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    Grandia

    Game » consists of 10 releases. Released Dec 18, 1997

    A JRPG that tells the story of the young adventurer named Justin who tries to uncover the reason why the ancient civilization of Angelou disappeared.

    ryonosuke's Grandia (PlayStation) review

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    A Game that is ageless... so far

    Not many games age well, that is most certain. For instance I tried playing the original final fantasy games when they were being released on the handhelds and found them to be quite boring and lackluster. Grandia is an exception though in that it is still fun to play even 10+ years after its release.  
    Grandia, for those who don't know, is a Jrpg released by Game Arts around the same time as FFVII. Its story follows the adventurous 15 year old boy named Justin. Justin and his child hood friend Sue enjoy living life to the fullest, running around their port city of Parm. Justin is an only child who is raised by his mother, the owner of her own restaurant. Justin's father is MIA as, if I recall, he either went away one day and didn't return or simply passed away. Either way he's gone.  
    One day Justin receives an invitation to tour of some recently unearthed ruins of a now lost civilization. The story is kicked into motion by Justin's visit. What ensues after that day involves Justin and Sue being sent on their very own adventure. They cross oceans, climb mountains, fight baddies, and try and save the world.  
    The characters themselves, albeit very typical of the genre, are fun, energetic, full of life, and enjoyable to watch/or play. Gadwin, Leen, Rappe and Guido being some of my favorites. The game is full of variety for its time. There are several locations, several locations (those that I listed are only a mere fraction of the cast), and lots of awesome magic abilities and so on. 
    The gameplay element is probably one of the main stars in the game. For one there are no random encounters, a major plus in any rpg. As most people know, what this means is that the enemies are seen on the map and the player has a chance of encountering or avoiding them. If the enemies meet head to head the battle goes as planned. If the enemy gets the enemy from behind the player will be punished by being "ambushed" by the enemy and unable to go first, the opposite goes for if the player were to encounter an enemy from behind. Once the battle starts players are placed into a very interesting take on the turn based combat often seen in Jrpgs. The major difference is the bar players will see on the bottom right. Icons representing the characters will move from left to right, their speeds based on their stats and current condition in the battle. Once a character makes it roughly 80% there they choose their move. After that, depending on the mastery the character has of their move, the character will slowly or speedily make their way to the very end when they will finally use their attack. The bonuses this potentially gives players is the chance to slow down an enemies movement along the bar or, if they time it correctly, completely cancel an enemy's turn. 
     
    Now for the modern comments: 
    The game has aged reasonably well. The game's cartoony art style makes the game not seem so graphically awful as say the in game engine of FFVII or other games around that time. The twist on the JRPG turn base combat keeps it from seeing frightfully outdated and allows the game to still be actually fun. The story, albeit cliche, is still just as good even after experiencing it several times. 
    The only thing that hasn't aged too well would be the voice acting. In fact the voice acting wasn't that good to begin with. This time though the voice acting can be horribly painful to listen to.  
    This is just one little problem amongst a whole bunch of awesomeness. 
    I have not tried the Grandia released on the PSN yet. I'm sure it's roughly the same, just ported over to the PSN. Nevertheless I suggest you try the game in any form you can, the experience will be just as amazing.

    Other reviews for Grandia (PlayStation)

      Good RPG with Great Battle Mechanics 0

      Good RPGs rarely get the attention they deserve because they get trampled under the feet of the truly great. This is a shame, for while the Final Fantasy series, for example, could get away with revamping its old formula over and over again, it was games like Grandia - third party marvels, joker cards, if you will - that really innovated, however cautiously, with novel game mechanics and thus helped make role playing games more fun in the long term. Today, remember, most gamers are bored of turn...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

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