Grandia was a JRPG released originally in Japan in 1997 and then ported to the United States in 1999. The story centers around a young boy named Justin that hangs out with his cousin Sue and dreams about one day becoming an adventurer. After a few turn of events, he gets accidentally plunged into a military plot, the potential revival of a seemingly unstoppable creature that could destroy the world and a lost civilization.
While some of that may seem generic it really is not. As the story progresses you follow Justin as he goes from being an innocent child to the world's last hope. Along the way you meet various characters such a Feena a young famed adventurer, Gadwin a warrior of honor, Rapp who is similar to Justin, Guido a talking rabbit, and Milda a beast like women. All the characters have unique traits, fighting styles, and stories of their own to tell.
Perhaps one of the most appealing attributes of Grandia is the battle style. You have to use specific weapons (swords, knives, axes) to level them up to unlock new moved. The same goes for magic, if you use fire moves, then the fire will level up and you will unlock new fire moves. It's not as easy as it sounds though because you often have to level up multiple aspects in order to unlock a move such as sword, fire, and earth.
Every aspect of Grandia is epic. The story alone is the whole new level, and there is no way you could get into this game and then walk away.
During the battle you can do a lot of things for example you can dodge attacks by telling your character to run to a different location on the battle map. This form of dodging attacks was revolutionary to RPG's. You can also choose between different attacks such as combo, critical, magic, or special moves depending on what you feel will work best in the situation. There is also the classical item option and retreat option.
The leveling up is just the way I like it because it is simple and uncomplicated. You simply do battle and when you win you receive the experience. After you get so many experience points you level up. After you level up you turn into a giant dragon. No, you don't, I'm kidding.
The leveling up is just the way I like it because it is simple and uncomplicated. You simply do battle and when you win you receive the experience. After you get so many experience points you level up. After you level up you turn into a giant dragon. No, you don't, I'm kidding.
The reason I call this game the forgotten game is while it was very well received and had a great fighting style and story it never had a chance. Why, you ask? It was released deliberately around the same time as another great RPG Final Fantasy 7 which as you may know was huge. The original plan for the game by it's creators was for it to compete with Final Fantasy 7 which did not go well. In my personal opinion, this game leaves Final Fantasy 7 in the dust.
Every aspect of Grandia is epic. The story alone is the whole new level, and there is no way you could get into this game and then walk away. It received a 9/10 from Electronic Gaming Monthly, 9/10 from IGN, 4.5/5 by Playstation Magazine, and a 9.2/10 from GameSpot. Its only downfall was the intro. The beginning of the game is rather low which probably pushed some gamers away, but the ones who pushed through the beginning found a game that would change their world forever.
Every aspect of Grandia is epic. The story alone is the whole new level, and there is no way you could get into this game and then walk away. It received a 9/10 from Electronic Gaming Monthly, 9/10 from IGN, 4.5/5 by Playstation Magazine, and a 9.2/10 from GameSpot. Its only downfall was the intro. The beginning of the game is rather low which probably pushed some gamers away, but the ones who pushed through the beginning found a game that would change their world forever.
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by Patrick Reuman | |