Grandia 2

by UBI Soft

Product Features

• Beautiful real-time 3D graphics and over 20 minutes of high-resolution CG graphics.
• Innovative, highly customizable combat system - part real-time, part turn-based.
• Fully 3D world with hundreds upon hundreds of people to interact with.
• Includes additional CD of Grandia II music as selected by composer Noriyuki Iwadare.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005T7ZP
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: January 29, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,104 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #14 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Strategy

Product Description

Platform: PlayStation2

Amazon.com Review

See if this story line sounds familiar. You're part of an outcast mercenary class that upstanding folk don't want around until there's trouble. You're sent on a mission alongside an innocent, idealistic woman with whom you don't immediately get along. Forces of darkness, safely contained until recently, have escaped and are threatening a world-ending clash with the forces of light unless you successfully intercede. This is one of the safest templates for console role-playing games, and it pretty much covers the story in Grandia II.

Thankfully, everything else in the game is fresh and provides hours upon hours of fun. The backdrops and character designs are colorful without being flashy, the game has a great pace (for an RPG), and players never have to stand around too long looking for the next thing to do. Even the writing, within its cookie-cutter plot, is smart, well translated, and occasionally funny.

The game's strongest element, however, is its battle system. Taking the best of turn-based and real-time battle engines, Grandia II forces you to choose your moves carefully with respect to timing and position. The battles are very simple in the beginning, but grow increasingly complex as you fight larger numbers of monsters with a growing party of allies. How you meet your encounters--whether you initiate the fight, are ambushed, or meet head on--affects both the timing of the blows and the positions of the contestants. Battles emphasize counterattacks and combination blows, but you'll soon find that movement and defense keep you alive against the tougher enemies. Elemental magic, items, and skill books are just icing on the cake. Even if the battles do grow old, the random fights are fairly easy to avoid, and a versatile AI option lets you use cruise control through the rest.

Grandia II may be just the traditional role-playing game for which Dreamcast owners have been waiting. The question of whether it's too traditional doesn't matter, as it offers a better experience than most that have come before. --Porter B. Hall

Note: This review refers to the Dreamcast version of the game.

Pros:

• Battle system creates interesting, complex fights
• Solid, traditional role-playing game for a system with few others in the genre

Cons:

• Predictable plot and characters

Product Description

Grandia II marks the return of GameArts' classic franchise. Offering a wide array of characters, a deep and involving storyline and a combat system above and beyond all others, Grandia II harnesses the power of the PlayStation 2. You'll interact with hundreds of characters as you work to stop the rebirth of Valmar, the God of Darkness. Watch as the story unfolds through cinematic cut-scenes with voice-over. Grandia II is an RPG of epic proportions that no serious gamer should miss.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good for a port and even better for an RPG, April 25, 2002

By 

S. Rhodes - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Grandia 2 (Video Game)

I still think its sad that people don't know of RPGs such as Grandia or Grandia II. I think its even sadder that people think the only good RPG out there is Final Fantasy when Grandia II is a gem.

Anyway, while the graphics lack a little (Its a port of the 1999 version on Dreamcast so I understand that), the plot/story is solid and the battle system is awesome, and character developement is very much perfect.

As said, graphics are good, but for the 1000th time. Its not the graphics but the story thats important, and not just what the story is but how it is told, and Grandia II does this very well. While the story is something I've seen before (but then again so was FFVII and I loved that...) it was played out to its full extent. And this time unlike most RPGs, the story focuses more on the characters rather than the enviroment that surrounds them, which helps character developement.

The battle system is unique and with the exception of the first Grandia and FFX, actually requires me to use strategy and think before I act, unlike most other RPGs that forces me to see how fast I can end a battle (hence more Final Fantasy). However, while the battle system is very good, if you exploit it, the game becomes very easy. In fact not once did I ever see the words "Game Over" or ever get a single character KO'd throughout the game.

The Characters actually shine with an Aura that makes them memorable characters much like in the first Grandia. Magic animation is beautiful and not to mention that each character gets there own skills, making them more unique than before.

Also, while it doesn't seem like much, I was disappointed after playing the first Grandia with how many spells were in this one. While 40 spells is indeed a lot, the first 80 spells the first Grandia had gave me more time to tweek with my characters stats. Not to mention that in this one everyone only has four moves. In the first one they had 12 each.

The music, while not as good as in the first Grandia, really sets the mood. Boss fight music (especially when fighting parts of Valmar) is very good, and I find myself humming the tunes.

Using moves is done by using SP and learning moves requires SC. This is like expeirience points only more like coins to learn and raise levels of the move.

Anyway, the game is extremely good and I happen to like Grandia more than Final Fantasy. Not because of battling, but because of freedome as well. You won't be wrong in choosing this game.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hmm... well, hooray for RPGs., July 22, 2002

By 

"darth_emm" (Charlotte, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grandia 2 (Video Game)

