Grandia 2:
The Wings of Valmar

Review by Chi Phan

This is one of the few rpgs from the Dreamcast that I wanted to play but never got around to it cause I never got a Dreamcast. I have to say that I'm a little bit disappointed after playing it on the Playstation 2. It's still a good rpg but it's not one that gamers should be waiting with eager anticipation for. Maybe it's cause I'm spoiled after playing Final Fantasy X. The best way to describe Grandia 2 is, "if it ain't broke don't fix it." Grandia 2 is pretty much a rehash and improve version of Grandia 1. Same spell and same battle system but on a different console system. I've heard that the gameplay between the DC and Playstation 2 is the same with the only difference in graphics on the Playstation 2. The Playstation 2 version had some added CGI cinema that the DC didn't have but base on outside opinions, it looks like the game graphics looks better on the DC than on the Playstation 2 after the conversion. Oh well, the game itself is still the same as the DC. So let's review the game...

A hero to the rescue. Grandia 2 World Map Backdrop of the story: Long ago there was a war between two gods. The god of darkness known as Valmar and the god of light known as Granas. Granas defeated the god of Darkness and seal his body parts in different regions of the world. End of backdrop. The story starts of with the our main hero, Ryudo. Ryudo is a Geohound. The game doesn't really give us much insight on what a Geohound is but they pretty much are mercenary from the looks of it. Anyways Ryudo recieved a job to escort and protect a Sister of Granas by the name of Elena to an ancient ruin. At the ancient ruin, Elena and her fellow Granas Sisters try to seal up the Wings of Valmar, one of the body parts of the Dark god. Unfortunately they failed and Elena was possessed with the Wings of Valmar. Afterwards, Ryudo decided to take the next job and escort Elena to the Great Cathedral to see if the High Priest Zera can remove the Wings of Valmar from Elena. Uponing reaching the Great Cathedral, the High Priest told Ryudo that inorder to remove the Wings from Elena, they need to retrieve the sword of Granas known as the Granasaber. The High Priest ask Ryudo if he will accept this quest. Ryudo agrees to it. From that point on Ryudo and Elena embark on a quest to find the Granasaber and stop the resurrection of Valmar. Along the way they will meet new characters that will aid them and fight minions of Valmar. So our brief story description comes to an end. How's the story overrall? I didn't enjoy it very much. It's okay I suppose. Above average. What I found was that the story seems to go too slowly at times and lacks that punch that would keep gamers interested in it. The characters are kind of lacklustre as well and it didn't help make the story anymore interesting. The story doesn't move you emotionally as well. Most of the emotion is due to the background music than the actual scene in the story itself. Then there's also a problem with the story getting too confusing near the end when the game tries to describe the history of Valmar and Granas or who Valmar and Granas actually are. Well I find it confusing anyways. I don't know. I just wasn't into the story as much. I spent more time trying to find a way to fast forward through the story then really caring to read and digest the story in and that's not a good sign if I'm doing that.

The power of Fallen Wings The characters in this game sadly aren't as good as expected. Individually or as a group. There are a total of 6 main characters. Ryudo, Mareg, Millenia, Elena, Roan, and Tio. Each main character do have their own personality but unfortunately none of their personalities are something to talk about. Millenia is probably the only character with a unique personality that gamers can take a shine to. But everyone else needs to go to a personality school. Another problem is that as a group, they don't seem to fit in together unlike other rpgs. The group looks more like a bunch of misfits than one you would rely on to save the world. Individually no one is the stand out cool character. Not even Ryudo. Overall the characters are just plain boring to tell you the truth. The good side is that the characters are develope nicely with gamers getting an insight to their past as the story is played out in the game. Too bad the characters themselves aren't very interesting. Good points for an in-depth background developement but bad points for the lack of strong personalities that makes these characters come alive.

I can see you.. What can I say about the graphics?? Sometime is looks good while other times it looks dull and blurry or too soft. The game uses a rich 3-D graphic with cinematic animation for some of it's spells and during some story sequences. Character sprites are done in fine details polygon texture. The details of the characters in polygon is an improvement from the Playstation but it doesn't hold up to the Playstation 2 standard. But also keep in mind that this game was originally made for the Dreamcast. The characters however are missing their nose and mouth in close up shots. So it's not as details as can be. However the world of Grandia is indeed a rich 3-D environment. One of the best display of 3-D power out there. I'll give them credit for that. Too bad the colors in this game isn't as good. The word dull comes to mind. You'll see lots of different brown colors here. Not to mention dark colors. LOL. It's a shame too. CG/FMV?? Well the game uses quite a bit of CG cinema but again that is a disappointment. 95% of the CG are mostly background scenary such as places, ships and moon. There really is no character CG cinema at all. Which is a disappointment. As much as I like to look at some of the beautiful scenary, I prefer to get some good CG anime of the characters themselves. Also like with the rest of the graphics, the CG cinema is quite dull, blurry and too soft at times as well. In other words, the CG isn't very detail and sharp at all. Graphics isn't exactly this game strong points I tell you. I hear it looks better on the Dreamcast before the conversion over to the Playstation 2. Oh well. Poor color, characters aren't as finely detail, and weak CG cinema that are often too soft and blurry would make me give the graphics a 7. A higher score on the DC or Playstation but this is Playstation 2 game we are talking about here.

