The battle system is great. You can see the enemies on the screen (what a concept!), which allows you to either avoid or instigate confrontations. The enemies aren’t half as fast as they are in Lunar, so your chances of avoiding most random battles are great. Naturally, if you initiate a battle, you get the first strike, an obvious advantage. There is a Final Fantasy variety time elapsing player turn bar in the lower right hand side of the battle screen. The differences are many however, all characters and enemies have an icon and they all lie on the same bar. If you dish or receive a critical hit, time can be reduced for either side respectively (basically, you can hit them so hard they are rendered unable to make a move for a complete turn). When the enemies die they burst into pixel shards revealing either a solitary coin or what appears to be a kidney/item pouch (in actuality, the coin does not represent a single coin). The latter is less likely. During the expanse of the entire game you collect a fair amount of money (simply known as G). More money than you could ever spend. This is great since you never find yourself in dire need of money.
You frequently find “mana” scattered about forests and other various landscapes. With the mana you buy an element for a character, such as water, wind, fire, and earth. These skills can be purchased for almost all permanent party members (some characters have an inability to learn magic while others have magic already learned). As you use the skills given to your character by the acquisition of these elements, the levels go up accordingly and this enables you to learn new skills. Furthermore, there are additional spells for combined elements. The best part is, the magic spells aren’t the same for each character (!), and with weapons thrown in, the collection of skills becomes even more diverse. The law that applies to elemental magic also applies to weapons, i.e. weapons go up levels, likewise enabling you to learn new abilities for them. For the most part, each character has a different weapon expertise. To delve farther into gameplay, the level up for each respective type of weapon or elemental skill bolsters your stats by enhancing a facet (e.g. strength) of your character by a point. Some magic and weapons enhance your stats in more than one category.
The battlegrounds can get very tedious and repetitious. This little problem can be remedied by not searching for every item, a mistake I made as a completist gamer. There are almost never any important items other than mana, so rest assured you won’t miss anything important (the obvious exception would be the three bonus areas in the game). The main detractor of enjoyment you encounter while playing Grandia is….
I would call the music fair to good. It never reaches the plateau of greatness that other games reach. The high point of musical ingenuity in Grandia is the institution of multiple battle themes. There are four random battle themes, one “ambush” and one “initiative” theme for both discs, not to mention the boss battle themes.
For the remaining game music, I was slightly cynical at first. The song during the opening FMV sounded like an orchestral piece from a bad 70’s cartoon. Slowly, the music started to grow on me. The music applies to the game well, but it is never “overwhelmingly fantastic.” As I type this I can only remember one song.
The graphics are a cross between Lunar and Xenogears. The characters are stumpy and sprite-based. Though the enemies and allies alike are all sprite-based, they move rather fluidly. The cities and environments are all in fully rotational 3D, which should be a plus in anybody’s book. The forests and landscapes are very reminiscent of Lunar, probably due to the fact both games were created by Game Arts and ESP. The FMVs are great, but few and far between. I would’ve given the graphics an 8 if it weren’t for the seemingly endless drudger or lackluster forests and mountains. It gets all too predictable after a while.
In the beginning, Justin is accompanied by his comrade in crime, Susie, a nasally, freckle-faced little girl who carries with her the usual, cutesy “what the hell is it?!” type of animal. The creature, Puffy, oftentimes bursts into a tangent of “puff puff” and wheezing noises (your guess is as good as mine). Basically, you start off in a small, seaside town of Parm. Your (Justin’s) mother was a pirate and now runs a restaurant called the (Blue?) Seagull. Your father was an adventurer like you and you are left with a single memento of him, a green rock. The stone plays a very important role in the story, but that’s as far as I’m taking it.
After the initial nonsense of finding your first lot of equipment (trash can lid, pot, wooden sword, you know the usual warrior gear), you drag Susie along to a conveniently located excavation site where you meet the games antagonists for the first time. Eventually, you’ll come up with the great idea of taking your six-year old friend across the ocean. Here you meet Feena and this is where the story takes off. It’s all about uncovering the secret of the Icarians and the city, Alent. I really liked the story because it’s fraught with originality, unlike the usual “save the world!” storyline. Wait a minute...
