Customer Reviews

Grandia 2

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Grandia II is a great game that deters from what Grandia is supposed to be about. Unlike Granda 1, 2 is a quest for truth, a pilgramige undergone by Elena and Ryudo and companions as the search for the truth behind the gods of the world.

Granas and Valmar are the two Gods who warred against each other in the past, thus devestating the world and as a reult, creating the Grana Cliffs. Now, years later, the world is dying. Farming is not sucessful, and people seem to be losing hope.

Elena, a songstress of Granas seeks out a resolution to this by singing in a tower, to the north of her home village, though in the process something goes terribly wrong. Millenia is created, the dark side of Elena, who falls in love with the main character Ryudo.

The voice acting in the game is well done, apart from the annoying Roan, and deep throated Mareg. The scenes can be very emotional at times and do not feter from the plot at all.

The truth will be revealed in a shocking way, but I will not spoil it for you. There are many twists and turns in the plot that are often unpredictable, and suprising.

If you want a great game to play, that lasts for approx 40 hours, then I seriously recommend this game to you! The deep and moving story will draw you in (that is after Ryudo gets over his big ego) ...

I haven't played an RPG immensely since 6 years ago, when I spent 2 and-a-half months on Final Fantasy III (SNES). Installing this and watching the opening FMV took me right back to those good old days, abelt, with 3d animation and environments. It has re-fired my interest in the great genre of RPGs.

In Grandia 2 you take the role of Ryudo, a Geohound (think, mercinary for hire) who has to take on what seems like, at first, the simple job of playing bodyguard for a young Songstress of Granas, Elena. Of course, things take a turn for the worst once they reach the Tower near the beginning of the game, and Ryudo is thrust into a bitter power struggle between good and evil. Not the kind of job he expected to get!

OK, so the plot is the same-old, same-old in RPG land, but pushing that aside, this is RPG greatness in terms of gameplay. The 3-d environments are beautiful on a high-end video card.
Character designs are also well done, very anime-like, for being CGI renderings onscreen. Close ups (facials) on dialog boxes were hand-drawn, showing character expression when need be.

The battle system is quick and much easier to use than most RPG systems. You're going to WANT to get into fights with the monsters here...that's how much fun it was for me. Most of the game time though will be spent reading a LOT of text. You'll do a lot of character interaction, but it's where the story is told most of the time. Thankfully, to give our eyes a rest every so often, some parts (mostly the important parts of the plot) are supported by some great voice-over acting, giving this game a very anime-ish feel. The voices fit the characters well. Only annoyance was the reptitious end-battle sayings they'd use, but this is a very minor annoyance to me.

I read some reviews that pointed to problems with rendering when it comes to the FMVs and AVI overlays (ie: spell effects) during battles. I noticed no problems and no grainy-ness, but this was probably due to my using the 800x600 resolution. I think if I used the 1024x768 setting, I would have noticed it more or less. Thus I have no complaints here based on the res. I used.

The music is performed by real-live musicians, and they do a good job. Most of the soundtrack mixes classical and electric insruments together. My only (minor) gripe here is due to memory constraints, it seems they have to fade the area's track out, and repeat from the start again (this is due to the Dreamcast setup, not the PC, since this is a port of the Dreamcast version). The only peices that are played completely through are the end credit roll theme, and the 2 vocal peices...both vocal peices which are done in some unknown language (probably made up for the game, probably Japanese, who knows?), but none-the-less, nearly put me to sleep....it was 'that' relaxing. Sound effects are realistic, and crisp.

I think I've raved on enough. Grandia 2 is worth playing through at least once. You'll instantly get sucked in and won't want to come out until you've finished. Especially towards the end of the game, you connect with the characters...you feel what they feel. You'll get a good 40-50 hours out of this one if you battle every monster and talk to every person in every town.

What more can I say? Get this....now!!

