Grandia II

"A little disappointing but still a great game"

I played Grandia on the PSX about half a year ago. I love this game, I like its great battle system, the magic system. So I was looking forward to Grandia II. First I got the PS2-Version. I started playing and had to stop 20 minutes later because I had a headache. The picture flickered so much that I had to stop (I live in Europe and have to play the PAL version, perhaps the NTSC version is better). So I got the game for PC.

Graphics (8/10)
Well, everybody says the graphics are bad but they were good enough for me. Nicely drawn 3D-environments, fast battles, nice cutscenes. Think about that the game was already over one year old when it was converted for the PC!

Sound (7/10)
The sound is nothing I really remember of this game. So I think it was not too good but not too bad as well. Nothing rememberable.

Gameplay (8/10)
In this game you are walking around as Ryudo with some people he meets during the game. You explore towns, woods, mountains and big dungeons. In towns you have to talk to the inhabitants, solve little quests for them. In the dungeons some riddles are waiting for you and - of course - many monsters as well.
Grandia II has the brilliant battle system already well-known of the first part. There is a line in the picture on which the heads of monsters and characters are seen. Once somebody reaches the end of the line it´s his turn. You can attack, use special attacks or magic spells. Of course, difficult spells take more time to be performed than easy ones or simple attacks.
Unfortunately you don´t improve your skills by training them as you did in Grandia 1. You have to use coins you win in battles to do that. This is not that much fun but it works.

Story (8/10)
The story is okay, nothing too originell. You travel form continent to continent and discover areas in order to find special items, you defeat special monsters. But there are some surprising points in the story and - I like Millenia, one of the characters!

Challenge (3/10)
Okay, I have to admit, this game may be a little easy. The usual fights are not that tough, only some of the bosses are challenges. When I got to the end I no longer used special attacks in order to have some good fights.

Rent or buy?
It is not easy to say for this game. Generally it is not good getting through this game too fast (after 20 hours you might be bored by the battle system and the bigger dungeons). If you take your time and play a bit every day you will have a lot of fun with this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/12/02, Updated 10/12/02