Grandia II First Impressions

Dreamcast owners haven't had much choice as far as RPGs so far, but they won't have to languish for much longer. Ubi Soft's Grandia II is one of the most promising titles we were able to experience hands on at E3. While there wasn't very much story info available, the gameplay in Grandia II seems to be coming along quite nicely.

The battle system is very much like that of its predecessor, with distance and timing playing a large part in a fight. Even though the battles are turn-based, players and enemies constantly changing position, and you'll need to cover the distance to an enemy if you want to make an attack. Characters learn various techniques by mastering their weapons, and they power up their magic attacks by the successive use of spells. These will eventually merge into new and more powerful attacks.

The game's graphics look as though they make good use of the DC hardware, and some of the more elaborate magic attacks give Square a run for its money in terms of length and sheer overkill. While the game is still in development in Japan, Ubi Soft has already started translating it, so US gamers shouldn't have as much time to wait after the game is released in Japan.