Source: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/grandia-ii-remastered-launches-august-24/1100-6429824/

That's great to hear. Haven't played the Grandia games, but I really like most of the GameArts titles I've played, so I'm definitely interested in checking it out.

Aw man, this is taking me back. I played all the mainline Grandia games but Grandia 2 was the one I liked enough to play all the way through. Grandia 2 and Skies of Arcadia are some of my favorite RPG's on the dreamcast. What I remember enjoying about it most was the main character Ryudo being sort of an asshole at times and being waaaaaaaay into MGS1 at the time, having Cam Clarke voicing the lead was a nice bonus.

I didn't like it as much as the first one but still had the cool combat system. Mix between turn based combat and a brawler or beat em up.

I think I only played the first one and that was pretty good. Sort of a neat take on the combat.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Gonna get that GOG copy for sure. Controller support and a new difficulty mode make me happy as well.

Never played it, but always wanted to.

Looking forward to this. I enjoyed the originsl and never played the second.

Never finished the first Grandia but I'm still on board with this.

Same here. The battle system was great in the first one.

Is Grandia 1 on there? Grandia II is alright. Every Grandia game is alright I just have more fondness for the first one and its stinted voice acting.

Best JRPG battle system.

That voice acting was so good. In that Resident Evil 1 sort of way.

@cloudymusic: There is... no... such... thing... as the end... of the world... Justin.

Omg! Grandia 2 was one of my first video games (probably my first jrpg) back on the Dreamcast. I'm experiencing so much nostalgia right now, haha. This was the game where I proved I was a little brother by accidentally deleting my brother's completed save game.

This game has one of the best JRPG battle systems ever.

@fredchuckdave: It is not. Grandia never had a PC release. Grandia II had one in 2002.

I thought Grandia 1 was the classic?

I remember this being hyped to hell and back when it was coming out on Dreamcast. I played it and couldn't get into it at all. I thought the dungeons were long and super boring.

JRPGs from this era are a bit of a blind spot for me, but when enough people remark about the quality of the combat, that's usually a sign that I should give something a look.

Son of a.....

I used to own a copy of this for ps2 and didnt find it great back then (although the Dreamcast version was the better between the two right?)

@fredchuckdave: Oh god, Sue's voice. It's like they hired a dog whistle to read her dialog.

My name is Justin so obviously I liked the first one. However, since I have 2 on dreamcast and pc, they actually need to do a good job with the remaster for me to buy it.

Never got around to finish the first one, stopped at that training tower. Finish and enjoy the second one. Never play the third.

Also Flower Pope

The only JRPG I ever finished. Can't wait.

Did anyone pick this up yet? Any thoughts out there? I'm interested in getting it and probably will buy sight unseen, but curious how people are finding the port.

I love the Dreamcast but this game slipped past me. What makes it so good? Is the new PC port an ideal version? Did I miss out on a classic or cult favorite?

@shozo: I rented it a few times for PS2 way back when, and I loved the hell out of it. The combat system is so much fun, and that's still true today. I recently purchased a Dreamcast and this was one of the games I bought with it. It's still incredible I think, though it helps to have some kind of appreciation for that type of game I'm sure. There are no audio options as I recall in any of the NA releases? I remember playing both PS2 and Dreamcast with English audio and despising it. So that's a huge difference with me. It changed Type-0 completely, for example.

As far as I know, the reputation of Grandia II is that it is both a classic, and a cult favorite. Some people still prefer the first one, but I've barely played it and the main character wears a dumb hat.

Man I have the PS2 version of this somewhere and never got around to playing it.

@geraltitude: Port's decent. The first hour is hell to get through, though; the tower spiders can one-shot you (it's meant to force you to learn how to use Criticals, but I think they made their damage too high), and there's an unwinnable boss fight after 10 minutes of dialogue that has a nasty habit of glitching out of its script and causing a Game Over. (I solved that one by just Defending the whole fight instead of attacking. Apparently if you don't attack, she doesn't get stuck in a debuff/attack loop.) Once you get your 2nd party member, though, you're gold. (Just watch out in the industry town about 5 hours in; one of the townsfolk there will crash the game if you talk to them.)

I'm hoping they patch out most of these bugs soon.

Despite the game having received a PC release in the past, the port is apparently based on the Dreamcast version. Saves from the Dreamcast version reportedly even work in this one.

Now we just need a re-release of Skies of Arcadia.

@memonk: Nah. Skies of Arcadia was decent, but I think its combat system is too archaic for newcomers.

Although I'd be down for a Skies of Arcadia game with Grandia 2's combat mechanics.

Grandia 2 might not be the best game ever made, but it's certainly one of my favourite games ever made. The amount of nostalgia I have for this thing would suffice for at least a couple of water balloons (You might raise an eyebrow at that allegory but trust me, I could inflict hurt with my sentiment). I recall purchasing it whilst on vacation for an absurdly low price, thinking it had to be a couple of years old to warrant said price tag. Turns out they'd just mislabeled the thing, which my cousin was extremely disappointed by when he visited the same store a few days afterwards.

It's the very first game that ever made me cry. That wouldn't happen again until Snake Eater, which I also bought on a trip now that I think about it.. Huh.

@hassun: that's nuts. We should have a concept page for PC games compatible with console saves if we don't already.

@mikelemmer: Ah cool - thanks for the impressions! Suddenly got real broke so I'm holding off a few months on picking it up and hoping those bugs will be squashed by then. Are you trying hard at all? I played the game briefly on Dreamcast ~8 months ago and my only two complaints were some of the voice acting and some easy battles, as much as I love the combat system.

@geraltitude: Actually, reading over their patch notes, sounds like they already squashed the 2 big bugs I found within the 1st hour of the game. And I didn't try Hard difficulty because this is my first time playing it. The random encounters are often pushovers, but the boss fights are no joke. The 2nd boss fight, which I just completed, had me sweating bullets a couple times.

Boy, does this run like garbage on my laptop. Be warned - it might be a recreation of a Dreamcast game, but it sure does require something better than an integrated Intel graphics card.

@memonk: There was a remake of Skies of Arcadia on the Gamecube, but yes, we need one on the PC.