Summary of the Series

[Koby]

Here is a little information on the games.

Grandia: The original game of the series, the one that started it all. Grandia's story focuses around Justin, a young boy who desires to be a great adventurer. While investigating a ruin of the lost Angelounian Civilization, he hears a mysterious request to come east and find out the secret of why these ancients mysteriously disappeared. The resulting adventure takes Justin across the sea to new continents, and even beyond the known end of the world. Graphically, the game used character sprites in a 3D world, rather than polygonal character models that later came to favor. The battle system, like Game Arts Lunar series before it, placed emphasis on the combatants location in the field. However, while Lunar only allowed you to set the teams position in battle, Grandia had characters move to appropriate positions during battle and allowed the player to have them move elsewhere to avoid attacks or reach a more advantageous position. Also notable was how characters could counter or disrupt enemy attacks, leading to a very interactive experience. A port of Grandia to the Play Station was made in 1999, and had only aesthetic changes.

Grandia II: Grandia II's story focuses around Ryudo, a sarcastic "Geohound" (mercenaries who take undesirable jobs). He receives a mission to guard a sister of Granas, Elena, during a rite to reseal an ancient evil god. However, the rite runs into difficulties, leading to a much longer quest to bring Elena to the leader of the Granas Churchood. The failed sealing attempt is also tied into the emergence of a strange woman known as Millenia, and a series of disturbing events at towns along the way to the Granas Cathedral. This sequel used a new, fully 3D engine to seamlessly render landscapes and battle scenes. The core battle system functionality stayed the same between Grandia and Grandia II, although it became impossible to Cancel an action merely with normal attacks. The magic system was also changed, whereby magical eggs (usable by any character) were used to cast magic rather than having spells linked directly to each character. The game was well-received both critically and among the fans, and was considered one of the premier games to appear on the ill-fated Sega Dreamcast. Considering the Dreamcast's fairly small market penetration, the game was ported to both the PC and the Playstation 2.

Grandia III: The latest sequel released in Japan on August 4th, 2005 and on February 15, 2006 in the US/Canada market. Grandia III follows a young boy named Yuki, a flight enthusiast who has experienced some difficulty in getting his planes to fly. His latest project flew him into a situation in which he saved a girl named Alfina from a group of menacing pursuers. He and his mother, Miranda, agree to escort Alfina safely back to her home in Arcriff Temple, where she serves as a communicator between humans and a group of powerful creatures known as Guardians. However, once at Arcriff, Yuki and Alfina discover that the lives of the Guardians are being threatened by Alfina's brother, Emelious, who is working to restore an evil being named Xorn to power. Although some have criticized Grandia III for featuring a less-interesting storyline than previous entries in the series, it has been lauded for its refined combat system.

Spin-offs-

Grandia: Digital Museum: Not officially a sequel, but a bonus disc using the same engine as the Saturn version of Grandia. Though it only consists of four dungeons, each one is very large compared to the ones in the original Grandia. Justin, Feena and Sue must explore them in order to recover artifacts from a museum of the original game that Liete has created. These unlock storyboards, special sound plays known as "Radio Dramas", saves for the original Saturn game, mini-games, bestiary listings and original artwork.

Grandia: Parallel Trippers: Uses the same characters and music as the first Grandia game, albeit with 8-bit graphics. The actual game areas are different to those of the original Grandia, though many of the item, move and enemy names are the same. A group of schoolchildren who live in the real world are sucked into a portal while playing in an abandoned shed next to their school; and end up in the world of Grandia. They must find three special keys in order to make they way back home, and enlist the help of Justin and friends, who are always keen for new adventures. This game was developed by Game Arts and published by Hudson in Japan in December 2000. It was never translated to English, but can be played on any system capable of running Game Boy Color cartridges.

Grandia Xtreme: This incarnation of the Grandia series was considerably more battle-focused than the earlier games. The main character is a Ranger known as Evann recruited by the army to help neutralize the so-called Elemental Disorder, which has been causing havoc. A much improved Grandia 2 battle engine was used in Xtreme, and various other features were added to the game outside of combat to give it more the feel of a dungeon crawler; such as Diablo. Rather than having a party decided by the plot as in previous Grandia games, Xtreme gives the player 8 characters from which the player is free to choose his preferred team. Graphics are much improved on Grandia 2 — the battling is quick and fluid, and loading times everywhere in the game are some of the fastest in any Play Station 2 game. Battles are also more large-scale than any past Grandia game, with often over 15 combatants at one time. The character empowerment system was somewhat a mix of Grandia and Grandia 2, with techniques being learned and upgraded through use, but skills and magic being found and equipped. The game was criticized for having a weaker story and only two towns, which was a large change from past Grandia games which focused on story.

