Growlanser: Heritage of War Limited Edition

by Atlus

Product Features

• Over 70 Hours of Gameplay! A sweeping story arc spanning 5 lengthy chapters, with additional chapters to unlock.
• A Fantasy World Comes To Life! Story unfolds through gorgeous hand-drawn animation and character portraits by artist Satoshi Urushihara.
• Strategic Party-based Combat! The action is faster and more exciting than ever as you use an advanced troop command system to give orders to your allies – smart tactics are the key to victory.
• Manage Your Character’s Ability Tree! Change your character’s abilities based on the needs of the situation. As your character levels, so too do your Ability Plates!
• Discover A Magical Fairy Companion! The more time you spend training your fairy partner, the richer your interactions will be with her, and the more she can assist you on your quest.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000FPJ74A
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 1.8 inches ; 2 pounds
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: September 18, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,034 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #73 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Role-Playing
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

The title will only receive a single print run -- when the initial allocation has sold out, the game will no longer be available for purchase. Growlanser: Heritage of War will be a truly Limited Edition release.

Story

On an island continent shrouded in darkness and bounded on every shore by an impassable veil, war rages among desperate inhabitants fighting for survival. A mysterious famine has ravaged the land, leaving its denizens to struggle over what little fertile land remains. There is no safe haven; land that war has left untouched is still threatened by the Screapers, fierce and powerful monsters steadily encroaching on the cities of men. Hope is fading - who will rise to save this dying land?

Key Features

• A Fantasy World Comes To Life! Story unfolds through gorgeous hand-drawn animation and character portraits by artist Satoshi Urushihara.
• Strategic Party-based Combat! The action is faster and more exciting than ever as you use an advanced troop command system to give orders to your allies – smart tactics are the key to victory.
• Manage Your Character’s Ability Tree! Change your character’s abilities based on the needs of the situation. As your character levels, so too do your Ability Plates!
• Discover A Magical Fairy Companion! The more time you spend training your fairy partner, the richer your interactions will be with her, and the more she can assist you on your quest. You can even enter her in the great Fairy Contest – her performance as she competes with other fairies in a tournament of skills depends on how well you have prepared her!
• Cultivate Intimate Relationships With Your Allies! With the Friendship and Personality Rating System, your personality can either limit or enhance your interactions with others; the outcome of your encounters depends entirely on your behavior! Mold a protagonist as ill-tempered or good-natured as you desire. And if you're brave enough, reveal your true feelings to a companion; if they come to feel the same way about you, you'll be rewarded with a bonus hand-drawn character-specific ending animation that puts the icing on the cake!

Product Description

On an island continent shrouded in darkness and bounded on every shore by an impassable veil, war rages among desperate inhabitants fighting for survival. A mysterious famine has ravaged the land, leaving its denizens to struggle over what little fertile land remains. There is no safe haven; land that war has left untouched is still threatened by the Screapers, fierce and powerful monsters steadily encroaching on the cities of men. Hope is fading - who will rise to save this dying land? Key Features • A Fantasy World Comes To Life! Story unfolds through gorgeous hand-drawn animation and character portraits by artist Satoshi Urushihara. • Strategic Party-based Combat! The action is faster and more exciting than ever as you use an advanced troop command system to give orders to your allies – smart tactics are the key to victory. • Manage Your Character’s Ability Tree! Change your character’s abilities based on the needs of the situation. As your character levels, so too do your Ability Plates! • Discover A Magical Fairy Companion! The more time you spend training your fairy partner, the richer your interactions will be with her, and the more she can assist you on your quest. You can even enter her in the great Fairy Contest – her performance as she competes with other fairies in a tournament of skills depends on how well you have prepared her! • Cultivate Intimate Relationships With Your Allies! With the Friendship and Personality Rating System, your personality can either limit or enhance your interactions with others; the outcome of your encounters depends entirely on your behavior! Mold a protagonist as ill-tempered or good-natured as you desire. And if you're brave enough, reveal your true feelings to a companion; if they come to feel the same way about you, you'll be rewarded with a bonus hand-drawn character-specific ending animation that puts the icing on the cake!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nothing special, October 16, 2007

