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Grandia is Great

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Grandia is a great game all around. If not one of the best, it is definitely one of the most fun RPG's I've ever played.

The first thing which strikes my memory, like so many other games, is the characters. They are good, fun characters. If nothing else, Grandia does make you care about them and what happens to them. Unlike almost every other RPG ever made, there really aren't any dark, brooding characters, or even evil ones (even the bad guys weren't very evil seeming), and I know that will put a lot of people off. Justin, the main character, is a total jerk. He's a nice guy at heart, but just a little clueless. There is some voice acting, which is entertaining, and some of it is okay. I like it well enough to keep it. It set the characters well. There is a little love story, too, which is corny, but it fits well with the rest of the game. Nothing in this game is very serious.

Except the combat. The fighting system in Grandia is awesome. It is still turn-based, but instead of just standing in a row, you're characters actually move around, which is important against many bosses and special attacks. It uses a timing system with an action bar to determine who goes when. When you hit enemies, or are hit yourself, you move back on the bar. This is important for strategic reasons. Basically, you can do more damage with a combo than a critical attack, but a critical moves them further back on the bar. The special moves and magic system is very well done. You level up specific moves and spells by using them. This makes some of your early moves devastating even into the later parts of the game.

On a similar note, the experience system is one of the best in the industry (whether or not it is innovative or original). There are standard level ups, running on the normal experience system. Then Grandia goes the extra mile and adds in the specific weapon and magic class levels. When you use a specific type of weapon, you level up in that specific weapon, getting a small stat boost and allowing you access to new skills. This makes it necessary to switch up what kind of weapons each character uses. Magic also levels up in this same way, and to get access to new spells, especially the ones which are mixes of elements, you will have to mix-up what kinds of magic you use. It is a fun system to work with.

Grandia has a fairly simplistic, happy plot. It is not unique by any right. I guess it kind of is by its lightness. It really is cheery, and a total departure from dark, depressing insight into the human soul type stories (did someone just mention Xenogears?). You spend a large portion of your time on side-quests and adventures which have nothing to do with the overall plot, but that was okay, because you are a young, aspiring adventurer, after all. That, and the combat system is great, so fighting lots of monsters is fun. The main story is nothing special, but it is interesting. I did find myself wanting to know what happens. Despite the general and generic plot, individual events and occurrences are still exciting now and then.

The graphics aren't anything special, like most Playstation games that are three years old. The characters themselves are well observed, done with a high level of detail, and the character dialogue portraits are neat. Every character has two or three, expressing different emotions. Again, nothing outstanding or brilliant, but a nice touch. In general, the dungeons themselves and the enemy monsters don't look so great. But then again, I've never really cared much about graphics in RPGs. Your call.

There are a couple things which really makes Grandia stand out above the rest of the crowd. For one thing, there are no random encounters. Nobody likes those. There are still wandering monsters, but you can see them on screen before you have to fight them, and they are avoidable. I thought that was absolutely awesome. The music in Grandia was excellent. I think it is the absolute best soundtrack on a RPG so far. I absolutely loved it. People who weren't watching would occasionally glance in to see if I was just listening to classical music. That is a bit of an overstatement, but still.

All in all, Grandia is great. It is an epic. It only took me 40 hours to beat. Nowhere near this 90 hour stuff the other reviewers were talking about. I did almost everything too, including talking to everybody in town three times in a row (one of Grandia's more annoying points). The dungeons are well designed, if short, and easy. I had a more difficult time fighting wandering monsters than some bosses (mainly because you can hit them so many times they never get to move). Anyway, Grandia is definitely one of the most fun RPGs ever, even if it isn't one of the technical best. And it has Puffy. All RPG fans should pick it up. And beat it. It is great.

Grandia

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 11, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Grandia. Simple Title, wonderful game. What can be said about Grandia? Many great things. First I'll go into the storyline. It starts off innocently with the main character Justin and his best friend Sue in their hometown of Parm enjoying childhood. Justin someday wants to be a great adventurer like his father. He gets much more than what he asked for. The game plays like a cross breed of Real TIme and Turn Based, where when characters lreach a certain point on a 'progress bar' they input a command (while tha battle pauses) which is then excecuted a short time later. Level gain is probably my favorite feature of this game. Instead of gaining traditional levels, one gains experience in weapon usage and spell usage. When you gain a certain amount of skill in say, a sword and axe, Justin can use a special attack during battle. Graphics are fun. The field is 100% rotatable using L1, and R1. THe enemies are visible on the screen allowing you to run screaming away from something, and most of the time make it. Spells are excellently animated (and don't take 3 minutes, a la Final Fantasy 8). There are animated and FMV scenes scattered at points in the game. They all add to the story and are not all eye-candy. Also there is voice acting, which leaves some to be desired.

In all I gave this game 4 stars. Not 5, If the voice acting wasn't as jerky, or there was more of it, 5 stars easily. Great game for gamers of all ages.

Great game, all around perfect RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

First of all I'd like to say that this game is not THAT long that it would take 80+ hours to beat. I was actually dissapointed when I found out it took some people that long. (It only took me 42 hours my first play through, and then 35 my second time through.)

Anyway, this game had a fantastic story. (Not anywhere NEAR how good Lunar Silver Star Story Complete but better than Final Fantasy VIII) and the character development was awesome.

Eventhough this game is two disc, it is quite long. (It took me longer to beat this than it took me to beat FFVIII) But as mentioned earlier, this is not going to take you over 80 hours to complete. The game spans two disc in what it takes FFIX to span four! But the real story of the game doesn't pick up until you're on disc 2, but once you get that far, you'll find out how disc 1 plays in.

