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Growlanser is one of the best of 2004.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 20
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you are in to strategy rpgs, you probably grew up loving Shining Force, or Final fantasy tactics- or if you are new you began with the Nippon Ichi games (Disgaea, La Pucelle, Phantom Brave). I have seen all of these, and I haven't been as attached as when I played Growlanser. Growlanser Generations consists of two games, Growlanser II and III. The games are just fun. The stories are both really good, the battles are fun to play, and the equipping gems (abilities) function is really cool. My room mates and I are currently playing, and all three of us have advanced the story in so many different ways. There are multiple endings, and there are so many ways to branch off the story. At the beginning of the game, you will be asked a series of questions, and your answers determine the main character's stats and even which skills he will learn. And this continues throughout the game, so you can really play it however you want!
There is only one horrible thing about the game, and fortunately it is only initial. The voice acting will make you want to turn it off, but within the first hour, it will grow on you. I PROMISE! The only person you will really hate after awhile will be the voice of a snot nosed kid named Hans- but you will be able to excuse his lame "one liners" every time he beats an enemy because he kicks a lot of butt as a fighter.
I started out talking about strategy rpgs, but if you don't like strategy rpgs, don't disregard this title. It's unlike any strategy rpg I have ever played. It's a little hard to desribe, but all the battles are in real time- you give orders. You can tell your main character to fight, and he will go over and beat on a dude until they die, but if you want to tell him to stop, you can interupt his action, and tell him to beat on another dude or heal or whatever. Once your orders are given you can just sit back and watch what happens. Rather than "taking turns" like in most strategy rpgs everything in Growlanser happens at once. While your characters are walking around doing what you told them to do, so are the enemies.
There are random battles for leveling up purposes, and these are far shorter than story battles. The games are little bit on the short side, Growlanser II is about 20 hours long, while the third one is around 30. Since they are short, the replay value is high with all the different endings and stories. Growlanser Generations really surprised me, and has easily become one of my favorites. We are lucky that Working Designs and Atlus brought these titles to America, and I am hoping that Growlanser IV will also come here.

Bargain Value Old-School RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: May 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I recommend Growlanser Generations for fans of both RPGs and Tactical games. You get two games, each of good quality, for a reasonable price.

Growlanswer II is the shorter and simplier of the two games. Play it first, otherwise the lack of options you'd otherwise find in Growlanser III will be apparent. You control more characters and fight much larger battles. Each stage (plotwise) is well-designed and, at times, you'll be tearing up your hair trying to get a Complete rating. The branching story, while simplistic, offers interesting options and very different outcomes. It is by far the game's best feature. Finally, an RPG that lets you side with the Bad Guy! More Tactical than RPG.

Growlanser III has less replay value than its predecessor but it boasts a more developed storyline. Your still fighting with a band of do-gooders to save the world, you just take a more scenic route getting there. Growlanser III features a more linear story, many sidequests, better developed characters, and a lot of flavor. The only downside is the lack of replay value and the Random Dungeon Generator. My God, could the be any more generic? More RPG than Tactical.

For the package overall, Working Designs did an excellent job. Controls are easy to understand, you know where you need to go (mostly), and there are no major bugs. Aside from the "Jitter", which is what your character will be doing when they get wedged in a a tight spot on the map and can't seem to move anywhere. It happens rarely, but when it does happen you'll curse the heavens.

Growlanser Generations sports strong voice acting. Well, as strong as you're going to get in a video game. Growlanser III is the better acted of the two. Both games feature large casts and there's nearly always a new VA for a new character. The music is also memorable.

Highly recommended.

At last, an old school rpg!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: December 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is the latest game released by Working Designs. As usual, we have been waiting too long because they delayed, delayed and delayed again. But here it is, and because you waited for so long, you get 2 games for a very low price. This package includes Growlanser 2:The Sense Of Justice(1999) and Growlanser 3: The Dual Darkness (2002). Both games are lasting about 40 hours each, with a total of nearly 10 hours of voice acting. The voice acting is very good, no lame performances! For those of you who are tired of high-tech rpgs like Final Fantasy games, random dungeons and 3-d stuff, then this game is for you! This is an old school rpg for hardcore fans. Caracters are Sailor-Moonish like, every one of the major caracters have their own voice. The game plays close to Final Fantasy Tactics, but better in my opinion.

The future of RPG are looking good!!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 22
Date: October 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I can't believe its almost here I've been waiting for this game forever. I have only played the demo for this game in Japan all I can say about this game is sweet!!!. If your craving for an eye candy of graphics,great story lines and of course hours and hours of hardcore of RPG then this game is a must for your video game library collections. I've never seen a more complex battle system and great voice actors. The people who made this game are the same company that made the hit series Lunar for ps1 and you know they have a good reputation of makin great rpg's. A true hardcore Rpg gamer will definitely be satisfied with the content of game play, graphic, awesome story lines and of course an awesome job by the cast of voice actors simply amazing. I can't express words to describe this game.

Great Tactical RPGs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: April 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First off i have to say that i love tactical RPGs and other then Disgaea Hour of Darkness and Final Fantasy Tactics this collection is as good as it gets. It surprises me a little that it has taken this long for a U.S. release and after playing Growlanser i'm hoping that sonner or latter the first game will make it stateside as well. (Maybe for the PSP? - God knows it needs some real RPGs)

While the game certainly isn't graphically impressive (if you're reading this you're probably a real gamer anyway so you won't care) everything else about this collection has awesome depth despite being rather simplistic structurally compared to games such as Disgaea and Phantom Brave.

