Grandia Xtreme

"Dungeon Crawling Done Right"

The plethora of great games coming out recently has made it somewhat difficult to decide what to play. The free time that seems to disappear more and more every year is running too low to support all of the games coming out. So, I went into Grandia hoping for the best and with it putting other games onto the waiting stack. I must say I was a little worried over any game named 'Xtreme', and the reviews coming out for it didn't seem to scream quality. Therefore I was in for a very nice surprise when Grandia Xtreme turned out to be quite a lot of fun and kept me entertained the entire (well mostly) 40 hours that I played it for.

First of all, the story in Grandia Xtreme is immensely ho-hum. Typical Insane Army Commander Guy wants to take over world with Uber-Powerful Ancient Technology while Grumpy Hero Guy and his Band of Followers attempt to stop him. Normally I don't mind this sort of story if it is implemented well. The problem here is that the dialogue and voice acting are amongst the worst I have ever heard (and yes, I played the original Grandia). Dean Cain voices the role of our hero and I have no qualms in saying that the worst high-school actor could have bested him by a long shot. The dialogue is admittedly forced and stale to begin with, but coupled with the voice acting I actually found myself walking away and getting a drink while the on-screen babblers continued their screeching.

Incredibly bad voice acting and lame plot aside, the rest of Grandia Xtreme is quite enjoyable as well as addictive. This game is a tried and true dungeon crawler. You spend 96% of the time in the game delving into dungeons with little more incentive than finding new items. The incredible part of this is that it is actually fun. The dungeons are not too long, not too short, are quite diverse (ranging over the elements) and even contain some nifty (but easy to figure out) puzzles. Overall, I was amazed that the dungeons turned out as nicely as they did. There were a couple random dungeons though to lower the overall standard. I have yet to see the random dungeon thing done in a way that was both fun, and not tiresome (except maybe for Lufia 2's bonus dungeon).

Any game can have excellent dungeons, but it is what you do in those dungeons that really counts. This is where Grandia Xtreme excels. The tried and true Grandia battle engine (read: one of the best) is back and better than ever. The fights put simply, rock. You will find yourself debating whether to hit big with a combo or stall the opponent with a critical. You will curse as you get to the enemy a microsecond too late to stop him and get driven into the ground by its attack. You will stand in awe as you land your first big technique after being power boosted. The incredible battle system is also coupled with an awesome skills/magic system. You will spend hours trying to find new egg combinations and seeing which skills work better with others. All in all, a very solid system.

Of course, we can't get away with not talking about the technical aspects of this game. The graphical quality stands about where Grandia 2's did (the DC version, NOT the wretched PS2 version), which is to say that it is very nice. Cool lighting affects and such brighten up some rooms, and spells look very nice even without the FMV. The character animations are a bit stale however, but not enough to look truly bad. All in all, it is a decent looking game yet nothing really special. Now, there are quite a few people saying that the music is terrible. I completely disagree. The music is great. Despite spending a ridiculous amount of time in a few of the dungeons, the music never really got annoying. It is very well done; I really looked forward to every new piece. Perhaps the people bagging on the music weren't listening to it due to trying to avoid hearing the wretched voice acting (which I can totally forgive them for doing).

All in all, you will enjoy Grandia Xtreme if you go into it expecting no more than it is. It is a dungeon crawler, but a rather fun one at that. A nice little diversion from the deep story games of late, and a welcome addition to my RPG library. Just remember to turn off the sound when anyone starts talking, and keep in mind that Dean Cain as a spunky/cranky RPG hero is bad, mmmkay?

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/02, Updated 10/17/02