Growlanser: Heritage of War

"A great game for the strategy-rpg fan!"

Growlanser: Heritage of War is the fifth game in the Growlanser series, but only the third to be released outside of Japan, the previous two being Growlanser II and III released as Growlanser Generations. Like its predecessors, Growlanser: Heritage of War is a strategy role-playing game where the battles take place in real-time action instead of going to a separate battle screen.

Story: 9/10

The game actually starts off rather different than most traditional rpg's. Instead of introducing you to the main characters right away, you have to play through four different prologues, all of which take place before the main story in order to give you a little background on what is going on. Playing through the prologues not only establishes the story, but also lets you get used to the gameplay in a safe environment. Anyways, the prologues introduce you to the world in Growlanser: HoW, which seems to be a giant island that is tormented by giant monsters called screapers. Screapers live near water and are apt to attack the general populace, so that alone limits the safe places that humans can inhabit on an island. On top of that, the land itself is dying and it is becoming increasingly hard to grow food, which has sparked wars between the different nations on the island. The prologue explores different individual's responses to this environment, in particular a man named Seldous who dreams of achieving peace throughout the continent without using violence as a means.

Without giving away too much, I can tell you that the story in Growlanser: HoW is quite interesting. Besides being just overall engrossing and making you want to figure stuff out, it also explores a lot of questionable ideas such as if it's ok to sacrifice life to save life and so forth. Everyone in the game has their own part to play, and everything comes together brilliantly at the end. Very good stuff here, thank you Growlanser!

Gameplay: 8/10

Being a real-time rpg, Growlanser still features such stable rpg elements such as leveling up and gradually becoming more and more powerful over time, but also forces you to come up with effective strategies as the battle conditions change. There is a pretty standard flow of events in Growlanser. First, you are given a part of the story and plot, than you have to either fight in a plot-driven mission or travel to a location where the next plot-driven mission is located where the cycle repeats itself. Of course, in between you can pursue dozens of additional sidequests as well as fight extra enemy monsters in order to earn greater levels and buy better equipment.

The real-time aspect of Growlanser will absolutely thrill any strategy fan. You have complete control of your character at all times (assuming that they haven't fallen under any debilitating status effect), as you can tell them where and when to move on a map as well as who to attack and when to use their magic or special abilities.

Having played my share of rpg's already, the only real gameplay element that a veteran might need to become acquainted with is the plate system. On the plate screen, you can lay down plates which represent different abilities or magic. Each plate also has an arrow pointing up or down towards a different plate that you set down, so you can create chains of plates that are interconnected to each other. Than you can set which plate you want to start learning on, which will start leveling that plate up as well as any other plate it is currently connected to, up to level five. As you can see it's quite easy to start learning a skill, but if you take the learning flow off of the current plate, its level is halved. Thankfully, you can level up multiple plates of the same skill, though, but you can see that it is important to chain the right plates together to get your desired result. You can gain plates by learning them by wearing specific equipment throughout the game, similar to Final Fantasy 9's ability system.

Being a huge strategy fan, I found the gameplay in Growlanser: HoW to not only be challenging at times, but most of all extremely fun. The conditions for each battle change very often, as do strategies, so it's very important to always stop every now and again to look at the winning conditions. The only downsides here that I can think of is that it can be very hard to know what to do in order to get a “mission complete” ranking (which is a better ranking than a “mission clear”) and that I found the last few fights in the game to be very easy.

Graphics: 7/10

The graphics in Growlanser: HoW are good, but not great. Everything flows smoothly as you play with no hang-ups, which is expected, but there are always a couple of things which will make you curious. For example, when some of the characters wearing a large coat run, their coat appears to be made of brick as it doesn't move whatsoever. And while the background environments and different cities look fine, it is definitely apparent that they tried to shove almost every token rpg environment into the game. An example of that would be the fact that I can run around a fairly small part of the continent and experience a desert, woodlands, tundra, and jungle in a matter of minutes.

Another thing that I wasn't too fond of was the magic and ability animations. While the different abilities often did increased damage or something else, the extra animation was hardly anything to be amazed at. In other words, they could've been a little bit flashier, as a white line just doesn't cut it anymore. The magic spells are a bit better, as they are rather varied, and the stronger spells even stop the gameplay to show a cut-scene of them being cast. This is a double-edged sword, though, because while the cut-scenes are flashy and cool they last too long and essentially pause the game while you view them. Thankfully, they can be skipped, though.

And now the good stuff! The character designs are extremely detailed, and while some of the characters have interesting tastes, the amount of detail put into each costume is impressive. I also extremely enjoyed all of the various cut-scenes in the game, as they were VERY well done. I only wish that there were more of them.

Music/Sound Effects: 8/10

The music in Growlanser: HoW is very well done. Each area's music is very catchy and melodic, which helps to accent the suspenseful and dynamic sounds of battle. The battle music itself isn't very varied, though, which is typical of most rpgs, as there are only 3-4 different musical pieces that you'll hear in any given battle, usually changing from one to another when the conditions change or reinforcement arrive. The sound effects are almost exactly what you would expect, the exception being the vast variety of quotes that your characters will say as they fight. Speaking of the voice acting, did I mention that it was outstanding? You won't get to hear the main character at all, as he fills the role of a silent protagonist, but your allies all have something to say. Not only did I feel that each voice matched their characters quite well, but the sheer amount of voice work in the game in impressive.

Overall, they did a very good job in this category.

Re-playability/Extra's/Etc.: 7/10

While replaying through the game will negate most of the thrills of the compelling story, there is actually more of a reason to play through Growlanser: HoW than a few extra items. A big part of Growlanser is how you interact with your party and the world in general, as you are often given several options to choose from in the game's dialog. While playing through again, you can not only select different options but there are a few options that you can only pick on a second play-through. Also, the amount of items that you can find in the game is immense, almost to the point where you would have to play through a second time just to collect everything. You can also earn different endings in the game depending on which one of your party members you have the highest friendship rating with. Also, when you complete the game for the first time you also unlock artwork, a music player, and a cut-scene player from the menu.

I should also note that in Growlanser: HoW's North American release, you can only buy the game's special edition package as that is the only way it was released. Besides the game, it comes with an artwork book, keychain, two holographic cards, and three button pins.

Overall: 8/10

Overall, a great strategy game that fan's of the genre will most likely enjoy, while others should further research the game before making a decision. I'm sure that the game will become hard to find eventually, as it isn't too popular and not too many copies were made. Obtaining a copy is an even harder choice for the average gamer, as it only comes in the pricier special edition version, but if you are a fan of strategy and rpgs in general the Growlanser series as a whole may be worth your time to look into. Have fun and keep playing!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/08

Game Release: Growlanser: Heritage of War (US, 09/18/07)