Grandia II

"Much Maligned By Some, But One Of My Favorites"

A quick note before I start: I have never played the Dreamcast version of Grandia II and am only reviewing the PS2 version. The PS2 version certainly has faults, but in my opinion this game was a perfect RPG experience. Now that that's out of the way, here goes....

Story: 9/10
The story touches on many elements that are covered in a great deal of RPG's before and since: love, friendship, loss of a family member, etc. There is also a deep exploration of religion which explores the benefits of having faith while still questioning your beliefs as well as the detriments of having blind faith. There are very few main characters for an RPG of this length and the great benefit of this is that each character is explored in great depth. Each member of the party has his or her own distinct background and personality and while everyone is fighting on the same side, not everyone gets along all the time and not everyone is a saint all the time. Having characters that are very multidimensional and human is a great benefit for this game and makes it much easier to get involved in the story because we actually care and also leads to some moments (especially near the end) that become fairly emotional. The dialogue between characters seems formal and stiff at times, especially Roan's dialogue, but there is also some zing to several lines, especially when Ryudo and Millenia are involved.

Gameplay: 9/10
The battle system is a place where this game truly shines, and it provides much more room for strategy and makes the Final Fantasy X battle system look simplistic in comparison. Fighting enemies is not random, and they are walking around the screen for you to see and decide whether you want to fight or try to run. The combat system is best described as semi real time - it stops when it is time for you to decide what each of your characters will do, but once that is decided, enemies and your party will freely roam the battle screen. The use of skill books and eggs for casting spells allows you to customize your characters a great deal. eventually by the end of the game you can give one character about 2000 more hit points if you so choose. Each character also has his or her own special moves that you learn throughout the course of the game by spending points earned in battle. Certain points are used for learning magic while others are also earned that you must divide between improving attributes (increases in hit points or magic points for example) and learning special moves. Deciding how best to divvy up these points adds another element of customization to the game.

Graphics: 7/10
Graphics are certainly not Grandia's strongest suit but they aren't all that bad either. The game is quite colorful and the characters look fairly good although their lack of faces other than eyes is at times weird. The monsters are competently designed, although none are particularly memorable. On the downside, the graphics tend to flicker and the framerate varies wildly at times. The camera allows fairly good access to the entire environment and rotates easily using the shoulder buttons. The effects of several of the special moves are better than anything Final Fantasy has to offer, especially Elena's White Apocalypse and Millenia's Fallen Wings.

Sound/Music: 8/10
The sounds in this game are fairly standard - the music fits the mood most of the time and the sounds effects are average. The voice acting is good for the most part, and I especially liked Millenia although some people may be annoyed by her. Overall there was nothing sound-wise about the game that bothered me, which always leads to a good score.

Challenge: 5/10
The challenge is an area where this game is lacking - an experienced RPG player should be able to beat the game with the party dying at most once. The game is fairly lengthy however, and some dungeons will cause you to backtrack several times in order to find the correct path. Trying to find most every treasure in the dungeons will take some more time and effort, but there are very few treasures that are so well hidden that you will spend much time looking.

Overall: 10/10
Although averaging these scores out would yield something lower than this score, I feel that the sum of the parts in Grandia II really yields what I believe is a perfect example of an RPG. It is rare to find a game such as Grandia II that has memorable characters, an involving story, and an innovative combat system. For this reason I feel the game deserves a 10 and I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys the RPG genre that is willing to be open to games outside the Final Fantasy series.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/06/02, Updated 10/06/02