward Brown, a young lad from England son of the famous English adventurer Gilbert Brown. One day the father of Edward disappears after a confrontation with a dark group known as the Ancient Father´s Cabal to save a young girl called Fiona, who seems to possess certain special powers that the Cabal needs for their dark plans. When Edwards hears about his father´s disappearance, he decides to follow on his father´s footsteps and joins the Adventurers Association in order to travel around the world to find clues about his missing father, which will serve as the starting point of the adventure. During his travels Edward will meet other characters that will join him for several reasons, and he will have to visit several famous cities around the world, such as London, Cairo, New York or Tokyo, and explore many legendary places such as the Great Pyramid, the Tower of Babel, the Amazon, El Dorado or even Atlantis, which will lead Edward to discover a dark plot that threatens the whole world. The main characters of the adventure will be:

Edward Brown

Edward is the son of the famous English adventurer Gilbert Brown, Edward is good-natured and has a strong sense of justice. He learned the art of the sword from his dad since an early age. When his father disappeared, he decided to join the Adventurers Association to which his father also belonged in order to be able to look for his missing father. Edward uses the sword as a main weapon, and has the most powerful physical attacks of the group.

Pad Remington

Pas is an orphan that that lives in the suburbs of London and the son of the famous adventurer Patrick Remington. He got separated from his parents at an early age, being forced to learn how to survive all alone. Although his experience in life made him develop a rather cold and distant personality, he always helps the other children in the suburbs. He always carries with him a medallion his mother gave him, although he doesn´t know that is it for, so when he meets Edward, he decides to join him to try to find out more things about the mysterious medallion. Pad uses guns as a main weapon, and is your typical fast character with support skills.

Melody Farklight

Melody is a witch that lives in an isolated village and that belongs to an almost extinguished clan of magic users. Since she has been always isolated in her tiny village and never had any friends, she´s rather stubborn and selfish, although she has a good heart. She decides to join Edward so that she can take revenge on a member of the Cabal. Melody is the typical offensive magician.

Fiona

Fiona is a mysterious young girl that cannot remember anything from her past. She was rescued from the clutches of the Cabal by Edward´s father just before he went missing. The Cabal seems to be interested in her due to her special powers. She´s rather reserved, although once she makes up her mind, nothing will stop her. Fiona is your typical healing magician.








As you can see, both, the story of the game, with the typical teenagers who set on a journey to save the world in the no less typical clash between good and evil, and the characters and their skills and personalities (the brave swordsman who fights for justice, the amnesic curative magician, etc.), follow perfectly the typical stereotypes that we could find in the classic JPRG games from the 8 and 16-bit era in which the game is inspired on, something that might please the classic JPRG game fans, but that could bore many others already tired of these typical stereotypes and used the more complex (although not necessary better) stories of the modern games.

As for the gameplay of the game, just as it happens with its story and characters, the game stays most of the time on the conservative side, which makes sense if we keep in mind that, as I said at the beginning of this entry, the game pretends to pay tribute to the classic JRPG games. Nostalgia makes use of the typical town-dungeon pattern used in most JRPG games, in which, after visiting a town to buy new items and gather information about our next location, we will head to the corresponding dungeon in which we will have to defeat a final boss to complete it so that we can access to the new combination of town-dungeon. But where Nostalgia sets itself apart from other JRPG games is in the way we will explore the game´s map of the world. As opposite as seen in many other JPRG games, in which we always explored the world on foot, or sometimes with some kind of vessel or flying machine, all the exploration of the world map in Nostalgia will be carried away using one of the key elements that helps to give more personality to the title: the zeppelin, which we will obtain on the first steps of the adventure, and that will allow us to travel through the different regions that compose the world map of the game, although not all the regions will be available right from the beginning. On top of being able to buy the typical items and equipment for our characters, we will also be able to buy items to improve about zeppelin, some of which will allow our machine to fly higher, which will mandatory if we want to be able to access to certain areas in order to be able to keep advancing in our adventure. On top of the main storyline, the Adventurers Association will also give us the chance to take on secondary missions that will allow us to obtain more gold and extra items. The more secondary missions we complete, the better our adventurer rank will be, which means the better the missions will be able to select will be, and with better missions come better rewards. This will help to expend considerably the lifespan of the game, on top of helping to take a break from the continuous town-dungeons pattern, although many of these secondary missions will require us to visit again dungeons we already completed, so they can also end up being a tad repetitive, nonetheless, is still are a nice addition.

