Review Statistics

Times Read

678

Comments

9

Reviews

Game

Plot Synopsis

No plot synopsis or other information available for Grandia

Story & Playability

The following review is for Grandia 3.

RPG fans rejoice! The best kept secret (outside of Valkyrie Profile) in all RPG gaming has released another game. Grandia games are games that are typically always known for two things, lackluster story but amazing gameplay. Grandia 3 sticks with that formula. The story goes as follows. Communicators are chose beings who can communicate with the guardians of the world. A girl named Alfina is one of those communicators. She is chased down for this power by those who want to use that power for evil. The mastermind behind it all... her brother Emelious. As fate would have it she encountered a young bleeding heart man by the name of Yuki who wants to help her. Ultimately you end up with the usual RPG fare. Yuki and Alfina find more party members and the plot to take over the world using the power of a sleeping god unfolds. Now depending on how they played with this idea, it could have worked. Instead it ended up being extremely linear. You are guided along the story and never really have to do any exploration of your own into it. You arrive at a new dungeon or town, get a quick story snippet or cutscene and move on. I wasn't going in with much, after all it is a Grandia game, but even still RPG's have a certain reputation to uphold with great plots, this one was pretty thin. Check any other review on the net, they agree.

Rating

5 (moderate)

Graphics

I am fairly certain that Square-enix has some pact with the devil at this point. Somehow they are able to make the PS2 do things it shouldn't be capable of doing. Simply put this game is absolutely gorgeous. There is very little difference between in game and cut scene graphics, which I always find to be a plus. Character animations are highly original and very meticiulously crafted. The only issue I can nitpick is that with great graphics comes great slowdown. We are talking a PS2 here. During battles you can have upwards of 12-15 characters/enemies at a time, which causes extreme havoc on the 233 Mhz processor that this machine has. Add in a crazy spell effect and you are looking at a slideshow of epic proportions. Given a more powerful machine this game would easily score a 10 in the graphics department, but slowdown is a big part of the graphical experience of a game. Square is defintely going to pull of some amazing things in the next generation of consoles.

Rating

9 (very good)

Sound

The music department came as quite a disspointment. Grandia II had a pretty good soundtrack. Good boss music, engaging battle music and an overall good soundtrack. This game had an average soundtrack for the most part. Nothing that is worth listening to on it's own like the Grandia II soundtrack. RPG's usually have a way with giving the player a sense of wonder, that tense feeling, or that pumped up feeling when a big boss comes out just with a good musical score. I can say that throughout my entire Grandia III experience, that just didn't happen. So I'm either becoming more resistant to role playing game soundtracks, or this one just didn't cut it. Also, I highly recommend you mute your TV before entering the Baccula Settlement; its like a hundred chalk boards being scratched with rakes.

As for the voice acting side of the game, it was actually pretty well done. Like all Square releases, there is no selectable langauge. For that reason alone sound would never get a 10. RPG companies should take a page from Nippon Icchi and give us that option. But for what its worth, this game did manage to do a pretty good job with the English voice actors. I believe the brother and sister combo of Alfina and Emelious were the best well acted but there were really no weak links.

Rating

6 (average)

Fun

Grandia without the superb battle system would be more than a $50 paperweight. Beyond the lackluster story and mediocre soundtrack comes a complete gem. For those that have yet to play a Grandia game to know this, here is a simple breakdown. It is a modified turn based system in which characters travel around a dial. When a character reaches the COM part of the dial, that is when you input your command. Now based on the command you chose, they now go into the ACT portion of the dial. Basic attacks go quickly, while complicated magic takes a while. Once that character has reached the end of the ACT area, they complete the attack that you programmed. Here's the fun part, if at any time while you are in that ACT area an enemy critical hits you or does a multitude of other attacks, it will cancel that command and you will be shot all the way back around the dial. You can also do that to the enemy. So if you see a crazy attack coming your way, you can do a special move, cancel his attack and watch him suffer. Experienced players can easily stomp a boss without ever really taking a hit with a few well executed attacks. This is what makes the game so fun, you control the flow of battle.

The only downside to the enjoyment of this game is the complete lack of side quests and the small amount of customization. There are really no side quests at all to speak of, just a linear game that comes to a close in about 25-35 hours.

Major RPG nuts already have this game and will likely be the first to comment on this review. Others with a need for some new fun would likely get a kick out of this one. If you are just a casual gamer with a tight budget, get this one in the bargain bin when the time comes.

Rating

8 (good)

Final Verdict

6.83 (above average)

Reviewed by shoujoboy, 2y 26wk ago