Let's Play Riviera: Chapter 1

Riviera

What's this? Well, hey, these guys are pretty cool, so it can't be too bad.

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Also these guys.

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Outs!de of th!s game, ! don't know who these guys are.

Riviera

Also known as Celestia and the Netherworld. Intro summary: Ragnarok is a war between gods and demons (what am I?), demons overrun Asgard, gods create Grim Angels with Diviners which end up winning the war. And then the gods disappear for some reason.

1000 years later, the people in Riviera get in one little fight and get scared and the Seven Magi decide to start the Retribution, which is some kind of really powerful. And they figured the best people for the job would be the Grim Angels.

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Well, this game is pretty cool. So let's play it.

Upon Game Starting, we get basically the same intro but in a small font, faster, and with less dramatic scrolling.

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Not for us! Wait, who are we?

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Just so you know, this is a guy. If Golden Sun has taught me anything, it's that the pitch of the text typing sound always indicates gender.

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Yes, Ein, the name of this game. Um, I mean, Metal Gear?!

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Gee, I wonder which of these two I'm controlling.

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This game seems to really like inversion effects. I didn't take a screen of the chapter intro, but that inverts too.

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Here's Rose, a cat who's supposedly not a cat. Even though she (extremely high-pitched text sound!) says "meow" a lot. You're not fooling me, Rose.

Actually, wait, maybe I'm thinking of Lunar. We'll see?

Ein and Ledah (clumsily) introduce their Diviners as Einherjar and Lorelei, and Rose explains that they're the weapons used by Grim Angels, a fact we already knew. What a team.

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One strange thing about Riviera's battle system is that you get an inventory of 16 items, but you have to pick four before each battle and those are the only ones you can use. And that includes weapons.

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Of course, we only have two items right now, so this is hardly a problem. Yes, we do have infinite Einherjars and Loreleis. I'll get to that.

In our first battle, Ledah shows he's way too powerful for my current party, having 500 more health than Ein, autohealing, and a weapon 50... units stronger than Ein's. Also, Ein can use Lorelei, but it does like 10 damage, how weak.

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Ledah refuses to use Einherjar, however. He's just a badass like that.

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See? Pawprint. I'm onto you, Rose.

...Wait, how do you pronounce a pawprint?

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Hector is basically our boss, and one of the Seven Magi. He really wants to make sure we hurry to Riviera so we can clear out the demons.

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Moving on the map is... different. In Move mode, it shows exits and you press that direction on the D-Pad to take them. In Look mode, it shows things to inspect and you press that direction to look at them. Looking requires certain amounts of TP, which you earn from doing good in battles. So let's look at this.

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This is pretty much all we get out of it. Then Rose tells you to hurry up. Yeah. I'm pretty sure you can't, say, farm for TP, so I'm glad I have savestates. The Faded Floor in the next room just makes Ein comment about the war, and we don't need political commentary in this LP.

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This Gremlin guy uses a BREAK OUT, which is a concept that has never appeared in any other game. There was a screen saying "Break Out" but I figured showing a little gremlin causing an earthquake with a tiny hammer would make a better screenshot.

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Here's Ein pretending to be badass like Ledah. Except we actually did pick Einherjar. Anyway, the point is they won't let me use it because that Break Out did a lot of damage and I'm forced to use a Potion, since this is a tutorial.

Of course, Ledah is too good for Potions and just says "Lorelei is all I need" if you try to give him one. This would make sense since he has autoheal, but it's not just potions, he won't use ANYTHING that isn't Lorelei.

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So, anyway, about our infinite Diviners. We can use them infinite times because otherwise we'd be defenseless soon enough. However, every other item has limited uses before it breaks, or in Potion's case, runs out of... potion (which is to say, you DO run out of the go-back-in-damage potion). And that includes all non-Diviner weapons.

In the next screen, Rose explains Look Mode while Ein breaks the fourth wall a lot. Well, he's said stuff like "the R button? I'll remember that" before, but now he's mentioning the "corner of the screen" and it just sounds wrong. This time we need to look at a ledge to find a way onward.

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Like so.

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You and your grammar.

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Ein has no concept of being normal or having skills. We learn about Over Skills, which we learn by using a weapon more.

