I busted out my ps3 just so I can replay this bad boy.
Sucks I have to set up a memory card everytime I turn on the system though .
Time to bust out the Vita.
I've never played Grandia 1, but beat 2. Always wanted to try the others.
Yep.Made it to disc 2.
Woo wooooo
Has the buzz for these user picked games always been this diminutive? I feel everyone was on board for the first week, and now this thread is a ghost town. Ha
Did this happen with the other games picked too?
Even though I can't always play along, I love following along with these threads. I'd like to see them continue, when in the current form.Yep.
I'm starting to think this whole RPG club thing is a failed experiment.
This is what I figured. With the way the combat works, I'm assuming speed is the highest priority, after all if you have enough act speed you can probably cancel a lot of those attacks you would've got hit with in the first place.I'd put a pretty high priority on act. The whole delaying/canceling/reacting part of the battle system means that there's major advantages to getting more frequent turns.
This reminds me that it's been almost three years since Grandia® II Anniversary Edition release. I've heard that there's going to be follow up with touched upon re-releases (i.e. Grandia 1 or Lunar games) on Steam. But a lot of time passed since then. Did they (GungHo?) give up?
Exactly. Of course there's a limit but it's usually more optimal in Grandia to try and avoid taking damage in the first place than to lessen the amount taken per hit.This is what I figured. With the way the combat works, I'm assuming speed is the highest priority, after all if you have enough act speed you can probably cancel a lot of those attacks you would've got hit with in the first place.
One of the nuances of the system is that's not initially obvious is how cancelling the enemy only puts them back partially on the IP gauge, and they'll get their next turn faster than you will after having just attacked them. The other nice thing about defending and evading is that done successfully they mitigate damage while keeping a better turn advantage against the enemy. Defending is really powerful in Grandia, you start moving again on the IP gauge immediately, you only take 25% damage, and you regain some SP for every hit you take, while the enemy goes down to the very end of the IP gauge for having finished a turn completely. Evading is a lot harder because you need to predict how far and how fast the enemy is going to move and attack, and you straight up can't evade special abilities, but evasion only puts you back partway on the IP gauge, so if you can pull it off, you can avoid damage while getting your next turn way faster than normal.This is what I figured. With the way the combat works, I'm assuming speed is the highest priority, after all if you have enough act speed you can probably cancel a lot of those attacks you would've got hit with in the first place.
I gave Sue Fire and Earth pretty early on, and gave Justin Water. But one thing I'm always forgetting to do is right before the Save and Recover points, using the Cure spell on everyone who needs it. I always remember after I've recovered and saved.Environmental traps (like poison floors) that are near restore points or dungeon entrances (go back to the town inn) are great for getting those water skill levels up. XP for each heal use decreases as the skill levels up so you'll want to keep using more advanced heal spells since the more advanced the heal spell, the more XP it gives.
Oh this is great to know. A couple of times now I've wanted to delay someone because its not quite the right time to do their move. I didn't think to use the evade like this.If you want to get really advanced, evading to a spot close by can be used as a way to delay your turn
Wait till you play Grandia 3's version.I would love for a new Grandia game using that combat system from Grandia 2 it was perfect!
And I love how camping makes things feel like an epic journey.
Seeing the development of Justin and Feena throughout the game was really sweet. Was and still is one of the better video game romances. I smiled like an idiot during so many of their interactions, like when they're mistakenly thought as newly wed as they emerge from a church or during their moment together in their ship.
It's actually quite linear I never really felt much need to go back to old places and not sure if there were any side quests at all :/ was there any super hidden bosses or dungeons?
Alright! My wife gave birth to our second child a couple of weeks ago, so I wasn't able to join this thread early on, but I've finally found the opportunity to put a couple of hours into Grandia, and I'm enjoying it immensely. I'm currently in the Sult Ruins.
I played Grandia to completion back when it was first released, and have always considered it one of the high-water marks of PSX-era JRPGs. However, in a lot of ways, it hasn't aged well, particularly while playing it on original hardware (or PSP, where I first attempted to replay it) due to slowdown, so I've never made it more than a few hours into a replay. This time, I'm playing it via Retroarch, using GPU overclock for a consistent 30fps, and it's like a new experience.
