Simple quality of life additions that makes older RPGs more palatable would have made a big difference in this HD collection - what I would do for a fast-forward option that Square has introduced to its many Final Fantasy remasters!īut the journey really has its moments, ticking all the boxes of idyllic role-playing destinations ripe for a good explore - there's a haunted pirate ship shrouded in mist, an active volcano guarded by a dragon, a chain of islands surrounded by coral reefs, and an ethereal city from a forgotten era. The best moments of the story, when your party and a military force you've been tangling with the entire game finally discover the secrets of the ancient civilization you've both been looking for, don't come into play until the game's final acts, while the overarching path to get there is linear and often meandering, with few opportunities to backtrack or discover more of the world through side-quests - all at odds with the freedom in combat and the dungeons that house them.Īnd as brilliant as combat is, Grandia's battles aren't exactly the fastest encounters. Combine that with the occasional use of voice acting - a rarity back then - and Grandia felt far more involved than the static text boxes and pre-rendered backgrounds of many adventures of the time.Īs liberating as combat and exploration was, Grandia's biggest flaw is its pacing. Meanwhile, the environments were fully polygonal and could be rotated left and right with playful taps of the shoulder buttons. The battle system occurs not through random encounters, but by running into enemies roaming the map, whereby you can initiate surprise attacks, gaining an advantage in battle, or avoid them altogether. It's not just where the story takes you that imbues a sense of adventure, but how you see it all. This is in part due to how the story plays out our hero Justin, a budding explorer who inherited a mysterious stone from his missing adventurer father, is given a message from a lost civilization to return it to where it belongs - several continents away - acting as an excuse to set off, see the world and make a few friends along the way. When I think of Grandia, I think of adventure - of mysterious ruins, crossing vast oceans and trudging through stickily humid jungles.
#GRANDIA 1 PC SERIES#
Even with a no-frills port that buffers sharp 2D character sprites in a 3D world to a glossy sheen, Grandia's combat continues to stand up against the many fumbled attempts since to evolve turn-based battles into something more involving.īut there is more to the series than its combat. Sampling Grandia's combat again on the HD Collection on Switch - the first chance to revisit the original since its debut - proves that yes, the combat is tremendous, and has arguably been never bettered. It's often cited as the best ever in a role-playing game, and it's easy to see why - it combined situational awareness with the comforts of turn-based decision making, allowing you to take your time to line up attacks that can strike multiple foes, or escape harm yourself with the right positioning of your party, all while managing the gauge that allowed you to delay the enemy's advances while making your own. When people talk about Grandia - a series that sparked into life on the Saturn and original PlayStation - they talk about its battle system.
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