Is Grandia X bad?

[Phire]

A friend of mine told me Grandia X is nothing like Grandia 2 and it lacks a story and characters. And that the game is just like Evolution with mindless dungeon battles? Is this true?

[Frogacuda]

Originally posted by Phire
A friend of mine told me Grandia X is nothing like Grandia 2 and it lacks a story and characters. And that the game is just like Evolution with mindless dungeon battles? Is this true?

Completely true, but it's very much intentional. Grandia X is not intended to be Grandia 3. It's a spinoff and an attempt to to a d-rpg in Grandia style. It's alot like Evolution or Narikiri dungeons. Only 2 towns. Tons and tons of dungeons, some over 100 floors. Lots of treasure collecting...

Some people like that kinda thing. If you were able to get into evolution or Chocobo's Dungeon or whatever you might have fun with it. Just don't expect another game like G2.

[DacaZ]

I've been looking forward to this game for a little while now. Granted, it isn't a traditional story-driven RPG, but I love the combat system, and it's been a long time since I've played a dungeon crawler.

[Frogacuda]

Yeah, if the dungeons are good, I'll give it a whirl, but if thge level design is anything like the simplistic, straightforward, puzzle-devoid stuff in G2, then I doubt it will grab me. I loved G2 and all, but the dungeon design did seem like the weakest part.

[Tsubaki]

Frog: I thought some of G2's dungeons were pretty good... I hear you bagging on it all the time, but a couple of the dungeons weren't entirely straight forward.

Everyone: The problem isn't so much that the game's emphasis is on fighting and nothing else. The problem is that because of the game's structure, you'll have to keep fighting the same few dungeons, same few enemies over and over. It's not that it's a dungeon crawler per se. In fact, when you re-enter dungeons, not a whole lot has changed. Generally, it's just the items in the dungeon that are different. The main difference is the enemies just get more buff. Which is cool, until you realize you're getting very little exp for it, yet the bosses are 10 levels above you.

In short: it being a dungeon crawler is a misnomer. I think it's more like those cruddy RPGs (you know, DQ, Final Fantasy) where they force you to fight battles over and over and over again for hours upon hours. But GX is worse because the enemies get harder, the battles get longer, and you get squat for it. BRILLIANT GAME DESIGN!

[DacaZ]

Some impressions, but before I begin, you should know that I am a self-proclaimed Grandia Whore. If you stamped the word Grandia onto a brick, you could probably have a fair shot of selling it to me. And so, without further ado...

There are three things I loved about Grandia and Grandia 2.
1) The charm
2) The music
3) The battle system

Grandia Extreme has the battle system. Actually, it may acquire the charm, but right now, I'm glad there isn't much of a story because the dialogue and voicework sucks ass. The music is Ok, but I really wish they adapted the original Grandia score for this game. A Grandia release without some permutation of that incredible soundtrack seems wrong.

The graphics are so-so. The character models are about on par with the Dreamcast release of Grandia II. The environments are pretty sub-par. The magic effects are pretty though. All in all, I don't think the visuals here really stack up to Grandia II, though.

Ahhhh.... but the battle system. I'm still ferreting out what changes they made to it. The mana eggs are back, as is the realtime/turn-based hybrid. A lot of it feels very close to Grandia II, but it's clear they've made a few changes. I have to start leveling up or run through the tutorial to see what precisely has been tinkered with. I did jump into some battles, though and it feels great.

Right now, all I can say is that if you aren't as in love with Grandia's battle system as me, you need to run a million miles away from this game. Me? I think I'm in heaven.

[Josh]

Bad like Michael Jackson...

Cha-mow!