An RPG experience that shouldn't be missed by anyone. It does what most RPGs fail to do now...actually be fun.
Long ago, a highly advanced civilization existed, known as the Angelou civilization. In this time, people could use wings to fly, communicated with the Spirits, and were living in a Heaven on Earth. However, somthing happened causing the Angelou civilization to collapse and disappear from time and space forever. The mystery behind the most advanced civlization's diappearance has yet to be solved and that is the basis for Grandia's intriguing story.
Almost anybody would be skeptical as starting off as a 12 year old troublemaking boy and his 10 year old older sister figure. But how Justin and Sue mature throughout their adventure quickly makes you forget where they came from at the start of the game. Justin is a simple boy from the town of Parm, he dreams of being an Adventurer like his father before him and explore new lands. Sue, having a secret crush on Justin, will obviously follow him wherever he goes and help him however she can. There are numerous other characters that join you throughout Justin's adventure and each of them are memorable in their own way. Fleshing out each character is something that Grandia does very well. The game makes you feel sad when a character is depressed, you feel joy when they feel happy, you feel like ripping off somebody's head when they are angry, and...well, you get the picture.
One thing that got kinda repetative about the story, however, was that you basically did the same thing everytime you got to a new town. You hear of a problem with the town, Justin automatically volunteers his party to find out what the problem is, and they save the town. The town is also typically skeptical of Justin and crew, or they have a law against outsiders or something. It doesn't really ruin the game, but it just got kinda repetative after one gets to the third town and goes through the same deal.
The gameplay of Grandia is definitely something different from your average JRPG. In the field, you can see the enemies around you, so there are never any random battles. How you approach an enemy when you want to initiate fight determines how the battle starts. If you sneak up on them, you get a surprise attack on your foes and your turns come faster. If the enemy notices you and you run into each other at the same time, the battle starts off normally, with no advantage to either side. However, if the enemy manages to get behind you, they get the initiative at the start of the battle and go before you do. It is an interesting system that causes you to really think about how to approach an enemy sitting in the open field or with their back to you.
When you actually get into the fight, this isn't a typical Turn Based RPG. The way a player or enemies turn is determined is by a bar on the bottom right hand of the screen that has an icon for each creature and character in the fight. Depending on how you initiated the battle, you'll either start out on the far left, middle, or far right on the bar. The bar moves the icons from left to right and when an icon reaches the "Action" sequence at the end, that character gets to do an action. The speed a character's icon moves is determined by their Speed attribute. When either one of your characters or an enemy is in the "Action" sequence, you can Cancel their attack, causing their icon to go back to the middle of the sequence bar. You can only cancel with certain attacks, but doing this can turn the tide of a battle. You can also simply Counter their attack, which doesn't stop it, but it does more damage than a regular attack.
The choices your character can take when it is their turn ranges. They can either: Combo, Critical, Use Item, Use Magic/Moves, Change Tactics, Retreat, or Defend. A Combo is a regular attack combo of two hits. A Critical is one attack that will Cancel an enemy's attack or move if they're in the Action Sequence. Use Item allows a character to use an item (duh), Magic/Moves allows a character to use a spell or special move of theirs. Changing Tactics allows you to change how the AI will control a person if you don't want to, or the entire party. There are two types of Defend commands, either Endure (where your character will take less damage than normal) or Evasion (which allows you to move that person to another part of the battlefield).
All of these aspects add up to one fun battle system, which actually doesn't make it annoying to go into a fight. Which is one thing other RPGs could take advice on, making each fight interesting and fun, not a chore to get through.
How you gain more Magic and Moves is also quite interesting. You get new moves by how high your weapon level is and you gain experience with a weapon type by simply using it in battle. However, more advanced moves may require you to raise your weapon level with multiple weapons, but the attacks you get at first are still very useful throughout the course of the whole game. So it's not like you absolutely have to get the new moves, but some can be devestating to your foes. New Magic is gained in a similar way, by using spells of a certain element a lot. The more you use Burn!, the higher your Fire Experience will be and eventually you'll learn Burnflame. However, a character can only learn Magic of a different element, like Water, by getting a Mana Egg out in the field and taking it back to a shop and trading it in. There are only a certain number of Mana Eggs in the game,so choosing what Element to learn and when is crucial.
The graphics for Grandia are 2D Sprite based for the characters and full 3D for towns and dungeons. The battlefields being flat kinda seems odd at first, but they eventually grows on you. The animated cutscenes and FMVs are obviously very pretty and help bring the story to life. Some of the spells you can do in battle are truly something to behold and are as devestating as they are beautiful. Really, the graphics just fit the game perfectly. They don't try to do too much, but at the same time they don't hold back.
The soundtrack for the game was one thing that wasn't too spectacular at first, but once you get to the 2nd Disk the soundtrack gets a lot better. The battle themes is one thing Grandia has down very well. The BGM for this game is very catchy and is something you won't mind hearing over and over again. I wish I could say the same thing for the voice acting though....the voice acting in this game ranges from passable, to "I want to mute my TV right now." Most of the characters just sound like robots or they try to sound too serious (*cough Gadwin *cough).
For supposidly having 80 hours of gameplay, according to the back of the case anyway, there weren't many sidequests in this game. There were some bonus dungeons where you could get some awesome items, but besides that...sidequests were lacking. With the lack of sidequests, that means the game is terribly linear and you simply advance in the story most of the time. Which isn't a bad thing, the story is great, but more sidequests would've been nice to have.
Overall, Grandia is one of those hidden gems from the PS1/Saturn days of RPGs. One that was sadly missed by most of the gaming populous due to the Final Fantasy outbreak in North America. But really, most of the time, Grandia does one thing better than Final Fantasy, it is actually fun to play. You will rarely find yourself bored in Grandia and that is one its strongest points, the fun factor. If you are an RPG fan, you owe it to yourself to pick up this game.