"In the words of the Comic Book Guy : Best... RPG... EVER!"

What can describe the first of the three major RPG's for the Sega Dreamcast? The worst because it was the first? No way! It's two brothers, Skies of Arcadia and Phantasy Star Online, which were supposed to be the best RPG's for the Sega Dreamcast, and people were supposed to leave Grandia II alone for a long time. Lets face it, Phantasy Star was okay, Skies of Arcadia was fun for a bit, but became plain awful, This leaves one game standing, Grandia II.

Basically, Grandia II, in my opinion, is not only the best RPG for the Dreamcast, but the BEST RPG EVER! Honest, I have never came by anything like it. I have played Grandia I, but that doesn't live up to its sequel. Grandia II wins everything on both Grandia I and Skies of Arcadia, Hands down.

The game has a magnificent story, The story of love, friendship, betrayal, courage, surprises and laughs, all mixed in to one. The story starts off with a group of girls on a bridge, talking, then a eagle flies over them, and then over a river and finally a forest. The scene cuts to a mercenary, Geohound called Ryudo on a missing to kill some forest lizards. He gets paid and shouted at before heading to the local town to get his next job. His job is to aid one of the girls on the bridge called Elena to a tower to stop the revival of an evil god which was killed years ago by a good god. Whilst waiting outside of the tower, waiting for Elena to return, Ryudo hears a scream, he goes off to investigate.

Okay, Doesn't sound far too good so far does it? Well, infact the story does get better five hours in to the game, I can guarantee that your jaw will drop is disbelief sometimes, Some of the things is unbelievable. Grandia II makes a difference in story, compared to other RPG games, For example, in most RPG's, the hero or someone close will never express his or her true feelings, though Grandia II makes an exception, but who confesses to who? Good or bad feelings? I completed Grandia II yesterday, and I must admit that the story is absolutely mind blowing, from start to finish.

There is six playable characters in Grandia II. First being a Geohound, who does anything for money, called Ryudo, A Religious Songstress called Elena, who believes in the good god, A Female devil who can't stand Elena, A Young circus boy, Roan. Two more strange characters in the game are : Mareg, A Big, strong man with a heart made out of gold, and a robot girl called Tio, who has no heart at all. All characters have their own strength’s and weakness', as well as personalities. They have individual moves which can perform with weapons or skills, to learn skills you have to power them up, and to earn new skills, A character has to change story wise, Lets say for example if Elena learns something about religion at one point in the game, it may encourage her to learn a brand new move. Clever isn't it?

Still on Story and Characters topic : Grandia II is hilarious, Some of the one-liners the characters use are very funny, so are nicknames, like Millennia keeps calling Mareg a ''Manimal'' because he is half man, half beast, also, Ryudo makes a very important RPG Point, he says ''After all these years, don't you think somebody could of thought of a better name then the Battle between good and evil?''

Okay, I have finished with the story, on to the sound and music. Grandia II has voice acting for most parts of the game, and the voices are brilliant, especially Melfice's and Mareg's voice. The voices are performed by not well known actors, But Ubi Soft should get them back for Grandia Extreme, the next game in the series.

The music adds a lot of atmosphere, especially in dungeons and in boss battles, it inspires the player to play much more of the dungeon, town or whatever, and carry on playing. Some of the music is borrowed from the first game, Grandia, like the battle music from Grandia I is used in Mini Games, and Grandia I's theme tune is played at some point of the game. The sound is top, Identical sound from the first game, Grandia I, this sound is some of the best sound effects ever heard in a game.

The graphics on Grandia II are absolutely gorgeous. Honestly, Their out standing. The characters are well designed, The only perk is that they have no mouth's, kind of like Cloud, Barret and friends in Final Fantasy VII. The environments are brilliant, like cities and dungeons, well detailed.

The cut scenes are down in three ways, The first is normal, real time cut scenes, where characters look normal, talk and do actions, Then there is Japanese Animation cut scenes. Japanese Animation is a cartoon style of cut scene, Like Dragon Ball Z or Tenchi. Finally is FMV cut scenes, something which few Dreamcast games have. These mind blowing scenes abuse Dreamcast's power at polygons, making outstanding cut scenes, sort of like those out of Final Fantasy IX.

According to many hardcore RPG players, Grandia one has the best battle system ever. I don't think that is so, I think it is beaten by an identical version in Grandia 2. Grandia 2's version has a lot more skills and tactical elements you can use. At the bottom of the screen is a line, Yours and enemy’s faces go across this line, racing for the COMMAND letters, this is where you can enter your commands. If you attack an enemy with a critical blow when your enemy is about to attack, you can cancel their move. How's that for a genius idea?

My final word on Grandia II is ''WOW''. Brilliant marks for everything, from graphics to music. The game will last you ages, about 50 hours of gameplay, despite being on one disc. The bosses will take ages to beat, one of the final bosses took me well over an hour to kill.

Grandia II is the best RPG ever in terms of Story, Gameplay and other important element's. All Dreamcast owners must own this game.

BEST.... RPG... EVER!

- Every damn bit

Complaints

- No complaints here

Summary

Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 10/10
Music - 10/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Lifespan - 9/10
Challenge - 6/10
Overall - 10/10

Alternatives : WHAT? If you want anymore RPG's, try Grandia One, or if your desperate, Skies of Arcadia.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/03/01, Updated 11/03/01