Some years ago, publisher GungHo Online Entertainment America along with developer Sickhead Games worked to bring two classic role-playing games to modern platforms, which would be none other than ‘GRANDIA’ and ‘GRANDIA II’ from developer GAME ARTS. From PC and then to Switch, now those two classic titles are finally available on PlayStation and Xbox consoles in the form of ‘GRANDIA HD Collection’, a solid package that has its share of quirks.
Sans that, let’s harken back to the days of the SEGA console and talk about two RPGs with very fun combat systems.
In these GRANDIA titles (during this review I found out more than two exist!), players will take on the role of Justin and Ryudo alongside their companions to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so to speak. The first game is more lighthearted in nature, the protagonists being goofball children, while the second gets more serious (but keeps its humour in a way) thanks to Ryudo’s wisecracking remarks. Despite those differences, the combat system remains relatively similar and its a lot of fun. When players encounter enemies, ideally from the back (and not their own), they’ll be transported to a separate field where baddies and friend lie in wait to the tune of a bar at the bottom of the screen that’ll dictate when they attack.
The GRANDIA games are turn-based RPGs where the player waits til a playable character reaches the “COM” portion of the turn bar gauge, where you can then fire off a combo (two attacks), a critical (one slow but heavy attack), magic and skills, and defence. Defending means either planting your feet in place, shield in hand, or running across the battlefield away from other enemy attacks. Speaking of, if an enemy attacks but you hit back first, you can cancel baddies out which forces them to drop their acting turn. Even better, pressing the advantage on a baddie by countering their attacks sends their turn back consistently, encouraging you to read opponent turns and adapt when the time is right. Some attacks are quick to fire off but naturally the more powerful ones will take time so its imperative you measure turn difference and strike true.
This combat system ends up being a lot of fun as it encourages pressing the advantage but also giving you the freedom to back off when you need to. It’s pretty easy to find yourself backed into a corner and getting shanked from multiple angles if you’re not careful. But once you’ve got the hang of things, positioning characters to where they’re advantageous and leading supporters away from danger, it’s a lot of fun pull off these strategies and effectively clearing out scores of enemies in no time. Even with a lack of tutorials, the game is easy enough to pick up especially if you’ve fiddled with strategy systems in other games. Plus, the overworld lacks random encounters which is always a plus in my book.
The presentation for these titles are great; for their time they offered voice acting for story critical scenes , bespoke spritework for a lot of unique actions, and for GRANDIA camera angles that really took advantage of the 3D overworld to tell fun and serious stories. Noriyuki Iwadare’s compositions are a boon and as for the stories in the GRANDIA HD Collection, I found myself preferring the first game’s journey over the second as Justin and Sue along with the major antagonists has a much more fun and light-hearted dynamic. And I loved how the cast perceives the ancient civilisation and its angelic inhabitants to be this sort of alien force, complete with big appendages and giant eyes and a set of wings.
Not to say that GRANDIA II isn’t any fun—and it has the advantage of not looking funky on a large screen thanks to it primarily being a 3D game. Ryudo is a good protagonist, only less amusing than another sarcastic anti-hero from the Dreamcast’s all-star library. Though its no fault of his own as he is ostracised for his line of work. As for GRANDIA’s overworld exploration, it can be a little cumbersome thanks to the overhead focus and lack of signposting. In towns you can press the “View” button to load up a full screen map to get a better look of your surroundings but outside you’ll need to depend on little eagle eye zones to do that, but I digress.
Speaking of which, the GRANDIA HD Collection is very much a straight port with some enhancements. I’m not too sure what exact changes both versions have undergone, but the most obvious are the enhanced text rendering in both games along with being forced into widescreen. GRANDIA’s sprites have been upscaled via xBRZ from what I can tell, FMV cutscenes have been widescreen’d for both games, and you can select between English and Japanese voices on the fly (though between you and I, I’d stay far away from the English). GRANDIA II doesn’t seem to be running at 4k, however, as character models have obvious jaggies even from a small distance.
But besides that, there’s a fair bit of features that I’ve grown accustomed to from other rereleases of old titles that are missing here. You cannot set the game to render in its original resolution, loading and saving relies on a clunky menu, a lack of fast forwarding for battles, no auto function for text, so on and so forth. At the very least I would have appreciated save states as this title doesn’t even support Quick Resume on Xbox Series consoles (and I’ve bumbled my way into a good hours worth of time lost thanks to that). I found the sprites in GRANDIA to look rather blotted, no thanks to the upscaling applied and how the camera likes to scale back and forth. Consider sitting as far back as possible to enjoy this one.
Despite the lack of quality of life features, however, GRANDIA HD Collection serves as a great way for players to play a set of excellent RPGs on modern platforms. Either games can be played to your liking at anytime and are great fun thanks to a solid combat system and presentation. ∎
GRANDIA HD Collection
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Fun combat system across both games.
- Lovely music and presentation.
- Narrative across both games is enjoyable.
CONS
- Overworld navigation in Grandia 1 is a fair bit annoying.
- Lack of quality of life features.
Why did I read this as the “GRANDMA” collection
.
Was holding off on getting this on Switch for quite a while now. Instantly bought it on Xbox when it launched this afternoon.
I didn’t even know it was out on Xbox, yet! (I’m going to blame my obsession with Dragon’s Dogma.)
I’d be down for a purchase! But it’ll have to go on a wishlist. Because… Dragon’s Dogma.
Man Grandia 1 was one of my favorite JRPG’s during that era. Still one of my all time favorites.