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Nostalgia
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Graphics & Sound:
There have been quite a few RPGs to come out for the DS lately. Nostalgia is just one of the many, but it has so much more than so many of them to offer!
Graphically, Nostalgia is quite beautiful. The characters are all very different and unique. Some of them look like they came straight out of Indiana Jones, while others look like they're from a completely different era, but that's to be expected since Nostalgia takes place on 19th century Earth, only an alternate universe Earth. This means that the maps are exactly like a map of Earth. The cities, at least some of them, are the same as what you would see on Earth. I really like the way this works because you can recognize landmarks, like the Pyramids, but yet there are new places as well.
One thing I do miss is actual character voices, but then usually you don't have those in DS games. The characters don't actually speak, but you do have the text to read and honestly it's not distracting. The words are all very well written with no English errors. The background music is nice; upbeat without being distracting. The sound effects are also nice. Depending on what kind of attack it is, you get different noises. Granted, it's not necessary to have different sound effects, but little things like that make a game much more interesting to play! |
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Gameplay:
Nostalgia opens up with you playing as Gilbert Brown, adventurer extraordinaire. Gilbert is at the top of the Tower of Babel, attempting to rescue a girl that a mysterious group of people is trying to use to take a treasure. It looks like she is the only one that can touch it. Gilbert saves the girl (provided you win the battle) and they escape to his airship. All major travel in this alternate Earth is done by airship. Unfortunately, Gilbert doesn't quite make it onto the ship and plummets into the air below. After this, we switch over to Gilbert's family. When his wife and son, Eddie, are told that Gilbert is lost, Eddie takes it upon himself to go find his father, since no one else will because of the danger. First, Eddie has to become an adventurer to take on the task.
At this point, the game is quite easy and you are playing as Eddie. Eddie's main weapon is a sword. The first thing you'll do is head to the adventurer's guild and get your task to become an adventurer. It's a very common task for RPGs, to clean the sewer of rats. While you are in dungeons, you will have random encounters, but the rate that you run into them is pretty good. You never feel like you're having to battle every step, but you also don't go so long without battles that you get bored. I think they did a very good job of getting the random encounter rate right throughout the game. While you're in the sewer, you'll meet up with your first teammate, Pad, who uses a gun. As you can probably guess by now, you won't be sharing weapons between your characters. Sometimes you can share their armor though, depending on which piece it is. Once you and Pad get the sewers cleared and you are officially an adventurer, you will get your airship and the game really begins.
From here on out, the game does get quite a bit harder, which is good because I was worried about the difficulty at first. You also get random battles with the airship. Each of the characters controls a different weapon on the ship. After you get done with the first dungeon and boss, you'll pick up your third character, Melody. Later on you'll pick up a forth, Fiona. Eddie's quest to find his father is going to take him and his new friends all over the world and on quite a few adventures! Don't forget to do your adventurer quests as well, to prove you can become a great adventurer just like Gilbert Brown.
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Difficulty:
So as I said before, the first hour of Nostalgia is very easy. I was quite worried the whole game was going to be like that, but luckily it's not. After you get on the airship and make your stop at the first real dungeon, it is significantly harder. I wish I had known this, as I went into the dungeon without the newest weapons and very little healing potions because I thought it was going to be easy. Boy was I wrong! I ran out of potions and just barely beat the boss there, and only because Eddie got a healing spell right before I battled the boss. But I also went to the Pyramids without doing the two adventurer quests that are available. I recommend that you check in with the adventurer's guild frequently and do those as soon as you can for two reasons. First, you will be at the correct level for them so they won't be boringly easy. Second, you get quite a bit of money for completing them. Throughout the game you'll find this to be a trend, so make sure that you do the quests and that you are prepared for dungeons!
Spending your money carefully is something that isn't as easy to do in Nostalgia. At first, I thought I had plenty of money to do everything, but then I got the airship. Not only can you buy new weapons and armor for your characters, but you'll also need to do the same thing for your airship, which can get quite expensive! You'll have to decide which you think is more important sometimes, defensive or offensive gear, since you can't always afford both right off. Of course, you can always fly around and level up to get more money (I found air battles pay more, but are also costlier to repair), but that gets old when you want to get on with the game! One other thing that makes the land battles better (really cheaper) for leveling up is that when you hit a save point in the dungeons, it will also heal you and restore your MP. |
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Game Mechanics:
Nostalgia is played solely by using the buttons. The Touch Screen isn't used in the game, which personally I like as I find that for the most part, RPGs really don't benefit much from the Touch Screen. It just adds a level of complexity that detracts from the story. Nostalgia doesn't suffer from trying too hard to make the technology innovative; the story is the main focus of the game. The controls are very simple to get used to. If you've ever played an RPG on the DS, I can bet that you'll pick it up and know just what to do. The one thing to note is that if you want to run, which believe me, you don't want to walk everywhere, hold down the (B) button while you press the direction you want to go on the D-pad. It's much quicker to get around that way!
The battles in Nostalgia are turn-based. But it's not a one-for-one turn. Some characters are quicker than others, so they'll get to fight more often in longer battles. You can tell what order the next 6 fighters will be by the pictures on the left side of the Touch Screen. This is very useful in knowing which enemy you should kill first!
One thing that I really love about Nostalgia is that you can't get lost. For all of us with no sense of direction or that get distracted and forget where we are supposed to be going, this is a wonderful thing! You won't have to spend hours wandering around in Nostalgia. First, you have a map for everywhere. When you are in the dungeons, it starts out dark. You'll have to discover the paths before they're shown, but that's good because it's not too easy on you. The World Map is also black until you've flown your ship there. But, if you ever need to know where to fly to, you can press (Select) and bring up a full World Map with a big, flashing red dot in it. You simply head towards the dot to find your destination. It's not always easy to get there, but at least you know where to go. If you forget what you're supposed to be doing, you can press (Y) to talk to your party members. They will usually remind you about the last important conversation and who or what you're supposed to be looking for next.
If you can't tell, I love Nostalgia. It has everything I want in an RPG. The controls are easy, the story is good, I can't get lost, and the random encounter rate is good, I could keep going on with a huge list of everything I like. I didn't find one single aspect of an RPG that I like missing from Nostalgia. If you're a fan of RPGs, I highly recommend you go pick it up today!
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-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl |
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