A long time ago, the Grandia series was once considered one of Sega's top rpg series. However like with most things that were once a part of Sega, the series became lost during Sega's transition from a console company into a full time third party game publisher. The series did managed to make its way to the Playstation 2 console but the games that were released on the Playstation 2 were either ports or an off shoot game of the series than an actual game sequel from the series. Case in point, Grandia II was nothing more than a port game from the Dreamcast console. By the time it came over to the Playstation 2, it was considered to be old and obsolete by Playstation 2 rpg standards. Grandia Xtreme was made for the Playstation 2 but it was a game that was an off shoot from the series than an actual sequel from the series. Both games were met with little success on the Playstation 2. In what is considered to be the final year for the Playstation 2, the release of Grandia III promises fans a return to the grass roots of the series with an epic adventure and story. Will Grandia III be able to breathe life into this long lost series again and give hope to those long lost Grandia fans something to cheer about? The answer is an astounding yes. We're going to give this game an inside and out look as to just why Grandia III is the best Grandia game of them all.
STORY
Let our journey begin....
Can't you see that it's evil?
Ever since he was a boy, Yuki dreamed of one day flying to the mainland on an airplane just like his hero, Captain Schmidt. Now in the darkness of night, his dream is about to come true as he is preparing to test flight the airplane he had just finished building earlier during the day. The test flight seemed to go smoothly until the plane started to spin out of control due to being overweight because of Yuki's mother, Miranda, who had decided to board the plane without Yuki's knowledge. As the two argue with one another while the plane was crashing, they witnessed a scene on the ground of a carriage driven by a girl being chased by men on horses. The crash of Yuki's plane actually interfered with the pursuit of the girl by those men. Sensing the girl is in trouble, Yuki and Miranda, raced to find the girl first. Upon arriving to help the girl, she introduced herself as Alfina. Alfina did not reveal why she was being chased but only that she needed to get to the temple of Arcriff. Yuki and Miranda agreed to help Alfina by taking her to the city of Mendi. From there Alfina can begin her journey to the temple. The trip however will require the need to travel the seas to reach the mainland. They befriended and enlisted the aid of Alonso, a captain of a ship. During the journey to the mainland, the group learned that Alfina is a communicator, a being who can talk to the Guardians. The world seems to be headed toward destruction as cities and towns are randomly being swallowed up by unknown spheres popping up all over the world. It is said that those that were swallowed up by the spheres were sent to a realm called the Verse Realm. Alfina mission as a communicator is to talk to the Guardians to find out what is wrong with the world and how to save the world. As the group reached Mendi City, Yuki decided to accompany Alfina on her journey to Arcriff Temple. Yuki and Alfina said their good byes to Miranda and Alonso and set off on a long trip to Arcriff Temple. Oh this journey, they will meet new friends, learn the mysteries of the Guardians, and the secret of the Verse Realm. A story that will bring hope, joy, and sadness to gamers all around. The story itself feels more like a long CG movie than an rpg story due to the many story cut scenes with excellent voice acting. There really is a lot of story cut scenes here. This rpg game is a pure story rpg game so those looking for a long story here won't be disappointed. The story itself has a blend of everything, romance, action, fantasy, and adventure. The one drawback that this story seem to have is that the main characters aren't as likeable as they can be. And if the characters aren't 100% likeable than the story might not be as fun and exciting as it can be as the characters are the ones that bring the story to life. Even though the story was long and plays out like a movie, by the end of it, I wasn't overwhelmed by the story as I should be for such an epic adventure. I believe the reason for that is because while watching the story unfold, you don't really sense that the world really is in danger of destruction as the story wants us to believe. I believe this is due to the fact that the story never really explained clearly just what the purpose and motives that the villains were trying to achieve in the story. There's just some hidden factor or reason that just make the story fall short of being a great story. And that hidden factor will vary with each gamer I believe. The best way to put it is that it's a good story but not a memorable good story.
Score 8/10
CHARACTERS
We stand together as heroes.
