Riviera: The Promised Land for PSP Reviews by Gamers

Riviera: The Promised Land is a port of a Gameboy Advance game by the same name. Very few things are added in the PSP version but still this game manages to be tons of fun and is one of the best RPG's on the PSP to date.
Hearing a description of the gameplay makes you think this will be one of the worst games ever but bear with me, alright? First of all, there is absolutely no open exploration, absolutely no moving around for yourself, and the entire game is essentially a glorified text adventure with a few repeated pictures. You move from screen to screen by choosing a direction to move and you can also look around in the same manner by pressing the O button to change to look mode. Every once in a while, you will fight demons in scripted battles (no random battles here). The battles have you choose a formation (2 in front, one in back or one in front, two in back) three of your five characters and then four items to use in battle. These items are obtained throughout the game are all limited use items, including weapons. You never equip any character with items, instead you use the items in battle to achieve the desired effect. You don't even get to choose which enemy you attack as this is decided by your item specs. This monotony is broken up by constant choices about what to do or what to say and random minigames that can have drastic effects on your game. Yet for some reason, all of this restriction still manages to be quite fun. Aided by a great storyline, mixing nordic and christian mythologies, and fun characters, you never seem to be able to put this game down.
All characters are voiced and while none are particularly good, none are particularly bad either. the music is quite fine too. The only really bad part about this game is the constant repeated graphics. Not only are the recycled scenes used way too much, but they aren't even that good to begin with. The few CG scenes are nice but they are few and far between. All in all, Riviera gets an 7.5/10 by me.

This remake/update of Riviera was done really well, and the newly added voice-overs are great! They make you feel like you`re watching a television series! (but the talking faeries will really try your patience) The music is good, and the art is bright, colorful, and amazing. This version is an improvement on the GBA version in all aspects.
The down side is that on a bigger screen, the sprite graphics are a little more grainy. And I still disagree with the constant repeating backgrounds. I also wish they would have touched-up or completely redone the sprites so they look more like they`re cutscene counterparts!
Small arguments aside, this is a respectable RPG worth having in your collection if you like the art style. Just try and catch it once the price does down...