Some thoughts:
Screenshots
- I *love* the sense of optimism and adventure. One of my favourite games of all time is Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, which shares these attributes, but Grandia takes it to another level. There's no overarching horror encroaching on the world at the get-go. In fact, it's a time of peace. Justin wants to follow in his father's footsteps and become an adventurer—to explore the world, discover knew things, dig up knowledge. In this day and age where we have grizzled Geralt from The Witcher, Lara Croft dousing people with gasoline and lighting them on fire, and beautiful but excessively violent games like Ghosts of Tsushima, it's so refreshing to return to a time when game settings were fun and joyous.
- I've seen people refer to Grandia as a Saturday Morning Cartoon, which I think is a great analogy. In a lot of ways, its tone and approach to its characters—its latent optimism—reminds me of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I admire.
- Playing at a locked 30fps via Retroarch (Beetle/Mednafen) with GPU overclock turned on is a dream. The original game was a bit too ambitious for the original PSX hardware (I haven't playing the Saturn version) and slowdown was rampant. It's silky smooth now (with the option of doubling the framerate and speed of the game, if you'd like) and helps shake a bit of rust off the 20 year old experience.
- 32-bit polygonal graphics are probably my least favourite style of graphics, and they... aren't great here. Textures are muddy, geometry is blocky and inconsistent (seams between polygons are visible everywhere), and the layout of towns/dungeons, even with the rotating camera, is a reminder of the learning curve associated with designing 3D environments in the '90s.
- Still, the world has a lot of charm, and the reliance on bright, varied, and saturated colours makes it a joy to explore.
- My memory of playing the game as a teen was that I really loved Leen and Lilly. They were both interesting in different ways and stepped outside some of the typical tropes for women in JRPGs (particularly Lilly with her pirate past and tendency to tell Justin to bugger off because she was busy running her own business.) I was pleased (and, honestly) a bit surprised that both of them have stood the test of time, and remain my favourite characters early on.
- Speaking of which, I think the thing I'm most impressed with, especially considering the game's age, is the diverse and strong cast of women.
- Dialogue, especially with random NPCs is great. I saw someone else point out that having the party members, specifically Justin, respond and interact directly with NPCs, often illustrating something about their relationship, or revealing something else about the setting/history/other characters, gives it a liveliness that many other JRPGs (especially those were NPCs seem to just shout the same generic comment into a vast void of nothingness) lack. Parm feels *alive* because Justin and Sue have an actual place within its social hierarchy. Some NPCs look down on Justin, others joke with him, some reminisce about his dad, some provide context for the world, and Justin's an integral part of these conversations—they're two way streets, and that makes all the difference.
- Good golly. The voice acting is as flat and unimpressive as I remember.
- On the other hand, the localization is much better than I was expecting. Lots of great humour. Characters all have their own personalities. Exposition is handled well. Just all around a pleasure to read, and right there with the translation for the PSX Lunar games as some of the best of the era. I give Working Designs a lot of credit for Lunar, but it's clear that Game Arts created a foundation of good writing that Working Designs was able to pull from.
- I'm still too early to comment on the battle system, since most enemies require little more than mashing the attack command, but I will say, I've always considered the Grandia-style battle system to be the best in the 'biz, and I can't wait to get deeper into the game to truly experience everything it has to offer.
(#1-4 use Retroarch with CRT-geom shader, 5-7 use Retroarch with CRT-Royale-fakebloom shader.)
Congratulations!Alright! My wife gave birth to our second child a couple of weeks ago
Absolutely, and I'm really glad they keep using the main theme as a recurring motif in big moments rather than just a song that plays on the overworld or something. It's an amazing composition.
First of, congrats on the kid! Get ready for the busy years. :p
You make a great point on the dialogue. Usually it's more of a chore talking to npc's when all they do is give a monologue and you're left wondering what your characters response would be. It would be okay if the hero was a voiceless vehicle for you to project yourself on to, but in this case Justin has a personality. Even if it is just "Imma adventurer!". So yes, having an actual dialogue instead of a monologue makes a big difference.
Thanks!
- Playing at a locked 30fps via Retroarch (Beetle/Mednafen) with GPU overclock turned on is a dream. The original game was a bit too ambitious for the original PSX hardware (I haven't playing the Saturn version) and slowdown was rampant. It's silky smooth now (with the option of doubling the framerate and speed of the game, if you'd like) and helps shake a bit of rust off the 20 year old experience.