Grandia Online: A MMORPG for the PC currently in development.

[Jarlaxle]

Ace lengthy descriptions. The Grandia series is one I've always been meaning to devote more attention to. I have a file saved for the original Grandia which is about a dozen hours or so into it, but I got distracted and abandoned my progress. >_> Such is pretty common for me with RPGs no matter how much I like them. Still, I had a lot of fun with it and will get around to resuming my journey through the series eventually. I already have Grandia II/III/Xtreme waiting to be played, but that's just the Collector in me and won't hurry me along in any way, haha. A worthy RPG series in any case.

[okane0099]

Thanks for the summary. I will read them when I have free time

[nikoalitis]

thanks for the summary,i havent played any of them but i've heard that they are really good

[Moothead2]

Seems like a very good series. May have to check out eBay and grab Grandia 1 and/or 2.

[Earl]

Seems like a very good series. May have to check out eBay and grab Grandia 1 and/or 2.

Agreed. I'm always after new RPGs to play, after mainly being stuck into the Final Fantasy games. A change would be nice.

[Zemekis]

Interesting read, as I haven't had Grandia Xtreme explained to me in detail. I only knew the name. In the late 2010's I played through Grandia, then Grandia II around 2020/2021. I've been working on Grandia III off and on since then. It isn't bad, but it doesn't grab me the way the first two games did. Has anyone here played Xtreme? Is it any good? I've heard mixed to negative things in the past.

[Koby]

1 hour ago, Zemekis said:

Interesting read, as I haven't had Grandia Xtreme explained to me in detail. I only knew the name. In the late 2010's I played through Grandia, then Grandia II around 2020/2021. I've been working on Grandia III off and on since then. It isn't bad, but it doesn't grab me the way the first two games did. Has anyone here played Xtreme? Is it any good? I've heard mixed to negative things in the past.

I tried playing Xtreme back in the day, but didn't get too far into it before putting it down and have never revisited it. I'd like to give it another chance, but the backlog is ever growing so I just never find the time to return.

[Zemekis]

2 hours ago, Koby said:

I tried playing Xtreme back in the day, but didn't get too far into it before putting it down and have never revisited it. I'd like to give it another chance, but the backlog is ever growing so I just never find the time to return.

I'm trapped in the same spiral with Grandia III. While looking at the old threads on here regarding Grandia, I found mention of some of your old fanpages. I did some snooping through Wayback & found more fanpages, then more, and more. Do you know off the top of your head how many fansites you've run over the years and for how many different IPs? I thought it was just Kametsu & the Shadow Hearts one, but I was sorely underestimating you.

[Koby]

56 minutes ago, Zemekis said:

I'm trapped in the same spiral with Grandia III. While looking at the old threads on here regarding Grandia, I found mention of some of your old fanpages. I did some snooping through Wayback & found more fanpages, then more, and more. Do you know off the top of your head how many fansites you've run over the years and for how many different IPs? I thought it was just Kametsu & the Shadow Hearts one, but I was sorely underestimating you.

I did run Forgotten Memories, which was a final fantasy focused fansite that moved on to a lot of Square-Enix news and jrpgs. Then there was Judgement Ring before Shadow Hearts Infoholic. Shinra Insider and even Kingdom Hearts Trinity. At one point there was Gates of Heaven, a Legend of Dragoon fansite. Among many others through the years. My website numbers is probably something close to 30. I mean I had a bunch of Yugioh related sites back in the day under many different names, merging them with friends sites, merging again, and again, etc.

 

I really enjoyed the battle system of Grandia 3, and the story started off pretty good imo, but it fell apart in the second half. Also the two best characters leave your party early in the game and then never show up again. >_>

 

Grandia 2 remains my favorite, but geez the blocky-style could really use a redo. I'd love a remake with the style of Dragon Quest XI graphics while leaving the battle system as-is or simply incorporating some of the updates from Grandia 3. Please no "FF7 Remake" style.

[Zemekis]

26 minutes ago, Koby said:

I really enjoyed the battle system of Grandia 3, and the story started off pretty good imo, but it fell apart in the second half. Also the two best characters leave your party early in the game and then never show up again. >_>

 

Grandia 2 remains my favorite, but geez the blocky-style could really use a redo. I'd love a remake with the style of Dragon Quest XI graphics while leaving the battle system as-is or simply incorporating some of the updates from Grandia 3. Please no "FF7 Remake" style.

I agree with every single part of this. Down to the characters & which parts of Grandia III are good.