Today we take a look at Game Arts latest game, Grandia 2. This game is actually a port of the Dreamcast version, which was released in 2000. With an adequate story, an exciting battle system, and interesting graphics, Grandia 2 manages to arise above the current crop of cookie-cutter console RPGs currently flooding the market. But not by much.

The story of Grandia 2 revolves around the God of Light, Granas, and the God of Darkness, Valmar. In an epic between good and evil, both gods were destroyed. But somehow the body parts of Valmar survived, and are now using humans to reunite the parts, thus resurrecting Valmar. It is up to a pompous, loner geo-hound named Ryudo, and Elena, a priestess who is possessed by the Wings of Valmar, to destroy all remaining parts of Valmar before they rejoin. While the story certainly sounds intriguing, it takes nearly ¾ of the game for it to build up. Then an interesting twist from out of nowhere comes, and it grabs your attention because you have no idea where they are going next. But just as soon as the twist comes, it goes just as fast. The story stays on a relatively high note from then on, and finally comes to a satisfactory conclusion. But once you have completed the game, you will have wished that the story could have used more strength and emotion. In fact I would say that if you have any extensive experience in the RPG genre, then you have probably ran into a game that uses the same formula to tell their story.

Gameplay:

Because this is a PC port, it still has many of the elements that have been spawned in a countless number of console RPGs. Thankfully though Game Arts already had a winning formula with the original Grandia, and decided to improve upon them. One annoyance that we can all agree on is that console RPGs tend to rely on random battles. It's not so much that they occur, it's that they occur every two to three steps that you take. Well you won't have to worry about this problem in Grandia 2, as the monsters that may attack you are always visible. Now should they spot you, they will begin to flash red, telling you to either run for your lives or prepare to get it on. Now some instances, the monsters are much faster than you are, so running would just be wasting time. However, you do have the ability to approach your enemies from behind, giving you the ability to initiate the attack should you go into battle. While PC gamers are used to this open-ended approach to fighting, it's good to see that console developers are recognizing that players want the choice to fight or not to fight.

Once you decide that you aren't going to run anymore, it's time to engage in a battle. The battle takes place in an arena that is based on the current terrain that you are traveling on. The battle is centered on the IP meter. This meter is your indication of when you or your enemy can attack. The cool part is that you are not totally inactive when you're being attacked. Should your IP meter move fast enough, you could actually counter their attack before they can even blink. But be careful, as your opponents possess this same ability. Because this is an arena, you don't have to stand in one place. By ordering a character to move, he/she can move to a remote area of the arena. This is a useful tool, because some of these attacks have a damage radius. So you always want to steer clear of the big explosions. Staying at a distance is also not safe because you can be attacked with long-range weapons, or the enemy will actually run to wherever you are at just to strike you with his/her weapon. This level of activity really helps Grandia 2 because it always keeps you involved one way or another. Heck, you may actually begin to like to battle more because they are so much fun.

But you can't talk about a role-playing game without character advancement. Like just about every other RPG, you are given experience points after each battle. Instead of rewarding the characters that were the most effective in a battle, the experience points are equally distributed. I personally would have preferred a system that would reward your most effective characters, because with this method, the focus of building up your characters is somewhat diverted because no matter what you do, all of your characters will always be equal in terms of advancement. Thankfully the character advancement has more depth than this. Like in Grandia, players have access to mana eggs. These eggs are what give your character the ability to perform magic spells. Most of the magic spells are unlearned, which must be unlocked by using magic coins. Once you have enough in your possession, you can learn new spells, or improve your current spells. Many of the more powerful magic spells can only be obtained by first learning some of the less powerful spells. However, Grandia 2 gives you no sense of direction of the lesser spells that you need to learn to unlock the powerful spells, so the player ends up wasting magic coins on spells that he/she will never use. Winning battles also rewards you will skill coins, which allows you to unlock or power up the special attacks that each of your characters possess. But wait, there's more. As you progress further into progress, your characters will come across skill books. These books provide additional skills for your characters. Some of the skills include a significant boost in health, vitality, strength, magic, etc. It is important that you find as many of these books as you can, as they will give you an overwhelming advantage against your opposition. And of course you have the basic gold, which you can purchase more powerful weapons, armor, and other items. One trend that I do notice that most of the best armor that you find in each town store usually could be discovered before you enter the town via of a treasure box or a slain enemy. I can't begin to tell you how much gold I saved just because I decided to do some extra exploring before I entered the nearby town. Speaking of saving money, these monsters pack so much gold, that you never feel your pockets getting light. It kind of takes the fun out of working hard for your money.

