Written By Craig
Grandia is the brainchild of Gamearts, a small (but growing bigger every day) RPG developer whose previous games included the extremely popular Lunar Series, Alisa Dragoon, GunGriffon Series and Silpheed. Grandia (and Eternal Blue before it) etched Gamearts’ name on the wall of great RPG developers due to its one of a kind style, amazingly detailed graphics, innovative battle system, epic story, colorful characters and rich soundtrack. Grandia also has its fair share of fame, winning the 1998 Videogame of the Year award in Japan (even though it was released in 97 but missed the cutoff date).
“There is a legend that speaks of a time long ago when humans received special blessing from a sacred power. Proof of this blessing came in the form of the sacred soul stones, given to humans by the ”Kouyokujin” or ”beings with wings of light.” It was said that as long as the light from the sacred soul stones shone throughout the world, humans would enjoy great prosperity. However, once humans reach the peak of their prosperity, the curtains would suddenly close on their golden era; after which, only 7 of the sacred soul stones shall remain and likewise, only a few of the Kouyokujin. It is from this tale that the myth about ”Enjuru” and the ”First Century” was born. On the eastern edge of the Meshna continent lies the harbor town of Pahmu, the site of an ongoing industrial revolution. In this town lives an energetic young boy named Justin, who dreams of one day becoming an adventurer just like his father. Before Justin’s father died, he left a keepsake for his son–one of the sacred soul stones. One day, Justin and his friend Sue decide to visit the Saruto Ruins north of Pahmu. Within the ruin’s deepest recesses sleeps a memory straight out of antiquity. It is in here where Justin witnesses an event that will change his life forever.”
Grandia’s story may not be as complex as Xenogears but it holds all the right elements to makes a story epic and memorable. Grandia’s theme is an adventurous story about the light and dark sides of the human spirit. Grandia feels like a combination of Lunar, Xenogears, Galaxy Express 999 and Indiana Jones. The cast of characters in Grandia contains some of the most likable and unique characters in any videogame and fans of Lunar’s cast will instantly see the same style in Grandia’s characters. My only gripe is with the long stretches of time Grandia can go without getting any plot development, sometimes for even hours at a time. Aside from that, the plot is a memorable experience.
Grandia features a fresh and innovative battle system that combines Final Fantasy’s active time battle system and Lunar’s battle system which makes for one of the best battle systems in a RPG. You are able to see your enemies in dungeons (ala Chrono Trigger and Lunar SSSC) and the way you encounter your enemy decides who gets the upper hand in the battle. The experience system is also innovative, in order to gain new magic spells and special attacks you have to gain a certain amount of levels using that weapon/spell, for example to learn Justin’s ”W-Slash” you have to have 6 sword levels and 4 mace levels.
Grandia has some of the best-designed graphics ever seen in a videogame, the detail used in the towns and dungeons show that Gamearts did not half-ass any part of this game. The town/dungeon graphics are fully polygonal and can be rotated 360 degrees ala Xenogears and are painstakingly detailed from the broom against the wall to the light shining off the coast, each town seems to have its own personality and style. The detail comes at a price though, the characters can be pixilated at times and some areas have some slowdown. The battle graphics are sprite characters on a polygon plane and feature fluidly animated sprites and solid magic effects. Grandia also has CG-anime FMV throughout the game but don’t expect it to rival Square or Namco’s FMV since Grandia is about 2 years old.
Grandia ST rivals Xenogears and Lunar 2 as one of the best soundtracks in a videogame. This is one of Noriyuki Iwardare’s best works and features a combination of orchestrated and synthesized tracks that span a variety of styles. The music quality alone blows away the competition and raises the bar for videogame music composers everywhere. Grandia is further proof that midis are not acceptable anymore. The Japanese voice acting in Grandia is some of the best and most emotional voice acting that I have ever heard (sure I don’t understand Japanese but I can tell if the voice actors put there blood and sweat into there voices). It’s too bad that SCEA didn’t leave the Japanese voices in the English release.
SCORE:
Gameplay – 10
Graphics – 9
Sound – 9
Entertainment – 8
Overall: 9
Grandia is an epic RPG filled with great graphics, incredible gameplay, colorful characters and an adventurous story and it should be played by anyone who even remotely likes the genre. I suggest picking up the Saturn import and printing out the fan translation because the US PSX version suffers from a horrid translation from the masters of mediocrity, SCEA.
