Platform: PS2
Published by: Square Enix
Price: US$49.99
The first time I ever played a Grandia game was back on the Sega Dreamcast. Considering that Skies of Arcadia was the only other RPG worth playing as far as American releases go, it managed to make quite an impression on me. It’s been a long time coming, but Grandia III is finally here…and it was almost worth the wait.
The story revolves around a young wannabe pilot who is finally ready to set forth from his home in his airplane, only to be set back by his overbearing mother who snuck on board and drastically overreached the weight boundaries on the flight. Before crashing, the boy pilot, Yuki, also caught notice of a young elfin girl escaping pursuers. Feeling a bit heroic, he decides to stand in and help her. The result is a grand adventure that puts the girl against her brother, with Yuki and a small cast of characters joining into the fray. The story is hardly anything to get excited about, in fact, its pretty standard RPG fare. The script is fairly decent, but does manage to fall into a well of clichés at times, almost to the point of following some hidden RPG writer’s manual.
The game does look beautiful, though, and as we’ve seen with some recent PS2 releases, the developers have really pushed the envelope to deliver something pretty breathtaking. The area/weather effects and character models are very impressive for the aging hardware and are probably the reason for the game being two discs, as the length of the game is fairly short.
Grandia III’s battle system is pretty similar to the past incarnations of the game. It’s pretty strategic, and can take a bit to get used to if you’ve not played a game in the series before. When a battle begins, in the upper left corner you’ll have a circle with a series of rings. Each ring represents a stage in the battle, with the idea being that you can set up attacks to disrupt your opponent’s attacks, thus making the battle much easier as a whole. It keeps each fight fresh, but can also slow things down, particularly when fighting against a boss. It’s still better than just spamming the hell out of an attack button, so I can’t find much fault with it.
You’re able to put a decent amount of customization into each character, ranging from the ability to swap out magic attacks, special skills, mana boosts, and more. All of this can be done from within towns or save points, of which there are plenty. Also, as with most RPG’s, your characters will improve with time, boosting already existing attacks, learning new ones, etc, etc.
However, unlike a lot of modern RPG’s, you won’t encounter a series of side quests to get optional items or gear. In fact, Grandia III is really straight forward, and streamlined almost to a fault. The game clocks in at about 25 hours, which is a bit disappointing considering how long the wait has been for this sequel. Those expecting something in the range of Dragon Quest VIII will be disappointed, but this might be just the thing for someone looking for a quick RPG fix.
All together, Grandia III isn’t a bad game at all, but fails to be anything spectacular. We’ve seen better in recent months and it’s a shame that the developers couldn’t have stepped things up a bit for a game as anticipated as this one was. Still, it offers a very interesting combat system, some incredible visuals, but manages to offset itself with a bland and uninspired story. If you’ve been looking forward to the title, it’s still worth checking out, but I’d be a bit wary before paying full price for it.
- Dustin Chadwell currently resides in Ohio, USA. He's been playing video games since the Atari 2600, and believes he can whoop anyone's ass in Joust, and Galaga. Probably not Halo 2 though. New technology tends to confuse him.