Even though the title may be heading into more trendy terrain, Grandia Xtreme promises to hold onto main elements that made the first two so enjoyable.

Xtreme centers around Nortis and Arcada, which have been fighting since history could recall. A recent reprieve in the conflict is cut short when a new power is found eminating from Locca. Right after this discovery, a string of natural disasters torment the land and send a great shift in the elements. Everything's pointing to doomsday or some equivalent, so leave it up to Evann, a master of elemental forces to go up against the impossible, stop impending doom, and find out what exactly is going down in Locca. Easy, right?

Thankfully we'll see a return of the most invigorating battle system to date in a RPG. Plainly put, fights are brought out in realtime, with pauses coming up only to issue commands to party members. Get proficient enough and characters can land volleys of attacks, keeping the enemy at bay or driving them all the way into oblivion. Essentially, if you've ever played Grandia, or Grandia II, you'll know what to expect here. That's not to say that Xtreme won't be without its own tweaks. Party members can launch simultaneous team-up attacks and even combine magic spells to teach new forms of pain to the enemy. Additionally, the traditional timeline feature that was prevalent in the first two Grandia games is now replaced with a clock-like gauge which serves the same function. From our hands-on impressions during E3, the fighting system stays as true to perfection as ever, although many of the team-up attacks remain very elusive, which should give this game a little more replay value for those who want to find all of these special attacks themselves. You could also set your AI players to different behavioural settings, such as passive or aggressive, which should make the battle system even deeper than before.

Ah, but the newest installment of Grandia offers up more that just a solid fighting system; it comes chock-full of pleasant graphical splendor. Though the style doesn't feel far removed from Grandia II, X does offer environments, characters, effects, and all that pizzaz that pushes the Playstation 2 beyond what most games accomplish. Not to mention that the camera has been tweaked to follow closely to Evann as opposed to the akward overhead view that the older Grandia games employed. Though the game is still far from release it's graphical package is looking very impressive.

What's even more impressive is the lengths that Enix is going for audio. Though it's not known who's on the final roster, the voice actors are said to be a great wealth of talent. We'll just have to wait and see...er, hear what the final result turns out to be.

As of E3, Grandia Xtreme was looking in good shape and top form. Between now and September though, a lot of things could happen. Keep you eyes open for more news and updates!

··· Hero