busy This section may contain minor spoilers for Riviera, but nothing major.
As always, I don't mind if you link to this post from everywhere on the planet, since this information's meant to be shared. But credit me for the translation, and don't repost this stuff anywhere. P-PLEASE TO BE RESPECTING MY WORK :C
Riviera, the stage of “Riviera: The Promised Land”, used to be a part of Niflheim and one of the demons’ important bases, but during the demons’ battle with the world, “Ragnarok”, it was captured by Asgard’s forces and changed to one of Asgard’s domains—or in other words, remade into a surface world. After that, the gods were ruined due to their battle with the demons. On the verge of their own destruction, the gods placed their massive power, called the “Retribution”, under a powerful seal in Riviera so that none could try to use it for themselves. The reason that land was chosen was because Riviera had just been cleansed by the gods and still had a completely pure state, and there were no people around to abuse that power. Also, because Riviera was given to the Sprites, who were used as slaves by the demons up until this point, the Sprites were charged with protecting the world’s peace and being guardians of the “Retribution” in return.
The Details of Ragnarok’s Conclusion
After the ruin of the gods, the “Seven Magi” became the leading body of Asgard as a temporary measure because it was decided that further fighting without the gods was an unwise policy. Using their victory in Riviera, they embarked in negotiations, and succeeded in ending the war. Due to the success of their process to secure an armistice, their influence in Asgard was greatly strengthened, and the previously temporary “Seven Magi political faction” began to become much more formalized.
Riviera After Ragnarok
As compared to the heavy war damages it took, Riviera was reborn as a beautiful world after the war. However, because it was originally a land controlled by demons, it still possesses a high affinity with Niflheim; in particular, an area through which Niflheim can interfere remains in the depths of the Mireno underground cemetery.
About Ein, the protagonist
After the war, Ein was the Grim Angel dispatched to Riviera on orders of the Seven Magi. His name is derived from that of the Diviner he uses, “Sacred Sword Einherjar”. There is an innate affinity between a Grim Angel and their Diviner; when Ein was created, he had an especially high rate of synchronization with the sacred sword, and he was given a name derived from it as a result.
The Sealed “Retribution”
The particulars of the “Retribution” are that it contains the power to return everything to nothingness; however, outside that, there aren’t any details known. Still, although it’s wrapped in riddles, it has a powerful ability to deter demons.
The Accursed
In present-day Riviera, not only the “Retribution” is sealed there, but also the “Accursed”. They are considered demon gods in Niflheim, but because they are created from the limbs of the great demon gods, they’re high-ranking demons, like Niflheim’s version of Grim Angels. By the way, demons can’t exclusively be considered enemies of the gods. However, those known as Accursed are born supporters of Niflheim, and both sides recognize them by that name.
How Asgard Seized Riviera
With the sealing of the points where Niflheim is connected to its domains, the “Hades Gates”, the construction of a connection to Heaven’s Gate by those of Asgard to double the security, and the purification performed by the angels, Riviera was able to become a surface world.
(Asgard creates a gate)
Niflheim’s realm (to become Riviera)
(Asgard seals and blockades)
Hades Gate
Species Directory 2: Sprites
“Sprite” is a general term for the various life forms that dwell within nature. To bring about order and equilibrium in the world, the very elements of which the surface worlds are composed watch over and cleanse it to protect it; it is said that this is done in return for the angels’ purification of the demons. Just like things like Dryad-types which have the same functions as a natural object are needed, so are those whose shapes have adapted to their surroundings like Undine-types and Harpuia-types. In many worlds, hybrid Sprites (those of mixed-race backgrounds) and diversification continue to progress, and according to biology, human races seem to be progressing towards evolution into Sprites. For instance, the Haine race in Riviera, which are relatively new generation of Sprites.
From forests to rivers to ores, there are Sprites that correspond to every aspect of nature. There are also rare confirmed cases of half-demon Sprites.
Ito Shinichi’s Dept. Heaven secret story, part 2
Riviera is a game that features an adventure together with the four set Sprite heroines, but at first it had a darker design. At first I was planning a grand battle between angels and demons that reaches the stage of the “floating garden Riviera” that would entangle the Sprites as it escalated—a kind of “second Ragnarok” story—but since planning something so grandiose for a handheld like the WonderSwan might not work, it was judged to be too difficult. That original huge plan for Asgard and Niflheim was revived in the form of the story’s base in the end. About the “twelve Sprites” material, that still remains at this time because I forgot to take it out of the documents for whatever reason and it was brought out with the rest of the story as it was. I also thought it would be difficult to make the game work with twelve heroines, so the characters were cut down, and in the end it was brought to four people. This was decided through the characters’ individuality, the game’s performance, and the WonderSwan’s color capabilities. It might have been something like “When it’s more popular, we can make sequels with the eight characters who were cut”, actually… (although in the end, we decided not to do something like that…)
In the end there wasn’t any direct sequel for “Riviera”, but afterward remakes were done for the GBA and PSP. Either way, because the production time was intermingled with the production for “Yggdra Union”, it didn’t really feel like we were doing remakes. However, for the GBA version, voice acting was added as a new element, so that took charge there. Because of the capacities of the ROM it wasn’t possible to do fully-voiced cutscenes, so we thought a lot about the lines that you’d hear a lot when winning battles and such, and other voiced lines. Still, the puzzle of how much we could cram into the limited area we had to work with was a lot of fun. While adjusting the voice data over and over with the sound director, I filled every little possible space through trial and error. If I recall correctly, I think the final total was about three minutes and forty-nine seconds long. During development, the programmers kept saying things like “we’re over capacity, take some out”, but the echoes of my secret-technique cheer that kept even the useless frozen parts going until the end really speak for my commitment.