The Granstream Saga

"A fairly enjoyable little game..."

The Granstream Saga is a fairly basic RPG that seems to carry itself entirely on its gameplay. It doesn't boast the greatest plot or the deepest characters, and there's also the rather infamous "Ya can't see those peoples' faces!" problem throughout. Still, no aspect of the game is truly terrible and the battle-system is one of the most original for its time.

Walking around is more or less the same as with every other RPG of this era, although the camera is placed in a strange top-down view, where you end up looking at the heads of the characters and the tops of the buildings, that may take some time for you to get used to. I would complain that all of the characters seem to move around like lego dolls, as they wave their arms around by their sides while they walk, for one. Anyway, you buy weapons, armour and healing items in the shops, and talk to townspeople for some rather vague plot information. You also aren't able to freely wander around the overworld, you've just got a list of available locations for you to select from, which does make that game feel a little on the linear side even though it's no more linear than anything else you'd play in the genre.

Onwards with the gameplay; You've only got one hero to control and battles take place in real-time, you've got to duck and dive to avoid attacks that're coming your way. You can strike back against your enemies with your stereotypical sword and defend from their attacks by raising your stereotypical shield. By pressing your whacking button several times in secession, you can inflict a combo attack that deals extra damage to your foes. So it's just a case of swerving around and striking when you get the chance while healing when you're in a bit of trouble, but it's still a very involving system. You've also got the option to use magical attacks from a safe distance, as well. Like any good RPG, The Granstream Saga's got plenty of puzzles for you to solve in the dungeons. Although some of these puzzles are fairly well designed, they're not too tricky to solve, so don't expect Alundra-calibur brain teasers or anything. At times you're often forced to do the most annoying tasks; like pressing the confirm button against the wall for about five minutes to find some crystals, only to end up doing the same thing again when you're finished. Not my idea of fun, that's for sure.

The entire plot of TGS is laid out very early in the game, it's almost totally explained in the opening sequence alone. Four different continents (each one representing a different element of nature) are flying above the planet that they used to be situated on. The continents were forced to retreat into the sky when the rest of the world sunk into the bottom of the ocean. For a while, everything was okay for the people living up in the sky. But for some unknown reason the continents begin sinking back into the ocean again, and it's you to the heroic hero named Eon to put things right. He's joined by some supporting characters, and they visit each continent and stop each one of them from sinking, one by one. Eon has a magical weapon called the scepter that can instantly equip him with his armour and weapons when he is attacked and also preform various little tasks, such as creating duplicates of items that he finds in dungeons. The way that the plot and the gameplay are combined is with the scepter is pretty impressive. Still, the plot isn't wonderful. It lacks any twists throughout the game, but there's one very large and rather surprising twist towards the end of the game... but it does seem like too little far too late, at least that's how I feel.

Eon is a fairly bog-standard hero that doesn't have much of a personality, although he isn't silent. There are a few supporting characters that follow you around who also don't have very involving personalities, but you'll be able to tolerate them for the remainder of the game. These include a talking parrot (my personal favorite character) and a female pirate, so there's a bit of originality there. During certain scenes, the characters have voices attached to them which aren't too shabby. They fit the mouth movements well and add some depth to the somewhat bland and cliche characters.

Graphics aren't the worst I've seen for the system. The character designs are colourful and bright and the backgrounds suit the area that you're in. The town and dungeon maps are both impressive in the way they're laid out, everything that you need in the towns are easy to access, like the church where you can heal yourself and the item shops. One of the major graphical oddities is the fact that you can't see the characters' faces during normal gameplay; There's just a blank space where there should be a face. Still, it's not too much of a problem once you get used to it. TGS boasts special anime cut-scenes during important storyline events, such as a character introduction. These are a nice way to break from the usual visuals and are very well animated, and there are also little portraits that pop up when major characters are speaking, which also look nice. Monster designs are pretty average, as we've got the lazy attitude of giving the same monsters different colours and making them a little more powerful. Aside from the little variation, they're not bad.

The Granstream Saga's music is certainly one of its stronger points. The town themes are excellent, being very soft and gentle sounding. Dungeon themes are a little forgettable, but aren't too bad. The music also switches from the dungeon music to a fast-paced battle theme when you enter combat. There're a couple of weaker tunes that are played every now and then, but there's more good music than there is bad when you look at the game as a whole. Sound effects are used well and don't get too annoying, but you'll generally only really pay attention to your character's sword strikes.

The challenge presented isn't very high, and you should be able to finish the game with few problems. Although some bosses may cause you a bit of bother, once you learn their attack patterns and weak point they're easily defeated, much like in the Legend Of Zelda titles. Unfortunately, TGS is a very short game. If you know what you're doing and you're familiar with this type of game genre, you should be able to finish the game in under ten hours. Being such a short game, there's not much of a point in playing through it more than once. The lack of any real sidequests, mini-games, and the basic plot that isn't going anywhere fast doesn't help the replay value too much, either.

While The Granstream Saga isn't a brilliant game with a great plot while having deep and involving character interaction, but the extremely fun and original battle system should keep you entertained for a couple of days, at the least.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/04