Nostalgia Review

Rewind the clock some 120 odd years, turn history on its head by way of airships and magic, and you'll have the ground work for Ignition Entertainment's latest Nintendo DS RPG, Nostalgia. Developed by a lot of the same folk behind Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV for the DS, Nostalgia is a fully 3D adventure staring Edward "Eddie" Brown as he searches the world for his lost father. With strong titles under the development team's belt, one would imagine innovation and refined quality would lie within their latest foray, but a tale of adventure is bound to be full of surprises.

In the world of Nostalgia, adventuring is quite the industry. Eddie Brown is the son of one of the most well known adventurers around, Gilbert Brown. While tall tales of Gilbert's exploits are merely hinted at, one particular trip to a tower somewhere around the Middle East leads to Gilbert's disappearance. When word makes its way to his family home in London, England, Eddie immediately volunteers to search for his father when no one will, and so begins Nostalgia.

Lucky for Eddie, his father's airship was recovered from the Mediterranean Sea and brought back to London. Whereas most RPGs with explore-able world maps work their way up through different modes of transportation to eventually lead to some sort of airborne machine, Eddie is immediately given access to his father's airship, the Maverick. Setting out from London, in the first few hours of the game Eddie amasses a party of four - Pad, Melody, Fiona, and Eddie himself - and sets out across the globe on a search that quickly leads to bigger things as Eddie's father's disappearance is just what gets things rolling.

Gameplay in Nostalgia is typical for an RPG. Eddie can run around dungeons and towns on foot, but can only traverse the world via the airship. The game has a fairly consistent cycle of flying to a town or city, having a bit of story progression, followed by Eddie and crew heading off to a mission in a dungeon of some kind. Battles occur at random while both flying the airship and walking about in dungeons, with a turn based system for both. When a random battle occurs on foot or in the air, the screen simply swirls like many other RPGs in the past have done, and then loads a separate area solely for battle.

In battle, the order of player and enemy turns is displayed, and it makes strategizing quite simple and easy, but it really feels like a lack of effort to make the battle system even remotely unique or innovative. The battle system lets players select from five main options, Attack, Skill, Defend, Item, and Run, and each of the four main characters more or less are already set on specific classes as well. Eddie is a fighter with a sword, Pad is a marksmen with a gun, Melody is a sorceress (mage) with a wand for magic, and Fiona is the equivalent of the typical white mage, with healing-related magic. Their specific roles influence their strengths and weakness within their stats, as well as what Skills they have at their disposal.