Grandia (Prima's Official Strategy Guide) [Paperback]

Dimension Publishing (Author)

Book Description

Series: Prima's Official Strategy Guide | Publication Date: October 27, 1999

Over 1,000 full-color screen shots help describe the world Grandia in full detail.
Complete listing of all items, weapons, magic, and equipment.
Step-by-step walkthrough leads players through all of Justin's adventures.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Immerse yourself in the world of Grandia.

From the Back Cover

Immerse yourself in the world of Grandia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Prima Games (October 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761526528
• ISBN-13: 978-0761526520
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #679,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Shockingly incomplete, December 19, 1999

By 

Michael A. Benedetto (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Grandia (Prima's Official Strategy Guide) (Paperback)

The habit of most software stores of shrinkwrapping their books is infuriating sometimes, since it's tough to figure out from the cover whether a guide is likely to be helpful. The fact that this is the official guide might lead some to believe that it's of high quality; nothing could be further from the truth.

Ideally, RPG guides should spoil little of the plot while revealing most of the secrets and winning strategies. This book does the opposite: it reveals virtually every turn of the plot, and discusses little of the gameplay. There aren't any maps of the tough dungeons (the "go north, then go east" directions are impossible to follow), tips for defeating bosses, lists of the treasure to be found in any particular place, listings of base character statistics... generally, anything that can be found in a guidebook worth its salt. It's particularly lax about any kind of overall strategy, like which characters might make best or worst use of weapon/armor upgrades or Mana eggs at particular times.

Most astonishing: it doesn't even *attempt* to cover the bonus dungeons. Isn't this what we buy these books for, to ferret out the secrets hidden within them? One wonders just what you have to do to get someone to let you write one of these; this author clearly wasn't up to the task, even by Prima's usual less-than-exacting standards.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A walk-through at best, but nothing more, April 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Grandia (Prima's Official Strategy Guide) (Paperback)

For a game with as many hidden secrets and difficult dungeons as Grandia, one would expect to find a strategy guide full of hidden items, maps and strategies. After all, that's the reason gamers buy them. This guide fails to deliver any of the above. The only item that the guide will help you find are Mana Eggs, so finding anything else, including hidden weapons, is up to you. Basically, this guide is a color walk-through stuffed with tiny screenshots which were not necessary. Just a distraction from the boring, and uninspired "Go west, now turn south...", walk-through I suppose. There are weapon, item and magic lists at the beginning of the guide which are okay at best, but they still fail to tell you where to find these items. As far as the secret dungeons go, thank goodness I found them myself because the book says hardly a word about them. Not a single map or strategy for these areas which are very difficult and time-consuming. After I finished the game, I realized that I could easily have beaten it without this guide because I did all the exploring myself to find hidden items/weapons. If you need a good walk-through, visit Gamefaqs, heck even a message board is better than this book. Also, the guide suffered a very bad printing mishap that is very obvious at the end of the guide. The last 5-10 pages or so have the wrong text under their screenshots and a good portion of the walk-through for the Final dungeon was cut off, including any info on the final boss. As if we would have gotten help beating it anyway!

Overall: 1 star for being in color and having a few pretty pictures.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Go to gamefaqs...DON'T BUY THIS GUIDE!, January 5, 2000

By 

Arturo (Mexico City, Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grandia (Prima's Official Strategy Guide) (Paperback)

If you wanted the "ultimate guide" for Grandia...then keep looking...this isn't! The format of the book was disappointing...I wanted something more like David Cassady done in his FF8 guide...but this guide only covers the game without covering the bonus dungeons and secrets. I also thought that this guide was going to include maps for every dungeon, like the ones found in the instruction booklet, but there aren't any. I know thar Grandia is a linear RPG...but please! they can make a good guide...take Final Fantasy Tactics guide for example... So...please...DON'T BUY THIS GUIDE!