I'm just gonna start by saying that I love this game. I've played through all of the Dreamcast version, and over half of the PS2 version. I know that the plot's pretty predictable to anyone who's ever picked up a fantasy book, but it's still fun. The characters are pretty predictable as well, but they're fun too. They're all here: sarcastic hero, sweet priestess, optimistic kid, not-really-that-evil demon, wise beast-person, unfeeling robot, overzealous priestess, evil guy with a connection to the hero who turns out not to be evil, you get the idea.
I've also played FFX, which many people are comparing this to. Stop it. FFX was revolutionary in the way it used graphics and voice acting, plus it had a really original story. It's a wonderful game. Grandia 2 is wonderfully not original. That's the point. It feels exactly like an old, 2-d RPG that got made 3-d by accident. For anyone who's worn out their copies of Lunar or the older FF games, this game is great.
The graphics are very cute, not to mention detailed like crazy. The SD character designs (think FF9) may be a turn-off for some, but you get used to them. The spell effects are sharp and clear. Just take a look at Elena's White Apocalypse or Millenia's Fallen Wings. The backgrounds are varied well, and the town designs are all very cool.
The music is basically unremarkable. There are only a few stand-out tracks: The part at the tower with the weird wailing, the great rift background music, and the aira's space background music. The voice acting is an abberation to god. The dialogue is already predictably and often very cheesy, and people saying it just makes it worse. There are three good voices in the game: Tio, Millenia, and Melfice. I recommend setting your tv to mute for Ryudo or Elena, especially if they're talking to each other.
The magic system is really good. Just about the best I've ever seen. Magic is contained in mana eggs, which level up individually from the characters using magic coins. The eggs are completely interchangable, so if you have a character that you know has a high magic level and you want them to be the healer instead of being the 'rain fire on the enemy' person, just switch the eggs. All characters have four special attacks that are leveled up using special coins. ALSO, you can aquire skill books from boss fights that will let you use special coins to enhance character attributes. As you level up, you can equip more and more skills.
Unfortunately, the PS2 version is indeed inferior to the Dreamcast version. Incredibly, you get slow down on the PS2, even though it has faster processing speed. There are a few graphics glitches as well: The gravity spell has a consistent glitch, the XP screen at the end of a battle will sometimes go pale and neon, and (this has only happened once) sometimes the characters will looks their textures and colors.
The difficulty level is basically easy. In once through the entire DC version and most of the way through the PS2 version, I've died 4 times, and 2 of them were in the same place. The only place where it's really necessary to actually go back and level up before a boss is Aira's Space. It's basically impossible to beat that boss if you're not at least level 29.
On the whole, if you have a dreamcast, this is probably the best RPG out for it (though I'm not exactly keeping up with the DC now it's obsolete). If you have a PS2, you should probably think hard before you buy it, or rent it first and then make a decision.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It was fun, simply fun..., May 6, 2002

By 

Dressi "K N D" (Gainesville, Ga United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grandia 2 (Video Game)

And being fun is what it's all about, right? Yeah graphics, yeah story line... those too can make a game worth it... but just all around fun is another part of a game that can just make it good for those long endless, half-mindless (in this case, really mindless) leveling sessions a lot of people do with RPG characters.

PROS: a unique battle system that's enjoyable and unique. The skill system is very unique and works on a point system. Customizing characters can provide for a whole new game experience and the development of new and interesting strategies.

CONS: the graphics are a little buggy (two common combat glitches will occur half the time) and the PS2 even slows down the performance just to handle the demand, could have been reworked. The music gets on my nerves in a lot of places, no Uematsu or Mitsuda... sounds a lot like Mega Man Legends. The voiceovers a great but there are too few of them.

The battle system is a nice new gem that shines brightly. It involves several things. Ok so you have a character and he progesses through this IP gauge based on his Agility and Speed. At the last quarter of the gauge comes the Command point where the character enters a command. Then he progesses to the Action, the end of the IP guage, where he executes the command. This short stretch between Com and Act is used for spell-casting time or the time it takes to charge or prepare a technique. Simpler commands like attack take hardly any time and the more you know the spell or skill the less time it takes. Some skills can be mastered out so that they occur instantly.

There are a who new set of commands for hte battle system which include defence, evade, combo(2 good hits, which hits for more HP damage) critical (a strong hit that cancles any command and knocks the target back in the IP guage, hits for less HP than the combo) and skills and magic and, of course, items. There is a chance to escape the battle.

The skill ranking system works on three things, XP, Skill Coins, (SC) and Magic Coints (MC). The XP level up characters, duh. The SC and MC are distributed among three more things... Moves (or character skills) use SC and Mana Eggs (Magic containing eggs) use MC. There are also skill books which can use either SC or MC. Moves are personal character skills... simple enough. Mana Eggs contain a list of spells that the character has access to if he/she has the mana egg equiped (only one can be equiped at a time). The Skill books are a list of skills that grant new abilities and attributes or 'up' current stats and attributes like HP MP, Speed, one grants evasion, one grands counter attack. Every entry in these Eggs, Books or character moves has 5 ranks, once filled up it is maxed out. Some can take 800 coins for their final ranks while some are around the 6000 mark.

Then there are the items, weapon, armor, headgear, footing, and accessory which can help modify your character. Experimenting and mixing all these around provides for a great customization and ability to up your party to its potential. Though you will see that certain characters fit certain roles and you just might end up not customizing them but advancing their natrual abilities.

The Story line is a little wierd and provides a few surprises along the way. The characters are smart (in most places) and don't do stupid things or not do the smart thing that could have prevented everything (Like if Fate had only started explaining first instead of attacking then maybe Serge would have listened and the Dragons would have lost -ChronoCross-). It is a rather easy game and doesn't have much replay value, excpet for customizing the characters and trying out new combinations of skills and Coin distribution. But i have never had a character die and have only fought 3 bosses that posed any threat, even the final boss seemed too easy at level 80, didn'y even heal once. There is only one secret in the game and no sidequests. But, like i said, it was simply fun... that's about it. No FF7 here but defenitly worth a rent or two, can be beaten in less than 50 hours.

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