Nostalgia on the DS

[Black Mage]

Anyone else pick up Nostalgia for the DS? It hasn't really floored me as being as awesome an RPG as, say, Chrono Trigger or Golden Sun, but I think it's one title to get.

I'm digging the steampunk Victorian setting of the story, as well as the fact that it's set on our Earth, though be it combined with your standard RPG monster varieties.

I've just now arrived in St. Petersburg, so I'm still early in the game. I guess it stretches all over the world, including Japan.

What are everyone else's thoughts?

[conyeezy]

i've had it for a few days and i'm really enjoying it! like you said, it's no golden sun, but the soundtrack is good, the character and town designs are clean and the gameplay doesn't feel repetitive in the least, even the damn fetch quests (adventurer's association)

i really wish other companies would step up to the plate and provide more bona fide RPG's for the DS instead of the adventure-RPG's and strategy-RPG's we've been getting for the last few years.

[Ab56 v2 aka Ash]

It hasn't really floored me as being as awesome an RPG as, say, Chrono Trigger or Golden Sun, but I think it's one title to get.

You need to not put these things in the same sentence.

What is this game about?

[eternal Zero]

You need to not put these things in the same sentence.

You are mistaken.

[BardicKnowledge]

Golden Sun is easily the best RPG on the GBA (with the possible exceptions of the FF ports). Together with its sequel, it's bigger than most console RPGs of the same time period.

In any case, this looks good, and I will try it sometime early next week.

[Ab56 v2 aka Ash]

I agree it was a great game if by "great" we are referring to its capacity to be shallow, dull, and unmemorable.

[Ferret]

That's your opinion, you're entitled to it, but your opinion makes you a huge ass.

[The Damned]

I agree it was a great game if by "great" we are referring to its capacity to be shallow, dull, and unmemorable.

"Hey guys, I never actually finished Golden Sun because the puzzles confused the hell out of me, but I can kind of make up for it by saying the game is crap, so it's all good in the end, right? Right."

[Ab56 v2 aka Ash]

I beat the game. Your assumption is unfounded.

[The Damned]

I beat the game. Your assumption is unfounded.

OK then, how was Golden Sun "shallow, dull, and unmemorable", without resorting to generalized statements? Go on, let's hear it.

[Ab56 v2 aka Ash]

If there were no character icons next to the text, you would never be able to tell who was speaking because the characters are all one-dimensional. None of the characters had any personality and the story being pretty generic didn't really help. If you could write up how the characters' personalities differed, by all means go ahead.

The whole game lacked an interesting overarching plot, as it was entirely a series of sidequests that tangentially related to the main story in roundabout ways. You only got a taste of the story when you reached lighthouses and went through 15 minutes of dialogue. By the time I finished those long streams of text, I was ready to shut off my GBA.

It had pretty solid graphics mostly, admittedly. The overworld was horrid though. The music was ok, but with only two or three memorable tracks (Sol Sanctum, battle theme, boss battle).

Gameplay-wise, there wasn't all that much going on. The Djinn system was decent, and I enjoyed the psynergy abilities outside of battle, but altogether it wasn't interesting enough to make me want to play through the endless random battles. Since battles weren't all that enjoyable, this also detracted from enjoying the puzzles as you had to stop frequently to go fight something.

One aspect of the battle system I also disliked is that if two characters were assigned to attack one target, and the first character killed the target, the second character would simply defend instead of attacking something else. RPGs generally stopped doing this years ago with really old Final Fantasy games. Minor point, but a little irritating nonetheless.

I could go on but I think these are decent enough critiques of the game--especially since I've got an exam tomorrow.

[Arek the Absolute]

Go on, let's hear it.

How about in another thread?

Nostalgia is great

[leaf]

i stopped playing it a few days ago, with 14 hours in. i think it's a great source for entertainment although there are times where you want to put it down and come back a couple of hours/day later.

definitelyworth checking out, & it's a great game when one is on lifted lane