Graphics:

The good thing about the graphics is that they are being ported from the Dreamcast, which was well known for displaying rich color and sharp textures. But the bad thing about the graphics is that it is being a direct port of the Dreamcast version. When this game came two years ago, many people raved about the graphics. But in 2002, where games have substantially increased in graphic quality, the graphics in Grandia 2 are mediocre at best. Like many other console-to-PC ports, the developers didn't take advantage of the current range of video cards. The models are still blocky, and many of the wall textures have that "stretched look". The increase in resolution helps, but the engine is definitely showing its age, despite it being only two years old. One thing that stands out more than anything in this department is the magic attacks. Opting not to use the GPU to render the effects of the more powerful magic spells, Game Arts has put their faith into using FMV CG to display some of the magic attacks. I mean, if Square could do it with Final Fantasy, why can't they? Well, I'll tell you why. For one, the FMV is nowhere near the quality of Square's masterpieces. Combine that with higher resolutions, and the FMV just looks horrible. It is probably the most noticeable flaw to an otherwise adequate graphics engine. Now all of the magic spells and attacks aren't in FMV, as some of them are rendered in real time. Actually many of the effects look quite nice, and actually add a bit of flavor to the battle sequences. Grandia 2 also uses a bit of anime during dialogue. The drawings display the current emotional state of the characters, which are speaking.

While the sound has a lot of good points, there are plenty of bad points to go along with it. First, let's see what the sound department does very good. During the battle sequences, the sound shows some phenomenal strength. All of your character attacks are coupled with a battlecry from your character. Once the attack is unleashed, prepared to be blown away by the many sounds effects that are integrated with these attacks. If you have a subwoofer, then you are in for a real treat, as many of these attacks pack so many booms, that you think it was a fireworks display. The music is always upbeat, which helps keep you in the mood for some long battles. But once the battles are over, then the sound department begins to deteriorate. This wear and tear mostly relies around the voice acting. For some reason, Game Arts decided to select certain parts where they would implement dialogue for the characters. The problem is that they are few and far in between, and when they come, it usually is at a point where you least expect it. This is complicated even further by the audio not being installed onto the system, thus making the game call up the audio on the CD, which disrupts the flow of the game tremendously. Of course, you can always rip the music onto the hard drive, and use a no-cd crack (Note: GCC does not endorse the use pirated or copied software. Go out and buy the game!), but you shouldn't have to go through great lengths just to obtain smooth audio performance. But even once the voice acting in loading, you are disappointed that you had to wait so long for some crappy voice acting. Most of the voices are way overacted, and lack any sense of polish. The scripts that the actors were given don't allow them to fully utilize their skills, because either the sentences are very short, or they are reduced to just screaming. This could have been the crutch that the story could have leaned on, but players would be better off just walking without it.

Replay Value /Devices:

Porting a console game to the PC can always be a difficult task, but the difficulties lie in the controls more than anything else. With Grandia 2, it is playable with a keyboard, but it is nowhere near a suitable substitute for a gamepad. Any gamepad with at least 6 buttons should be more than adequate, though you may want to use a device that has more, to help bind some additional functions. There is even an external configuration program that will help those users who are having some issues with older gamepads. I tested the Sidewinder Pro Gamepad and the Nostromo n45 Dual Analog, and both performed exceptionally well. Though I should point out that if you have a controller that has analog controls, use them. It makes traveling much easier.

The Wrap-up:

Making a videogame sequel is always a daunting task. And when Game Arts released Grandia 2 for the Dreamcast in 2000, it was noted as a sequel that did the franchise justice. But when they decided to release a port of this game on the PC two years later, they needed to significantly enhance Grandia 2 in order to compete with other excellent games already released on this cutthroat platform. Unfortunately they didn't, and the game shows its inferiority to other games in the genre. Grandia 2 on the PC is a mediocre effort at best compared to other PC games on the market, and should only be tried by gamers who haven't played a console game in years, and would like a bit of nostalgia.