Grandia III

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 7:42 pm

Well it seems that there is going to be a new Gradia game in the works for the PS2. It's been a while since i've played any RPGs, however the first Grandia is my all time fave RPG and i'm actually quite looking forward to this along with FF XI.
I thought Grandia II was crap though, so i'm hoping it goes back to the wonder of the first title with a little mix of the fab Skies Of Arcadia.
Scans can be found here -
http://squarenet.gamigo.de/main.php?sit ... ws&id=1559
Anyone else looking forward to this?

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 7:46 pm

I can't play RPG's these days. Any of them, I have plenty of time but no patience. Shmups have ruined me

I'm looking forward to the release of the next Final Fantasy since Hitoshi Sakimoto is doing the soundtrack...

UnscathedFlyingObject · Wed Mar 30, 2005 8:36 pm

^ Ditto.

Ever since I became a fervent Shmups follower, my interest in RPGs has dwindled to a spark. I can't tolerate the mass levelling up and breezy skill-less difficulty anymore. Potential RPG purchases need to meet the following criteria: success where the skill of the player is involved (eg DW7, FFT), cool story (eg FFT), less than 40 hours in a straight run (to keep the story from dilluting). Recent RPGs I've played don't come close to meeting these criteria at all; Final Fantasy X, Tales of Symphonia, and Star Ocean 3 were very disappointing, so I'm not holding my breath for anything.

PS: Resident Evil 4 is awesome, specially in PRO difficulty (unlocked after the first run). I got my a** whupped 140 times in PRO.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:22 pm

it better be good again. cause if it isn't... *raises threatening fist*

at least the art is still good (better than 2!)

this is just badass!

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:26 pm

I haven't played the first one....Grandia 2 wasn't bad, as the presentation and battle system were generally well done, but the plot and characters were stock to a tee: no big deal for a shmup, but deadly to an RPG. I heard that "XTreme" wasn't very good though...

Zach Keene · Post by **Zach Keene** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:52 pm

BulletMagnet wrote:I heard that "XTreme" wasn't very good though...

It's not a bad game if you liked Grandia 2's battle system and can find it cheap. It's more of a dungeon crawler though (many of which are randomly generated.) It's not the best game ever, but I enjoyed it.

But then I found the original Grandia excruciatingly boring, so perhaps my opinions on the series should be taken with a grain of salt.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:36 am

Grandia II crap? I loved it. yeah the story wasn't hot, but most RPG stories are goofy anyway. Nice to finally see a proper follow up though.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:39 am

i did enjoy 2 some (never beat it), but i never got that sense of "wow" i constantly felt while playing the first one... on playstation *grumbles*

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:15 am

I've only played Grandia II. I really liked it though. It was super easy, but I still thought it was great. It couldn't touch Skies of Arcadia, but it was still great.

I've heard the original is way better, so I'm very excited to get that for my Saturn someday.

Grandia III definitely looks like another game to plan to get whenever I get a PS2.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:53 am

Ugh, I hate the Grandia series. I remember the time when everybody said Grandia was the opposite of FFVII and focused on story whereas FFVII focused on graphics. What nonsense! The story wass boring and unlike Lunar didn't even handle the epic format well. Characters were a bore (much better in the sequel though). Music was primarily random drum beats (excluding the theme song). Be very wary of the Saturn version of the original. While opening the menu in the PS version takes about a lengthy 5 seconds, the Saturn version takes about double that time. Grandia II, while also boring IMO, is at least more interesting and likable.

This new game doesn't interest me whatsoever, since I was expecting another Lunar first (assuming Ubi Soft's Lunar is not being developed by Game Arts and doesn't come out first).

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:17 am

Ganelon wrote:Characters were a bore (much better in the sequel though).

Eek...if the chars in the second, one-dimensional as they were, are an improvement over the first's, then I dread to imagine how the originals come across...

