Grandia

"With the Light of the Spirit Stone and the wings of the Icarians let us fly!"

The 90's was a big year for gaming. The Playstation, Sega Saturn, the Nintendo 64, The revolutionary 32 and 64 Bit consoles changed the face of gaming forever. Many RPG's were released, and one of the biggest selling games of all time was one. Final Fantasy VII. Said to be the best game to ever be created. Squaresoft hit a record breaker, and much the same was to be expected of Grandia. It was released for the Sega Saturn in Japan and released for the Playstation for America and Europe. Europe did not see the light of this game until 1998-99 I believe, and by then there were much more awaited games, and the hype that Sega had made of this game in some previous 96-97 magazines had now died. The likes of Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VIII & IX had drowned it out. But the day actually came when I found this game in a nearby EB store.

I put the disc in, I switched on my PS One and I heard one of the most appealing feature of this game, it's music. Out of all the RPG's I have played there is none alike to Grandia's Epic and "Feel-Good" Orchestrated music.

The Introduction to the game was part Anime and part 3D. it portrayed the light and darkness. Icarians and Humans and how once they used to live together. It then opened to the main bad guy and the home and beginning of the game.

Evidently it is an Anime styled game, so therefore the Graphics are not going to be appealing, but thats about the worst thing.

The first few hours of the game are slow paced and nothing to do with anything, this can be a turn away for most RPGers. That is why most people who stick with this game will not be let down as later on the story comes into play when exploring temples which in this case is a lot to do with the story and where most good parts of the game lie.

The mapping system is very repetative non the less, ( as a previous reviewer said) all the dungeon maps are almost the same layout, and once you have explored three of four of them the rest are easy walkthroughs.

Grandia's characters are greatly detailed because of the use of voice overs. This was probably the first RPG I had played with voice overs or had seen. There are some favourable characters in the game and most ironically enough leave you after some time, this can be annoying as you have spent some good time building these characters up. It's use of weapon levels and magic levels to gain new spells and supermoves is greatly unique. The other most appealing feature is it's also unique battle system, unlike most RPG's where the battles get a little tedious after some time, Grandia is non alike. It uses a bar, and on the bar is the enimies and characters faces, once the face of either reaches a certain point called the "Command" You enter what you wish to do, depending on the skill or magic you are using depends on the speed the transaction will take, this is called the "Act" once the command reaches the end of this the action will be executed, but a decent view to this is that you can "Cancel" enimies attacks when they are in the Act.

Graphics - 5
Not to be to cruel and not to be favourable. Grandia's Graphics are nothing to be wondered over, they are mediocre for an RPG. The Sprites are badly pixilated up close and the colour schemes are "..." The FMV sequences are not focused on either as it uses run of the mill graphics, This would be the only let down of Grandia.

Story - 8
I couldn't pin down a 9-10 on this as the story wasn't indepth. Justin an adventurer goes out on an "Adventure" to live up to his dad and goes through a perilous quest from saving Feena to saving the world from the Evil Gaia. A great aspect to Grandia was a touch of love between the characters, but other than that, an enjoyable story to keep you attached to the very end.

Sound - 10
The Orchestrated music was indeed a fine touch to this game, from the menu of the game to the very end. Game Arts done a splendid job on this subject.

Duration - 9
Grandia is a rather long lasting game spanned over two discs, roughly about 60+ hours to complete it, but there are some secrets and the leveling system to keep you another 5 or 10 hours.

Replay Value - 7
There wouldn't be much to come back to again, there are no replay additions. I have replayed it several times, but nothing solid to make you want to come back only for the good cut scenes and music.

Final Rating - 9
I can't give Grandia a full 10 as there was some aspects that could be improved on. But other than that a superb game, momentus and epic throughout!

Rent or buy?
Naturally you wouldn't rent an RPG unless you can aford the expense as they are long winded games, but unfortunatly it would be hard to find this game to rent or buy.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/16/04