Current Events > I'm playing Grandia 2 and... it's surprisingly not half bad.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I actually miss a quaint JRPG like this. It's been a long time since I've played a jrpg with the whole "the church/religion institution is evil!" trope, good times. 90s Games of that type (hell even 2000s games like FF10 and Symphonia) are literally decades old...

I'm loving the fact that dungeons so far are like 3 short screens, and then the boss battle of that dungeon. Nice and quick before the next story segment and town
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Its a wonderful game. I finally beat it last year myself.

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Grandia sequels were a mistake

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well I mean yeah lol it was very highly regarded when it came out

3 is when everything started falling apart

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JACKBUTTMOMMY posted...

Grandia 2 and Grandia in that order were what got my into RPGs.

I even had a cockatiel that flew onto my head at my familys ranch who I adopted and named Skye.

I'm annoyed that more turn-based RPG's didn't rip off Grandia's system. Such a small change that made battles so much more fun

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One of the best RPGs of the PS2-era

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Same era :p

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I really liked that game, but the ps2 version had issues

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Oh wow.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cMwAAMXQaBtQ9W8V/s-l300.jpg

Grandia 2 was published by Ubisoft? This explains so much why the ports for Grandia were so garbage and terrible.
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BignutzisBack posted...

I'm annoyed that more turn-based RPG's didn't rip off Grandia's system. Such a small change that made battles so much more fun

If it were 3x faster and you could skip those longass spell animations, maybe.

But then, wouldn't it be better to just have a straight up action rpg?

I'm liking the battles so far even with said slowdown, although I keep wondering what the hell determines the battle order every time a battle starts? It seems completely random which of my party members goes first which is very frustrating.
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For the life of me I can't figure out what determines who goes first when a battle start. At first it seems like highest ACT is what determines it but then my character with the highest ACT is literally the last one in the turn order, it's seriously frustrating since he has the spells I want to use to dispatch all the enemies.
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Strike

PURPLE LIGHTNING!

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More like

TEIN SEIN KEN BEN REN HEN... *10 minutes later* SLASH!
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Grandia 2 is really underrated and a lot of the bad rap it got was due to having a poor ps2 port

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Grandia 2 was great until the second to last dungeon. I actually never beat the game because I got so lost.

saspa posted...

If it were 3x faster and you could skip those longass spell animations, maybe.

But then, wouldn't it be better to just have a straight up action rpg?

I'm liking the battles so far even with said slowdown,

You've played JRPGs from earlier years before, right? You're coming across like a complete nob.

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saspa posted...

More like

TEIN SEIN KEN BEN REN HEN... *10 minutes later* SLASH!

Wow that old school English voice acting where they attempt to actual names of the techniques.

Also the Flying Tenseiken is still the most misleading technique name...

Its slave labor what he puts that bird through.

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saspa posted...

For the life of me I can't figure out what determines who goes first when a battle start. At first it seems like highest ACT is what determines it but then my character with the highest ACT is literally the last one in the turn order, it's seriously frustrating since he has the spells I want to use to dispatch all the enemies.

Yep, I've been wondering the same thing in Grandia 1. Justin has the highest Mov and ACT but he'll randomly start last out of my characters. His bar moves the quickest, but still. I suppose they added the randomness so that the slower characters could get their turns in for skill and magic xp, but it is odd sometimes.

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Grandia 2 is great. Don't sleep on Grandia Xtreme either.

Grandia 3 kinda sucks.

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I loved Grandia 2 when it first came out and I still do for the most part despite being really dated gameplay and presentation wise. Still it's a pretty good game that holds up today.

Shotgunnova posted...

Grandia 2 is great. Don't sleep on Grandia Xtreme either.

Grandia 3 kinda sucks.

Truth. Grandia Xtreme has a worse story and bad voice acting, but variety and gameplay wise it's the best out of the Grandia games. Grandia was a considerable disappointment but even so it has pretty good gameplay and music.

ultimate reaver posted...

Grandia 2 is really underrated and a lot of the bad rap it got was due to having a poor ps2 port

I don't know of any bad rap, but so far most of my complaints are port related and performance related. If the game itself gets bad later that's another story, but so far I daresay I'm enjoying it more than the first Grandia.

Characters: Likable

Banter: surprisingly fun

Endearing moments: yes

And there are little things here and there I personally enjoy in a jrpg mechanics wise and world related
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Allanon23 posted...

Yep, I've been wondering the same thing in Grandia 1. Justin has the highest Mov and ACT but he'll randomly start last out of my characters. His bar moves the quickest, but still. I suppose they added the randomness so that the slower characters could get their turns in for skill and magic xp, but it is odd sometimes.

Exactly! I remember that happening to me in 1 as well.

I have 2 spellcasters now so it alleviates some of the frustration with the random battle order which is good.

Anyway I'm pretty far in the game now and it's definitely pretty enjoyable. They revealed the Millenia is in Elena's body thing immediately, and here I thought it was going to be another Xenogears situation.
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I have to disagree re: Grandia 3. Story could've been better, but it perfected Grandia gameplay. Grandia Xtreme, yeah, was also very good - although the final / postgame dungeons were a bit overkill.

(Side note, for reasons I really don't understand, I had the biggest crush on Lutina...)

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Huh I thought Grandia 3 was Grandia xtreme, but they're different games. So there was a separate Grandia 3, and then Grandia 4 called xtreme?

Based on the second game, is each game in a different world/universe? I thought it would be sequel like star ocean or something.
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saspa posted...

Huh I thought Grandia 3 was Grandia xtreme, but they're different games. So there was a separate Grandia 3, and then Grandia 4 called xtreme?

Based on the second game, is each game in a different world/universe? I thought it would be sequel like star ocean or something.

Grandia Xtreme came before 3, and has references to the first game. It has a battle system similar to 2, but it's a dungeon-crawler.

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It's a great game but... now I'm upset. I lost Mareg and I thought Roan coming back would be good, but my party is all screwed up now. I have 3 spellcasters and 1 warrior, it doesn't feel right. Mareg was my tank and synergized with the team perfectly.
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"It's surprisingly not half bad."

Dude, it's one of the "hidden" RPG gems of the late 90s. It's a great damn game, and pretty much the reason why I bought a Dreamcast.

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