Grandia
Reviewed by Michael LoCascio
Can't we all remember a time during our youth when we dreamt
of wielding swords, going on adventures and saving the
world? Well, in Grandia, young Justin is going through that
particular phase - although he is a bit more passionate
about his dreams and ambitions than most people. Bored with
life in the serene town of Parm, Justin and his pal Sue
decide to leave home and search for adventure. Unlike
ourselves, Justin actually does live in a world where his
swash-buckling dreams can come true: the Grandia universe is
one that contains fearsome creatures, power-hungry
evildoers, and girls with green hair (come to think of it,
it does sound a bit like our present day world, doesn't
it?). The adventures that Justin stumbles upon provide the
premise for one of the most awe-inspiring RPGs to ever
appear for Sony's Playstation.
Truth be told, while Grandia has received a great deal of
critical acclaim and has garnered quite a following, it is a
strictly average title in many facets. The game falls into
the same boring pattern that most of today's role-playing
games follow. You know how it works: visit a town, purchase
some weapons, conquer a dungeon, and then do it all over
again, with occasional breaks in between for building up
experience points. The plot of the game is all too
predictable: the reckless youngster gets himself in way over
his head, only to eventually emerge as the savior of the
world. The mazes can be quite tedious, the characters are
disgustingly cute, and the voice acting is downright
terrible.
Yet, with all its faults, Grandia contains so many creative,
innovative elements that it is impossible not to respect and
enjoy the game in some capacity or another. For instance,
the element of combat - the downfall of most RPGs due to
repetitive, menu-driven action - is handled beautifully in
Grandia. You can see your enemies on the overworld map, and
avoid or attack them as you see fit. Should you make contact
with them before they come after you, you will have the
initiative once the battle begins. However, if you attempt
to dodge them and fail, your party will be ambushed, and
will be put at an extreme disadvantage as the fight
commences. For the most part, the battle system in Grandia
still consists of the standard menu selections and
turn-taking. However, there are two factors that must be
considered in Grandia combat that seem to be missing from
most role-playing games: attack speed and location. How
competent your character is with the types of attacks that
you command them to use will play a huge role in determining
how quickly they take their turns. Where they are positioned
in relation to the enemies they are attacking can also have
a great deal to do with how successful their efforts are.
Possibly the most appealing element of combat in Grandia is
the fact that your characters will become more proficient
with particular spells and attacks the more that they use
them in battle. For instance, should you continually use
Justin in close-range combat, his swordsmanship will improve
and new techniques will become available to him. On the
other hand, if you use the character of Feena mainly as a
magic-user, she will not only take less and less time to
cast her spells, but her powers will become far more
effective, and she will gradually learn new, stronger
spells. Since new techniques, powers and abilities are
constantly opening up for your characters, you might be
inclined to engage in combat more often, just so that the
members of your party can continually grow stronger. This is
quite a contrast to the majority of RPGs in which
participating in combat to save up experience points can be
a tedious and painful affair.
Magic is also handled in an interesting manner in Grandia.
To acquire new types of spells, it is necessary to find
items called Mana Eggs during your quest and bring them back
to a shop in one of the towns. For each Mana Egg that you
trade in, one of your characters will gain the ability to
cast spells of a particular element of your choice. While
Wind and Fire spells are mainly used to attack the enemy,
Water spells are typically used for healing purposes, while
Earth spells can raise the party's defensive abilities.
Making things a bit more intriguing is the fact that when
one of your characters gains the ability to cast spells from
two different elements, that character will eventually learn
spells that combine the elements in question. For example,
if Sue uses her Fire and Earth attacks on a consistent
basis, she will eventually learn Explosion spells. Other
types of hybrid spells are Lightning (Wind and Fire),
Blizzard (Wind and Water), and Forest (Water and Earth).
As one might expect from such a light-hearted adventure, the
graphics in Grandia are very bright and colorful. The 3D
backdrops are nicely done, although the 2D sprites do look a
bit out of place at times. Perhaps most impressive are the
visual effects that take place when some of the more
powerful magic spells are cast. You'll probably find
yourself engaging in combat and casting certain spells just
to watch the colorful light shows that take place. Oddly
enough, the FMV in the game is sub-par, even though the rest
of the game's graphics are well-done. Still, the occasional
cutscene blunders don't detract much from the overall
experience. An element of the graphics that does have a bit
of a negative effect on the game play is the limited view
that you get of your surroundings. Since Game Arts decided
to include reasonably sized sprites of your enemies on the
map screen, they weren't able to provide players with an
expansive look at the environments that they're dealing
with. As a result, you won't be able to spot most dead ends
until you're just about to run into them. This can make the
already tedious mazes even more frustrating, but I must say
that, in the end, allowing players to spot enemy creatures
before battles take place was worth sacrificing a more
expansive view of the playfield.
Grandia certainly isn't best known for its music, but I must
say that the battle theme on Disk One is absolutely
fantastic. It's the kind of track that will stay in your
head all day, making it so that all you want to do is go
home and play the game. Unfortunately, for some reason Game
Arts decided to use a different theme for battles on Disk
Two. I understand that they wanted to make sure that the
fights didn't become too tedious or annoying, but replacing
music that was already outstanding wasn't the best way to go
about it. The rest of the music in the game is very average
stuff, although the tracks seem to get progressively worse
as you near the end of your adventure.
Grandia's greatest weakness may well be the fact that most
of its characters simply are not very appealing. The only
character in the game who will endear herself to most gamers
is Sue, and she doesn't even stick around for the entire
adventure. The rest of the characters are rather annoying,
to be honest, and I found it somewhat irritating that
certain characters would suddenly need to leave the party in
the middle of the game. It's extremely frustrating to spend
a great deal of time strengthening a character only for him
or her to get up and leave for some reason or another. To
make things worse, the new characters that you'll need to
recruit are usually even more annoying than the characters
who already left. None of this is helped any by the game's
miserable voice acting. It's hard to like characters when
you can't even stand to hear them speak.
Another aspect of the game that many players will likely
consider to be a weakness is that Game Arts opted to
sacrifice emotion in favor of cuteness and humor. If you're
looking for a mature plot along the lines of Final Fantasy
VII, then you may very well hate Grandia. I won't hesitate
to admit that the game has some very funny moments, but
particular aspects of the plot could have been far more
convincing and effective had the designers of the game
decided to treat them a bit more seriously. For instance,
there is one scene in which Feena is reunited with Justin
after being separated from him and fearing that he had been
killed. I won't spoil the scene, but compare it with, say,
the emotional scene in Star Ocean 2 where Rena is reunited
with Claude under similar circumstances, and see which you
consider to be more effective.
While Grandia's story is well-constructed, the plot
progression seems to have a few holes in it. Justin's coming
of age isn't entirely convincing, nor is the relationship
that develops between him and Feena. For one thing, the
decision to cut Sue out of the game right in the middle of
things obviously had to do with the producers' desire to
focus more on Feena and Justin's relationship. While Rena
and Claude in Star Ocean 2 form an undeniable bond that is
strengthened by the tragedies that they help each other
through, Feena and Justin's relationship seems somewhat fake
and forced. Far more convincing are the feelings that
develop between two other characters in the game who happen
to not be members of Justin's party.
When all is said and done, I'd rank Grandia third among
Playstation RPGs, behind Star Ocean 2 and Final Fantasy VII.
It's a close third however; Grandia is a superb game, and
its virtues far outweigh its flaws. Containing many
innovative elements that will hopefully be emulated by
future role-playing releases, Grandia is a quality, polished
product that should appeal to any fan of the genre. Comes
recommended.
Overall: 9 out of 10
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