Tendo City

looks cool. Not like the best game ever or something, but cool...

http://www.atlus.com/riviera/

http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?r...mv&id=6632

Don't know if I'll get this, but it looks interesting.

This just makes me want to go to the French Riviera and look at naked girls on the beach.

Or you could play the minigames on the site and win wallpapers and stuff... :)

http://www.atlus.com/riviera/downloads.html

Ooooohhhh!!

http://gba.gamespy.com/gameboy-advance/r...437p1.html

Review... sounds good. Not great, probably, but good...

So for the last week I was on vacation (beach, virginia, etc, like we have for some years now), and beforehand I wanted to get a new GBA game... it was down to this ($30), F-Zero Maximum Velocity ($15), or Castlevania: CotM ($20)... if Castlevania had been cheaper I'd have considered it, but that was too much. So I got Riviera. And I think it's pretty good... I put about 15-20 hours in over the week and think it's great fun. It's like a standard japanese RPG... but different. :) Interesting game, and it removes some of the more frusterating parts of console RPGs, which is a good thing... there is definitely a lot less frustartion here from the usual suspects -- no getting lost, with the nice map of the area you're in always on the screen and the very simple 'move one screen at a time' system where you don't actually move the character, you just flip between screens kind of like in a pc adventure game. No random battles -- you can't avoid the battles, mostly, but they're in scripted locations and you won't run into more fights by just wandering around. Weapons? You can hold up to 16 items. Before each battle, you choose four to take with you... each weapon will do something slightly different with each character -- so the mage might use a rod for a magic fire attack while the healer will heal the party. Oh, and they have durability like in a Fire Emblem game, with limited uses for each one. Also, each character has proficiencies in different weapon types, and they will get a special move for a specific weapon once they've used it enough times in battle. You get enough weapons that durability isn't much of a problem, but some take many uses to get the special ability and you don't have many uses of it... but there is a solution. Practice battles. That option allows you to fight a battle at any time, in practice, against some group you've previously defeated, from one of the pause menus. This is the best way to power up your characters since in practice battles weapons don't get used up, but the uses of the weapons count as uses so you can level up the weapons (becoming proficient with weapons and unlocking their special abilities is also the only way to level up in this game).

The game also has nice graphics (anime-style, with very nice backgrounds) and great sound and music (with a bunch of voice).

Anyway... interesting, and unique in a bunch of ways, game. I like it. Oh, right... story. :) Standard anime stuff... the party is one guy and four girls. And as you progress you get chances to get them to like you more, sometimes with some at the expense of others (that is raising your attraction with some and lowering it with others). As I said, standard stuff... but it's well enough done that that's okay.