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:24 am

GaijinPunch wrote:Grandia II crap? I loved it. yeah the story wasn't hot, but most RPG stories are goofy anyway. Nice to finally see a proper follow up though.

Agreed. And they better keep Iwadare and Two-Five doing the music. I've fallen in love with his work since Lunar EB on Sega CD.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:39 am

BulletMagnet wrote: Eek...if the chars in the second, one-dimensional as they were, are an improvement over the first's, then I dread to imagine how the originals come across...

Yes, dread indeed. Not only are the characters in the first game one-dimensional but the ones that aren't boring happen to be extremely unlikable. And whereas at least Grandia II has a plot twist, Grandia has nothing of the sort. Mid-game you'll be wondering how many villages you've run into and saved.

I'm a huge fan of Iwadare's work (he's my favorite composer in fact) but I feel from Langrisser IV, he started changing his style. In Grandia, which he claimed as his best piece the last I heard, he turned full circle from catchy pop/jazz game tunes to percussion beats and simple melodies. This approach does make the excellent main orchestra theme stand out but makes everything else very forgettable. Thankfully, in Grandia II, he went back to mostly his normal but great sounding pop tunes.

judesalmon · Post by **judesalmon** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 7:33 am

Ord, this news has made my day, but don't bash Grandia II! The Magic Box have better scans here.

The Game Arts RPGs I've played are amongst my favourites (Grandia 1 & 2, Lunar 1 & 2), so I'm excited by the news of a new game from them.

Doesn't playing just shmups get a bit, well, boring?

UnscathedFlyingObject · Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:25 am

^ I haven't played a Shmup in at least a month. You could say I'm tired of them for the time being, but that doesn't mean that my only Option is to go play RPGs. There are other genres that can produce a rush similar to shmups and are totally different. For example,

Lightgunners
Run 'n gunners
Challenging 3D action games.

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:31 pm

judesalmon wrote:Ord, this news has made my day, but don't bash Grandia II! The Magic Box have better scans here.

The Game Arts RPGs I've played are amongst my favourites (Grandia 1 & 2, Lunar 1 & 2), so I'm excited by the news of a new game from them.

Doesn't playing just shmups get a bit, well, boring?

Well...ok. Grandia II played well enough and the battle system was as sweet as the first game, but I REALLY, REALLY hated the story. It didn't have the enthusiasm of the first title and i thought the characters in II were weak and a bit trite.

And yes i like to play other things apart from shooters, well in the last month and a half alone i've played/playing-
Zoo Keeper (DS)
Timesplitters 3 (x-box)
Brothers In Arms (x-box)
Fable (x-box)
Metal Gear Solid 3 (ps2)
Paper Mario 2 (GC)
Resident Evil 4 (GC)
Half Life 2 (pc)
In fact i really must finish some of those this weekend

King Slime · Post by **King Slime** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 3:12 pm

I give the Grandia series a
t3h sux/10
The RPG I'm anticipating is Dragon Quest 8.

theevilfunkster · Post by **theevilfunkster** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 3:54 pm

ive got tons of rpgs that ive bought and not played since getting back into shmups

grandia
illusion of time
fable
zelda: wind waker
soleil
morrowind
timestalkers
final fantasy VI +VIII

any ideas whare i should start?

oh, and i thought grandia 2 was pretty good

Nuke · Post by **Nuke** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 4:30 pm

Play Final Fantasy VI NOW! Not only is it the best Final Fantasy, It also has one of the most amazing score ever composed for a video game.
Next you should play, love and finish the Wind Walker. It's not the best Zelda, but darn close to it.
You should then try out Fable, but I'll leve you to decide if you want to compleet it or not.
Save the rest for later.

judesalmon · Post by **judesalmon** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 5:53 pm

Grandia.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:45 pm

Grandia's battle system is unmatched in an RPG. Has anything come close...ever? Growlanser, and that's about it. So what if the story is weak. I play a few RPGs a year, and none of them since I was a kid have made me say, "wow, what an enjoyable story.". They're all kind of cheese.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 7:32 pm

Doesn't playing just shmups get a bit, well, boring?

