History VideoGame / Growlanser

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Hans in ''The Sense of Justice''. Story-wise, he's a textbook example of a PluckyComicRelief character. Gameplay-wise, he's arguably your most effective party member. In the last half of the game, with the right gems equipped, Hans is able to hit any enemy from anywhere on the battlefield and will often kill multiple enemies before the rest of the party can reach them. Hugh from ''Dual Darkness'' has teleport magic that allow him to move himself or another character to any part of the field, plus he have the lowest ATW and Magic casting time allowing him to attack more times and cast magics more often.
** Christopher in ''Wayfarer of Time'' looks like a playboy that hasn't picked up a sword in years and absolutely inferior to his badass little brother... [[spoiler:In reality he is quite sick and unable to cope up with the usual strain someone like Alfonse gets, but the great respect he gets from him should have given enough hints. later he pulls moves like stopping ''hundreds'' of soldiers while you're busy fighting with Ludwig, and depending on the circunstances, even completely routing them without many injuries, thanks to Silverneil and Alfonse.]] he's also the second strongest enemy in the arena, behind Vester.

* DevilInPlainSight: [[spoiler: Wolfgang]] in ''The Sense of Justice''. The game doesn't even try to hide this from the player, but it takes significantly longer for Wein and company to figure out that the gruff-voiced, scarred mercenary is up to no good.

* TeamPet: In ''Wayfarer of Time'' the Familiar who travels with the party looks like a fairy and gets treated in this manner. [[spoiler:If you pick D-MD, everyone, especially Cevanille, is ''heartbroken'' when she dies, and Remus & Frayne will bust their butts to make a "new" one.]]
* TheArcher: Charlone in ''The Sense of Justice''. Yayoi in ''Dual Darkness''. Remus in ''Wayfarer of Time''.

* MadScientist: Ariost of ''Growlanser 1'' is a heroic version. He's a very kind man and he isn't ''sinister'' at all, 010but his experiments still tend toward the somewhat ridiculous and their occasional backfire doesn't faze him at all. What, the flight pack is [[spoiler:emitting '''horrific demonic hellwings''']]? He just had the circuitry a bit wrong, that's all~

** In the original Japanese dubbing, [[spoiler:Ludwig's]] voice reeks of villainy. At first he may even look good in the eyes of the party (and maybe even the player) but by the end of the game some of the nastier actions in the game will be attributed to him.

* MadScientist: Ariost of ''Growlanser 1'' is a heroic version. He's a very kind man and he isn't ''sinister'' at all, but his experiments still tend toward the somewhat ridiculous and their occasional backfire doesn't faze him at all. What, the flight pack is [[spoiler:emitting '''horrific demonic hellwings''']]? He just had the circuitry a bit wrong, that's all~

* 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), 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.

* {{BFS}}: Crevanille, the protagonist of Wayfarer of Time, wields a long katana-like blade. Hien and Silverneil also have fairly impressive blades. (Silverneil's may be thin, but they're as long as her ''torso and head combined'', and she isn't short. And she has two of them!) Julian [[spoiler:AKA Julia Douglas]] and Wallace also use very large swords; Wallace's is even more impressive as he ''[[AwesomeButImpractical throws]]'' it.

* {{BFS}}: Crevanille, the protagonist of Wayfarer of Time, wields a long katana-like blade. Hien and Silverneil also have fairly impressive blades. (Silverneil's may be thin, but they're as long as her ''torso and head combined'', and she isn't short. And she has two of them!)

** Ernest Lyell in original ''Growlanser'' and ''Sense of Justice', & Magnus in ''Wayfarer of Time'' dual-wield swords.

** Magnus in ''Wayfarer of Time'' dual-wields swords.

** MarthDebutedInSmashBros: The only time English-speaking gamers have gotten to play with Carmaine Fallsmyer on the team was in ''Sense of Justice''... and '''''ChaosWars'''''. The former is frustrating. The latter is galling.

The series is the creation of Career Soft, with publishing duties handled by {{Atlus}} Co. in Japan. WorkingDesigns published ''Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice'' and ''Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness'' in North America together in a package called Growlanser: Generations.[[hottip:*: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.]] 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.