By 

N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Growlanser: Heritage of War Limited Edition (Video Game)

Atlus' Growlanser series gets another installment on our shores for the PS2 with Growlanser: Heritage of War. The first thing you'll notice with Heritage of War is the super-limited edition packaging that features a book of the game's art and a CD of the game's music as well. Behind all the extras though, not much has changed since the last time we saw a Growlanser game. If you're a veteran of the series, you'll feel right at home, but for newcomers, prepare to feel out of the loop. Heritage of War features an overaching story that transpires over the game's massively lengthy quest (along with some side quests to boot), but getting through all of it without getting turned off by the game's shortcomings is by far the greatest challenge Heritage of War has to offer. There are graphical glitches and clipping issues aplenty, with some poorly animated character models and collision detection problems as well. The game's story also isn't half as epic (or good) as it thinks it is, and features just about every cliche RPG story element you can think of. While there is a lot against Heritage of War, it's not without it's plusses either. Despite the horrible dialogue, there is some solid voice acting to be heard, not to mention some excellent music as well. The game's real time battle system is also a blast to play once you get the hang of it, and many of the backgrounds and areas are nicely designed. However, once you get past the massive length of Heritage of War, you'll have no reason to go back again. There's nothing really all that compelling that you'll find here, but you could certainly do worse RPG wise. All in all, Growlanser: Heritage of War is worth a look for fans of the series and RPG nuts alike, but let it be known to proceed with caution.

4.0 out of 5 stars very good game., October 18, 2011

By 

Donald J Mayer (Olathe,KS) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Growlanser: Heritage of War Limited Edition (Video Game)

Good game set in a very interesting setting, thee character art is very good and the music is as well.

The game play is that of a RTS type of RPG and will take a while to get used to.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What the?, September 3, 2008

By 

Tso Haven Hei Wan "Havenough Dupont Randall-B... (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Growlanser: Heritage of War Limited Edition (Video Game)

Heard good stuff about the Growlanser franchise in terms of it's strategy kinda of RPG nature. So I think I'll give it a try as good RPGs are scarce to come by these days.

The story is very standard RPG but the thing is you don't get to use the lead character on the cover art till quite some time into the game. So that is "new". Standard story means people try to keep peace on a rotten land while everyone is waiting for a chance to be the ruler of the world. On top of that was monster invasion and blah blah blah.

Characters were all displayed in beautiful hand drawn art on top of the 3D models in the game. But one thing I can't understand is that how did all their clothes get so shiny and polished all the time? And why does everyone look so serious? And the predominant display of sad faces just really killed off the character's personality and players' concern for their well beings a lot. Also who decided to have a character that runs around like a turkey should really be sent to a rehabilitation camp to study human behaviours again.

The battle system was theoretically good but badly executed. It is good with a RTS battle system but then the flow of the battle was so interrupted by pop up menus and magic cutscenes that you just lost the plot of what you are doing. During major battle missions, you will just keep on asking "What the?!!!!" For example, when you try to enter a command to heal your character only to find out it was interrupted by pop up screens and magic scenes. And the more annoying part was they kept on asking you "Do you have a plan?" "What next?" "Give me your orders" but when you try to key in a order, the interruptions from the battle mechanism just kept on confusing you whether your command was successfully put in. And before you know, your party could be slaughtered into oblivion. And why is it that after you input a magic command and the target for action, they have to ask you another 5 million times where do you want to cast the magic before they perform the action? And every time after they killed a target they ask you again instead of like other RTS, they just move on to the next closest target. The funny thing is that they would do so if you don't even enter any command at the beginning of the battle. So it is a choice of letting them to do everything themselves (and having a high chance of getting themselves killed) or input command for every single action be it is cooking, drinking or going to the toilet on the battle field.

Growlanser could have so much more potential but the execution was so bad that even with all the goodies they included in the package, it couldn't save the game at the end of the day. The 2 stars is for a good gaming concept but that's all the game could offer.