As for the combat system of the game, as the conservative title that it is, Nostalgia makes use of the classic random battle system that is loved by many, and that so old and clunky feels for many others. Like this we have that, while we explore the different dungeons of the game, we will be taken to the combat screen every time our group of heroes encounters a group of enemies. The combat system is pretty straightforward classic stuff, with your typical RPG options to attack, defend, use skills/magic, use items and escape. As opposite as seen in games like Final Fantasy and its Active Time Battle system, where we had to wait till our gauge filled up in order to be able to act, allowing any character to act as soon as their gauge was full, in Nostalgia the order in which the characters will act will depend on the characters stats, and till a character hasn´t complete its turn, the rest won´t be able to do anything. This will make the rhythm of the combats slower and less dynamic, and therefore easier, since we will have more time to plan well our strategies. But not all regarding the combat is the same old stuff. Something innovative for an JRPG game is the combat score system. Instead of obtaining always the same rewards for defeating our enemies, these will vary depending on the score we receive upon completing the combats. Thus we have that, depending on how we fared during the combat (damage taken, completion time, etc.), we will receive a different score. The higher this score is, the better the rewards we will receive will be. As we win combats, our characters will level up, improving their stats and obtaining skill points, which we will be able to use to unlock the skills we want to obtain. This will give the players some freedom to adapt the characters to their needs, making the gameplay richer. But where Nostalgia sets itself apart again from the rest of JPRG is in the combats that will take place while we are riding our zeppelin. On top of finding enemies inside the dungeons, we will also find enemies while we soar through the skies. Although basically the combat system will be the same for the most part of it, when we are onboard of our zeppelin and we find a group of enemies, instead of fighting with our characters standing on the deck of the zeppelin, these will handle one of the weapons with which our zeppelin will be equipped. Each weapon will have different characteristics, and, as I also mentioned before, we will be able to purchase new ones at the shops. While inside the dungeons we will always fight against a single group of enemies, in the combats with the zeppelin we could face up to three groups of enemies at once during the combats, which will be located at the sides and in front of our zeppelin. It will be up to use to decide which weapon we will use against each group of enemies, and the effectiveness of these will vary depending on the type of weapon we are using and the enemies we are facing. Just like the enemies will be able to perform attacks that will modify the status of our characters (poison, etc.), they will also be able to apply status changes to our zeppelin, like for example a short circuit, which will stop our zeppelin from performing any actions, and just like we will be able to use items to cure our characters, we will also be able to buy special items to fix our zeppelin. The types of enemies we will face will vary depending on the altitude we are flying at, with the toughest enemies being the ones flying at the highest altitudes. To tell you the truth, although these combats are surely not the next big thing in JRPG evolution, they are certainly quite spectacular, probably thanks to the animations and camera work, which help to give the feeling we are fighting “on the move” in the middle of the immensity of the skies, helping to give the title more personality.

Finally, regarding the graphics, this is probably one of the best points of the game, displaying really nice and stable 3D graphics full of details similar to the ones we could also see in the remakes of Final Fantasy III and IV, and which are among the best 3D graphics ever seen in a Nintendo DS title. It would be also worth mentioning the good artistic design of the game, with the only complain in this sense being perhaps the rather simplistic and reductionist design of some cities, like for example Cairo, which looks more like a village in the middle of some godforsaken land rather than the thrilling city it already was at those times, which certainly takes away some of the excitement of all the “explore the world thing”.

All in all, Nostalgia is a game that fulfills perfectly its role as both, an JRPG game, and a tribute to classic JRPG games, being a game that will surely please the fans of the genre, although perhaps those that did not enjoy the golden era of this genre at its moment might find in Nostalgia just an archaic and outdated piece of entertainment. Unfortunately for many, the game was only edited in Japan and later in the EE. UU. by Ignition Entertainment, and the release in American territory was kind of small, so, on top of being available just in English (and Japanese), the game can be rather pricy for a game of these characteristics due to its rarity, however, the investment will surely prove worthy for all the lovers of this genre out there, so if you want to revive old times, just as the title of the game suggests, you should definitely give way to your nostalgia and give a chance to Nostalgia. Enjoy!


GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlWJvWagVhE