Zealous
Sooooooooooooooooooo. Grandia II is finished.It wasn't quite as long as I seem to remember though. I think it took me around 40 hours to beat the first time, this time it was 'only' 27 or so.
But it was all still good.
I remember I really liked this game back in, oh, 2000, the battle system was great, the soundtrack rocked, the graphics were very pretty and the story was pretty good too. And my opinion has remained unchanged.
The Battle system IS great. Battles are started by touching enemy symbols in the field, no random encounters, and you fight in a round arena, where your and the enemy's position is based on whether you have a preemptive attack or are surprise attacked etc. At the bottom of the screen is one long gauge showing icons indicating every enemy and ally, these icons move slowly towards a point of action, where you can decide what you want to do, the rest of the gauge is colored red, and shows how long it will take for the action to be actually performed. Powerful magic will take long, simple attacks are quick. By using Critical hits and certain skills, you can cancel enemies charging up for an attack, and they can do likewise. When you select an enemy you can see their HP and who they will be attacking and how. This allows for the utmost of strategic planning and using your brain to best deal with every situation. In short, it rules, it's quick, fun and clever.
Also, and this is something I have never seen in any other game, it uses FMV for a lot of the magic attacks. Not just real-time sequences, but actual CG which blends in with the graphics, maybe slightly unnaturally, but there's no slowdown whatsoever and it looks pretty. Why has Square never done this?
The soundtrack is superb. Great Rocking battle tunes, great synthesized pop-music for town themes and some piano and strings for the serious and sad bits. Very balanced and extremely varied. Noriyuki Iwadare rules.
The Graphics are nice and colorful, very fantasy-esque, although the Dreamcast Pallette is rather dark at times. FMV is a bit messy, and is not nearly as impressive as what Square, Namco or Capcom, to name a few, managed to pull off on PSX.
The story is nice. Your classic Benign God versus Evil Demon type of affair, although some cool plot-twist wait at the end, which would offer a very nice look on religion if you were to apply it to reality, if you were so inclined. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the whole God vs. Satan thing has a similar background in the real world. The story does get a bit sappy towards the end, and terribly preachy about friendship and compassion and having a heart etc, so you might want to keep some Thunderdome CD's at hand.
Dungeons are a straight-forward affair. There are always some switches to be pulled, or devices to be triggered, LOTS of treasure to be found, and plenty of enemies, but never too much. Practically every area has a save point where you can also heal for free, so there is very little stress in this game, and it's all about having fun.
Some would say it is too easy, and it is very easy indeed, but I've never been bothered by things like that. As long as it's fun and stays interesting, the difficulty doesn't matter. As long as it's not too friggin' hard. I hate that.
You don't get a map in dungeons, but you DO get a compass, showing you where you have to go, and how far away you're from your destination. I was slightly put off by this in the beginning, but before long I started appreciating the compass a lot more than any simple map, because it is always immediately clear what your target is.
The only real problem is that the game is simply too linear. There is NO backtracking whatsoever, and there isn't even any side-tracking. No side- or subquests, only 2 minigames in the ENTIRE game, and they're both really short, stupid and pointless. And NOTHING to be plundered in villages.
Now, isn't part of the fun of RPG's to run into a new hovel, pillage everything in sight, maybe rape some women, barge into people's houses, steal their stuff, give 'em lip if anyone dares say anything about it, and then just leave as if nothing ever happened? Sure it is, and this game doesn't offer anything. It has some really stupid idle environment animations, like chairs or bottles being knocked over when you run past, but that novelty wears off really really soon, and before long you just wish there was some item hidden in that cupboard, or a weapon in that cabinet, but to no avail.
Add to that the fact that this is a Classic-style Old-school, been there done that, walk the beaten path kind of RPG and you have an idea of how much you'll be able to enjoy this. Once again, aside of the linearity and lack of hidden stuff, there is absolutely nothing really wrong with this game at all, the battle system is interesting enough to keep your attention to the end, the dungeons are just enough fun too, so you've got a good, albeit standard, RPG on your hands.
It lacks the variety and vastness of the later Final Fantasy's, but it's never anywhere near as annoying as the earlier ones, so I give this an 8.5 on all accounts.
Definite must-play for RPG fans, but casual gamers will probably fail to see the attraction. I'd like some more of this please, so I'm anxiously awaiting Grandia III, but before that we will be having a look at Grandia Xtreme on PS2.
Stay tuned!
posted by Ingen! @ 4:04 PM
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