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one of the all time greats | | jebas from quebec, canada says (7/Dec/2002): | Great story line with Ryudo and Elena. Ryudo is a dominating main character, one of the strongest main characters ive ever seen. Graphics are great and there is no wait time for anything. This game definatly deserves a 10 no doubt.
| One of the few best RPGs for Dreamcast | | FaSCoRP from Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA says (17/Oct/2002): | GRANDIA II
History:
Ryudo, the main character, is a bounty hunter. Heīs afraid of his own past,
and he is running from it. The good god (Granas) and the evil god (valmar)
are the main conflict in the story. Ryudo must escort Elena, a songstress
of Granas, to achieve her mission against Valmar. Things happens and the whole
story became this pretty game.
Grandia II is a very linear game, there are no side or optional quests (except
one near the end of the game). Always you must go to the next place a little
bit far from here, until the end.
Iīm a RPG fan, and the story has a few topics like Final Fantasy VIII (for
PlayStation, from Squaresoft). The travel to the moon and right after this
the massive monster invasion from there.
7/10
Graphics:
Grandia II itīs a pretty good looking game. The characters are a little deformed
but only for a matter of inspiration. The environment are very detailed and
fullfilled with reflection, shadow and mapping effects. The enemies are nice, with
some repetitions along the same (same monster, other colour, more powerful).
All the buildings in a town are in the same style and reflect a real style of
construction. The magic effect are not real-time generated, theyīre MPEG animations
(prerendered) and theyīre reading when the characters invoke them, mixing the
real time graphics with the pre-rendered ones. IMO, they could be a lot better.
MPEG video has its own limitations (pixelation) and with a few more coding the
results would be a lot of better (someone remebers the EDEN guardian force in FF8?)
I really think that the low quality MPEG video along the game was supposed to
fit all of them in only one 1.2 GB GD-rom disc.
8/10
Sound:
The music is really great, always accordingly to the situation: battle, exploring,
boss, town, etc. The extrange point is that in the first half of the game, there
are times when you cannot hear anything. NOTHING is on the speakers. Five or six
times in the game I was highering the volume of my TV because I thought that
probably the sound were too tiny to hear. WRONG. There are no sound at all.
Right now I still donīt understand that.
With the original game comes an extra CD with the "soundtrack". Twelfe nice tracks
from the same composer of the game. The first remix track is really great, but
the second one (track 11) is HORRIBLE. Acapella voices with techno drums? Then
some guitar riffs over? Impossible to skip.
Also the main characters speaks along the game, in the important moments. The
voice acting is good, with Millenia at best. Her voice fits perfect her
personality. You pig!
8/10
Playability:
The controls are simple (no so much options in the menu, only NEW GAME & LOAD GAME).
Itīs very easy to handle the battles, and most of the time you can rotate the
screen with the left & right triggers, to see ALL the environments. In the INNs
you can always talk to a NPC who teachs you how to battle, upgrade weapons, etc.
The combat system is very similar to the used in the PlayStation game called
"Star Ocean: The 2nd Story", semi-active version. There are no optinal tasks that
route you to a bad path. Itīs impossible to do what you think itīs incorrect.
7/10
Overall:
To finish Grandia II took me almost 40 hours. Itīs not a hard game, specially if youīre
an experienced one with other games (Final Fantasy Series, Dragon Quest, etc.).
There are no really complicated enemies along the game. Omega Weaponīs cousing is not
here (Emerald Weapon not too). In the whole game my characters got K.O. only TWO TIMES,
once ROAN, once TIO. The only enemies with challenge Iīve found were the DEVILS, who
they are in the only optional scenario near the end of the game. Usually youīll face
three of them, and one will cast BA-BOOM, doing almost 5000 HP of damage to all party.
You only have challenge to defeat them if you have more initative, and cancel their
actions. Also, the enemie of the end of the game, aka final boss, touch me only two
times with only 1100~1200 of damage. That sucks. Too easy...
The combat system is nearly unique, but it has flaws. You can choose to fight or not.
But, if you donīt fight you cannot gain money / experience, so you cannot level up
your skills, magic => you must fight all the enemies you can. I STILL like this system
to see the enemies on the map instead of the random encounter of the other games.
Something useless is the money near the end of the game. I finished with 130000 gold
pieces in a devastating world. Whatīs the purpose to gain so much money if you cannot
purchase anything? What the hell are the gold pieces & chests INSIDE A SOUL?
Well, donīt think I donīt like the game. Itīs one of the few RPGs for Dreamcast. And
itīs one of the few-few GOOD RPG for Dreamcast. Donīt miss it.
THE BEST: The entire world created by Game Arts, itīs really beautiful. Milleniaīs
personality. The combat system.
THE WORST: Too easy. No replay value.
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