Gamertell Review: Nostalgia for DS
by at November 11, 2009 8:00 am
Sections: 3D, Developers, DS & DSi & DSi XL, Exclusives, Game-Companies, Genres, Handhelds, Originals, Publishers, Reviews, Role-Playing
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Nostalgia is the work of a lot of well known developers, producers and publishers. It was developed by Matrix Software, known for Final Fantasy III and IV DS remakes, Avalon CodeDS, both Alundra PlayStation games, and Red Entertainment, which worked on Fossil Fighters DS, Thousand Arms PS1 and the Sakura Wars series. Tecmo produced and published the game in Japan. Now Ignition, which is fast becoming known for highly anticipated niche games, has brought it to North America.
A group of young people set off to save the world
Nostalgia begins with the famous adventurer Dr. Gilbert Brown uncovered a suspicious plot where a mysterious young girl was going to be forced against her will to do the biddings of an unknown, villainous man and his cult of followers. He saved her from her fate, but in the escape he fell, possibly to his doom, and she found herself floating aimlessly on his ship.
Eddie Brown is the son of Gilbert, and he has just learned his father has gone missing. Since times are treacherous, what with sky pirates and monsters always around, Eddie announces that he is going to become an adventurer and find his father. Shortly after, he joins forces with the orphan thief Pad, a precocious witch named Melody and Fiona, the enigmatic girl with strange powers whom his father was trying to save. He and his friends will not only search for Gilbert Brown, but also work to stop the cabal that is trying to use Fiona and make all kinds of discoveries around the world.
An homage to classic, turn-based JRPGs
Nostalgia familiar feel is intentional. The party members all represent classic RPG archetypes – the warrior youth whose father was a hero, the orphan thief whose parents may be more than you expect, the mysterious young woman with extraordinary powers and the talented, though occasionally snotty, mage. The story starts with a simple search for a missing person and branches out in an endeavor to save the world. The monsters are fantastic, sidequests abound and even the artwork is a throwback to classic JRPGs. In games where it isn’t intentional, such abundant use of stereotypes and formulaic situations detracts from the game. In Nostalgia, it helps make the game stronger.
While Nostalgia is clearly designed as an homage to classic games, it also includes a number of additional concepts which individualize it. Nostaglia takes place in an alternate, Steampunk version of Earth. Everyone wears Victorian style clothing and airships are the primary means of transportation. This means that you start the game with your own airship, and you take part in airship battles against monsters and pirates from traveling to one location to another and must customize it to make it most effective. Additional special features include rankings after battle, which may award you more spoils if you did well, and the ability to take on extra missions and keep playing in an epilogue after the main storyline is completed.
The only flaw in Nostalgia is the script. While the translation is fine, free of grammar and spelling errors and easy to read, it has no personality. Talking to NPCs is pointless, as they’ll never have interesting to say unless their input is required to advance the story. You can press Y during the game to watch the party members talk among themselves, a nod to the Dragon Quest and Tales of series, but that dialogue is dull and pointless. There’s no need to use that feature unless you haven’t played in a few days and need to catch up.
The translation may feel stiff, but the gameplay and graphics make up for it
Nostalgia feels like what would happen when you take all of the elements and things you loved from classic RPGs and jam it into a single game. While the localization could use a lot of work, the direct translation makes it easy to understand and play. It’s a great release for the holiday season, and fans of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Skies of Arcadia and even the Tales of series should consider giving it a try. Besides, it’s not every day that an RPG with what could be considered PlayStation or GameCube quality graphics appears on the DS.
Site [Nostalgia]
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