A great game worth buying for Strategy RPG fans and RPG fans in general
User Rating: 9 | Growlanser Generations PS2
The first announcement that I heard of this was quite some time ago, unfortunately the headline read "Strategy RPG with Character Designer famous for nude females getting published in the USA under the working designs moniker." At least, that is what I remember of it. My point is however that my first knowledge of the game and the first buzz I heard of it was overtly negative. Whether the article had an agenda or not is not really the point. The point is when I first heard of it, I was not really that excited for it, and even possibly had some negative bias towards this series. Wow does time really change things, a couple of years later and many delays we had to suffer through and we get the final game. To my shock and suprize it ends up being my personal favorite RPG of 2004. I will say it now and I will say it again, I am not a huge fan of strategy RPG's. The battles take too long and most strategy RPG's are just nothing but very long games with knights and castles that have lots of political inner working and intrigue. That is not to say that I hate the genre, it is just that most games that I have experienced are in this realm. Growlanser Generations is not really that different. Political Intrigue? Check. Girls in unusually tight armour? Check. Lots of plots twists? Check. So what seperates growlanser from the pack of RPG's that come out in the USA every year? The first aspect of Growlanser that really stands out is the stunning character designs. Although it really is personal taste, I must say that Growlanser II has far superior character designs compared to Growlanser III. The character designs are very anime in styling. After all, it has the token pretty boys (In Japan it is known as bishounen), then we have the gorgeous girls, and we have the rugged looking outdoorsman-type bad guys. Unlike many RPG's that just has a little portrait and text right beside it, Growlanser has huge character portraits that take half the screen. They blink, there mouths move, and the factial expressions change to fit the emotions of the characters. While I must say that the great art design almost makes the game worth buying on it's own. It is not all that make the game worth buying. It has a fresh aspect to it that is unfortunately not explored much in Japanese RPG's and that is Dynamic Dialogue and Branching Storylines. Depending on how you act and what you do during the duration of the game, certain characters will change their affection towards you, whether it be negative affection or positive affection. As the game moves along the affection will determine the dialogue you share between the characters, and of course a mandatory "date" aspect with the female characters in the game. The branching storylines also come from the dialogue you choose, but has two other factors. The two factors are how the event battles are done and the sidequests you do. The event battles are special and really make Growlanser shine in my eyes. Every single event battle is unique and very different. As it starts you see dialogue and plot unfolding before your eyes. Then a screen appears telling you conditions for victory, and conditions for game over. The outcome of the battle is determined by your troop attacks, how many turns you used, enemies fallen, NPC's and Villager's fallen, and many other factors. After that you get one of four things; Mission Failed, Mission Clear, Mission Complete, and Mission Complete w/sword in the background. What you do in the event battles and the outcome of them affect the overall storyline. So if you get a Mission Complete trying to protect a villiage from a girl who is possessed and start a dialogue sequnce with her afterwards you can now open the possibility of having her in the party. One thing is for sure, you wont have the same exact experience twice when you replay the game with an agenda the second time. Whether it be dating Charlone, Getting Arieta to join your party, or some other thing you want to do. The game has many sidequests, in Growlanser II they are at times when you go out of your way to check out towns and to into discussions with certain characters. In Growlanser III it has expanded tenfold in an RPG environment that you are forced to interact with. The brings me to the biggest differences between the two games. Growlanser II tones down the exploration because the world is not that interactive for the most part. You go on a linear map with predetermined points like in Suikoden III or Final Fantasy Tactics. It is more so like Final Fantasy Tactics because the towns and dugeons themselves are not explorable, you just click on some text and that is it. With Growlanser III the game is a full blown RPG with an overworld map, exporable towns, and explorable dungeons. That in all honesty is probably the biggest fault with Growlanser III. Growlanser III completely inaundates the player with a fully exporable town, dungeons to explore, people to talk to. On top of that there are items you can interact with in Growlanser III. In number 2 the linear map makes the game fun and fast paced. With story sequences to move the story between the event battles. The fast paced gameplay spoils the player because in Growlanser III there are many instances where tedium strikes in the exporation. While some people have said that the soundtrack of the game is very weak, I for one must disagree with that. Growlanser II and Growlanser III have superb soundtracks on it's own right and it gets the job done. With growlanser II the battle music changes according to the events happening onscreen. So if the battle is going great, the music shows it. Then all of a sudden the dynamics change and the battle gets insanely difficult the muslic changes to fit the dynamics. The voice acting is superb and so are the translations for the game, both of them are some of the strongest aspects of the game. Hence why I will not focus on it too much.. Of the two games I definitely have a favorite bias towards the 2nd one compared to the 3rd one, but they are both awesome RPG's on thier own right. That is why I wholeheartely recommend this collection for people. After all, how many collections out there has not only one great RPG but TWO OF THEM?
