Warning: Undefined array key "HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE" in /var/www/minitokyo/www/includes/common.inc.php on line 360 maverick007's Grandia Game Review - Minitokyo
»

maverick007's Grandia Game Review

Grandia game Review

Story & Playability

Grandia III Review (Sorry for any mis-speeelings and grammar mistakes)
Story

After a couple of years of waiting since it's last installment the long awaited arrival of Grandia III has finally hit in stores and on our shelves. And it will both please and disappoint.

The story of Grandia III starts off with an energetic young man named Yuki who has the ambition of following the footsteps of the great "Sky Captain Schmitt". Unfortunately Yuki hasn't even left the ground due to his many failures in plane making as well as his HOT but hot headed mother Miranda, but after many trials, and many crashes and heaps of rubble Yuki finally gets his wings and soars off to the main land. But while flying he spots a young, elvish looking girl being chased by evil doers, so being the goody goody that he is, he conveniently "crashes" nearby and helps this girl named Alfina, who coincidently enough is a communicator, a person with the power to speak with the all powerful Guardians.......to cut the story short with no spoilers......Yuki and Inc., end up encountering an evil doer who has aspirations of destroying the world. So Yuki and Inc, go on a quest to stop the evil doer's plans of world domination. Yuki and Inc end up making friends who in turn helped them on their journey to stop the destruction of the world. Yuki and Inc end up beating the bad and saving the world!.......yay.

As you can see the story is lacking in more ways than one. It just reading a story that you read when you young, "Guy meets girl, girl gets captured by bad guy who wants to destroy the world, guy rescues girl, guy beats bad guy and saves the world." It's the same story that we heard time and time again, but yet we see it in RPG's time and time again. But the game tries to make the story interesting by adding little twists and turns, but in the end the plot is a little too simple for it's own.

There are some high points in games story, for one there's only 4 main "good guy" (actually five but she's not really that big of a character) characters in this game, so in return the game provides lots of background to these characters, which in return provides a great sense of personality for each character. But as the story progresses Grandia III falls in the Suikoden affect..... As the story progresses the role of two of the four main characters, becomes less and less significant, and starts focusing more on the story of Yuki and Alfina, without really expanding on the other two characters. So by the later parts of the game, it seems as though as these characters are not even suppose to be in the picture, and thus making a feeling that these characters are just thrown in to provide some extra flare to rather dull story.

There's obviously a theme to this game, "Love has the power to conquer over evil (or some other crap like that)" and is expressed from the opening sequences of the game to the ending of the game and is quite understandable that this game should play out that theme. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out this theme or it's importance, but the game just beats it into the player over and over through quirky scenes with some cheesy dialogue that makes me laugh at times when I was suppose to think and ponder about the situation. When watching most of the cut scenes or reading various other scenes in this game it seems as though I was watching a movie that I have already saw time and time again and could accurately predict phrases that the characters were about to say. The majority of these phrases are suppose to set a serious tone in the scene, but ends up making a corny, cheesy and rather funny effect on the scene, which often distracts me from the main story.

So in other words the story is HUGE let down to this video game. It tries to make it's own story in it's own style and fashion, but instead it feels like a cut and paste RPG story that too predictable and often leaves the player wanting more.

Mavericks Rating 1-10 (10 Being the Best)
6
Grade: C-


Rating: 6

Graphics

Graphics: (Finally we get to the 'good stuff!')

The graphics in Grandia III are filled with vibrant colors and unique character styles, which makes it very pleasing for the player to watch.

The creators of this game really did a good job with the graphics in this game considering that this is on the PS2. The characters themselves all have their own unique styles and fashions, which shows their personalities through looks rather through listening. These characters look very sharp with really bright vibrant colors and are greatly animated to the point where these characters are actually pleasing to watch as they run from one end of the screen to another to lay off an attack. The lip-synching as well is well.............ok. At some points in the game where the pace of the game picks up you could really notice that the speed of mouth is moving way to fast for the voice to keep up, but voice actors do a pretty job of not getting the voices out of hand.

