Riviera: The Promised Land for Game Boy Adv Reviews by Gamers

I have just finished playing all the way through Riviera. I did enjoy it; but I had some major problems with it. I liked the fact that you could learn super combo moves for almost every weapon you find, the storyline was interesting and the graphics / animations were impressive. However, I am an old school turn-based RPG fan. My favorite RPGs of all time are Shining Force and Shining Force II for the Sega Genesis. I did not like their "new improvements" to my favorite genre. I CAN live with the RIDICULOUS system for collecting points to look at things or open treasure chests. I CANNOT live with these silly little mini games they force you to play. Most of the time treasure chests are trapped in some fashion. They force you to enter some combination of A, B and directions from the cursor within a certain amount of time. This might be easier if there was some kind of countdown to let you know when to start. The screen just blinks until you are supposed to start. If I wanted to play an action title or a puzzle title that is what I would have rented. I like to relax and enjoy the animations and use a little strategy to win the battles. I CAN live with the fact that weapons and supplies can only be used a fixed number of times. I CANNOT live with the fact that there is no where in the game where you can purchase these perishable items. You have to chance it that you'll find what you need in the next treasure chest or dropped by the next demon you defeat. I CAN live with the limit of only 3 members of your team being allowed to fight in a battle. I CANNOT live with the fact that you can only bring 4 items with you to the battle. That is barely enough to provide 1 weapon for each member! I could not find a way to combine 2 stacks of the same item into 1 larger stack. This would seem to be an obvious idea.
There are other things I would like to point out; but I am out of room.
This is the 1st game I have ever played on my newly acquired Gameboy.