Grandia Xtreme

"Xtremley unXciting Xperience"

Ah yes, Xtreme. One of those silly little phrases that businessmen think will sell their products better.
Hence we have not Grandia III, for III is boring, but instead we have the hip and cool Grandia Xtreme! Bask in it's.. er.. Xtreme Xcitingness!!
Or not. Actually, it's probably better that they didn't make this game part of the numbered series, as it's style is so different (more common sense here than what Squaresoft had then, har har har).
But enough about titles, on with the review.. the Xtreme review!! *groan*

Story
Xtreme Score: 3/10
Blah blah blah elemental forces blah blah blah disasters blah blah blah only you can save the world by visiting the elemental dungeons blah blah blah.
Nothing new here, this story is not only completely predictable but is told through mind numbingly long and boring cutscenes accompanied by some hilarious acting and rubbish, 2 dimensional characters, along with some of the most predictable antagonists ever, you'll know who's bad long before they tip their hand.

Graphics
Xtreme Score: 7/10
Nice to look at, and very colourful, but I really don't see anything here that couldn't have been done on a Dreamcast years ago, in fact Grandia II looked superior in some parts.
Still, it's good overall, though the character portraits are simplistic and boring.

Sound
Xtreme Score: 6/10
Nice sound effects, though some of the sounds the monsters make as you battle them are annoying, the music is okay, but compared to the previous Grandias it's mediocre.

Playability
Xtreme Score: 5/10
The battle system is gold, it gets all five points here.
The rest of the game however..
Let's be clear here: Dungeon crawlers suck, staying in the same boring town throughout the entire game and exploring large, tedious dungeons over and over again is NOT fun, it's a chore, especially the randomly generated dungeons which are essentially big disjointed corridors with nothing of interest in them.
Even so, dungeon crawlers can be made more interesting, Azure Dreams for example had a grand total of one dungeon, but was more fun due to it's interesting town that you could explore and change. In Xtreme, Locca has to be the most boring place on earth with all of 5 people to talk to and little to do apart from getting ready for battle and participating in an annoying concert with some dancing rats who scream too much.
I never liked the linearity and inability to go back where you've been before in Grandia I & II, but I'd take that over this nonsense.

Lastability
Xtreme Score: 1/10
I suppose if your brain can handle the utter tediousness and pointlessness of exploring big old regular and even more boring randomly generated dungeons then this'll last quite a while.
For people of regular patience however, the ride is over pretty soon. The plot, weak from the start anyway, does not last long, and the bulk of the game is spent in those sleep inducing dungeons.
As for replaying the game from the start.. well, I suppose crazy people (I mean Xtremely crazy people, of course) would consider that. I'm not quite crazy. Yet! Ha ha ha ha!

Overall
Ultimate Fantastic Unlimited Xtremely Xtreme!!! Score: 5/10
An Xtremely average game, not helped by it's silly title which I mock with pleasure.
In the end, I bash it more because it's a dungeon crawler, and any game with Grandia in the title should not be a dungeon crawler! It's battle system is too good for that, in the Xtre.. okay, I'll stop.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/02, Updated 12/28/02