Grandia II

"I was once creeped out by this game for some reason."

Introduction (Spoiler free as possible)

Okay. I got this game back in the spring of 2003 at gamestop. Once I got this game, I put it in my Dreamcast, and wondered why it didn't work. Turns out after cleaning it, it was a PSX game?!! It was Grandia 1 yet it was the Grandia II case art. I didn't even have a PSX at the time. The next day I took it back to gamestop, and got Grandia II this time. I didn't have enough bus fare to take the bus from a certain point so I had to walk for an hour on a hot day to the other bus stop, and this was after school, sheesh. After I got home, I was so happy playing this interesting game. Later as I got into it, it had a dark atmosphere that was getting to me. It didn't really bug me at first until the whole Tongue of Valmar business. The boss battle theme even disturbed me. It used to remind me of someone having a heat attack. Yeah I know. The level when you went into someone's soul to get the Eye of Valmar was creepy as hell. The music really didn't help at all. The 2nd area just got worst when the background got all disturbing. Eyes, and rivers of blood everywhere. The music even got upbeat *shudders*. After all that, I quickly sold the game since it creeped me out for days. It was like having a evil doll in your house you must get rid of. A few years later (2005) I played this thing again after hearing the soundtrack of this game. The same music that creeped me out, I began to like. I even listen to it over and over again. Sounds strange, and I even wanted to pay this game again. I played again, and beated the game with little trouble. This has somehow became one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Yeah, even after all that I went though in 2003.

Story 9.5/10

2 Gods. Granas the god of Light, and Valmar the God of Darkness fought in a battle that was know as the Battle between Good vs. Evil or something like that. Granas had won the battle, and Valmar has been defeated. Many many years later, Valmar slowly started to revive himself when the seals of his body parts began to break. A judgment day that was predicted is beginning to happen. Sometime later, some sisters of a Granas church decided to go into a tower to stop another seal from breaking. This is when the main character comes in. Ryudo (A Geohound) with his partner Skye (a talking bird) where hired to protect one of the sisters, (The main songstress?) Elena on the way to the tower. From here, the real story begins.

Graphics 9/10

Wonderful. It puts the Dreamcast to work. That is what I have to say. It looks like pure artwork form an colored manga. But what is funny is that the ingame characters looked like dolls because they have no mouth. This seems to be some anime like effect to me. Everything is fluid, and smooth. The dungeons, caves, and buildings where another work of art. The magic effects in this game are wonderful. For example when you do something like Dragon Zap, a surge of electricity turns into a roaring dragon that attacks the monsters that are in the way. I like using burnflame because it looks like a real fire. Just wonderful. Nothing else to say about the Graphics for this game

Sound and Music 9/10 What the hell/10 in 2003

Music in this game is pretty good once I got over that problem I had with this game, and sound effects are cool as well. The voice acting is much much better than Grandia 1 which I played a little bit of a few months ago. I just wish the voice acting matched the portraits of the characters a bit better sometimes. Anyway, I like how there is 5 battle themes. One for normal fights, one when your caught off guard, one for a mid boss, one for a major fight, and one for the final fight. There all good, and match the mood of the situation. There is even in battle voices. For example when Ryudo does his most powerful attack, he sounded like a generic fighter for justice. Even some of the major bosses in the game have in battle voices.

Gameplay 9/10

All I have to say is that Grandia has the best battle system in any RPG I played so far. I am more of an old school RPG fan that likes turned based battles. You know. The background of the field based on the level your on, a few monsters, and menu to choose to attack or block. Anyway you do take turns, but its based on speed, and the actions you choose to do. When you attack, you run up to them, and slash or hit them with a weapon, after that, you run back to a safe spot in the area. You can even slow down a monster by using the critical hit option. This is really good against bosses, and it can be a life saver in some cases. You have to have the right timing though.

Final thoughts

This is a RPG that every Dreamcast owner should try. Just don't get the PS2 version unless you like slowdown in almost every every area of the game. That is all I have to say.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/10/07