My sincerest apologies on the lateness of this review, but some form of flu—be it the killer currently in vogue or your garden-variety variation—struck me and my family right in the middle of playing this game, sent to me by Ignition about a week ahead of its release. As such, I was often either simply too busy or too out-of-my-head to play it.
But, you know, when my head was clear enough to play, it felt kind of like video chicken soup, warming me to my soul with the familiarity of long-loved RPG trappings wrapped up in a fun adventure. Its comfort was a very much-appreciated companion to have while confined to my recliner.
For all its familiarity, Nostalgia's tale is told a little differently than most. The lead may have spiky hair, but he's neither amnesiac nor angst-filled nor speaks in ellipses; instead, he's a spunky young London lad who, with his admittedly conventional party of 16-year-olds, sets out to become an adventurer in order to track down his recently-missing adventurer father. The tale, while not mind-blowing, is entertaining and, with all its airships, adventurers, monorails and secret cabals, rather steampunk-y (for those who particularly enjoy that sort of thing—I got more of a kick out of the whole British thing personally.)
It suffers a bit textually, however. Though it's not outright offensive, a decided lack of comma use and awkward phrasing can make the dialogue strange to read from time to time. There's also an uncomfortably common feeling that the text's tone is off, though whether this is from the original Japanese or the localization I'm unsure. I wouldn't call it poor, but it's not nearly as good as it could be.
Nostalgia is almost as conventional as they come when it comes to the gameplay. You have a party of four adventurers, one wielding a sword, one primarily taking on the healing duties, one wielding the offensive elemental spells, etc. Battles are turn-based and random as you work your way through both the overworld and various dungeons scattered about same. You'll power your party up through experience and buying the next set of better weapons each time you hit up a new town.
And yet, it's not so the same as to be totally unoriginal. The overworld battles are still turn-based but play out a little differently, as the world map is the Earth itself and you fight these out in your airship. In particular if, as I did, you find yourself going through a lot of sidequests, you'll probably find these a good deal more difficult than the battles on the ground, if only because your party will start to get overleveled while your airship primarily becomes a more effective weapon of war through upgrades found at the next mechanic. There's also a really handy order gauge on the lower screen that you can use to visually determine whose turn is coming up next, taking out or slowing enemies strategically before they get too many chances to hit you.
The battles play out at a snappy pace, with suitably grandiose animations and quick pans never really making me feel like I was doing more watching than playing. There's a good variety of skills that can be exploited to get them to play out in different ways, though Steal's success rate was so low as to drive me to abandon it early on. Everything feels well put-together in this respect; even if normal bosses did tend to fall rather quickly to my powered-up team, optional sidequests provided a parade of challenges that made it all fun.
I'm grateful that Nostalgia was brought over and enjoyed it quite a bit, whether I was sick or healthy. If you're in the mood for a classic RPG with all the familiar trappings, it might feel a little like a homecoming for you. Just be prepared to read through the text gaffes—maybe making up your own substitute dialogue from time to time—in order to get the full feeling. The game's worth it.
But, you know, when my head was clear enough to play, it felt kind of like video chicken soup, warming me to my soul with the familiarity of long-loved RPG trappings wrapped up in a fun adventure. Its comfort was a very much-appreciated companion to have while confined to my recliner.
It suffers a bit textually, however. Though it's not outright offensive, a decided lack of comma use and awkward phrasing can make the dialogue strange to read from time to time. There's also an uncomfortably common feeling that the text's tone is off, though whether this is from the original Japanese or the localization I'm unsure. I wouldn't call it poor, but it's not nearly as good as it could be.
Nostalgia is almost as conventional as they come when it comes to the gameplay. You have a party of four adventurers, one wielding a sword, one primarily taking on the healing duties, one wielding the offensive elemental spells, etc. Battles are turn-based and random as you work your way through both the overworld and various dungeons scattered about same. You'll power your party up through experience and buying the next set of better weapons each time you hit up a new town.
The battles play out at a snappy pace, with suitably grandiose animations and quick pans never really making me feel like I was doing more watching than playing. There's a good variety of skills that can be exploited to get them to play out in different ways, though Steal's success rate was so low as to drive me to abandon it early on. Everything feels well put-together in this respect; even if normal bosses did tend to fall rather quickly to my powered-up team, optional sidequests provided a parade of challenges that made it all fun.
I'm grateful that Nostalgia was brought over and enjoyed it quite a bit, whether I was sick or healthy. If you're in the mood for a classic RPG with all the familiar trappings, it might feel a little like a homecoming for you. Just be prepared to read through the text gaffes—maybe making up your own substitute dialogue from time to time—in order to get the full feeling. The game's worth it.