The main cast of Grandia III consists of 4 main characters and they are, Yuki, Alfina, Ulf, and Dahna. However during the beginning of your journey and near the end of your journey, you will say good bye to old friends and meet new friends on the way that will become part of your group temporarily. At the beginning of the story, the 4 main characters were Yuki, Alfina, Miranda, and Alonso. When the real adventure to save the world begins, you'll say good bye to Miranda and Alonso and the stable core group for most of your journey will be the 4 characters mention at the beginning of this section. Another character name Hect will join your group near the end of the story. Now interestingly enough, all of these characters are developed quite nicely as part of the storyline. Their characteristic and historic past will all be revealed to us as we go deeper into the game. You can say the developments of these characters are integrated parts of the entire story which is a good thing. You want to have feelings such as joy, sorrow, and hope for these characters because if you have feelings for these characters than these characters become more than just some characters that you see on a tv screen, these characters become people that you can relate to. This is what the story tries to do. Unfortunately tries is the right word here because in the end, no matter how much time the story focuses on the development of these characters, you just can't develop a strong feeling for them. In the end these characters lack two qualities that make them great memorable characters and they are charisma and likeability. No matter how much personalities these characters have, they just come off in the end a bit too boring for gamers. The coupling of Yuki and Alfina seem too force together to be believable and at times their personalities seem more irritating than anything else. You look at these two and you don't see any reason or chemistry on these two characters that would make them a couple at all. On the other hand, Dahna and Ulf seem to lack the charisma that is needed to make them really likable. They come off a bit too ordinary in a story. Ordinary isn't a good thing because you want characters to be interesting. The transition of introducing temporary main characters and seeing them leave and never being mention again in the story is a bit unsatisfying too, especially when these characters have those charismatic and likeable personalities that the main characters seem to lack. To sum it up, the game spends a great effort into developing these characters but in the end, they just aren't as likeable as they should be or can be to make them great memorable characters.
Score: 8/10
GRAPHICS
The beauty of this world.
Getting straight to the point, Grandia III provides one of the best visual graphics around. You are talking about graphics that rivals the heavy weight champs such as the Final Fantasy and Xenosaga series. What make the graphics such an awe to behold are the background environments. You start the game with just being stunned at just how great the world of Grandia III looks but as you go deeper and deeper into the game, you can't help but be star stuck at just how gorgeous and colorful the world of Grandia III is. The game designers left nothing untouched. Everything in this game is done with great attention to details to ensure a realistic look to this world. The grass, the trees, the skies, the clouds, the ocean, the leaves falling on to the ground, and the birds flying in the sky, they all look beautiful with the right touch of colors used. The more you explore this world, the more you want to just stop and sightsee for a bit. I have never been this amaze and awe struck at the background environmental graphics in a game like this before. That alone should tell you just how good the graphics are. But… and yes there is a but here as there's no such thing as perfection, the only one draw back is that the character models could have been designed a bit better. Now don't get me wrong, the character models are good but they weren't given the kind of detailed to attention as the background environments were given. At times the character models looked a bit too plain when you compare it to the rest of the game graphics. The character models also don't have that realistic look to them as they background environments. The bright side is that while the design of the models could have been a bit better, their animations and movements are realistically great. The game could also use some stronger or better FMV for cut scenes too instead of the softer CG ones. These are just minor points as the game as a whole is visually impressive to the point where you really can't be disappointed at all.
Score: 9/10
MUSIC
I just want to play this sad violin theme.
Much like with the graphics, the musical scores in this game won't disappoint you at all. This game pretty much boast all sort of musical themes. You have your main theme which is a J-Pop song down to the instrumental musical themes done in violin, piano, and even guitar. You also have some Japanese songs left in their original forms, instead of being translated to English ones. Each musical score is played beautifully in the game storyline and at the right moment too. Especially those key musical scores playing at certain story cut scenes giving that special feel and moment in the story. The music in this game make the story seems more than just an rpg story but an rpg movie instead. The downside in terms of the music is that they aren't as memorable as they can be. As great as the music is when you are playing the game, once you finish with the game, none of the music will have a very lasting effect on you to the point where a couple of months down the road, you'll remember most of the music from this game. But the connection between the music and the story as you play the game is just perfect. Another added bonus is that the sound effects in the game are top notch as well. You can hear birds chirping in the background, leaves bristling about, and movement of footsteps and other smaller things that help bring this Grandia III world to life. The voice acting is done in a professional manner that you won't be disappointed as well. From a personal view point, I didn't find any faults in any of the voices at all. Overall, an excellent job in the soundtrack of Grandia III, just not as memorable as you liked it to be down the road.
Score: 9/10
GAMEPLAY
I hit em high and you hit em low.
This is what you call an Aerial attack.
