Grandia

So what's the general consensus of this series? I'm planning on the first one on PSN and from what I can gather so far is that a lot people seem to love the 1st and 2nd while people seem to hate the later installments.

I've tried the 2nd and 3rd ones. The 3rd one I had a hard time getting into (can't remember why atm) but the 2nd has probably one of the best turn-based battle system ever. Story was nice as well (I'm a horrible judge of story however) with voice work being competent (again, horrible judge).

I can safely say that Grandia II is separate enough from Grandia to be enjoyed on its own.

Also the soundtrack for 2 is top notch.

The games are all separate and the first is a fun classic rpg with a great battle system that avoids the excessive angst that was common at the time, the second one puts the angst back in but the story is still great, the third has some flashes of brilliance, but it is clearly unfinished and the best characters leave part way through. 3 also has one of the worst town themes ever, hands down.

Grandia Xtreme is completely focused around the battle system, but the villain is played by an extremely hammy Mark Hamill.

In my perfectly objective opinion, Grandia is the most beautiful RPG there ever was, with some extremely lovable characters and a story that some people will tell you is cliche-ridden but is actually deceptively smart and makes the best out of its characters and their journey together. It's quite clearly aimed at kids, but anyone who thinks it's dumb is dumb and that's a fact. No other RPG I've seen makes as much out of the concept of "adventure" as Grandia, and it shall always keep a special place in my heart.

Loved the shit out of 2. Never finished it, regrettably. The graphics is nice and ages nicely, and the gameplay is more than just turn-based.

edited 24th Apr '13 8:48:44 AM by sunember123

The big problem with Grandia 2 is that it is available on Dreamcast, PC and PS 2 and the PC and PS 2 ports aren't great.

Just to be clear, they're perfectly playable, just buggy.

edited 24th Apr '13 9:16:21 AM by Zendervai

I'd list Grandia among my top five favourite JRPG's. Which makes the quality of the voice acting even more grating.

edited 24th Apr '13 10:28:43 AM by erforce

Grandia II is actually the first RPG I have ever played in my entire life... although the Millennia glitch that apparently requires Ryudo to be level 11 to be avoided really annoyed me. >_>

I really don't see the problem with the voice acting. ._.;

I hope that doesn't throw a bad light on the half-joking "objectivity" of my previous statement. I mean, Grandia was one of the first RPGs I've played, but still...

Grandia 2 was the 2nd best RPG on the DC, behind Skies of course. I loved that game when I was little and the battle system is still my favorite among RP Gs. Millenia rocks, one of my favorite RPG characters ever.

Come to think of it, Grandia II was the first JRPG I played in which I actually facepalmed at some of the things the characters did whereas that didn't happen in the first game. That could be because I was much younger when I player the latter.

Sadly, I've only played Grandia 3. It was aggressively mediocre when it wasn't clearly rushed.

I've only played II, back in the day on PS 2. I got a metric fuckton of enjoyment out of it, but it was really easy. There was a grand total of one battle in the whole game where any of my party members got KO'd besides the one Hopeless Boss Fight.

The eyes...the eyes! Seriously, the Eyes boss battles were the hardest for me, but just because they moved so frigging fast.

About one "bug" in Grandia II on the PC: The problem that some special attacks seemingly freeze the game for a few seconds is not that hard to fix. The problem is that the game waits until the video finishes, and some of them just have a few useless extra seconds. Just look in your game folder for the attack animations and use a video editing tool to remove the last few seconds (don't forget to backup the file). That's what I did, and it worked fine after that.

edited 27th Apr '13 8:19:01 AM by Uchuujinsan

Yeah, the PS 2 bugs mostly come from the fact that the PS 2 is not as powerful as the Dreamcast, and the PC port wasn't very well done. Not a disaster, but not very good.

So what's so awesome about the combat?

Grandia 2 wasn't that easy for me but it was one of the first RP Gs aside from pokemon I actually beat on my own. In fact I had to start all over because I was stuck on 2nd Melfice(well that and the fact my dad erased my save file on purpose >:[). Eye of Valmar wasn't that hard(the eye bats were annoying though), but the tongue was kind of challenging from what I remember. The core of Valmar seemed to take a while...but generally the second half of the game is easier than the first save for the core which was more tedious than anything else. Final boss was weak.

I really liked the battle quotes. Mmm fresh ground hamburger. And wow that move was kind of Nightmare Fuel. The digital video for some of the spells/moves were kind of cheesy looking though.

the 5th paragraph explains it pretty nicely. Note, it's one of the few RPG battle systems that's turned based and actually somewhat fun to watch.

edited 27th Apr '13 12:32:31 PM by Vertigo_High

Difficulty is a funny problem. Grandia (THE ORIGINAL[!]) wasn't hard but had some somewhat challenging parts at points (there was one point where on my first playthrough I swore the game was impossible, so, uh, that doesn't mean much really).

But then the final boss was throwing around first stage spells.

Like, what.

I loved Grandia and Grandia II. I've heard that some people disliked GII but I liked it more than the first one. The story had some pretty great moments and character development.

I still want to get Grandia III.

I liked the battle quotes of Grandia II as well

Mainly the ones for Sky Dragon Slash, Dragon Rise (the first one), Flying Tenseiken, Ryudo's "sting ice" quotes.

And also a quote that I've never heard in-game (I think it was "searing fire cleansing flame" or something like that). Apparently, Ryudo prefers to stay silent when casting fire spells on the PC port, and apparently Roan had two sorts of quotes.

I think the battle system gets overrated (basically the only interesting part is that you can interrupt the enemy if your turn happens to come up at about the right time), but overall it's a decent series. Grandia 3 wasn't too impressive, but the first 2 were solid. Although the first game hasn't aged very well, visually.

To me, they're mostly notable for constantly changing your party around at the whims of the plot. It creates a very different experience than the standard "everyone sticks around forever after a short character arc" that defines a lot of other RPGs. I guess I'd say it gives you the sense that everyone has their own things to do, and that your adventure isn't the same thing as everyone's adventure. There's something about simply saying goodbye to your friends that oddly enough doesn't come up very often in other RPGs yet can make for some pretty engaging scenes.

edited 27th Apr '13 2:47:46 PM by Clarste

Grandia III's battle system is still really good, the graphics are pretty good and the story has an interesting bent for the first disc (it's a jRPG with airplanes, not many of those) and then the second disc is obviously not finished. It's not the best, but it isn't a waste.

Actually in JRP Gs leaving party members is pretty common. Though I guess Grandia is a bit different in how it's not just the last one who leaves.

edited 27th Apr '13 5:40:39 PM by Vertigo_High

I started playing the first game and I'm having a blast despite the slow unnecessary beginning. Seriously, I was wandering around that damn town clueless for an hour before I finally caved in and looked at guide. I wanted to get Grandia 3 but I heard bad things about it, like a terrible plot and no sidequests whatsoever.

edited 27th Apr '13 6:12:21 PM by FFmax