Nostalgia is aptly named, for a few reasons. The idea of the game has existed for over a decade, though development of it on the DS did not begin until much more recently. As you play through the game, you will see a varied set of influences from an expansive and rich period of gaming in the genre–you may have played many of the games Nostalgia’s developers got their muse from, but you’ve probably never played them all together in one place. At times, this makes Nostalgia a special RPG, as it pays tribute to the past while using its own ideas to craft a memorable and long-lasting experience, but at other times, it makes the game feel like Dƒ©jƒ  Vu was a more appropriate title than the one on the box.

You play as Eddie Brown, the son of world-famous adventurer Gilbert Brown. You’re in search of your father, who has gone missing–the opening to the game finds you in control of Gilbert, so while Eddie isn’t aware of what has occurred, you, the gamer, are. You decide, using the same character traits that make Gilbert who he is, that you will go out on your own to find out what’s happened to dear old dad, and make a name for yourself as an advennturer while you’re at it. Your first task as an adventures involves clearing rats out of London’s sewers–the game uses real-life locales in the 19th century (with a steampunk twist)–and you meet your second party member there, Pad. From there you get your airship, find out a little more info about what happened to your father, and then spend the rest of the game exploring caves, dungeons, towers, ruins, jungles and the skies in search of your father and eventually, as the force capable of defeating an evil organization bent on world domination.

The characters are generally likable, though there are some issues. While there’s no groan-worthy character in your main party, none of them are particularly endearing either–this may have more to do with the dialogue than the characters themselves, as there isn’t that much talking in Nostalgia, or a least, not that much exposition to expand on the character’s personalities. This causes the story to have less of an impact on you, since you don’t have as much of a connection to the characters.

One thing I do enjoy is the fact that a fifth member of the party often joins, and it rotates among many of the game’s important NPCs. While you can’t control them, it’s just one more layer of strategy for your battles, as they either heal you (freeing up your healer for attacking) or are very powerful attackers, which helps you finish battles more quickly. There are stretches in the game where you will always have a fifth person, even if it’s a bunch of different people filling that role.

The story, while predictable at times given its obvious hat-tips to the genre, stands on its own two legs and succeeds, in spite of the lack of particularly interesting characters. Whether you like the characters or not, the game does push you to what to find out more about what is going on in the main story. You also get the chance to flesh out the main characters through side stories: Fiona has memories of a past life, Pad doesn’t know who his mother is, and Melody was an orphan in a village full of wizards–it’s up to you to learn more about them. These side stories open up brand new locations not available to you in the main story, and they also give you chances to take on some difficult bosses and earn loads of experience and money. What’s also nice is that you don’t have to do any of that before beating the last boss–the endgame allows you to continue with your save so you can complete Nostalgia at 100%, regardless of whether you’ve saved the world or not yet.

Setting is a strong point of Nostalgia. The use of real-world locations gives the developers more freedom than you would expect, as they can give their own steampunk version of London, St. Petersburg, or New York. While the cities themselves are not affected much by the steampunk elements, the locations near them–high-tech, secret bases, airships, magic and the like–make the surrounding areas that much cooler to explore. The developers also did a wonderful job with the music in this title. The soundtrack is great, from each city’s respective music that fits the setting–eastern-influenced tracks for Japan and India, fitting jungle tunes and desert songs for South America and Africa–to the battle, boss and dungeon music. It’s one of the highlights of the game, and one of the better RPG soundtracks I’ve heard in awhile.

Graphically, Nostalgia looks much like of Matrix Software’s other DS efforts (Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV) though sometimes it looks better or worse depending on your location. The 3D models are nice to look at though, and the art direction for the game–including enemy, dungeon and town design–works well. Some areas can be a little more boring or graphically behind than other parts of the game, but they don’t detract from the experience too much overall.

SEATTLE — The Penny Arcade Expo gave me my second taste of Nostalgia, Matrix Software and Ignition’s latest Nintendo DS RPG. After a hands-on go with it at Comic-Con in San Diego and a hands-off demo at PAX, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on what the game is offering, and I like what I know.

You play as Eddie, who is searching for his father in a semi-real, semi-fantasy world. You will visit real world locations such as Cairo and London, but with that embellished, fantasy vibe to them–for example, when you’re in the pyramids in Cairo, you will be attacked by mummies and monsters, and you will fight them off with magic, guns and swords. +1 for going the 19th century, alternate reality‚  steampunk route.