At first when you start this game it'll seem like nonsense. In fact, it didn't make any sense until I got to disc 2. But in the end it all plays together.

I thought this game was as good as Lunar and Final Fantasy V-IX. While the character development or graphics won't be as good as FFVIII, the story will be one of the greatest you'll ever hear.

^-^

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Okay for starters. I am offical a member of the 1 member ABBA (anti Brain Bat Association). If you have played this game, found the optional dungeon, fought those little buggers at a lower level, you know why. (BABOOM)

Sorry.

The game is cool. Graphics are nice (not the best but better than some). The music is excellent. The voice acting is skippy but it works. The magic system can be difficult to figure out in the beggining and hard to level, but hey ^-^ there are places to level them without cheat codes. [For water, try standing in the green water at the tower and heal yourself. It does work, though it does take a few hours for each character--recommending Feena to level 99 water/wind.]

I love the game overall despite the bad voice acting. Nothing tops the original, I suppose. Oh, and who can ever pass up having their final boss fight inside of a coach-roach?

Boring or charming?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: July 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I'm having great trouble recommending Grandia because of its tendency to become extremely boring. This happens for several reasons: first off, the game offers nil challenge - and I do mean none whatsoever. Secondly, the "real" story hardly unfolds until the latter part of the second disk. Meanwhile, the player is occupied with the various and sundry sidequests, like saving villages and defeating evil monsters - things that don't have any bearing at all to the central story.

The story itself, involving a lad named Justin who hopes to become a famous adventurer, relies heavily on the backstory, which in turn is very vague and muddled. The tale of the ancient empire of Angelou and its eventual fall due to the corruption of its people is hardly inspired. What keeps Grandia together, however, is the excellent characterization: the people of Grandia are convincingly human, if a bit mellow, though the awful voice acting spoils the effect of some of the key scenes.

Gameplay-wise, Grandia has some interesting ideas, but it executes them so they contribute to the tedium. For example, magic and special moves aren't gained when the character levels up: instead, each character can increase his proficiency with the various elements (fire, water, wind, and earth) and weapon types (swords, daggers, whips, projectiles, etc.), thus gaining attribute boosts and special moves. However, this interesting arrangement ultimately makes even the most routine battles longer since the characters are forced to cast magic as often as possible to increase their abilities.

The ability to see enemies in the dungeons (like in Chrono Cross) is also welcome, though enemies move extremely quickly and there is a whole lot of them, so you can expect to fight just as often as in any other RPG.

However, the actual battle system is very nicely done and becomes very intuitive with practice. In addition to the usual variables, the player must also take into account his distance to the target and its "openness", since the characters actually move around the battle field. Also, Grandia has a visual aid to help you figure out whose turn is next - the "IP Gauge." Being able to stun enemies and knock them back on this gauge - and get knocked back yourself - adds an element of strategy to every battle, which would be very nice if the game offered any challenge. As things are, the battle system goes to waste.

Graphically, Grandia is clean and bright, with colorful sprites on fully polygonal backgrounds. Unfortunately, some of the enemy sprites are less than pretty, and some magic spells are downright embarassing. There are some short bits of FMV, but the single anime sequence is repeated far too often.

Grandia might possibly be suited for young players who could appreciate the low challenge, whacky voice-overs, and charming story. Older gamers who are looking for a more purposeful adventure should look elsewhere.

Grandia,A Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 14
Date: February 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

When I first heard this game was coming out,I thought, "oh man, one of those dumband corny games".But i was wrong! this is a cool game with a great storyline,cool characters,good character voice-overs, and the item system is easy. Over-all,this is a great game!

Not the best port, but still a fine game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Pros:
-A fun, stoyline.
-Charming, likable characters.
-One of the coolest battle engines for an rpg.
-Character development (ability-wise), one of the best seen on a console.

Cons:
-Voice acting is some of the worst I have ever heard.
-Game is a tad easy.
-Some slowdown.
-A few extra areas or mini games would have helped to break the linearality.

Overall:
The storyline will keep you engaged and with the exception of Gadwin, you will absolutely fall in love with the characters. The game is fun, has one of the coolest battle and ability upgrading systems seen on a console. Not perfect, but the good definitely outweighs the bad.

Grandia is one of the best PSX RPGs

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Grandia is one of my favorite RPGs, and that's saying a lot, as I play a lot of RPGs. It is probably my third favorite, just under Chrono Trigger and Lunar. The graphics are pretty cool, for the PlayStation at least. (They're amazing if you remember that they were made more then three years ago!) The best part about this game is it's characters. Justin, Sue, Feena and the others really help you get into the mood of the game. The game's plot is a little cliched, i.e. Courageous young boy must stop evil man from taking over the world with the help of his girlfriend. But oh well, it's still a really great game. Play it!

Great RPG! Best RPG I've played in a long time!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I hadn't played any really good RPG's in a while. This game had a great story line and keeps you going through both discs :). It's so well designed, you can pay more attention to the story rather than the battles. Buy this is you want to truly play a great RPG. It's a must to anyone's RPG collection!

As good as the Lunar and Final Fantasy Series!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 08, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I was expecting quite alot when I popped this game into my Playstation. Thankfully, it meets my expectations. Those looking for the graphics too be as good as Final Fantasy 8 will be dissapointed, but the story alone makes up for that. The sound isn't bad, but the songs don't stick in your head either. The battle system is great and there are no random battles, that is great! With two discs of goodness, likeable characters, and a plot theat slowly pulls you in, Grandia will keep you playing until the very end.

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