As soon as i found out that this collection was developed by Working Designs and Atlus (the two most underrated developers in the gaming world) i had to buy it and if you're even remotely interested in tactical RPGs do yourself a favor and buy it. You won't be dissapointed.

Great combat, great story, great value.

This is a fine set of games. I wouldn't call them classic.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 18
Date: December 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game comes with Growlanser II and III.

Growlanser II - Pros - Fun strategy RPG.
Many story branches.
Voice acting
Cons - The only real con is that its nothing we haven't seen before. I believe they didn't release it here because of FFT. I don't blame them. Its no FFT.

Growlanser III is so much like II its funny. Different characters, different plot, but you'll swear you were playing the same game. III plays more like a typical RPG. {Running from town to town, world map, etc. But thats about it.

If you've played FFT,{pretty much anyone into strategy RPGs has}Growlanser proprably won't do much for you. Some people compared this to Disgaea and the like. Maby if this game's graphics were more recent, but the gap is too great.

About time...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

It is about time that a good old school tactical RPG was released. I haven't played anything like this since Final Fantasy Tactics. I own the Collector's Edition that comes with a slew of cool things. The gameplay itself is fun and how you can customize each of the chracters adds another level of depth to the game. I have not gone through both the games yet but so far the story in Growlanser 2 is fun and involved. I'd recommend this to any fan of RPG's.

If you Love Strategy RPGs, this game is a must have!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Reviewed for Big Boss Games by: TRC

Growlanser Generations is split into two games, Growlanser 2 and 3.

This review is of Growlanser 2.

After a long delay of this game, Working Designs has released Growlanser
Generations and it is well worth the wait. If you love strategy RPGs this
game is a must have. Because of it?s griping story and great game-play. You
start out as Wein Cruz, a young boy with a dream of becoming an Imperial
Knight.

The music in the game is perfect. Although the voice acting was laughable, it
was still funny at times. Good-bye battle grid, you have free roam over the
battlefield. Your game uses navigation points to move from town to dungeon
and back again. The strategy aspect of this game goes from easy to pulling
out your hair hard after a few battles. The Graphics for this game seem like
the best of playstation 1 graphics.

Overall for Growlanser 2

I give this game a:
9.5 ? Game Play
9 - Sound
6 - Graphics
9 - Overall

Great pair of RPGs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Growlanser Generations is the American conversion and compilation of Growlanser II and III. It comes with 2 discs, the first is the complete game of Growlanser II, and the second is the complete game of Growlanser III. Both are great games. These games are in classic turn-based RPG style which plays phenomenally. Good customization options when you level up add to the enjoyment I got from playing the games. Growlanser II has more focus on gameplay and less on exploration, where Growlanser III has more exploration and the story moves slower. However, the music, graphics, and voice acting are better in Growlanser III. As you can see both have advantages and disadvantages, but in the final analysis, both are outstanding games in their own right, both play similarly, especially in combat, and both are worth the investment of purchasing.

Good Catch for Fans

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: January 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

A compilation including Growlanser II and III, Growlanser Generations is basically a repackaging of these old games. These games were not formerly available in the US, and now are due to the PS2 adaptation.

Growlanser II takes place in the kingdom of Burnstein, following Wein Cruz. Enlisting in the officer's academy, Wein hopes to become an Imperial Knight, of which there are only four in the kingdom. However, not long after he joins, a great war with the kingdom of Rolandia breaks out (this war is seen from the other side in Growlanser I). Many of Wein's fellow knights are killed. After passing the initial knight exams - a makeshift defense of a besieged city - Wein becomes a full knight and leads a squad through various missions.

Growlanser III, in contrast, takes place after a different nation has been ripped apart by civil war and the sun's power is weakened by a major catastrophe. This leads to a major famine and a squabble over food in its neighbor countries. The player is a soldier wracked with amnesia who is rescued by the daughter of one of those countries, Xironia, which is constantly raided by the neighbor nation of Aggressival. The soldier, Slayn Wilder, must rediscover his past and avert a tragedy before it can happen.

The gameplay in Growlanser is a little difficult to follow. The game is "real time", in a manner of speaking, but it's more accurate to say that even though everyone moves at the same time, the game still has a system of timing and turns. The player can have as many as 8 soldiers on the field at a time in Growlanser II, and only 4 in Growlanser III (due to player complaints). Every time there is a combat sequence or spell cast, the play stops and waits for the thing to be done. Orders are given when these combat sequences aren't playing. These range from abilities to attacks to move orders. It is often difficult to adapt to new conditions because of the frequent interruptions. One of the new features in the Growlanser Generations repackage is the option of "auto-battling" - helpful for characters you can't afford to spend time on.

In Growlanser II, the "world map" is traveled from city to city like points on a map (think Final Fantasy Tactics), and while in towns the player can buy and sell items or look up rumors. Growlanser III works more like a normal RPG, with manual traveling over an overworld map and into towns. However, for the most part, gameplay is similar between the two.

The graphics in both games are sprites in the standard RPG style, though the pixelation improves from 2 to 3 (2 is very grainy and flaky, while 3 is a little more smooth). The portraits are done in an anime style very similar to old anime series like Record of Lodoss War - lots of big shoulders and shiny hairdos. The music is barely noticable, but the voice acting has been improved with Generations. However, the quality varies wildly from character to character.

As a whole, I might recommend this game if one was a fan of the later, translated games. But by itself, the gameplay system is a little too complex and irritating to like.

Review: 7/10.

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