In preparation for Grandia 3 I decided to finally play all the way through Grandia 2. Instead of doing the whole "Late to teh party!!!" thread I decided to try something new and create a journal of my play through and update it as I go through the game. I don't really get to play much with work and kids and all, but I'll see if this works.
I'll say it now due to the nature of the thread expect spoilers throughout, I will not be marking them otherwise the whole thread will be a big long block of black. . Also I'm not going to give details about gameplay and stuff like that. This pretty much assumes that most people have already played it.
That being said, let's begin:
Hours 0-5
First thing you notice about Grandia 2 are the graphics. Being originally a dreamcast game you can tell the game is old. But really it doesn't matter so much, the world is still vibrant and colorful. In an age where a lot of RPGs are devoid of much color (ahem Third Age) Grandia 2 stands out with it's use of bright yellows, greens, reds, purple is pervasive.
The story gets on its way and it's very much standard RPG fare. Blah blah blah church, blah blah blah, some big war 1,000 years ago, blah blah blah evil re-incarnation possibility. Nothing out of the woefully ordinary cliches abound. As a matter of fact when I heard Mareg talking about a bad guy called Melfice and Ryudo said "Melfice?!!" I knew the next line would be "My brother(or Father or old teacher)?". I was right. The battle system though is something extraordinary.
First off, no random encounters is such a beautiful, wonderful thing. The battle system itself starts off strongly, but it really takes off once you get more party members. With one person it's ok, two good, three really great, etc...Fights feel fast, chaotic and furious. Really the best RPG fighting system I've seen in a long time, possibly ever. I really only have one complaint. And that is that with a game that tries to make fights fun and fast like this, having spell animations that range from 5-10 seconds per spell really feel like a hiccup in the flow. Still this is really a minor quibble for such a fine system. Really it's the only system where I don't end up rolling my eyes when I get in another fight.
Voice acting ranges is fair to midland. Problem is when one sound byte is used ad nausem it makes you...well...um sick. If have to hear "I'll tear you to pieces." or "You have to practice if you wanna beat me." or "That was beautiful you guys!" just one more time....
That brings me to music, and here's where I'm going to enrage the Iwadare fan boys. Iwadare's music ranges between passable and pretty good. But at times it's just not really adding to the experience and it feels like too much sugary bubble gum and actually detracts for the experience.
A good example: Last night I get into the city of Liligue. This city is set on the Granas Cliffs which are supposed to be majestic and grand. Also this city has been cursed making it so no one can eat anything except a disgusting root. Further there are lot of machines in the city. So I as a musician am expecting something either grandiose because of the cliffs (some nice french horns in a major key would be good) or something mysterious or sad due to curse (some stringed instrument in sharp minor key would be fitting) or something techno/modernish. Instead we get a sugary piece with some sugar on top that would only feel appropriate if you were playing "Charlie and the Chocolate factory: The Gumdrop Adventure". I tried to find a midi so that you could hear it, but I can't find any midis of this (probably for good reason). Now I understand about making it a light hearted romp the music needs to be light, but look at Sugiyama's work (DQVII or any DQ for that matter) or Mitsuda's Chrono Trigger and light hearted parts of Chrono Cross, of even Shimomura's work; you can be light-hearted without being silly. Sadly Iwadare loses some points in this respect from me. Having heard his work elsewhere I expect (hope) it gets better as the game goes on, but right now I'd say for the most part, it's just OK.
That's it for now. I'll update again when I get a few more hours in.
I'll say it now due to the nature of the thread expect spoilers throughout, I will not be marking them otherwise the whole thread will be a big long block of black. . Also I'm not going to give details about gameplay and stuff like that. This pretty much assumes that most people have already played it.
That being said, let's begin:
Hours 0-5
First thing you notice about Grandia 2 are the graphics. Being originally a dreamcast game you can tell the game is old. But really it doesn't matter so much, the world is still vibrant and colorful. In an age where a lot of RPGs are devoid of much color (ahem Third Age) Grandia 2 stands out with it's use of bright yellows, greens, reds, purple is pervasive.
The story gets on its way and it's very much standard RPG fare. Blah blah blah church, blah blah blah, some big war 1,000 years ago, blah blah blah evil re-incarnation possibility. Nothing out of the woefully ordinary cliches abound. As a matter of fact when I heard Mareg talking about a bad guy called Melfice and Ryudo said "Melfice?!!" I knew the next line would be "My brother(or Father or old teacher)?". I was right. The battle system though is something extraordinary.
First off, no random encounters is such a beautiful, wonderful thing. The battle system itself starts off strongly, but it really takes off once you get more party members. With one person it's ok, two good, three really great, etc...Fights feel fast, chaotic and furious. Really the best RPG fighting system I've seen in a long time, possibly ever. I really only have one complaint. And that is that with a game that tries to make fights fun and fast like this, having spell animations that range from 5-10 seconds per spell really feel like a hiccup in the flow. Still this is really a minor quibble for such a fine system. Really it's the only system where I don't end up rolling my eyes when I get in another fight.
Voice acting ranges is fair to midland. Problem is when one sound byte is used ad nausem it makes you...well...um sick. If have to hear "I'll tear you to pieces." or "You have to practice if you wanna beat me." or "That was beautiful you guys!" just one more time....
That brings me to music, and here's where I'm going to enrage the Iwadare fan boys. Iwadare's music ranges between passable and pretty good. But at times it's just not really adding to the experience and it feels like too much sugary bubble gum and actually detracts for the experience.
A good example: Last night I get into the city of Liligue. This city is set on the Granas Cliffs which are supposed to be majestic and grand. Also this city has been cursed making it so no one can eat anything except a disgusting root. Further there are lot of machines in the city. So I as a musician am expecting something either grandiose because of the cliffs (some nice french horns in a major key would be good) or something mysterious or sad due to curse (some stringed instrument in sharp minor key would be fitting) or something techno/modernish. Instead we get a sugary piece with some sugar on top that would only feel appropriate if you were playing "Charlie and the Chocolate factory: The Gumdrop Adventure". I tried to find a midi so that you could hear it, but I can't find any midis of this (probably for good reason). Now I understand about making it a light hearted romp the music needs to be light, but look at Sugiyama's work (DQVII or any DQ for that matter) or Mitsuda's Chrono Trigger and light hearted parts of Chrono Cross, of even Shimomura's work; you can be light-hearted without being silly. Sadly Iwadare loses some points in this respect from me. Having heard his work elsewhere I expect (hope) it gets better as the game goes on, but right now I'd say for the most part, it's just OK.
That's it for now. I'll update again when I get a few more hours in.