Grandia

"in-depth review, good game despite few technical shortcomings"

What can I say. This game has garnered very good reviews from almost all major game publications, and has a large following of fanatics. I had high expectations when I started playing this game because of them, and I'd say it would completely live up to the hype if not for some .. annoyances. This review focuses on the game shortcomings (read other reviews for the good points, although I mention the positives here also if I think that they're worth elaborating on, and unique enough compared to other RPG's).

Gameplay (8/10)
-Game Mechanic (8/10)
-Replayability (3/10)
Presentation (8/10)
-Visual (8/10)
-Music (7/10)
-Sound (8/10)
Story (6/10)
-Script (5/10)
-Characters (7/10)

These are the components of a good RPg, and I will go through them point by point. Keep in mind these are -my- views after playing the game extensively for 10 or so days (68 hours recorded gametime)... Do read [Game Mechanics] and [Script] for two of my biggest disappointments of this game (Long time to read savegames, and some questionable translations).
Welp, here goes...


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>> Gameplay (7/10)
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The length of the game I'd say is -just- about right, unfortunately they're only comprised of [T]owns, [D]ungeons and [W]orld map. After awhile, it gets rather monotonous doing TDW-TDW-TDW, with a few cutscenes inserted here and there to pace the story... How about some minigames or subquests ?
Difficulty is set for novice; there is over abundance of items (healthmana recovery, character statistic items, whatnot) and on top of that, you get unlimited healthmana recovery at all the savepoints. The puzzles you encounter range from easy to average (find switch, moving platforms, etc), and LOTS of pathfinding from two dozens or so dungeons that you have to plow through to finish the game.
It only gets boring if you try to level up your characters to ungodly levels (which you dont need to finish the game) or if you play for 10+ hours continualy (I did that more than a few times, just because I was impatient and wanted to advance the storyline). If you play it at a more 'normal' pace (say... 3 hours a day?) it should be enjoyable with very little boredom, if any.

Game mechanics (8/10)
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:more technical aspects of the game discussed here.

[Encounters] In this game you can see the enemies wandering about (you can opt to avoid them) and when initiating battles, the angle which you approach the enemy determines what kind of battles you'll encounter. ie : If you run straight to enemies = you'll get an early start on the time (action) bar, and on the flipside, if they attack you from behind (say you're idling and the monster comes to you from behind) you'll start the battle with empty time bar. Oh yeah, you can also see what kind of enemies they are and if there are more than one monster to be encountered, you'll see them travel in packs. I like this aspect of the game very much, you never feel like you're a blind ape running around frozen tundras, waiting for @$!# to jump your back.

[Battles] Another nice feature of the game :) I'm a control freak and I'd love to be able to see and anticipate whats going to happen. They let you do exactly that in battles.
During battles - you can see a time bar on the bottom of the screen :

[0]-------------------------[100]

Some icons (representing your characters, and enemies) move from left to right at different speed, depending on their speed rating and any spells (haste, etc) affecting them. Actions are executed when the icon gets to [100], and theres always a chance you get interrupted during the wait (either you pause for a few second, or get reset back to [0].

Disappointments :

a). control : you're limited strictly to 8-directions of movement for the character (it would be nice if they use the analog stick for finer control ... like FF8). You CAN use the analog stick, but the only advantage to using it is that it lets you walk and run without holding any extra button (by tilting the stick slightly for Walk, or all the way for Run), rather than holding a button [O] if you want to Run with the directional pad.
I also like to use ASCII's GRiP (one handed controller for rpgstrategy games) to play RPGs, unfortunately it is more bothersome to play Grandia with it than a regular controller : use L1-L2 to change view, directional to run, hold extra button to run, and actiontalk button - thus you need two hands to navigate the dungeons smoothly.

b). savegame : ARGGGHH !! *calms down a little* okay, you can only save 5 games per memory card, I ended up using 25 cards (I have a 20 pages memory card and some regular ones, all backed up to DexDrive) because I like to save often in case of backtracking, or if I'd want to relive a specific moment of the game for some reason :p .... And .. everytime you want to load OR save a game, it needs to read your previous save on that card ONE-BY-ONE (!!). Takes about 3 seconds per save, so with a full memory card (5 saves) you'll have to wait 15 seconds just to view the memory card (and verify its the one you want to save to). In comparison, Final Fantasy series (anthology, vii, viii) can load all 15 savegames with just a single memory card access (3 seconds) and shows the same information (which CD, gametime, characters in party, even custom background texture). I suppose this was either crappy programming (not likely) or just lazy porting job from old Sega Saturn's code (along with the 'buggy' translations).

c). graphics : there were some noticable slowdowns in dungeons, when the area is just way too big for psx small memory buffer (compared to saturn) to handle ... how annoying was it ? for me, it wasnt THAT annoying (they lasted for at most 4 seconds, and most of the time they occured, i was running my party on straight line with no visible enemies) ... am I blind to graphic glitches ? No, I have a p3-550 with ge-force, and I'd like to think I can appreciate good visuals within limitations of the system where its being viewed on.


Replayability (3/10)
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:No subquests, no secret characters, no minigames, completely linear plot.
There are a few optional dungeons where you can get few extra items, and worth doing only if you like the battle system (I like it just fine, but I dont like it enough to do it continuously for 10+ hours).
But really, its rather pointless to do the optional dungeons when I could beat the game fairly easy at level 34 (out of 100?) not using any items from the optional dungeons (most of the -best- weaponsarmors are obtained from the final dungeon anyway).
The average time to finish the game is 30-40 hours, I spent 68 hours to explore the dungeons thoroughly and level up some magic skills -but- not level up the characters. I'd say what I did was not worth it... rather than spend plenty time to level up and have an easy final battles I'd rather to have a challenging and memorable final battle.