But while the characters look really great in their environment, the environment itself......eeehhh not great. The environments of Grandia III are simple, with simple bushes, and simple trees, and a simple design with very little imagination involved. These environments may look pretty good for the PS2 standard, but it isn't really the colors or the sharpness that I'm not bragging on, it's the fact that these environments are too generic for my taste, and it seems as though I have seen and went to these places time and time again through many different games. Nothing about the environments leaves a found impression in mind, unlike much older games like Final Fantasy VII and Xenogears where the graphics don't look as good, but environments themselves have their own unique aura to them and leave a lasting impression in my mind. The only thing that I really enjoyed from the environments is the look when the ray of light passes through the screen, or when a mist starts to role in. These type of things add great depth to a rather shallow environment.

Probably the greatest visuals in this game come with the various spells and ability attacks that the game offers. To put it in three words, 'They look great!'. The spells and abilities for the various characters are unique in every single way from the simple 'Aerial Slash' to the exciting 'Galactic Bang' spell, these little scenes in the game make every match exciting to watch. Usually these spells and abilities are greatly animated from the characters motions to the motion of the actual spell or ability themselves. These spells and abilities are also greatly detailed, from adding little affects like birds to meteors, to adding backgrounds or blacking out the screen, each element of the spell or ability really brings life onto the screen.

The graphics for Grandia III are pretty good for the PS2 standards with great character styling and sharpness as well as great looking spells and abilities these graphics are made to impress. But it could do better with a more in depth and non-generic environment. The lag is understandable so that's why I didn't really complain about it.

Mavericks Rating 1-10 (10 being the best)
8
Grade: B

Rating: 8

Sound

Sound and Music:

The sound and music in this game can either be bad or good, depending on what element you're looking at. The music in Grandia III is very soothing to the listen too, and often very pleasant to the ear. But I got to admit, the music that is provided in Grandia III is too generic (once again) for my tastes, there's nothing really special about the music, and it seems that I had listened to this type of music from different games. I'm probably having too high of expectation since the soundtrack from Grandia II was SOOOOOO much better than the soundtrack that came with this game. The music in Grandia III didn't leave an impression on me with exception of one time.....................at the Baccula Settlement...............just like what shoujoboy said.........................MUTE!...of course unless you're a masochist.

In terms of voice acting, let's just say that I heard better and I heard worse. This was indeed one of the better voice acting performances by the American actors. They actually put feeling into it!! But of course for the majority of the time they put TOO much feeling into their work making most of the lyrics they say sound corny and makes the experience of listening to them rather funny.

The sound and music in Grandia III is a mixed bag of pleasant sounding music which doesn't really has its own voice when compared to other works. The voice acting is actually well done for English, and let's just say that I have heard worse................a lot worse.

Mavericks Rating 1-10 (10 being the best)
7
Grade: C

Rating: 7

Fun

Gameplay and Fun Factor

All games have their trump cards. (Unless of course the games suck balls such as Big Rigs and Gods and Generals.) And apparently the trump card of Grandia III really saved the game from being a complete disaster. The trump card of course being the battle system. Grandia III's battle system is a time based system called an IP Gauge battle system. This system consists of two separate rings and three sections. The inner ring represents your characters with each character having each their own symbol and the out ring belongs to the enemies. There are three sections which a person has to go through, the WAIT section obviously, this is where each character has to wait before inputting the commands; COM where you input your commands and wait till it reaches the......;ACT section, where the command gets executed. A rather simple, but great way of doing a timed battle system. The "speed of attacks" depends from the type of attacks you do...........the rule of thumb for this is the weaker the attack or spell the faster the COM section is.

Sometimes the IP Gauge, like all your characters are in the WAIT and your enemy is in COM and about to do massive damage spell. But other times you have all your characters ready to attack and do massive damage with Aerial Combo's and powerful spells, often these times makes the person think that he or she is genius. So basically the IP Gauge battle system could be a Love/Hate relationship depending on the situation. With the IP Gauge battle system, every match will be nothing like the last, even though you've battled the same monsters before. This keeps most players on their toes especially in the later part of the game, where the opponents get hard.........really hard.

