Below are user reviews of Grandia 2 and on the right are links to professionally written reviews.
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User Reviews (81 - 81 of 81)
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Grandia II is Great
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User
Grandia II is one of four true RPG's released for the Dreamcast, the others being Evolution I and II, and Skies of Arcadia. While not quite at the same level as Skies of Arcadia, Grandia II is still a great RPG, that definitely deserves to be played.
The main thing which makes Grandia II such a great game is the combat system. Grandia II has the best traditional RPG combat system ever, in my opinion. It is still essentially turn-based, but it uses an action gauge to determine move order, with different characters and monsters moving at different speeds along it. It has a brilliant use of different types of attacks. Basically, combos do more damage, but critical attacks move people back on the action gauge more. Different moves can stop movement on the gauge, slow movement on the gauge, or completely cancel attacks. Moves which hit at certain times do more damage as well. There is also movement in space, which actually matters, especially against bosses and for move hit areas. The Grandia II combat system is just a nice contrast to standard combat systems. And what makes the combat even better is that there are no random encounters! Just on screen wandering monsters, which are easily avoidable. Nobody likes random encounters.
Grandia II has a fairly standard experience system, as far as normal leveling-up goes. Every character has their own skills, but the spells are contained in mana eggs, which you can switch between characters. There are also skill books which give bonus stats and abilities. The mana eggs and skill books are original and pretty cool. It is also nice that both skills and spells are useful, unlike most games, where one or the other is basically useless. You have to buy and upgrade spells, moves, and special skill books with coins you gain through combat. It's a system which has been done many times before, and isn't as cool as Grandia I (which makes you use moves to improve them) but it is still fun.
The storyline is probably Grandia II's biggest drawback. It is all right, but really nothing special. Some of the religious aspects are interesting, but even those are fairly standard. It also gets downright preachy at times, as there is tons of "why do I keep fighting" and "what is the purpose of living on" type stuff. The characters are the standard fare, and some are extremely annoying. Mareg the beastman does offer nice philosophical insight into existence. He is cool. Unlike Grandia I, the story is actually serious, and most everything you do is related to the plot. The plot is very linear, and there aren't really any side quests or many secrets. There is a love story between the main character Ryudo and the songstress Elena, but it doens't really "blossom" as much as just appears, and then is awkwardly brought up many times. It is kind of lame.
Grandia II sports mountains of dialogue, and you can talk to every person 3 or 4 times, and what they have to say changes every time anything remotely important happens. Most of the dialogue isn't worth reading, but I felt obligated. Just to mention, Grandia II is full of casual swearing. There is also quite a lot of voice acting, which is okay, though it was apparently recorded in low-quality (there is a lot of hissing and static). It helps to set the characters' personalities.
Graphically, Grandia II has a good visual style to it, and the characters are well observed, as are the monsters and dialogue portraits, but many of the dungeons and backgrounds are bland and not too exciting. There are some CG cutscenes, but they are kind of funny looking and out of place. The music is high quality stuff, but isn't nearly as good as Grandia I. Grandia II does come with a music soundtrack CD, as a nice bonus.
All in all , Grandia II is an excellent game (though it isn't as classic as Grandia I). If you liked Grandia I, Grandia II would be a good idea, even though they are very different games. It's got great combat, no random encounters, and a decent story. It is very easy for an RPG, and all the dungeons are very small. I only died once or twice. And it is fairly short as well, only 25-30 hours on average. If you've got a Dreamcast, get Skies of Arcadia first, but once you're done with that, pick up Grandia II. It is definitely worth playing. It is great.
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