When I look back on gaming consoles I have to say when it comes to role playing games, it is between the first Playstation and the PS2 as far as the best. The PS2 boasts a very wide range of role playing games that run the gambit from super great looking to simplistic and everything in between, while the Playstation had three of the best FF games and a slew of others. Usually, the ones on the first Playstation would either try for a three dimensional look like the FF games or they would resemble a game on the SNES with a bit better graphics and voice acting. This one would be like the latter and is a pure delight to play. It adds a different twist on the turn based battles, features fun characters and has a great story to boot. There would be three other Grandia games, but as a series it kind of peaked with this one. Sure I never played extreme, but I did play the other two and the problem they both suffer is that there is just a bit too much fighting. Here, there is a better balance between story, exploration and fighting. Though even it gets a bit more battle heavy near the end.
The story has you as Justin, a young man who dreams of becoming a great adventurer. He finally gets his chance when he enters some ruins and meets a strange woman named Liete that beckons him to come to a place called Alent. Soon, he and his lifelong friend Sue are hoping a freighter to the new world, though while on the freighter Justin meets a world famous adventurer named Feena. Soon, the three will be having all sorts of adventures and running afoul with a military force led by a man named General Baal. He is aided by his son Mullen and what turns out to be Feena's sister, Leen. The three will find themselves trying to cross what is thought to be the end of the world where they find the world does not end, but like their adventure is just the beginning!
The game play is fun, the combat a turn based one that lets you position the characters and if you time things right you can also cancel the enemies actions. Of course, your actions can be canceled as well. You level up by gaining experience points, but you can also level up your magic and your weapons by performing actions in combat. Use your weapon, it gains more power too. Use your magic and it powers up and the more powerful both your weapons and magic gets the more special moves you learn or the more powerful your magic gets. It pays to learn the move Gadwin will teach you as quickly as possible as it will make Justin level up his weapon and earth and fire magic very quickly and will turn Justin into a super kill machine!
So this game was a blast. It is a shame they stopped making Grandia games after the third game as it was a nice series. I liked two and three, but they were not as good as this one. Two kind of grew on me after a couple of plays, my main source of disappointment from it was the fact it was set in another world and I was hoping for a direct sequel. The third one was kind of a tease as it started out on fire and I thought it was going to be the best Grandia...it unfortunately, got a bit too dungeon heavy at the end though. This one did to some extent, but there was still plenty of story to be told near the end. It was a fun adventure and one worth revisiting again and again.
The story has you as Justin, a young man who dreams of becoming a great adventurer. He finally gets his chance when he enters some ruins and meets a strange woman named Liete that beckons him to come to a place called Alent. Soon, he and his lifelong friend Sue are hoping a freighter to the new world, though while on the freighter Justin meets a world famous adventurer named Feena. Soon, the three will be having all sorts of adventures and running afoul with a military force led by a man named General Baal. He is aided by his son Mullen and what turns out to be Feena's sister, Leen. The three will find themselves trying to cross what is thought to be the end of the world where they find the world does not end, but like their adventure is just the beginning!
The game play is fun, the combat a turn based one that lets you position the characters and if you time things right you can also cancel the enemies actions. Of course, your actions can be canceled as well. You level up by gaining experience points, but you can also level up your magic and your weapons by performing actions in combat. Use your weapon, it gains more power too. Use your magic and it powers up and the more powerful both your weapons and magic gets the more special moves you learn or the more powerful your magic gets. It pays to learn the move Gadwin will teach you as quickly as possible as it will make Justin level up his weapon and earth and fire magic very quickly and will turn Justin into a super kill machine!
So this game was a blast. It is a shame they stopped making Grandia games after the third game as it was a nice series. I liked two and three, but they were not as good as this one. Two kind of grew on me after a couple of plays, my main source of disappointment from it was the fact it was set in another world and I was hoping for a direct sequel. The third one was kind of a tease as it started out on fire and I thought it was going to be the best Grandia...it unfortunately, got a bit too dungeon heavy at the end though. This one did to some extent, but there was still plenty of story to be told near the end. It was a fun adventure and one worth revisiting again and again.