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Notice how we have two separate potions. No, we can't combine them. I mean, in theory, a 3-use Potion is full, so 5 uses wouldn't fit in one bottle.

Of course, logically, you should at least be able to combine 1- and 2-use Potions, but who's going to bother implementing that?

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Anyway, Over Skills. Einherjar now has an Exp bar, so we have to use it two times to learn an Over Skill at the end of battle.

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I got a rock for inspecting a Pile of Rubble. So that's useless. Better reload -

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...Oh. Well, I do like to score. ♪

Rose asks Ein if he gets tired walking since he's an angel, but he reveals he doesn't have wings because he gave them up to get his Diviner. Ledah responds with the ol' three-dots when Rose asks what he gave up for Lorelei.

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I'd make a comment about how foreboding this is because I seem to remember there being a billion and a half trapped chests later, but I really can't remember for sure.

We inspect some more rubble blocking our way and walk away, but suddenly, Ein turns around and notices...

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It's just too easy to make fun of Ein.

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Mana Wisps have something to do with Sprites and add one to all our stats. Well, at least this one does.

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I shouldn't have screenshotted this. The more important line is the one that follows it: "Besides, without me, you're hopeless." Burn.

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Ein's responses are always more entertaining than the lines he's responding to. Anyway, we press Left to use Over Skills, and also we have to fill up an Overdrive meter first.

However, I decided to use Lorelei's Over Skill, Lost Seraph, first. It shattered the meter. It's almost like they're trying to make Ledah look badass or something.

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Seems the game didn't really want me to do that. But I guess it sort of expected something like it?

We inspect the path ahead and a spider comes down. Rose suggests we throw our rock at it.

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QUICK TIME EVENT. The arrow is moving, obviously. You're not actually timed, but I'm pretty sure you are for later ones. We get a Spider Web and 10000 points for hitting the spider. I knew I'd need that rock.

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Hey, the game's making fun of Ledah for once! (Actually, it says this for everything except Lorelei. I just didn't notice until I looked to see what Spider Web did.)

After this battle, we talk about the Retribution, which will apparently just completely destroy Riveria, but hey, that's where all the demons are! Ein wants to save the Sprites there, but apparently they worked for demons or something, so Ledah doesn't care.

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I missed the far more appopriate screenshot of "No one asked you to think." Man, Hector is kind of a jerk.

Ein looks at a rock step and notes that it's about to break. So what should he do with it?

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Brilliant ideas, Ein. Of course, for the sake of this LP, we hit it.

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Riviera has kind of a bad screen-shaking effect. It's only two frames of the background moving up and down, and as you can see, there's just a line of black when it moves down. A boulder falls!

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Well, we're already being timed during these. That's not a good sign. If we do this correctly, we jump really high in a really silly way to dodge the boulder. 5000 points!

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Taking Rose's advice, Ein logically...

...

Ein: Should I pull it out?

For this event, we have to mash A 12 times before time runs out. Dragon Killer, 3000 points, etc. This also makes us stronger somehow.

We jump onto a platform supported by chains which starts falling and we fight a dragon.

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Dragon Killer... dragon. Hmmm.

We're still falling, but manage to jump to a ledge with another Stop the Arrow event.

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But... but I got an S rank!

Right as Rose is wondering if they'll run into any more demons they run into some more demons.

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I can just imagine somebody at Atlus thinking about how to translate this, slapping themselves for thinking of what we see here, and using it anyway but fully admitting to the player that they shouldn't have.

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A what? Since we really like bells I guess we do a button sequence event to grab it for points and Angel's Bell.

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Exactly what I was thinking, Rose. 49 screenshots already? Of course, Riviera has more interesting things to show than Golden Sun's ungodly boring intro.

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Rose asks Ledah about what he gave up for Lorelei again. I'm not really sure I want to know anymore. And then they're interrupted by another battle with demons.

Ein notices some cracks and we pull a sword out of them. A Rosier! What the heck is a Rosier?

Then we run into a fairy, which suddenly makes Ledah want to hurry up. He doesn't want to take her, but we do anyway and get healed and powered up. And points. Most importantly, points.

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We can't pass? Well, I guess that makes this a good place to stop!

Chapter 2