Rent this game ? if you think you can spend about 40 hours during the rent, by all means. (Then pick up a used copy whe it gets cheap, if you like the storycharacters for replay .. erm... say in 2-3 years for nostalgic purposes :p)


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Presentation (8/10)
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Visual (8/10)
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Yummy :) I really like the visuals from this game (just squint a little when it sometime get too pixelated, and concentrate on the scenery's aesthetic values). I keep thinking how cool this game must've been regarded when it first came out on Saturn few years back. The dungeons, which about 80% of this game is comprised of, vary greatly on their appearance and feel. (slight spoiler here) which range from hills, excavation sites, futuristic mazes, forests, high tech ships, etc.
There are quite a few clever puzzles (none too hard), and also plenty of 3D animated eye candies along the way. The towns are also nice, they range from the bustling metal city where you start: Palm (Parma is a bad translation job? most think so), to tropical towns, desert oasis, a remote forest village, etc ..

The dialogs (all major characters, even some townspeople) are accompanied by a mugshot of the speaker :) These are awesome since they can convey the subtle (well, at times) emotion of the characters, wether they say things in jest, shyly, etc. I've read somewhere that main character has more than 30 (!!) mugshots.. I suppose thats also the reason that they cant easily change the looks of the characters with armor upgrades (the mugshot shows part of the chest, to headgear, they'll need to redo all for every different outfit).
Oh by the way, these are much more detailed than the characters you see running around on screen.

Technically, the graphic (in-game and movies) are not as advanced as FF8 (or even arguably FF7) - think of Grandia as a fairly simple 3D world with colorful and pretty anime textures pasted everywhere.

Any disappointment ? Yes, the characters are low resolution 2D sprites (rather pixelated), which shows no variation in their clothing (save weapon types). There arent any in-between animations when the characters turn, so it does appear crude at when they change direction when walkingrunning. Hmm.. there were also occasional slowdowns (too many objects + preloading the scene ? im not sure) but they didnt annoy me too much cause it didnt happen during important events (battles, tricky areas, etc).

Music (8/10)
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The music range from mediocre to good, setting the right atmosphere for the many types of dungeons and town. Grandia's music never really take center stage througout the game, I suppose thats what background musics supposed to do.. but then again, I do enjoy good tunes that intertwine well with the story (lunar, ff3, ff7, ff8..).
AlthoughI love Mr. Iwadare's work (Lunar), but to me, none of the songs in Grandia is as catchy and memorable as the ones from Lunar...
Oh yeah, theres also annoying music cut-offs througout the game, whereas on other games they fade inout the music .. I've never really realized that 'feature' from other RPG's until I notice it missing from Grandia, and it does ruin the atmosphere.

Sound (8/10)
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I dont think theres much to be said on this department. The sound effects are mediocre... serves the purpose, but neither bad nor memorable. The voiceovers, you'll be glad that there are quite a few of these in-game, but wish that they're of better quality (better actors, I mean).
note : there were occasional extended pauses (2 seconds max, but unnatural) inbetween sentences. Depending on your sensitivity, this may annoy you :p (as it did to me)

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Story (7/10)
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The story is pretty simple and I'd much prefer one with more unexpected twists and mystery to it. But for most part of the game (65%) it paced me well enough to keep playing and find out whats more to learn of the secrets Justin wishes to pursue (yeah, that secret civilization thing..). [SPOiLER] There is a very predictable pattern when you get to a town : there arent any subquests, when you go to the chiefmayorelder in the town, hesheit will give you a quest that you'll need to fulfill before hesheit can help you further your main quest. After you do their bidding, you'll be granted access to X dungeon, and upon finishing it, you'll encounter another town, and restart the cycle. Of course there are bits and pieces of movies and it may not play as boring as I made it sound (there are some unexpected encounters with the bad guys, and x person got kidnapped, yadda yadda) ...

Script (5/10)
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Hmm, the story is pretty good, characters are awesome.. but some of the dialogs were done rather poorly (imho) especially Justin, the main character. Maybe the translation team just did too many direct-translations afraid of changing the storyline too much (unlike Working Designs), that some dialogs sound out of context and there may even be emotion shifts ... Justin seems overtly obnoxious at times that I wonder how the heck did he get THIS far in game and still loved by all the other characters :P
He boasts far too often about himself wanting to be a 'full-fledged adventurer' and joining 'The Adventurers Society' (i think those sound super silly), that at about 5 hours into the game, I've stopped caring about what the little guy wants, heh.
I'm not sure of the target audience, sounds like they're aiming for the 12-18 range.

Characters (8/10)
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The game showcases some of the most vibrant and colorful cast of characters worthy of their own anime show :) Too bad we're only offered a small glimpse into their lives, only enough to know and understand their roles in this short tale.. no doubt you'll be left wanting more of them after you see the end credit roll (and the traditional after-credit-outro).
They've released Grandia : Digital Museum for Saturn in Japan, which includes lots of mini-games, story mode, and plenty other nifty extras.. unfortunately, we're not getting it on PSX ;(

.. surprisingly, even with the below-par translation and bad voiceovers, the characters are still lovable.. and yes, I envy those who get to enjoy the Japanese Grandia with a more pure (to the writer's intent) script, famous voice actors =P



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Summary (8/10)
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So ah.. the original Grandia on Saturn came out in 1997, what we have here is pretty much a straight port, translated, with occasional graphical slowdowns and bad scaling, and nothing else changed (they even stuck with the inferior saving scheme ;(
Albeit all the technical shortcomings, I feel that the characters, story, clever dungeons and artwork .. oh, and the battleencounter system, make this game to be a fair contender of [name_a_kickass_rpg_of_your_choice_here]...

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/24/00, Updated 01/24/00