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By Davion Vanste on October 22nd, 2001
Introduction Its been the game you’ve heard about, it got as much hype as Sony’s PS2 and now that its finally out, you cant wait to snag it, my friends, I cant tell you how much drool ran from the side of my lips as soon as I got my copy of Grandia 2. One of the few RPG’s for the Dreamcast actually worth getting, Grandia 2’s hype is well deserved.Presentation Spawning an engulfing storyline, compelling graphics, tradional anime style art, excellent voice acting and a smart mouth hero, it’s just hard to go wrong. You start out, as a mercenary named Ryudo, you take on challenges for money. You have but one companion and his name is Skye, a pet bird. The story takes off when you return from a mission, you are summoned to complete anthor mission, you take up the job thinking more money, the job at hand, is to escort and protect a holy “songstress” named Elena to a fallen temple so that she may take part in a ceremonial sealing, what do they intend to seal? The devil (This IS fantasy folks) Who takes the name of Valmar. Because you are a mercenary, you are feared, talked about, and all out hated through out the land, thus, you are not permitted to enter the fallen temple because of your unholy and all out tainted nature, once you have successfully escorted the songstress Elena there, with her holy sisters. You are order to wait outside the temple door, normally your not one to be pushed around, but you need the money, and so you take your orders well. An hour passes before you start to notice something funny, you begin to question the temple and the ceremony, the thoughts of something possibly going wrong, run wild in your head, then your thoughts are confirmed when you hear Elena scream, you rush into the temple and drop a couple of monsters while searching for Elena, when you finally find her, she is inhaled by a strange darkness and has sprouted Dark incarnate wings. Your in shock, you have never seen a normal women grow wings out of nowhere before, and you recognize that Darkness that has swallowed Elena. You snatch Elena from the shadow and escape the cursed temple. You later find out that Elena has been possessed by the Wings of Valmar, although Elena’s kind, uptight snobby attitude remains the same, its not going to be that way for long, you learn that the wings of Valmar, left deep inside of Elena, will eat at her soul and eventually kill her. You are now hired to assist Elena across the land, to see the pope, so that he, who is his holiness, may kill the Evil wings laid deep within her soul
Welcome to Grandia 2. folks, it just don’t get any better then this.
Graphics & Sound This may be the only place in the Grandia 2 arsenal that may be just a tiny bit flawed, of course, the soundtrack isn’t as classical as the Final Fantasy series, nor does it have a techno track that inhabit most up tempo fighting games. Instead Grandia 2 is done up in musical tracks that involve such instruments as the flute. And other miscreants of the like.
But where the music leaves, the excellent eye candy picks up, yes boys and girls prepare to be amazed, from the outstanding magical spells to the down and out colorful environments, I hope you have a pillow on the floor, your gonna need it there when your jaw hits the floor.
Gameplay Grandia 2 remains true to an RPG epic, you run around fulfill quest, gaining levels of strength and higher hit points, but the highlight of the game, is its battle system, yes, being unique and different is what gets the ticket in the forever changing world of our gaming community. The in battle game engine is lovely to say the least. I first laid eyes upon the battle frame and was confused, but it didn’t take me long to catch on, the system, it works like this. There are several options in action you can take, for an example, you can choose to make an attack or defend, or to cast a spell or to evade in enemy, nothing different about those kind of options in a RPG right? But the battle field is somewhat of a dome, while attacking, evading etc etc, your character will run in a different direction of the dome, making the environment a total all around 3d one. Combine that with a storyline deeper then the Grand Canyon, and you’ve got yourself a hit epic here.Lasting Appeal You’ve heard me say it more then once, but it has to be said, this IS a RPG, which means once your done with it, your done with it. It doesn’t have the replay value of, lets say, a game in the fighting genre. You may keep it around and decide to play it a couple of times more, just for the simple fact that a good game leaves you in aw and you want more, but that feeling will pass once you play it a couple more times. I should have given in a lower score on the lasting appeal, but hey, what can I say? I’m a sucker for great games. Viva la résistance!!Conclusion A marvelous game and a great addition to the Dreamcast stepping stone library and a must have for those looking for a decent RPG, Theres been a dry out in the Dreamcast RPG genre, Grandia II Definitely presents itself as a answer to all your genre cravings and needs. |
