If you're going to make a blatant plot, this is how you pull it off...

User Rating: 8.5 | Grandia III PS2
Let's get one thing straight (again)! You will see everything coming in this game, even more so than Final Fantasy XII. What sets this game apart is the presentation and the guilty pleasure of a battle system.

Don't let the cover fool you. You're not in for the most epic original adventure since Final Fantasy X and I guess FFVII, but they made up for it with a decent pace and not a terrible amount of level crunching.

You will start of with the main character wanting to obtain his dream of soaring the skies (How original...). As he tries to fly his friend's plane, it does the obvious and you end up meeting the girl your character pretty much falls in love with at first sight. The characters really shine here as the voice acting is top notch with some pretty funny lines if you're not jaded.

The battle system will let your characters move around in the battlefield until it is their turn. When it is, time freezes as you choose your attack, if another character is up next, you can chain attack it when the turn hits. Normal attacks are quick and don't push your turn back, and critical attacks take your next turn back a bit, but backs up your opponent's next turn back slightly as well. Going crazy in this game will get you killed quick.

The main hero's mother is the magic caster (Looks just as young as her son. Insert your witty comment here.), The girl you find is the healer (Hmm...again?), and you of course is the average guy. You have a pretty easy breezy time through half the game....

That is until the real bosses start popping up and slap you around the pavement, making you wonder if finishing the game is even worth it since you know what's going to happen next anyways, thus the game's biggest flaw.

And of course the music is nothing too epic either, but it does have three or four tracks music enthuses like me would like.

If you don't mind sacraficing story for presentation, then this game is golden. I however like originality, but also appreciate the game's polish to be an old school RPG with a current gen battle system.