|
I've been a fan of the Japanese
programming team Game Arts since I first laid eyes on their
premiere release, the dazzling shooter Thexder. Later,
Alisia Dragoon improved on the themes first introduced in
Thexder and made owning a Genesis bearable in a year of
depressing Flying Edge releases. Game Arts floundered a
bit with the Lunar series, but have more than restored their
good name with Grandia, a charming role playing adventure in
the grand tradition of Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana.
Rather than borrowing heavily from any one theme, Game
Arts played it smart with Grandia and took inspiration from a
wide variety of games, then rounded things out with their own
ideas. For instance, the melding of well-drawn sprites
and beautiful polygonal environments hearkens back to Dark
Savior, but Grandia's graphics engine is much more advanced,
so there's even more background detail without all the
slowdown. Similarly, Grandia's battle system combines
features from Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and Final
Fantasy Tactics, yet the hybrid seems refreshingly
original. Of course, any role playing game that doesn't
steal 99% of its ideas from Final Fantasy seems like a miracle
of innovation these days.
It's obvious that Game Arts
learned a lot from dabbling with the Lunar series.
Grandia is fun, inventive, and brilliantly executed, all
qualities which were sorely lacking in Lunar and its
sequels. As was mentioned earlier, Grandia's graphics
are fantastic... the towns are so packed with detail you'll
feel like you've stepped inside them with your party.
And in addition to being wonderfully drawn, the characters
themselves are complex and instantly identifiable.
You'll feel for Justin and his band of adventurers even if you
don't understand a word they're saying... some of the plot
twists will just break your heart. It's for this reason
that I'm GLAD Grandia was never released in the United
States... Working Designs would have taken the game's
emotional storyline and turned it into one very long, very
tiresome joke.
I couldn't recommend Grandia to
just anyone... it takes a special breed of RPG fan to
pay over fifty dollars for a game that's almost entirely in
Japanese. However, if you're one of the folks who
ordered Seiken Densetsu 3 or Final Fantasy V from an importer,
you can't afford to miss Grandia. Next to Panzer Dragoon
Saga, it is THE best game of its kind on the
Saturn. |
|
Grandia
ESP/GameArts
Role-Playing
 
Big fans of Grandia will want to
pick up the companion disc, Grandia Digital Museum. It
includes exclusive content you won't find in
Grandia.
Very high. Just about
everything's in Japanese, so you'd better get a strategy guide
from GameFAQs before you dive in. Or you could
just wuss out and buy the Playstation version... we won't
tell!
Five seconds of access time divide
each of the game's areas... unfortunately, this includes towns
and any of the houses in them.
Grandia received an outstanding
sequel on the Dreamcast, as well as a few not-so-hot
follow-ups on the Playstation 2. Grandia Xtreme had the
dubious distinction of being the only game in the series to
star Dean Cain, Lisa Loeb, and Mark "I had my heart torn out
by an overgrown tabby" Hamill.
|