The AI in the game is pretty moderate, it ranges from pretty easy in the beginning sections to moderate-hard in the later parts. Most of the AI usually ends up switching attacks and spells around to make each match more interesting than the last. Probably the most fun part about the battle system and the AI are its boss matches. These matches can vary depending on the experience of the player to just how far has your character leveled, in my case by the end of the game I was in my high 30's so I got a run for my money in the later parts of the game. These boss battles are well played out, making the bosses has doses of life and a variety of attacks to unleash on your characters, usually in boss fights, each boss may be only one character but they have more than one unit on the IP Gauge, for new players this usually keeps them on their toes. The good thing about these boss fights are that they're pretty difficult, but not impossible, or to the point where you slam your controller on the ground.

While the battle system is good, the other features in the game...........are not so great. The game itself is very linear, and when I mean the game I mean the game, not the story. Usually most of the environments tell you where to go and what to do, there is no real free roam on most environment maps, but rather just a path for you to follow. There are also hardly any side quest, with exception of secret bosses-like creature here and there but other than that there's no real side quest which expands to the story. Other than playing the game there is nothing to do in Grandia III, there are no mini games within Grandia III with exception of a crappy dice/card game which is determined only by chance. And no extra stories which would bring new life to the already shallow story of Grandia III. Due to the lack of anything else to do, the re-playability of this game is really low.

Lastly the game only spans from 25-30 hours in two DVD's, making this one of the shortest RPG's I have ever played.

Mavericks Rating 1-10 (10 being the best)
7
Grade: C

Conclusion:

The bottom line is that Grandia III is really nothing more than just another RPG to play. There's really nothing that miraculous about it with exception for the great battle system that comes along with it. The story is mediocre, the graphics are as people expected, the music is blah, and the game itself is too linear to make some parts any fun, and lastly the game only spans for 30 hours.

But even with all the bad things I said about it, I enjoyed playing Grandia III, I enjoyed the adventures of Yuki, Alfina and Inc., as well as the battle system they fought by. The story even though it may be traditional, is pretty interesting, (especially with the cheesy dialogue) with a strong cast of characters and an even stronger battle system.

So if you're a hardcore fan of the Grandia series, then go ahead and buy this game, there's no harm in doing so, it's a fun game to play if you like a linear and straightforward storyline and gameplay. Or if you just want to see what the battle system is like then go ahead and rent it and if you like it then buy it. Go ahead, give a chance and show that "Love can make miracles happen."

Maverick007

Rating: 7

Final Verdict

6.8333 (above average)

Reviewed by maverick007, Mar 25, 2006

Comments

  1. maverick007 Mar 25, 2006

    GRRRRR. Symbol errors (sorry if this is double posting)

  2. Pisaro Mar 28, 2006

    I think is quite good for this Grandia III if compare to Grandia II. Because the storyline is mostly unique for it. I haven't play Grandia III but i view the opening before, it take almost 3 minutes to display the anime. I already finish with Grandia I and Grandia II, i think most probably i will finish Grandia III also(but not now).
    Thanks for your review, it's great.

  3. miaka036 Mar 28, 2006

    Your review does explain the game very well. It isn't the best out there, but it does have its best moments in graphics and the battle system. Keep up the good job.

  4. albelofthe21stcentury Mar 31, 2006

    Thanks, too bad the story sucks. I guess I shouldn't buy it then? I'll buy the new Tales instead, even though it sounds as if it's pretty easy.

  5. chazmoot Apr 04, 2006

    just like maverick said; but it does have one of the best battle systems out there. i wish more games could come up with something that unique.

  6. rukasu04 Mute Member Feb 08, 2010

    Nice review

page 1 of 1 6 total items

Only members can post replies, please register.

Warning: Undefined array key "cookienotice" in /var/www/minitokyo/www/html2/footer.html on line 73
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Read more.