For the 1st time in a few years .. I finally get a PC game that doesn't invlove mindless, online gut exploding action that tends to get tedious and boring, and also tend to have no story, no exciting battle system, no funny anime characters, no amazing love story, no characters with badly done-yet funny voice acting :P, etc.

When I got Grandia 2.. although I was a major fan of the 1st Grandia , I didn't expect I'd actually enjoy it, since I easily lost interest in the other 1st person games I purchased, plus the fact that I haven't played a good RPG in a while.

On the contrary, I found that this game, with its story, characters, the way it concentrates on each character's personality and how their relations get stronger.. the feelings and emotions it gets you invloved in .. the happiness, anger, fear and love, AND and the clever, strategic battle system, was unlike anything I've seen on PC in a while. I wish there could have be more PC games like this, as sorrowfully one doesn't have access to his console nowadays due to a baby bro hogging it all day with megaman games :/

When I played this game, I had final exams coming, but the game was so amazingly addictive to the extent that I was feeling the fear the main characters felt near the end.. and wasn't able to do anything or study until I finished the game..

It's really beautiful..

and like some may say.. a "gem" in the RPG world :)

It's bit on the extreme fantasy side but beautiful nontheless:)

I still have that exam after tomorrow :P. I really hope I stop thinking about the game and study. I just can't get it out of my mind..

Great game you should buy, and I wish companies could release more titles like this for PC for a change :)

Hope this review was of some help :)

check with ubi soft site before buying their games if you use 2000 or xp / no patches for " older " games

I'd say this game is cool for pc
with GF4 440MX, use 1024x768 resolution, the graphic is excellent, even dreamcast don't match
the gameplay is nice, 360 degree is a big help, AI option may speed the battle up or screw up, by your choice
if you ever played dreamcast or PS2 version, and your pc has decent config, get it
my config
AMD XP 2500+
2x256 2CH DDR
GF4 440MX

USB gamepad is more recommended

in addition, it runs well in xp

To me, the Final Fantasy series is continously the benchmark for console-type RPGs. Great characters, storylines, interesting combat and strategy are trademarks for this series.

Grandia 2 is an interesting adaption of the Final Fantasy style, with some great innovations.

Their "real-time" battle system is simply amazing and a great innovation. Characters doing "combo"' (multiple hits) can actually see their characters taking turns attacking one monster, in real-time (no pausing or waiting for one character to finish their turn). Selecting a command pauses the battle - so things never get too out of hand. This is hands down the best battle system I've ever played in an RPG.

Two, their camera movements are fluid (360 degree rotation for the most part); I never have to wait for the PC to load up the scene. Its an addictive way to travelling and searching for hidden items and monsters.

The music is so-so, the dialogoue is sometimes great and sometimes just okay. I *highly* recommend a control pad for the PC, since the keyboard controls will have to pressing everywhere in the screen.

Overall, Grandia 2 isn't merely a Final Fantasy knock-off, but a start to a great RPG series of its own.

I don't feel this game is getting NEARLY enough credit! This is undoubtedly, the greatest battle system ever to exist! I can't recommend it enough. You must get this game, from it's music to it's graphics to it's story- everything is top notch. Once again, I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes to play a good game!

I'm sure this game is fairly good. That said, I need to issue a notice and warning to all potential future buyers of this product.

It is not by fault of any seller really. It seems to be with the game publisher and manufacturer. Ubisoft is not known for customer support as they don't really believe in it. Quality control for most if not all of their products seem non-existant.

Do a thorough internet search and you'll get a feel that about 25-35% of people cannot install this game due to faulty manufacturig processes. So be warned.

Grandia 2 is an awesome game. However its pc version falls way short compared to its ps2 version. If you have a ps2 get it for ps2 and if not then get ps2 and get the game.

The seller was worried that it wouldn't work on Win 7, but it works great!

I loved this game on the Dreamcast when it first came out. Playing it again feels like a blast from the past.

Love it