Grandia II

GAME: Grandia II

DEVELOPER: GameArts

PUBLISHER (North America): Ubisoft

PLATFORM: SEGA Dreamcast (later ported to PS2, then PC) (PORTS NOT HANDLED BY GAMEARTS)

RELEASE DATE (North America): December 6, 2000 (Dreamcast), January 28, 2002 (PS2 port), March 10, 2002 (PC port)

GENRE: Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG)

 

 

SHORT REVIEW

 

Grandia II's brilliant art direction and wonderful music will pull you in, but amazing gameplay and an unforgettable cast of characters will make it shine.

 

LONG REVIEW

 

Another JRPG review? Huh, that's unlike me. Anyway, this time, I'm reviewing one of my all-time favorite games, Grandia II for the SEGA Dreamcast.

 

I'll start out with the interesting gameplay. An RPG is only as good as its combat system, and Grandia II has one of the strangest, yet greatest, ones I've ever seen. A small bar in the corner of the screen shows when your characters, and your enemies, will move (see the below diagram for details). Depending on how fast the character is, their icon will move from the left of the bar to the right. When your character's icon reaches a mark called COM (command), you will be able to input what you want them to do, and, if necessary, select a target. Then, depending on their AGI (agility) and how proficient they are with their attacks, they will advance at a certain speed on the bar to a mark called ACT, at which point they will execute their move.

 

Enemy 1                                Enemy 2

\                                                    \

=====|==============COM==========ACT

   /                /                      /              /

Roan      Millenia          Tio        Ryudo

 

(Note that this is just an example. I don't believe you ever have these four characters in your party at the same time. Not ever.)

 

In the above example, you can see that Roan and Enemy 1 have just moved, and their icons have been set back to the beginning of the bar. Millenia had moved before Roan, and she has been advancing since then. Ryudo's command has been inupt, and he is waiting to execute it. Tio is almost at the COM mark, but since her AGI is much higher than Ryudo's, and most of her attacks are instantaneous, she will likely move before him. Enemy 2 is also ready to execute its attack, and depending on the attack, it can delay or even cancel Ryudo's attack, or knock Roan, Millenia, or Tio further back on the bar.

 

As far as attacks go, you can choose from Combo attacks, Critical strikes, Skills, and Magic, as well as using items for either attacking, healing, or support. Combo attacks are basic attacks, usually two quick strikes. Critical strikes are weaker and slower than Combo attacks, but they knock the enemy's icon further back on the bar (or, if their icon is between COM and ACT, it will cancel their move and move their icon back to the line on the left side of the bar). Skills are slower, yet more powerful moves with varying effects, that can be used as long as character has the necessary amount of Skill Points (SP) remaining. Magic is similar to skills, but instead use Magic Points (MP). The main difference between Skills and Magic is that a character's Skills are exclusive to that character, but a character's Magic is dependent on the Mana Egg that they have equipped.

 

Aside from the battle system, Grandia II features a lovely graphical design (with quite stunning graphics for its time), incredibly well-composed music (directed by Noriyuki Iwadare, who has also done music for other famous games such as Ace Attorney and Super Smash Bros.), and an immersive storyline with a colorful cast of characters. Basic RPG elements also shine through, creating a complex system that is both accessible to newer RPG players and exciting for old-school RPG fans (hm... I remember saying something like that for my Eternal Sonata review as well...).

 

As far as flaws go, Grandia II features a couple minor graphical glitches, but not much else. Lag can be an issue when many characters are on the screen at one time (which progressively became worse as the game was ported to the PS2 and PC), though battles are not affected by this lag. Also, sometimes the translations get mixed up, and often you will find errors in a character's grammar. Still, there are no significant problems, and these flaws can be easily buried away in the back of the mind.

 

Altogether, Grandia II is an exceptional, underrated RPG that stands out very much, especially as part of a mediocre series and saturated genre. Grandia II comes highly recommended for both RPG and JRPG fans, and even people just looking for a nice story and interesting characters.

 

Alright, by popular(ish) demand, here's a brief overview of the storyline. ...Of course, "brief" is a relative term. I'll try not to make it huge. Note that this is just a synopsis; the full story is much deeper.

 

The game begins when the main character, Ryudo, (along with his faithful talking bird companion, Skye) gets a job offer as a bodyguard. Ryudo is a Geohound, which is a mercenary that is often frowned upon by the public due to their savage nature and natural lack of morals. Therefore, he is surprised to find that the job offer comes from the Church of Granas (the game's equivelant of the Christian/Catholic religion). His job is to escort a Granas Songstress named Elena to a tower deep in the woods around Carbo village, where Elena will seal away a piece of Valmar (the game's equivelant of the devil, though more accurately described as a "dark God").

 

Under Ryudo's protection, Elena reaches their destination, Garmia Tower, and proceeds to go inside with a couple other Sisters of Granas to seal up the Wings of Valmar. Ryudo is instructed to wait outside until the ceremony is over, and then to escort Elena back to Carbo village afterwards. Ryudo and Skye wait outside the tower, and eventually hear a piercing scream, most likely from Elena. Ryudo rushes into the tower to find everyone except Elena dead, and a cloud of darkness surrounding Elena (a vision which triggers bad memories from his past). After saving Elena and returning to Carbo village, he asks the head of the church in Carbo, Father Cairus, just what happened. Cairus explains that Elena has been, most likely, possessed by the Wings of Valmar. While Elena is resting, Cairus asks Ryudo to once again escort Elena, this time halfway across the world to the St. Heim state (the game's equivelant of the Vatican City) in order to see Pope Zera, and hopefully, exorcize and/or seal away the Wings of Valmar.

 

As Cairus attempts to persuade Ryudo to take him up on the offer, they hear a strange rumbling sound outside. When they go investigate, they find a young, redheaded woman with a pair of black wings standing where the statue in the center of the village used to be. Cairus is quick to identify her as one of the "Dark Ones" (pieces of Valmar), and attacks her. The woman simply swats him away. Ryudo then attacks the woman, and while he doesn't go down as quickly as Cairus, the woman is able to defeat Ryudo without breaking a sweat, leaving him paralyzed on the ground. After teasing him for a moment, the woman introduces herself as Millenia, then flies off. Ryudo's curiosity then gets the better of him, and he accepts Cairus's offer in order to find out for himself what's going on.

 

And I suppose that's what people would consider to be the end of the "prologue", before where the real story begins.

 

FINAL SCORE: 10/10

 

Yikes, another 10/10? I think maybe I'm being too nice to games. But Grandia II definitely earned that 10.