Game Information
Genre: Traditional Rpg
Publisher: Square Enix
Disc: 2 DVD Discs
Memory: 85 KB
Players: 1 Player Mode
Analog Control: Yes
Digital Control: Yes
Rating: Teen
Release: February 2006
If you've played Grandia Xtreme before than you shouldn't have any problems picking up the mechanics of the game system since Grandia III system is an improve version of Grandia Xtreme. And even if you haven't played Grandia Xtreme before, you still won't have much trouble at all in learning the low down of the gameplay. The gameplay follows the flow of the storyline in a straight arrow so you shouldn't have any problems figuring out where to go and what to do as the story itself will let you know on what your next move is. Each town or dungeon is provided with a mini map at the very bottom left corner of your screen to ensure you won't get lost at all. Dungeons or battle field areas are like mazes but these mazes aren't very difficult to navigate at all. In towns you can shop for magic and equipments just like any other regular rpg game. Save points can also be found at your local Inns and in dungeon areas. You can also set up skills and magic at save points as well as fully recover all HP and MP at some save points. Now in dungeons or battle fields, you'll see monsters roaming about. If you go near a roaming monster, it will rush toward you. If touch by a rushing monster you will be sent to a battle. There are ways to avoid rushing monsters or even get the surprise attack on monsters as well. By having roaming monsters, the game takes out the use of random battle encounters. The battle system is still base on a turn base system but it's more of a combo of turn base and action fights since the fighters are actually running around in a 3-D battle environment. The one thing you will notice is that the difficulty of the game is medium to hard. There will be many times where you will be frustrated with getting wiped by regular fights with roaming monsters and having to start over again. That's how challenging this game can be. This is due to the fact that pretty much all of the monsters have a faster speed turn than you do. They pretty much get 2 turn for every 1 turn you get. This might not be a problem when facing a small number of monsters but they can easily overwhelm you if you end up facing too many of them. And with the Cancel feature in this game, too many monsters means they can easily kill everyone off before you can even get a turn in due to some of the monsters canceling all of your party members turn. Add into the fact that some of these monsters hit really hard that they can sometimes one hit kill your weaker female party members right off the bat putting you in a defensive mode at the very beginning of the battle. But on the bright side, the fact that the game is actually challenging to play can make it more interesting and fun. Here are some of the traditional Grandia features that most have come to love.
Skills: You can buy personal skills from Skill Shops or you can extract
skills from Skill Books. The number of skills a character can equip depends on
the level of their skills. You can only equip skills at Save Points or at a Skill
Shop. Magic: Much like with skills, magic you can either buy at Magic Shops or
extract from Mana Eggs. Your magic level determines the number of magic you can
equip. In order to use magic, you must first equip the magic at Magic Shops or
at a Save Point. Skill Books: Skill Books have two purpose. The first purpose is that depending
on the Skill Book, each skill book will boost the level of certain skills that
you have equip, making the skills you have equip more effective. The second purpose
is to obtain rare skills that you can't buy at Skill Shops. Each Book has a number
of skills attach to the book. By taking the Skill Book to a Skill Shop, you can
have those skills extracted for you to use. However the result of extracting the
skills is the destruction of the book. Mana Eggs: Mana Eggs help boost the level and power of certain magic you have equip. What type of Mana Eggs you can equip also depends on the level of your magic. And much like with Skill Books, you can extract magic from the Mana Eggs at Magic Shops. Egg Fusion: Mana Egg fusion can be done at certain magic shops. The purpose
of fusing different Mana Eggs is to obtain high level Mana Eggs that you can't
find in the game as well as create new Mana Eggs with high level magic spells.
This is the only way to actually obtain the best spells in the game, is through
Egg Fusion and extracting the magic from the resulting Mana Egg. First Strike: With monsters roaming around and coming right after you once you get near them, the only way to get an advantage of having a surprise attack on them or even giving you a chance to avoid the battle, is by swinging you sword right at the monster while it moves toward you. This will give you a first strike advantage. The monster will be temporary stunned. At this point you can just run pass the monster while its stunned to avoid a battle all together or just rush at the monster while its stunned. You'll get the surprise attack advantage if you decide to take on the monster while it's stunned. IP Gauge: This is a turn base action system that uses the IP Gauge as a way to judge the order of combat between your party members and the monsters you encounter. The IP Gauge is broken down into several areas and they are: Waiting, COM: enter your command, Waiting to execute command, and Act: execute the command. The speed between Waiting and Act is determined by what action you have your character doing. Combos: Combos are basically your regular 1-3 hit attacks that does small
damage but adds up overall. It doesn't have any special effect or purpose. In
essence it's the game's basic attack function. Criticals: Critical attack is a one hit attack that does big damage but
unlike combos, critical attack have two special effects that it can cause. It
can send an enemy up in the air to set up an aerial combo attack or it can cancel
an enemy attack. Critical attack plays a very important role in canceling enemies'
action against you. While an enemy is in the Waiting to execute command mode,
it's possible to cancel their action and move them back to the Waiting mode in
the IP Gauge by hitting them with a critical attack. This is a good way to control
the battle by not getting besieged by being swarmed with attacks by your enemies.
