Yggdra Union versus Riviera, Which one will take home the Championship Title? Options

[Dr Strum]

While it may be a bit early for some of you to judge, and I put it in the YU forum since most people who haven't played YU wouldn't come in here, which of these two games is your favourite?
Yggdra Union with it's beautiful sprites and complex gameplay, and questionably large eyes.
Riviera, with it's version-for-everyone, CGs, voice acting and hook ups.
Or do you not care since they both have bath scenes?

[Irysa]

Yggdra Union has some of the worst introductory levels ever, and has a lot of what I hate most in any game - obsolete abilities.

Seriously, if you're going to throw in a skill, STOP. Is something else better than it? Then don't put the damn thing in, or else remake it. Or allow the skill to be upgraded.

Not doing this results in too much useless shit being thrown in, which is my second qualm.

Another thing I can't stand about it is the apparent requirement to stop on every bloody tile to find out where things are. This isn't just a few times, like a Fire Emblem game, it's all over every map, and it practically encourages using a guide at the same time so you don't waste your time standing still on every other tile.

It doesn't nearly go as far as Riviera in terms of character development (durr, srpgs have too many characters for this 99% of the time), but the story is roughly equal (note, neither games have particulary good story), or better in some parts.

Music wise? YU's pac is terrible. There are probably parts of 3 songs the image disc I actually like off it, whilst the GBA does have the appeal of being chip music, it's generally overall extremely samey all the way through. This is probably why people seem to favor either Riviera or YU so greatly, as YU recycles a lot of the same material (thus appealing to the folk who LIKE that small amount), whilst Riviera has very distinctive themes for everything, which I like (although it's arranged soundtrack totally butchers a lot of the songs)


Gameplay? There isn't enough proper strategy (hurr, my card's better than yours), and some cards are blatantly broken. However, the actual clashes themselves were unique, and I found myself wishing them to be something that could be implemented in other SRPGs (albiet in a different manner). Overall, I enjoyed it, but, (inb4 massive rage) I had more fun with the Fire Emblem GBA titles than it.



Riviera, on the other hand, I found a lot more "addicting". The entire thing was, so to speak, extremely streamlined. It cut out unnecessary segments from an all too familar RPG formula, gave a lot of time to it's characters, just to be themselves (resulting in far far greater character development), and promoted frequent experimentation with the battle system. I also prefer it's art style, Overdrives (in comparison to Card Skills), and general overall "feel" so to speak. YU I find tries to take itself a bit too seriously in comparison to it's presentation and art direction, whilst Riviera sustains a comical and playful feel, even in more darkly themed segments.

It's music I much preferred (see detailed above), and the additional voice acting is a nice touch (haven't played the PSP versions of either games to judge them both on it fully done), and it's overall presentation and pacing were of higher quality than YU (which throws you in the deep end with your trunks over your head, and expects you to put up with everyone laughing at you till you get them on to start swimming)

Gameplay, whilst nothing revolutionary, was entertaining and combined with the other factors, fuses up a game that leaves a lasting impression, along with a lot of replay value.



tl;dr Riviera is better than Yggdra Union.

that Yggdra Union has a much deeper and better-explored plotline,

Hardly. And both are deep, but they're also both extremely fractured.

Neither games have deep plotlines. Both are fairly generic.















Oh and, just because it fits, Baroque is by a very very very long shot Sting's best game.

This post has been edited by Irysa: Apr 29 2008, 12:49 AM