History VideoGame / Growlanser

''Growlanser'' (グローランサー ''Gurōransā'') is a series of RolePlayingGames with installments on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable PSP]]. The first three games in the series are set in a world that is being taken over by an ancient evil, with the latter three branching off into their own continuities.

* BleachedUnderpants: Similiar to ''VideoGame/{{Langrisser}}'', if you want to see one of the ladies from this game naked, look up Satoshi Urushihara's other works - there's probably a character that looks just like her somewhere.

* {{Bishonen}}: All of the games protagonists, and many of it's other male characters.

* CloningBlues: All over Growlanser I [[spoiler: Carmaine is a clone of Belgar, Xenos and Karene's father, and Richard is a clone of Eliotte.]]

The series was the creation of Career Soft, with publishing duties handled by Creator/{{Atlus}} Co. in Japan; Atlus eventually acquired Career Soft outright, and many of the staff went on to, tellingly, work on ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' as well as the ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' games. Creator/WorkingDesigns published ''Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice'' and ''Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness'' in North America together in a package called ''Growlanser: Generations''.[[note]]Of note is the fact that WD initially wanted to sell the games ''separately'' but was strongarmed by Sony America into selling them as one unit; the delays in packaging them together, along with the massively reduced revenue-per-unit, is blamed for significantly contributing to WD's demise.[[/note]] ''Growlanser V: Generations'' was published in North America under the name ''Growlanser: Heritage of War'' by Atlus USA. ''Growlanser IV: Over reloaded'', a PSP remake of ''Growlanser IV'', was released by Atlus USA under the title ''Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time'' on July 31, 2012. All titles feature game art by Satoshi Urushihara.

The series was the creation of Career Soft, with publishing duties handled by Creator/{{Atlus}} Co. in Japan; Atlus eventually acquired Career Soft outright, and many of the staff went on to, tellingly, work on ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' as well as the ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' games. Creator/WorkingDesigns published ''Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice'' and ''Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness'' in North America together in a package called Growlanser: Generations.[[note]]Of note is the fact that WD initially wanted to sell the games ''separately'' but was strongarmed by Sony America into selling them as one unit; the delays in packaging them together, along with the massively reduced revenue-per-unit, is blamed for significantly contributing to WD's demise.[[/note]] ''Growlanser V: Generations'' was published in North America under the name ''Growlanser: Heritage of War'' by Atlus USA. ''Growlanser IV: Over reloaded'', a PSP remake of ''Growlanser IV'', was released by Atlus USA under the title ''Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time'' on July 31, 2012. All titles feature game art by Satoshi Urushihara.

* IllGirl: In Growlanser II, Charlone's [[GenderFlip little brother]] fills the role. Also, Michelle in Growlanser III.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: And HOW!

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: So many hair colors. Can run the gamut from the perfectly plausible (Eliza's raven-black hair or Misha's dark red) to the exotic (Frayne's bluish-silver or Charlone's ''platinum'' blonde) to the comparatively bizarre (Louise and Silverneil's ''electric pink'').

!Provides Examples of:

The core gameplay straddles the line between a "normal" RPG and a StrategyRPG - you wander around with a party consisting of typically four to five people (though sometimes you'll have an NPC in a "bonus slot"), go through dungeons, fight monsters and the like. The first big difference comes in with the combat - combat is handled in real-time, with menu-based commands pausing the action for a moment while you issue new orders to your teammates. There is a certain amount of delay after performing an action, or before casting a spell, represented by a bar beneath the party portraits. The second is in the "set pieces" - rather than just a bunch of boss fights, many of the plot-important combats are large, swirling melees with objectives and even extra allied units, similar to what you find in a strategy RPG... but you still only have direct control over your party. You can ''[[StatusBuff buff]] and assist'' your allies, but not command them. With its visuals consisting of high-res pre-rendered overhead maps combined with sprites and anime-style FMV, some have summed it up as "Japan's answer to ''Franchise/BaldursGate''".

