Grandia II

Hey there folks. Lemme first start off by saying that I am a die-hard gamer. I've played most every RPG out there, from the open computer stylings of all of the Might and Magic Series and the Console-style comp game of Septerra Core, to pretty much every console RPG since Phantasy Star I for the Sega Master System.

With that out of the way, let me just say that Grandia II is almost, but not quite, the perfect console style RPG. (Console style refers to a linear story-line, rather than a wide open wandering game, like, say, a Might and Magic computer game. Most console RPGs are like this, hence the term "console RPG" to refer to it.)

The plot is extremely engaging, with characters you really care about. The voice acting is great, headed by one of the best old-school American voice actors (people who voice acted before anime hit the shelves) Cam Clarke, as Ryudo. A very rare voice actor capable of pretty much any voice situation. The rest of the cast is just as good, with a mega standout in accomplished voice actress Jodi Benson (Ariel in Little Mermaid) who's voice and haughty tone make you totally fall in love with the character she portrays. The voice is scattered, but all the important story points are voiced, leaving you with immersive characters you care about, something the renowned Final Fantasy series (up till 10) lacked.

As I said before, the plot is very engaging. From the very beginning, the characters get imposed into a main plot thread circumvented throughout with "villain of the week" episodes in each section of world you cross through. It would get annoying, but with how disjointed these episodes sound, they all (almost) weave well with the main plot thread. These threads and the main plot weave together to form an extremely exciting last 8 hours of the game in which the climax seems to happen about 10 times, main characters perish in tragedy saving the rest of the party (in true Final Fantasy style), and it builds to an exciting and engaging finale which leaves the player very satisfied.

Now we come to the defining characteristic of Grandia II. Now, I'm not sure about Grandia I cause I actually haven't played that one, but Grandia II has the *most* innovative battle system in existence. At first glance, the battles look like utter chaos. Well, they are, but it's *organized* chaos. Where you are, what position you're in (ready, waiting, action, etc), what you're planning to do, what you're doing, *all* matter to the battle. You can be attacking an enemy, and get backstabbed by another enemy, which not only startles you and delays your attack, but can flat out cancel your attack and your status meter by knocking you down. It's like the lunar positional system, but in faux-3D and in real time combat. No other game even comes close to this battle system yet. It leaves other games in the dust, and makes the "random battles" not so boring.

Along that lines, it does use the lunar system of seeing the "random monsters" and gives you the option of avoiding em. However, it even takes it a step further and *where* you encounter your enemy, say, if he attacks the back of your party, surprises you, etc, is how the battle starts. Just amazing stuff.

The only reason this game isn't a perfect 1 disk RPG (multi disk RPGs have a *lot* more CG/Anime scenes) is that the game is *too* linear. A linear story RPG is fine, and can be done extremely well, but even the dungeons (and other misc levels) are totally linear. You walk until you have a path diversion. You choose one, it's either deeper into the dungeon, or ends in a treasure within a few steps. This is really frustrating, as you feel you're just reading a flat script.

That's it. I bought this game well over a year ago and finally just sat down to play it. I went through the last 16 hours (or 20) straight, I just couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this to *any* console RPG fan. (10/10)

Grandia II was the 2nd RPG I played for the Dreamcast. I have played many other RPGs before (Over 100) and this was, flat out...the best. Great Graphics, Sound, Music and most notably voice acting. The voice actors, unlinke most games are not cheap wanna be actors, they are very well known actors and actreses. The game is great aside from those factors, The battle system is revolutionary and the story is moving.Grandia II is my favorite game ever and I cannot recommend it enough.

Grandia II is one of the best RPGs for Dreamcast available. It builds on a unique cast of characters to weave a dramatic, moving story - full of religious overtones. The game immerses you in a richly detailed environment, always leaving you wanting for more.

The game features a unique battle system that I'm sure everyone will be copying in a few years. Combat can be controlled by the gamer, or left up to a not-too-shabby AI, for fights that you don't feel like directing every little move.