Yes, that's why I have 2d fighters and racers.

I guess I should have chimed in and gone on about how I'm totally open minded because I play shitty games too, but what the hell.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:54 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:enjoyable story.". They're all kind of cheese.

It's all about the atmosphere for me.

Anyway, playing too much of any genre gets boring for me.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:45 pm

Anyway, playing too much of any genre gets boring for me.

Touche'

King Slime · Post by **King Slime** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:03 pm

Ganelon wrote:
GaijinPunch wrote:enjoyable story.". They're all kind of cheese.
It's all about the atmosphere for me.

So even if the gameplay mechanics sucked, but the game has a good atmosphere, you'd still enjoy it?

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:11 pm

King Slime wrote:So even if the gameplay mechanics sucked, but the game has a good atmosphere, you'd still enjoy it?

I think it's safe to say that a game's atmosphere can influence one's enjoyment of it substantially, as long as the other parts of it aren't a complete disaster...to use myself as an example, I like to play through Castlevania SotN and Panzer Dragoon Saga every once in awhile simply because I love the atmospherics so much: both games are pretty easy to beat and I've gone through each several times, and both have their shortcomings in other areas, but I just love the experience. I don't immediately label them "best games ever" or discount their flaws, but I can say with confidence that I don't regret getting either one, or replaying them, largely because of the atmosphere. In another case, take the Parodius games: I'm not a huge fan of Gradius, and this series plays almost exactly the same, but since I love funny stuff I'm happy to boot them up every once in awhile.

Granted, such games still have to be "competent" for me to bother with them: there have been plenty of examples of games with spectacular graphics but absolutely abhorrent gameplay (Rise of the Robots, etc.), and those have rightly failed. But I don't feel any shame in saying that a game's artistic merits give it extra appeal for me; I love games with lousy graphics and good gameplay too (Warlords for the Atari 2600 is still my favorite multiplayer game of all time, and likely always will be), but I don't think I need automatically dismiss a game wherein the looks provide a decent chunk of the experience either.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:55 pm

King Slime wrote:So even if the gameplay mechanics sucked, but the game has a good atmosphere, you'd still enjoy it?

You bet. I mean, I really like Phantasy Star III although its battle system isn't any better than Dragon Quest's and all the characters seem to walk in slow motion. But it's "magical" games like that with great atmosphere (which I guess is a holistic evaluation of visuals, music, character, and environment put together) that attracts me, not story or gameplay like with most people. And for that reason, I'm a huge fan of Langrisser, Phantasy Star, and Lunar. 3 very simple series that just "click" for me.

I thought my comment only applied to RPGs but now that I think about it, that probably also affected my view of other genres. It definitely couldn't have been an integral factor to my enjoyment though since gameplay is generally more important in other genres, esp. those that feature no story other than the wildly cliched "man saves world from aliens/terrorists/animals/mad scientists").

For example, Gunstar Heroes just felt amazing with its lively backgrounds and characters and memorable music. Alien Soldier felt bizarre and uninspiring to me with lame looking, if better designed, bosses. Yeah, there's other annoyances I had like issues with the slow weapon switching menu but atmosphere is probably the key difference to why I love Gunstar Heroes but have no interest in Alien Soldier.

For many fighting games, atmosphere plays almost zero role to me. Although I still can't into the coldness of Virtua Fighter, I'm open to fighters of whatever atmosphere. The SF Alpha series, which I think has great atmosphere for a fighter, isn't something I ever play.

Heh, looks like I derailed another topic; my bad.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 9:17 pm

More info:
http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~japangaming ... =4382#4382

Any Eva fans here?

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 9:58 pm

^^ See avatar.

But.. but.. Squeenix working on it? Wasn't this made by Game Arts?

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:29 am

Huh? SE is only publishing the game since they own a chunk of Game Arts.