If it seems like I've been a little quiet this week, it's probably because I've been playing the copy of next week's Nostalgia that Ignition sent along. I was very pleasantly surprised to get it; other than the trailer released last June, I'd been hearing nothing about it until the package arrived.

Nostalgia, as it has been already been said elsewhere, is a game that invokes its name; it's a familiar, conventional turn-based JRPG with random battles, buying upgrades in the next town, skill trees, and the like. But its story and setting are not quite so typical. The lead may be a spiky-haired youth but he has neither amnesia nor angst about him; he's on a quest to find his missing adventurer father, in the process following in his footsteps and becoming an adventurer himself.

And the airships, oh, the airships. You can't even leave the first town without one. World map battles are done in the skies, with each party member taking on one of features of the ship's weaponry—including the huge blade mounted at the front. Special skills can be used here as well, and there's at least a slight element of strategy involved as enemies take up positions forward, port and starboard and you give them a fight with weaponry that specializes in attacks off one of those ship sides.

I've been enjoying it thus far—Matrix's hand, the one that wrought the DS Final Fantasy remakes as well as Avalon Code is definitely evident—and I will be doing more of the same this weekend, if the evil flu bug doesn't catch me first. If I manage to elude it, you can look forward to my review next Tuesday when the game officially releases. [Update: the flu did get me. Shooting for Friday, now.]