The downside is that the enemies can also cancel your actions with their critical
attacks. There are times where you can easily get wiped out by the enemies as
they besieged you and cancel all your attempts at attacking and healing, thus
wiping you out before you even have a chance of doing anything. Aerial Combos: You can set up a very cool aerial combo attack by having the first person knock a monster up in the air. Now while the monster is still up in the air during the other characters Act turn, they will attack the monster in mid air causing an aerial combo attack. If you manage to kill a monster with an Aerial Combo, it is known as an Aerial Finish. Special Moves: All characters have their own special move that they will learn as they level up. Special Moves consume SP so the number of times that you can use Special Moves depends on how much SP you have left. Now each Special Move has 5 Secret Methods that can be learned. Secret Methods are really added effects on the Special Move to help the Special Move be executed faster or be more potent in their attack power. Learning Secret Methods is really random. Orbs: Once you start meeting up with the Guardians on your journey, you will gain their power through the use of Guardian Orbs. Each Guardian Orb has different effect and uses. Once you use an Orb it will need to be refilled over time. Due to this fact, it's best to save the use of Orb on boss fights only.
If you look at most of the features, the gameplay is pretty much a rehash of Grandia Xtreme, it's still a fun game to play though and frustrating at times too due to the difficulty in some battles. Sure the game might be a bit too basic for some individuals since it's still turn base using magic and combo attacks but you can't complain that the game is too boring with too many random battles, or even too easy with no challenge. The battle system while base on a turn base system, is interactive enough that allows gamers to be engage in the fight as you unleash devastating magic and special tech moves on your opponents that you won't simply get bored with just choosing commands for each character to do. The balance between having to fight and not wanting to fight is also good for gamers too as the game pretty much put that choice in the hands of the gamer. Even though there aren't a lot of new unique features in this game, what features they do have is enough to keep you interested in the game. Clearly the main focal point of Grandia III is its story, graphics, and music. The gameplay is just the tool for you to use while you watch the story unfold. The gameplay itself won't carry this game alone but with the right combination of a good story, characters, graphics, and music, it can be an intricate part of a good rpg game and this is what you have here. You won't be dazzle by the experience of playing the game but you will definitely enjoy it since there's nothing too special in the gameplay that you haven't seen before.
Score: 8/10
EXTRAS/REPLAY
The game has no extras?
Okay let's be honest here, this game offers nothing in terms of extras and replay value. There are no side quests to be found. No extra boss fights, no extra dungeons to explore, and no New Game+ to be had. There's absolutely nothing for those looking for more than just the story adventure. The game does offer only one and I repeat one small mini game call Arrange Dice where you can win some stuff by playing it. But in the end, Grandia III is nothing more than simply a pure rpg story game. You can say it is the grass root on what rpg is about before all the extras and replay features that were introduced to rpgs a few years back. Unfortunately in today's rpgs, gamers need to have something more than simply an rpg story adventure. Especially with the cost of rpg games being higher than the average video game, buyers want to get the most out of the money they spend it on. Gamers want to have other things to do in the game than simply following a linear storyline. They want to be able to do side quests for more extra side stories attach to the main story. They want to be able to fight some harder optional bosses and explore extra challenging dungeons that the storyline gameplay doesn't provide. You also want to give gamers a reason to play this game again. This game just doesn't provide any of that. This is more or less a one shot game where once you finish with the story game, its over and you move onto another rpg game. It's too bad too because with such an epic story and quest, you hope there's something more that the game can offer to you.
Score: 2/10
If you look at the overall score for Grandia III, you can clearly tell that by not having any extras or replay value in the game, the overall score took a big hit. In a strange way, the overall score is correct but yet at the same time it's a bit misleading. If you judge Grandia III as a total package rpg game than the overall score is correct. However if you are willing to forgive an rpg game that doesn't provide any extras or replay value and judge the game base solely on gameplay and story then you notice that the score for Grandia III would be an 8.4 instead of a 7.3. From that stand point, we highly recommend any true rpg fan to pick up this game. Visually, musically, and gameplay wise, this game really is a good rpg game that rpg fans would want to get their hands on. It might be a one shot play through rpg game but it's a good one shot play through rpg game that you don't want to miss out on. And that's the bottom line.