While there are four main characters in your group, there will be other characters you can use at different times in the game, so you get to switch things up a bit as you play. In addition to your standard turn-based battle system (attack, magic, skills, etc.) there are also airship battles. Enemies attack you from all directions while in your airship, and you have to fight back using cannons and weapons attached to the front of your ship. Depending on the placement of the enemy, certain characters will perform better against them–you will want to use a cannon on the side to attack an enemy on your left, for instance, while one directly in front of you is a perfect target for the sword jutting out of your hull.You are graded for your skill in battles, so you will want to figure out the best strategy for tackling opponents in order to secure the best grade.

The airship is used to travel long distances–in the demo, you had to set out from London to Cairo, and since both were in the proximity of their real-world location, finding your destination is not a difficult process (unless you failed geography, of course). The airship is also fully customizable as well, and there are more than one of them to fly around–later airships bring you higher and higher, but the higher you fly, the more difficult your opponents will be. Not only do you have to contend with monsters, but other airship owners–many of them sky pirates–will give chase as well.

It’s tough to gauge how entertaining an RPG can be from just 15-20 minutes of gameplay, but what we do know about Nostalgia looks promising. The game is slated for an October release, and you will want to clear some time off your schedule to play it–without even tackling sidequests, the story is upward of 30-40 hours, which is very long for a DS RPG. We’ll have more info for you as the game nears release, and also a review for you once it hits retail.

Final Fantasy IV is one of the most beloved classic role-playing games that graced the Super Nintendo back in the 16-bit era, and its 3D remake was one of the top games to release on the DS last year. Its strengths were its story and characters, as well as the way they were presented “" the game was very well paced, given the limitations of the cartridge era, and did much to evolve the nature of RPG storytelling, much like later, better known classics such as Chrono Trigger.

The classic design is not quite long-in-the-tooth thanks to the remake on the DS, but if you were to play the original SNES version “" which was Final Fantasy II here in the States “" or the Game Boy Advance update as a first timer now, you may think that it is a bit dated, with its non-orchestral soundtrack, level grinding, and simplicity in presentation. For those who are familiar with the game though, nostalgia helps keep you as amazed with the game in 2009 as you were when you first played it 10, 15 or nearly 20 years ago, when you were first introduced to something called the “Active Time Battle” system.

That’s why my feelings toward a sequel for Final Fantasy IV, retrofit like Capcom’s Mega Man 9, were so mixed prior to playing. You have an absolute classic that helped shape the role-playing genre on one hand, and you have a sequel released on WiiWare 18 years after the fact “" a sequel that was originally designed as a cell phone game. Two things gave me confidence about the quality of the product heading in, though: for one, Matrix Software, developers of the Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV remakes (as well as the ambitious and innovative Avalon Code) created the game, and two, it uses a game universe many other gamers and I adore, that of Final Fantasy IV. Do Matrix’s development chops and FF IV’s backstory create a new entry in the series worthy of its name?

The short answer is “yes.” Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is a success, in that it replicates the FF IV universe well, knows its characters and mythology, and is able to implement new gameplay ideas that do not seem out of place in a very classically oriented design. With that being said, there are some flaws with it that bear mentioning, and we’ll get to those.

The After Years is not a one-shot game; instead, you pay $8 to download the main storyline that features Cecil and Rosa’s son Ceodore as he begins his quest to become a full-fledged knight “" a quest that turns towards the return of the second moon and the strange appearance of a powerful new Summoner bent on destruction and the collection of both the light and dark crystals. In addition to this, there are add-on quests (for $3, or 300 Nintendo Points a piece) that give you backstory and flesh out the supporting cast. At release, the first of these, “Rydia’s Tale: The Eidolons Shackled,” was already available. Square Enix has not given final pricing information, but it looks as if this will eventually cost as much as a budget title on Wii “" somewhere between $30 and $40, perhaps. That’s if you buy all of the add-ons, though, and the value per hour is solid; I played through the first quest, as well as the available add-on, and ended up with over seven hours of playtime for my 1100 points ($11).

Graphically, this game looks like an improvement over the original Final Fantasy IV, which was made very early in the SNES lifespan and therefore did not take full advantage of the console like later Square titles. The sprites are larger, and the colors are brighter “" these are both things you will notice during flashbacks, though the change is apparent enough that you will see it upon starting the game. It’s still a 16-bit title though, so if you’re not down with paying for classic design, you should know that in advance. The sound quality is worse than on the SNES though “" while the music sounds fine (though the bass is more pronounced in these versions of the songs than they were in the original) some of the loud sound effects for explosions, earthquakes and cannon fire sound like the kinds of things you would hear out of a standard cell phone.