Nostalgia Review
When his famous explorer father, Gilbert Brown, disappears mysteriously, Edward sets off on a whirlwind adventure around the globe via airship in order to track him down. Classic RPG combat and exploration return to life in Nostalgia, while quality graphics and a breath-taking soundtrack complete the package. Despite a few faults in pacing and repetition, old-school RPG fans looking for hours and hours of game time will find a great game in Nostalgia.
Nostalgia takes place in a steampunk version of the real world circa 1900, where people set off on dashing adventures all across the world. A mix of swords, guns, and magic creates a wonderfully imaginative world that is incredibly fun to explore. Unfortunately, the world is severely watered down and simplified, with only one or two cities per continent such as London, New York, and Tokyo, but each city has a distinct personality that is wonderfully communicated, especially through the music (more on that later). The individual stories of each character unfold in a dramatic and epic manner, emphasizing the grand scale of this adventure. Though the overall story carries a lot of cliché elements, such as young kids saving the world from an ancient hidden power, the presentation is solid and there are plenty of good scenes showing character interaction and their individual struggles. Action packed cutscenes give the feeling of a summer blockbuster movie, immersing you in this daring adventure.
Mysterious girl? Check. Ancient artifact of unknown power? Check. Smug evil guy? Check. Yup, this is an RPG.
At heart, Nostalgia is a classic RPG as far as combat and exploration is concerned, but it has its own little twists to keep the gameplay unique. Each character has standard attack, special skill, defend, and item commands in battle, but skills have a different emphasis in this game than other RPGs. When you learn new skills, you have to level them up with skill points earned from battle. The higher the level, the more powerful or potent that skill is, and it will also cost less magic power. Managing which skills to upgrade and which to ignore puts a whole different spin on how you progress through he game, and how you prepare for boss battles or new areas. Though relatively minor initially, skills become vital in the latter half of the game, as abilities that boost attack or defense are actually very useful (unlike other games) and sometimes even vital to the preservation of your team.
In another distinct quirk, you are graded on your performance in battle, based upon your speed in dispatching enemies, how much you attacked, how much damage you took, etc. High ratings yield bonus experience points, skill points, gold, and the occasional rare item. The game doesn’t give up good grades easily, though; only the best planning will lead to high marks. It adds a nice short-term objective to each battle, and keeps battles from becoming completely repetitive.
Battles have the standard bells and whistles; defeat them quickly for a high grade!
The last unique item in Nostalgia is airship combat. When soaring through the skies, you can enter battles with flying monsters or other airships. Each character takes over a different weapon on the ship: a ramming blade, machine guns, a cannon, and a magic orb. Of course, each character also has skills to utilize–different skills from their on foot battles–and again they are crucial to successful combat. The first few airship battles you encounter are a lot of fun and show a charming attention to detail, but this quickly wears off. Airship battles are incredibly repetitive, tedious, and difficult to run from, so you’ll be stuck in a twenty minute battle every few seconds in the air. The only way to fight more effectively is to buy expensive upgrades for your ship, but even so, you are generally underpowered compared to your opponents, who can easily punch holes through your vessel if you aren’t quick with healing skills and items. These battles become so annoying that they are in danger of ruining exploration, but thankfully you can buy items to flee from battles, reducing the tedium of in-flight fighting. Still, though, airship combat is the single most bothersome aspect of the game, and unfortunately comes up quite a bit.
The game sports full 3D graphics, which look great for the DS. While some dungeons or temples are somewhat bland or repetitive in appearance, cities and airship battles are especially detailed and impressive. What really steals the show, though, is the soundtrack. The music is simply marvelous, with majestic and booming tunes to match whatever part of the world you are exploring. Strolling through the streets of New York brings up a lively and carefree tune, while London has a more restrained but equally energetic melody. The composers have done a fantastic job of matching the epic atmosphere of the game, and the music easily becomes one of the defining features of the game. However, there is no voice acting in the game, and though it is a minor quibble, it does make the cutscenes less cinematic and thrilling.
When flying, the bottom screen shows a map of the world. On foot, it's a map of your immediate area, and in battle it shows the battle order as well as your energy.
By racing through the game, ignoring the scenery around you, the game will last around 20 hours. Nostalgia isn’t just about going from point A to point B in the story, though. There are a ton of side quests to embark upon, with the majority of them collected for your convenience at the Adventurer’s Association. As an adventurer, you can take on quests offered by people around the world, earning extra gold or sometimes gadgets–rare and valuable accessories that grant special effects in battle. Unfortunately, though, almost all quests boil down to retreading the same areas that you’ve just completed. Since you can only accept one quest at a time, progressing through side quests is a repetitive process.
If repeating areas doesn’t strike your fancy, you can also explore the world to find hidden locations and secrets, again earning gadgets. You’ll have to know a bit of geography, but even so directions are generally very broad and unspecific, so finding a single location can feel like an aimless endeavor, and when you get caught in one airship battle after another, exploration becomes more of a chore than an adventure. In the end, both side quest pursuits require a significant amount of time and patience, so only the strictest players will likely go through them all. If you do, though, you can easily add over a dozen hours to the game length.
Fans of old-school RPG gameplay–searching meticulously through caves and temples, raising levels, exploring the world–will find their bread and butter with Nostalgia. The game is packed with content that can easily last over thirty hours, and though some side missions are rather tedious, there’s plenty to satisfy any RPG fan. Classic RPG gameplay, a fun exploration-era setting, a decent story, and great soundtrack make Nostalgia a fantastic globe-trotting adventure.
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