(8.4/10) Grandia 2 Gets a Mainstream Re-Release
Grandia was originally released on the Sega Saturn in Japan and met with critical acclaim. Somehow the title was constantly overlooked for release in the US, which only helped to fuel the fire that RPG fans had to play it. When it finally reached our shores, it appeared only on the PSX. Grandia II would not meet the same fate. Originally released on the Dreamcast in Japan, the much-anticipated sequel reached the US Dreamcast in a timely fashion. Fast forward to the present. Now, those unfortunate souls who never owned a Dreamcast have a chance to play Grandia II on the PS2. A chance you surely won't want to pass up. Grandia II puts you into the role of a traveling geohound named Ryudo. Along with his feathered friend Skye, they turn another ordinary job into an amazing adventure. Along the way Ryudo and Skye will meet a number of interesting people, a few of which will even join your party for one reason or another. They travel towards their goal without a traditional world map. When leaving an adventure area (dungeon), one has to simply click on their next destination. Backtracking for leveling up purposes is usually allowed.
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What it lacks in a world exploration, it more than makes up for it with diverse towns and some of the best battle grounds around. While it can be easy to get lost with the zoomed in camera view, you are given significant aids. The camera can be rotated 360 degrees in the 3D environments, which will help you find hidden treasures and paths. There is also a map that shows you the current area surrounding you and the general direction of your goal. The single greatest feature of these areas though is the ability to see your enemies on the screen. Much like Chrono Trigger and the original Grandia before it, Grandia II lets you avoid enemies if you aren't looking for a fight or even gain the advantage by running into them from behind. Once you are engaged in battle, Grandia II treats you to perhaps one of the finest RPG battle systems of all time. First of all, instead of being in two lines facing off against each other, the hero and enemy parties are free to roam the whole of the battle screen. Attacking characters run to the enemy to attack them and stay in the general area after they are done instead of running back to where you gave the command. Commands can be given to other characters, or enemies may move before the first has completed the action, so you'll end up watching what looks like a real fracas. |
Controls are still turn based, but a lot of emphasis is placed on the timing of actions. At the bottom of the battle screen lies a gauge depicting the status of each participant. Each protagonist and enemy has an icon that moves across the gauge from left to right at speeds indicated by their agility stats. When it's about 3/4 of the way to the end, action on screen pauses and prompts the user for input. Actions you choose at this point are carried out when the icon finally reaches the end of the gauge. Some actions finish faster than others, and some big spells can leave you vulnerable for considerable time. See, this lends itself to some well thought out strategy because hitting or being hit causes the character or monster to slide back a variable amount on the gauge. Usually, the bigger the attack, the longer it takes to complete the last quarter of the gauge and the farther the pushback on the target. Better yet, if you manage to time it right, a critical hit, spell, or magic can cancel a target's move altogether if there are in the last quarter of the gauge when they're hit. In some one-on-one situations, or situations where you have the enemy outnumbered, it is entirely possible to inflict numerous hits or even kill them before they can even take one action. Leveling up of a character's statistics is handled in traditional fashion. You gain experience fighting monsters which helps to attain new levels which raises your stats. Gaining and upgrading spells and skills, though, is a much deeper task. You earn points from battles that can be spent like money on your spells and skills. On top of buying new skills and spells, you can also pay to level them up. This increases their effectiveness and shortens the casting time. Spells are held within an egg, which is attached to a character. There are multiple eggs to find and each has a slightly different set of spells to learn and master. Remove the egg and all spells are lost until you equip a new one. It would have been nice if learned spells stuck with the character. The method of purchasing your spells and skills is interesting and rewards you for fighting battles, but I do miss the old way of learning abilities from the original Grandia. Maybe we'll get a mix of both in the third iteration. |
Unfortunately for the PS2 port of Grandia II, it is way late to the table, and the graphics took a punch in the teeth in the translation. Right from the opening in-game scene I knew something wasn't right with the visuals. For it's time, Grandia II on Dreamcast was one of the best-looking titles around, but on the PS2 it's looks are both dated and blurry. One of the things I remember on the DC was the sharpness of the textures, but when it landed on the PS2 it looked more like a high polygon N64 game. And because of the dated graphics engine, there just aren't enough polys to make up for it. Voices are used for a lot of the story's dialog, and while it's hard to take it seriously, I do enjoy the cartoon-like voices. I swear I've heard Ryudo's voice on a Saturday morning cartoon somewhere before. The music is bright is happy times and dark during intense moments. It's nothing to pop in your CD player, but I think it compliments the game situations fairly well. Grandia II still stands out as a fantastic RPG. I'm sure there are still some unlucky folks who haven't had a chance to play it yet, and perhaps the release on the PS2 was all they were waiting for. Ubi Soft's three-for-two RPG give away (buy two of Legend of Alon D'ar, Jade Cocoon 2, Grandia II get one free) makes it even harder to pass up. If you've played through it on the Dreamcast, you've played the better version, but if you only own a PS2, you would be wise to add this to you collection.
10/22/08 
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