GAMES AND GADGETS

Like I've said in my review, Riviera The Promised Land offers a different game play than other RPG games and new users would probably get frustrated. Here's just something you can start with for you to enjoy the game.

First of all, don't expect that you can get to interact with people like in traditional RPG games (talk, buy and sell items, walk around and explore, etc) because it's like a movie, you just wait till the character finishes their dialogue and hope that you encounter monsters.

BATTLE

Like any RPG games, it's a turn based battle system, you get a shot at the enemy and then it's their turn. What's frustrating about this game is that your weapons are limited. You can only use your swords, arrows, etc for a limited number of time as seen on your screen (e.g. Sword x10). You can only select up to four items at a time and you can't use items that you have not selected.
During battle mode, you will get to choose which weapons or item you can use. The bottom right side of the screen states the name of the skill you can use with that particular weapon/item (eg. Divide, slash, throw). Attacks also vary per weapon and per character. One weapon may yield different attacks per item, for example, when Ledah uses Lorelei, there's the blue sword symbol and "attack" while if Ein uses Ledah, he can use Magic with Lorelei. The number beside "attack" or "magic" is the amount of damage you can deal using that weapon. The number of symbols beside "hits" is the number of times you can attack the enemy using that weapon, for example, when Ledah uses Lorelei, he can hit the enemy four times dealing around 64 damage per hit.

Every time you get hit or you attack, the overdrive meter at the top left part of the screen increases. Certain skills need a certain amount of level to be used and the more you hit the enemy, the higher increase in your overdrive meter. If there's an arrow beside the weapon, it means you can use the skill associated with it. Always take not of the need level of overdrive meter before you use that skill. Execution skills used by Ledah and Ein damages your overdrive meter which means if you use your execution skills too early on during battle, you can no longer use the skills of other members of your party. Execution skills need no specific amount of overdrive level but the amount of damage you can deal with your execution skills would depend on the overdrive level. Using your execution skills when your overdrive meter is below level one would only deal a little amount of damage while using your execution skill if your overdrive meter is level three is guaranteed to deal the maximum amount of damage on the enemy.

BATTLE SCORE

When you've won a battle, you will get scored or rated based on the amount of time it took you to finish off the enemy and what skill you used to finish off the enemy, if you use an execution skill, it the LV beside the finish would show EXL and if you use a Level 2 skill to finish the battle, it would show a LV. 2. Your Ranking in Battle would determine the amount of your TP points. TP points is what you need to explore areas, you need to earn lots of these in order to come upon hidden items and weapons during the game.

TIPS

So that's the basic battle game knowledge you need in order not to be put off by the game. And here are some tips you might like to know:

• Always view your enemy's status and look at their weaknesses (Fire, physical, holy, etc) then based on these weaknesses, determine the 4 weapons or items that you will need to bring.
• Choose party members that whose strengths are your enemies' weakness.
• Choose weapons that have different elemental properties. During the game you will come upon different weapons and chances are, your inventory would always be full and you need to discard items so if you already have two weapons that can both deal ice damage, discard the other one.
• Always finish the battle with execution or level 3 skills as this would yield higher rankings and more TP points for you.