After 22 years, the remastered version of a cult classic Game Boy Advance JRPG just appeared on Steam with a bunch of user-friendly updates

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Now's your chance to play Riviera: The Promised Land

Riviera: The Promised Land
(Image credit: Sting)

Japanese developer Sting brought its 2002 role-playing game Riviera: The Promised Land to Steam in a new remaster stocked with useful updates. 

The Promised Land remaster first released on Switch in Japan this February, and then on iOS and the Google Play store with Japanese localization earlier this summer. This new Steam port is the first to offer an English interface with English audio and subtitles.

Riviera: The Promised Land is a battle between angels, demons, and more angels. In it, you guide the Grim Angel Ein and his cat through turn-based battles and a crowd of dateable female protagonists. 

"If you don't get along with JRPG girls, then you should know you spend a lot of time interacting with the cast [in this game]," warns one Steam review. But players seem to so far be thrilled with The Promised Land's remaster, which includes several improvements to functionality, including auto-save, event skips, and adjustable difficulty and gameplay speed. 

"The ease of play has been improved!" the game's Steam description promises. "It's full of elements that will satisfy everyone from first-time players to experienced players!"

"I'm amazed how really well made this port is," says one recent review. "The amount of [quality-of-life] improvements from the GBA version are insane." 

"I am pleasantly surprised by how many additions have been made," says another. "The battle UI shows more pertinent information at all times and being able to speed up battles is a welcome addition." 

Riviera: The Promised Land will be listed at a 20 percent discount on Steam until July 30. It may be a 22-year-old game, but now is the perfect time to play it.

Experience JRPG history — after 20 years, one of the longest-running JRPG stories is "about 80-90% complete" and finally coming to an end.

Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.