Had a {{CrossOver}} with several other games in ''ChaosWars''.

* InevitableTournament: In the ''Growlanser'' series the best way to get a stronger party is at Colisseums. You can participate to earn the best rings and ultimate weapons.

** This even comes through in his weapon selection to some degree. Most other characters get by with swords, staves and the like. Ariost can use swords, sure, but his "ranged weapon" option? ''Growshu-powered grenades''.

** Also, attentive reading of "Growlanser" 1 suggests that the ''title of the franchise'' may have fallen victim to this. Given how it looks and the way it is described, the グローシュ element is probably meant to be called ''"Glowshe"'', and the related people ''Glocians'' - meaning the title is probably meant to be ''G'''l'''owlanser'', not ''G'''r'''owlanser''. Since [=GL1=] never left Japan, the mistake wasn't caught early and then the name stuck.

* LadyOfWar: Diana Silverneil from ''Wayfarer of Time''. Sherris from ''Heritage of War''. [[spoiler:Julia Douglas from GL1 is, of course, the franchise ur-example, even though she takes a little while to accept she can ''be'' such.]]

** Some of the romanizations in Japanese sources for some of the character names in GL1 tend to be a little... off, compared to what the developers were clearly going for. "Ruise" for Louise and "Richar'''t'''" for Richard stick out the most obviously.

* ActionGirl: Many throughout the series. Though all of the series' protagonists are male, most of them are closely associated with an ActionGirl right from the beginning. Julia Douglas from the first ''Growlanser'' is a notable example, being the first female to earn the prestigious "Imperial Knight" title that both Wein and Charlone aspire to in ''The Sense of Justice''.

* LadyOfWar: Diana Silverneil from ''Wayfarer of Time''. Sherris from ''Heritage of War''.

* MightyGlacier: Hien and Crevanille from ''Wayfarer of Time''.

* MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: In Growlanser II there are some party members that are mutually exclusive. If Arieta doesn't join your party then her fox guardian Sereb will join instead. If you fail to recruit Lyell then a soldier called Brett join the party.

* OurFairiesAreDifferent: In Growlanser I, III, IV, V, and VI, the protagonist travels with a fairy like familiar.

** Some missions in ''Wayfarer of Time'' are set-up this way due to plot reasons.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: So many hair colors. Can run the gamut from the perfectly plausible (Eliza's raven-black hair) to the exotic (Frayne's bluish-silver) to the comparatively bizarre (Silverneil's ''electric pink'').

* CostumePorn: Many of the outfits are quite elaborate.

The core gameplay straddles the line between a "normal" RPG and a StrategyRPG - you wander around with a party consisting of typically four people (though sometimes you'll have an NPC in a "fifth 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 [[BaldursGate Baldur's Gate]]".

* SavePoint: In Growlanser 1 you can save in almost anywhere outside of battle. In II you can save at the world map and during missions. In Growlanser III, IV, V, and VI you can save at the inns and in your Room in towns. In dungeons and the World Map you save only at designated save points.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: A severe example in the US version of Wayfarer of Time on the PSP, probably done to rectify the Engrish that went into the alternative OP (seen by pressing O at the title screen). Most of the changes are sensible, such as Pamella -> Pamela, Eraiza -> Eliza and Roomice -> Lumis. Others such as Crevaniel -> Crevanille or Frane -> Frayne are more contentious, though even Frayne is more consistent with the original Japanese pronunciation.

The core gameplay straddles the line between a "normal" RPG and a StrategyRPG - you wander around with a party consisting of typically four people (though sometimes you'll have an NPC in a "fifth 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]]'' 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 [[BaldursGate Baldur's Gate]]".

* PinataEnemy: The Golden Blobs and Soul enemies give great money and experience, despite being easy to kill.

''Growlanser'' (グローランサー ''Gurōransā'') is a series of {{RolePlayingGame}}s with installments on the {{PlayStation}}, {{PlayStation 2}}, and {{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.