The cinematic sequences are nicely done, though the voice-overs are sometimes a little long. You'll find famous voices like Jodi Benson (Little Mermaid) and Cam Clarke as well.

This game rocks!

When I first played Grandia II I was initially disappointed with it and if I would have given it a score I would have given it a seven here at IMDb. However, I played it again and it was better than I had remembered and the score it got from me was an eight. The first Grandia I had given a nine to and still thought it was the superior game between the two. Now, though, I have played both games back to back and this one still seems to be magically catching up to the first game which is why I now think it deserves a nine just like the first Grandia, which I still believe is the better game, but only by a bit. This game was originally put out on the Sega Dreamcast video gaming console and then converted over to PS2, not sure why they bothered making it for the Dreamcast as the first one came out on the original Playstation so anyone familiar with the game was going to be more likely to choose a PS2 over the system that became defunct rather quickly. Thankfully, they did convert this one as well as the Dreamcast is one of those systems I did not really bother with as at this point Sega was known for making a system and quickly ditching it like they did with the Sega CD, Sega 32X and the Saturn.

The story has a young man named Ryudo getting a job in a village. He is what is referred to in the game as a Geohound; basically, a person who takes on odd jobs for a price and the job usually consists of terminating monsters. He goes to the village and learns that he must escort a young lady to a tower for a ceremony as she is a songstress of Granas and there is something evil within the tower and she is the primary person to lock away this evil once more. Well, the ceremony ends in failure and when they return to the village and Elena rests (the songstress) a strange girl named Millenia appears and proceeds to cause more chaos. Well, the very sarcastic Ryudo is then asked to escort Elena to a holy city where she may get some help for the failed ceremony and along the way they meet a boy named Roan and a beast like man named Mareg. Strange revelations are made and another girl, Tio will also join them on their quest as the ancient dark god Valmer seems to be getting ready to revive from its slumber once again and cause the world to be plunged into darkness.

The fighting system is basically the same as the previous game where you take turns and you can cancel out an enemy's turn or have your turn canceled. You do level up a bit differently in this one as you get points which you disperse to your many skills and magic rather than having to do certain moves or perform magic over and over. It is good and bad. Good in that you do not have to use say a spell that doesn't give all that many points over and over before getting something better, bad in that you can only level up so much before you are maxed out. In the first game your powers could continue to get stronger.

So this one is a bit better, but I still give the first game a slight edge. Why? Well, for a game that was on a later console, the graphics are not really all that better. I actually think the first game's graphics were a bit better in areas like the character sprites on the screen. In the game itself there were just a lot more exotic locations and interesting situations that arose in the first game too. Like riding the steamer ship and encountering the ghost vessel, reaching the end of the world, the world beyond the end of the world, the mermaid sea and so many more. This Grandia though is a lot faster paced and can be won under 40 hours which I liked as too many games these days take way to long to complete. The characters I like about the same as it is nice how in that game you started as a complete novice and here you get more of a professional to start out the game. I also like how the characters grew and changed in both games.

The reason for my initial disappointment stems from the fact that this game was not a direct sequel to the first game. When I was playing it the first time I kept expecting them to mention Justin or Gaia to tie it to each other as the game is named Grandia and I figured that is the name of the world. However, it is more like Final Fantasy as there are odes to the first game. Granted the map has similarities in areas and the picture at the end almost resembles something found in the first game so if anything it could be a prequel, but not enough things to tie it to the first as there are no mentions of Icarians, spirit stones or Gaia. After this one would come a Grandia simply called Grandia extreme I have not played as I hear it is basically one dungeon after another and then Grandia III would be released much later by Square Enix rather than Ubisoft as the first two games were and Extreme. That one I have only played once, but one can tell it is not made by the same company and it was a bit of a tease as it seemed like it would be the best, but fell off as it progressed. I have only played it once though so I intend to play it again. And who knows, perhaps it too will grow on me just as this game did.