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PC Grandia II Developer: Game Arts | Publisher: Ubi Soft
Rating: B+Reno
Type: RPG Skill Level: Intermediate
Players: 1 Available: Now

When Grandia first appeared on the Sega Saturn some 4 or 5 years ago, it was considered by many to be the "Final Fantasy Killer". With stunning 3D graphics, a light-hearted adventure starring a charming cast that included the likes of Justin and Feena, and quite possibly the greatest battle system ever to grace an RPG, Grandia was met with critical acclaim from both sides of the Pacific. Unfortunately for North American Saturn gamers, the title never saw a release here until a port of the game appeared on the PlayStation, with horrible voice acting and slightly degraded graphics. Needless to say, Game Arts had a terrific game on their hands, and continued the series with the release of Grandia II for the PC. While the game may be a mere port of the PS2 and DC versions of the same name, Game Arts' masterpiece is a much bigger and darker monster than would be expected.

Our adventure begins with the Geohound, Ryudo, and his companion Skye finishing up another routine job for a high paying customer. Ryudo is then summoned by a priest of Granas to protect the songstress Elena while she makes her way to a mysterious tower to perform a special ceremony. Some mysterious events occur in this mysterious tower, along with the appearance of an even more mysterious (and fine looking) woman by the name of Millenia. Ryudo's journey leads him on a seemingly endless journey to protect Elena all the while patching up what was done wrong not only to himself, but his supporting cast as well. You'll come across several characters in the game that will join your party, each coming from a different walk of life. Mareg is a humongous beast-man who spills out deep philosophical rants about life and death (he carries a damn mean axe too), while Elena is your typical upstanding (and uptight) religious figure who believes that her way of doing things is the best course of action.

Coupled with this interesting array of characters is a storyline that in all honesty is rather predictable and strictly by the numbers. The game will take on average 30 hours to complete, and by the time you hit the tenth hour, you will know almost everything that will occur later in the game, how it will happen and why. That's not to say that the story isn't well written; I found the plot to be very compelling and leaving me wanting to play more. This was one of the few instances where the script was scripted so well that the words leapt out of the screen with actual feeling. The excellent voice acting accompanying several key scenes throughout the game helps to further drive the story. You may recognize some of the voices, but we'll leave that by the wayside; there's no point in regurgitating what countless other sites have talked about. On the subject of the quality voice acting, the same could be said for the soundtrack as well. The tracks are well composed, but there's just one problem with the music in Grandia II: It never really goes along with what you see on the screen. Although I try not to give away too much of the storyline, entering a 'cursed' town and hearing extremely happy Japanese-flavored music somehow doesn't seem right to me.

The same cannot be said of the visuals in Grandia II, because it contains some of the best looking graphics I have ever seen in a game. From the Church of Granas to Mirumu Village, every village and dungeon is meticulously detailed down to the last stone. Locales such as the Kingdom of Cyrum contain some complex and impressive architecture that wouldn't have been psossible on PC hardware 3 or 4 years ago. Every detail was taken into mind when creating not only the environments in which Ryudo and company travel in, but with the characters themselves. Ryudo and his companions are modeled excellently, each containing so much detail that it puts almost every current game to shame. Spell effects are also impressive; using CG movies blended in with the real time 3D battlegrounds during combat is something that's never been seen before. While it may look kind of amateurish at first, the more powerful spells that appear later in the game will quickly grow on you. CG movies are also used sparingly to further the storyline, and with the exception of one cut scene featuring a hideous 3D render of Ryudo, they are impressive not only in looks, but in camera placement and artistic flair. Game Arts must really be commended with their work here.

But a game can't just get by on looks alone, right? Fear not, for Game Arts has brought back quite possibly the most innovative battle system to ever be featured in an RPG for a second run. For the uninitiated, Grandia's combat system works like this: You have a time meter at the bottom of the screen, with icons representing your party and the enemy. When an icon for a member of your party reaches "COM", you will be allowed to enter in a command. When the icon reaches "ACT", your character will execute the command you gave. Of course, some commands take longer than others to execute, but not only is this system innovative, but it actually works. Characters can cancel each others moves or slow them down while their teammates are trying to accomplish their tasks, and while it gets very hectic during the later stages when you have 5 enemies and 4 of your party members to take care of, it's one of several appealing features of the game.

Hit and magic points still exist in the game, as well as special moves, however underneath these rather standard features lies a slightly new twist to attain spells, more hit points and special moves. At the end of each battle you are rewarded Special Coins and Magic Coins which can be used to learn spells and special attacks as well as increasing their power. Spells which can be upgraded are contained in Mana Eggs, which can be transferred to any character without any penalty. The spells in each Mana Egg also differ when attached to each character; while a fully powered Lightning spell might do great damage and take less time to activate on Elena, that might not be the same for Ryudo or Mareg.

Special and Magic coins also allow you to do is power up Skill Books, which are items you receive after certain confrontations. These Skill Books contain several attributes each, all of which can be assigned to any character of your desire. These attributes range from increasing your life to allowing more damage for a certain magic type to decreasing the amount of time you spend 'resting' after a special attack. The customization in Grandia II is a great feature, and allows you to assign the traditional classes found in many RPGs to any character you wish. If you want Elena to be a major offensive character with high power and high HP, and then have Ryudo as an ultra-powerful magic user with the ability to counter-attack after a physical attack, it would be possible.

Unfortunately the game does not allow you the same flexibility when exploring the world. Unlike other comparable RPGs on consoles or the PC, Grandia II only has one area that is not part of the story, and it comes near the end of the game. With all the great innovations made to the gameplay itself, I only wish that Game Arts would have allowed us to explore the world more instead of making the game feel like a Point A to Point B type of title. Despite its linear storyline, the ability to customize your party and the great battle system really make Grandia II an enjoyable game. Grandia II gives PC gamers a taste of some of the stuff that they're missing on the console systems, and any true RPG fan who doesn't at least give this a shot over the weekend is sorely missing out.

· · · Reno


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Rating: B+Reno
Graphics: 9 Sound: 7
Gameplay: 7 Replay: 7
  © 2002 The Next Level