About 40 hours (Grandia 2 (DC))

Member Name: kero-chan

Product:	Grandia 2 (DC)
Date:	11/04/01 (148 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great visuals and design, super-fun combat engine

Disadvantages: Perhaps too much focus in its plot

I may have mentioned previously on Dooyoo that the original Grandia is one of my favourite games ever. Well, okay, I have definitely mentioned that Grandia was one of my favourite games previously on Dooyoo, and frequently at that. I find it hard not to, Grandia was a very likable game. When Grandia 2 was announced for Dreamcast it became obvious that I had to own the console. Then came the waiting, the painful, painful waiting. All the screenshots and material coming out of Japan was looking fabulous, but after release the stories started coming in about substandard writing and a dull storyline. Still, my enthusiasm didn’t waver, and I’m glad I didn’t listen to all those early reports.

Grandia 2 is set many, many years after a great war between two godlike figures, the god of light Granas, and the god of darkness Valmar. The war ended when Granas brought his mighty sword, the Granasabre, down onto Valmar, creating a great valley splitting the world in two and cutting Valmar into several pieces. The pieces of Valmar were then sealed at many locations over the world, and entrusted over the years to the Church of Granas, the order created by the gods’ followers.

Ryudo is a ‘Geohound’, basically a bounty hunter. He uses his highly tuned sword skills to earn a living, living alone with his talking bird Skye. Ryudo seems unusually keen to promote the image of a Geohound as someone you wouldn’t want to know, an uncaring and violent man who likes nothing more than to fight and eat children. Still, this is far from the truth, and whilst massively cynical about everything (and equally sarcastic), Ryudo upholds a personal sense of honour.

Elena, on the other hand, is a Songstress of Granas. Deeply religious, Elena follows the followings of Granas devoutly and somewhat blindly, frequently going out of her way to help others. Unaware of what happens in the world outside her village, Elena is unsurprisingly com
pletely naive.

Wouldn’t it be fun to put these two together?

Ryudo is hired by the local Church of Granas to escort Elena to a ceremony in a nearby tower, much to Elena’s annoyance. This would, of course, be a rather dull premise for a game in itself, and so the predictable happens – the ceremony goes wrong, and everyone from the Granas church bar Elena bites the dust. Elena, however, manages to get herself possessed by the ‘Wings of Valmar’, which the ceremony was intended to seal. Possessed by the force which will slowly erode her soul, only leaving any latent desires present inside her in a form which will destroy others around her, Ryudo is then asked to escort her to see the pope, the head of the Church of Granas in the hope the wings can be removed.

Only having two characters to play would be a bit dull, so soon afterwards they introduce Millennia. Millennia is the polar opposite of Elena – loud, brash, arrogant and short-tempered. Before you can exclaim ‘Love Triangle HO!!!’ she takes an immediate liking to Ryudo, which sets up much of the games dramatic tension.

There are several other playable characters as well. Mareg (Gadwyn from the original Grandia in all but name) is a beast man looking for the man who destroyed his hometown. Roan is the young prince of a powerful nation who runs away, afraid that his father is being manipulated into a rash course of action, whilst Tio is an android who finds herself redundant, as she was created to fight alongside Valmar in the great war, has to come to terms with herself having only been awakened many years after the war has ended – the traditional Pinocchio character basically.

The characterization in Grandia 2 is pretty good. Some will be pleased to know that it isn’t as upbeat and cheerful as the original Grandia. The characters are admittedly based on highly specific stereotypes, but playing as Ryudo is a brea
th of fresh air after playing all the introverted types in games like the recent Final Fantasy titles. It is helped massively by some of the best versioning outside of a Working Designs title, which results in some highly readable and entertaining dialogue. The occasional voice acting present in the game is also of a high standard, although Ryudo’s voice did cause me to do a double take initially. A quick search led me to discover that the voice actor in question – Cam Clarke – was Liquid Snake in Metal Gear Solid. That wasn’t the place I recognized it from however, it turns out that he was also Leonardo in the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles cartoon show. Its nice to see that they hired such experienced voice actors in a genre that often reeks in that area – the original Grandia in particular had truly dreadful voice acting in the English version.