Dinner time.. The one biggest bright spot is the music in this game. The one standout theme that this game has is the Grandia main theme from the first Grandia game. Normally I didn't think much about the main theme when I first heard it on the first Grandia game but in this sequel, hearing that theme again sort of put the stamp on that this is a serie that will become a classic series to remember by. The game also feature some great sad piano themes. In fact the music is so good that it's the one thing that really bring life and emotion to the story that the story itself lacks. Each musical score is played perfectly for each scene making the scene seem to come to life. Some of the best story sequences are the sad one with the piano sad theme playing perfectly in the background. I really enjoy the music and for one of the few times in my rpg career, I actually notice the importance of what music can do for an rpg story. The game also feature alot of voice acting just like in the first Grandia. But this time the voice acting was much better and I enjoy it alot. If you didn't like the voice acting here then you must be pretty anal when it comes to judging voice acting then.

The Sisters of Granas The Dark God, himself. Game Information    Genre: Traditional Rpg    Company: Ubi Soft    Disc: 1 Disc DVD    Memory: 68 KB    Players: 1 Player Mode    Vibration: No    Dual Analog: Yes    Digital Control: Yes    Rating: Teen    Release: February 2002 Gameplay of Grandia 2 is pretty much the same as the first one but with some improvements here and there. The overall game is easy with easy puzzles to solve in mazes/dungeons. The game also doesn't possess any random battles much like the first Grandia so you don't have to worry about having to fight a random battle every 5 steps or so. This is pretty much a straightforward game where you go to your next destination on the world map by following the pointing arrow on the world map to a city or town. Once inside a town, just talk to the townsfolk to get a story cut sequence going to get you to your next dungeons. When you are inside a dungeon you will see monsters roaming about.You can avoid getting into fights by just running past them and not letting them touch you. If you touch the monster first then you will get first strike. If you monster touch you first then they get first strike. That's the glist of the gameplay. Next would be the battle system, special moves, magic and skills points. After each battle you will gain experience points, money, battle and magic skill points. Battle skills points are used to activate and raise special moves and stats aiding skills while magic skill points are used to activate and raise magic powers. Now magic is acquire by equiping an egg. The kind of magic available depends on the egg. Now equipping an egg isn't enough as you will need to activate and level up the individual magics within the eggs inorder to use the magics available in the eggs. You can level up or activate the magic by distributing magic skill points. The higher your magic level, the faster you will cast the magic and the more powerful the magic becomes. Special moves are done the same way. Each fighter will have their own special moves. To activate or level up the special moves, you will need to distribute battle skill points. In addition to special moves and magic, you have stats aiding skills learned from books called Book Skills. You use battle skill points to activate and raise these stats aiding skills from Book Skills then equipping these skills to your fighters. A little note here. The magic spells are the same kind as the one that appear in the first Grandia. But of course they are bigger and better with CG cinema in them. So we've arrive to the last part. The battle system. Once a battle takes place, you are sent to a 3-D battle environment in a turn base system where characters run around to attack the monsters. The battle system uses an IP Gauge. An IP Gauge is pretty much a gauge that determine when a character turn comes up. Once a character IP Gauge fills up, he/she then can perform an action. To attack, cast a spell or defend. It's still a turn base system but this time around you will have to wait for the IP Gauge of your individual fighters to fill up before you can send in a command. If memory serves me correct, this is the same system used in the first Grandia. I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's it for the whole gameplay. Which is pretty much a rehash of the same gameplay used in Grandia 1. It's simple, easy and great for beginners but I prefer something a little more complex.

Score: 7/10

The glory days.. Very weak here people. In terms of extras, there's like only a couple of mini games where you can win some items. The mini games themselves are very weak and short. You can win like maybe 5 different items from the mini games before you can't play the mini games anymore. Side quest? There's only one side quest. That is if you can call it a side quest. Basically late in the game you can re-enter a clear stage that you passed earlier in the game. In this stage you can fight a new class of monsters that are guarding some rare items. In all honestly the rare items aren't even that great and I never ended up using them at all. That's about it for the extra stuff. Replay?? If you really enjoy the game and want to play it again. I won't be playing this game again for quite some time, thank you very much.

Grandia 2 is a good rpg but that's about it. It's doesn't offer you anything special. The overall gameplay is too easy and too short for the core rpgers but it's a great beginner rpg game. As for me? I played it, enjoy it but it's something I won't play again for a long time as there's nothing in that game that would challenge me to want to play it again anytime soon. Final Score: 6.8/10 Time to complete: about 30 hours Difficulty: easy Favorite character: Millenia Least favorite character: Elena Best magic to use: Zap! Best fighting skill: Blue Lightening Slash Best Advice: Cancel, cancel and cancel. Also try: Grandia 1 Up next: Jade Cacoon 2

STORY A decent storyline but nothing that will actually get you excited about.At times the story can be too confusing too.	7
CHARACTERS A small cast of characters that lack strong personalities.	7
GRAPHICS Too dark and dull at time with CG cinema being too soft or blurry as well. Could use some more details on the character designs.	7
MUSIC The best feature in this game. Provide the emotional value that the story itself like. And hey I'm starting to dig the maiin Grandia theme now.	10
GAMEPLAY A little above average gameplay. Nothing special here. Pretty much the same stuff you saw in the first Grandia.	7
EXTRAS/REPLAY Not much to do in terms of extra or any real replay value at all.	3