** [[spoiler:Subverted. The angels only wanted the best for humanity, killing the summoners as they appeared, in the end, one of them tried to explain the situation, just getting captured and becoming a guinea pig to create a weapon to kill the other. In the end, Akyel saw no other way than completely destroying all magical technology, to ensure that summoning wouldn't reappear.]]

** Some missions in both the original ''Growlanser'' and in ''Wayfarer of Time'' are set up this way due to plot reasons. [[spoiler:In ''[=GL1=]'', there's a few spots in which Louise is put in mortal peril... and if Louise does die, the player immediately reverts to being Gevel's puppet.]]

** Some missions in both the original ''Growlanser'' and in ''Wayfarer of Time'' are set up this way due to plot reasons.

* Revision: The Modified Routes in Growlanser I and IV are a mix between this and a Retcon, since the debug room will call the modified routes "True route" and the original routes will maintain, at least for a while, the new characters, but without changes to the core plot.

* BleachedUnderpants: Similiar to ''{{Langrisser}}'', if you want to see one of the ladies from this game naked, look up Satoshi Urushihara's other works - there's probably a character that looks just like her somewhere.

Had a {{CrossOver}} with several other games in ''VideoGame/ChaosWars''. Is also the spiritual successor to {{Langrisser}}.

The series was the creation of Career Soft, with publishing duties handled by Creator/{{Atlus}} Co. in Japan; Atlus eventually acquired Career Soft outright, and many of the staff went on to, tellingly, work on ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' as well as the ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' games. WorkingDesigns published ''Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice'' and ''Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness'' in North America together in a package called Growlanser: Generations.[[note]]Of note is the fact that WD initially wanted to sell the games ''separately'' but was strongarmed by Sony America into selling them as one unit; the delays in packaging them together, along with the massively reduced revenue-per-unit, is blamed for significantly contributing to WD's demise.[[/note]] ''Growlanser V: Generations'' was published in North America under the name ''Growlanser: Heritage of War'' by Atlus USA. ''Growlanser IV: Over reloaded'', a PSP remake of ''Growlanser IV'', was released by Atlus USA under the title ''Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time'' on July 31, 2012. All titles feature game art by Satoshi Urushihara.

* AnachronismStew: ''Wayfarer of Time'' can come across like this. The Dulkheim uniforms are very obviously inspired by 20th-century militaries (particularly [[spoiler:Nazi Germany]]), a good deal of the rest of the costuming seems to be at least 19-th-century-ish, and there are some modern touches like the very modern bathrooms in Eliza's villa. There are, however, ''no'' gunpowder weapons, not even cannons (the cart-based flamethrower in the prologue is an explicitly new and terrifying technology, and at one point Frayne[[note]]who remembers the ''technology'' of her time, even if she's forgotten her own history[[/note]] has to explain to a mystified Remus and Eliza, slowly and in very simple language, what a "cannon" even is ''conceptually''), electricity seems to be a known ''concept'' from the ancient ruins but none of the towns or cities seem to use it at all, there are no motor vehicles or rail locomotives (goods transport is handled by [[{{Expy}} "Not-Chocobos"]]), and large-scale factories are, at best, uncommon.

* {{Dojikko}}: Misha, Misha, Misha. Her talent for crashing into people is so prominent that it is how she is introduced in both Growlanser I&II.

The core gameplay straddles the line between a "normal" RPG and a StrategyRPG - you wander around with a party consisting of typically four to five people (though sometimes you'll have an NPC in a "bonus slot"), go through dungeons, fight monsters and the like. The first big difference comes in with the combat - combat is handled in real-time, with menu-based commands pausing the action for a moment while you issue new orders to your teammates. There is a certain amount of delay after performing an action, or before casting a spell, represented by a bar beneath the party portraits. The second is in the "set pieces" - rather than just a bunch of boss fights, many of the plot-important combats are large, swirling melees with objectives and even extra allied units, similar to what you find in a strategy RPG... but you still only have direct control over your party. You can ''[[StatusBuff buff]] and assist'' your allies, but not command them. With its visuals consisting of high-res pre-rendered overhead maps combined with sprites and anime-style FMV, some have summed it up as "Japan's answer to ''VideoGame/BaldursGate''".