The story isn’t half as bad as some have suggested but it does have its problems. The main thing I can identify is the lack of an omnipresent villain of sorts. Much of the game revolves around people being possessed by parts of Valmar, which doesn’t typically make them evil, only inadvertently causing misery for those around them. In itself it isn’t enough to drive the game effectively. The only really evil characters only come into play for such short sections of the game that they prove to ineffective, and often their acts of nastiness are too far into the past, or come into play for too short a length of time, that they don’t work too well in building up any kind of drama.

The other problem is that the story just seems too focused – there is little in the way of side plotting present in the game, or bonus dungeons for that matter. The basic plot, whilst entertaining and fairly strong in my opinion, is perhaps not enough for many who will find the straightforward nature of the proceedings to be a little dull. Come to think of it, Gamearts own RPG
title Lunar: Eternal Blue covers much of the same ground, but in a superior fashion. Grandia 2 proves so focused that you can’t actually revisit previous areas unless there is a specific reason for you to be there. Whilst this was true of the original Grandia (which, to be fair, lacked any real kind of focus until its final act), Grandia moved at a pace which often made it unfeasible in physical terms, whereas much of Grandia 2 takes place on the one continent.

It doesn’t really relate back to the original Grandia much. It takes place in a whole different universe to the original game, so don’t expect any cameos or to revisit any previous locations. As you approach the end of the game, you will slow begin to realize that there are some very obvious similarities in the storylines shared between the two games however.

The combat engine, mercifully, is basically a highly polished version of that from the original Grandia with a few tweaks here and there. All the characters in the combat arena (ally or foe) is represented on a time gauge which builds towards the end. Two-thirds along the gauge you get the opportunity to choose an attack to perform, your competence with which affects the rate at which the final section of the gauge will pass (at which point the move will be executed).

Moves are split into a few different types – Combo, Critical, Special and Magic. Combo causes multiple weak strikes to be inflicted on the opponent. Critical is a single hard blow that has the special effect of moving the opponent back down the time gauge (more so if they are in the final stage of executing a move). Specials are attacks unique to a specific character, and require Special Points to pull off. Specials have special characteristics (every character has one which ‘cancels’ like a Critical strike, some hit multiple opponents, etc), and cause far more damage than normal attacks. Magic is provided by equipping a special
piece of equipment – a Mana Egg – which allows the user to perform a number of different magic attacks. Magic uses Magic Points, and like Specials they have special characteristics.

Experience is a little different in Grandia 2 than in the original Grandia. In Grandia you gained new magic and special attacks by gaining experience-using attacks of the same type – using fire spells would gain you new fire spells for example, whilst repeated using attacks will increase your proficiency at using an attack. In Grandia 2 winning battles gains you ‘Special’ coins and ‘Magic’ coins. The Special and Magic coins can then be spent on learning extra special techniques, or on magic spells. I preferred the method in the original Grandia to be honest, where all experience was in real-time throughout a battle – you could gain new techniques whilst battling a boss for example. Still, for those with less patience this should prove better, and the underlying combat engine is still the best in any RPG series.

Visually the game is very nice as well. The town and dungeon locations are entirely in real-time 3D, as are the characters. Combined with high-resolution textures, and the Dreamcasts natural high screen resolution, it looks great. Character animation initially looks a little stiff, but it loosens up as the game goes on. The amount of detail character models retain is fairly remarkable – particularly in the rare occasions you get to see them right up close. Millennia’s clothing, for example, has a very high level of detail. The design of the surrounding areas is also impressive, as it the level of detail it displays. Considering the size of some of the town areas this is particularly impressive.

One interesting visual choice made is that certain special and magic attacks use FMV overlaid onto the polygonal battlefields. This looks fairly seamless, thanks to the use of transparency effects, and o
bviously the results are great looking. The one problem with this is that the attacks will always look identical – it leaves no room for changes in camera angle for example.

In all, Grandia 2 is a great game. I admit that I did enjoy this more than I did Squares recent (and great, admittedly) Final Fantasy 9, but I doubt its everyone’s kettle of fish. Personally, I recommend it.

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