Classic game: Grandia II
A JRPG pearl that never had the success it deserved
“Grandia II was ported, even with the odds against it, because it’s a genuinely exciting game.”
Sega is or has been many different things over the years – a console manufacturer, a game development studio, a publisher, and a company that endlessly chased PlayStation’s success with RPGs. It made a very successful first attempt with the Sakura Wars franchise in Japan, but that was more of a strategy game/visual novel hybrid. Sega still needed a more traditional party-based RPG to challenge the likes of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Grandia fitted the bill to a T.
The reason Grandia II doesn’t inspire the same recognition is a matter of timing. Originally developed for Sega consoles, both games in the series eventually made the jump to PlayStation, where they rode on the coattails of well-loved instalments in the Final Fantasy series (IX and X respectively).
Grandia II made the jump to 3D, but looked more akin to Final Fantasy VII than Final Fantasy X, which had released the year before. It’s also not a great port technically speaking, with less detailed textures than it had on Sega’s own consoles, and some visual glitches too. But it was ported and published, even with the odds stacked against it, because it’s a genuinely exciting game, one that shows why developer Game Arts was held in the same high regard as RPG powerhouses such as Squaresoft, Tri-Ace and Nihon Falcom. For one thing, it moved away from the random encounter system RPG players were already becoming bored of, and it did so long before any other game series. For another, if you do choose to engage enemies, the turn-based combat that follows is intricate enough to require a lot of on-screen information, such as a meter that tells you how long it will be before you or an enemy carry out an action, similar to Final Fantasy’s ATB meter, and a cone that shows how far your character can go. Getting to your enemy in time is crucial as getting a hit in allows you to cancel their action and do extra damage. Getting that timing right is as challenging as it is enjoyable; it’s a seemingly small change that made the entire combat system feel fresh.
DEMON’S BOWELS
Grandia II’s story is committed to two JRPG mainstays: weird monsters that really represent the character’s own insecurities, and a profound obsession with Christianity. Here, the god of darkness’ individual cursed limbs (yes, really) are strewn across the world and need to be destroyed before it can be reanimated, prompting a journey across the world that will lead you inside said demon’s body and all the way to the moon (suck on that, Final Fantasy VIII).
Whereas other RPGs usually have one or two party members whose story they don’t really explore as fully as the rest, Grandia II gives everyone their due, from hero Ryudo to musclebound beast-man Mareg. This is a game with some excellent, truly shocking twists, and it gets much darker than its bright colours may otherwise suggest. Each of your group members’ deep exploration of their past and their own traumas is some of the best character writing in the genre, even when the plot otherwise becomes fairly familiar. Somehow, Grandia II stays committed enough to its brand of JRPG nonsense that it gets to the finish line without plot holes, which is much more than a lot of other games can claim.
NOUGHTIES BUT NICE
The game may have been behind its time when it reached PlayStation, but there is masses of love in the small details – from characters’ peak-2000s clothing design (belts for everyone!) to their expressive avatars (courtesy of character designer Youshi Kanoe) and the great soundtrack (by Noriyuki Iwadare, who wrote the soundtrack for the first game and whose work also includes a number of Langrisser and Ace Attorney titles). The artistry that went into the game speaks of the wealth of experience of all the developers who participated.
Sadly, Game Arts never again reached the same heights, even though it followed Grandia II with both a sequel (Grandia III, of course) and a Grandia MMO. Well, it’s difficult to follow a game in which you literally fight a god from the inside.