In short, Grandia III is pretty much what one would expect of a fourth game from the Grandia franchise; It's Grandia, but hopped on a few steps and bounds to incorporate looks and touches that are slightly more fashionable for modern game designs.
Whilst the graphical step onwards from Grandia II and Xtreme is unquestionable, the size of the step often feels unremarkable. Cutscenes are attractively rendered with voice acting matched to accurately animated lips and expressions leading to the creation of vibrantly exciting characters, but non-close-up shots use much simpler, lower-poly models which break the effect slightly. It's not a technique that hasn't been used before in the world of rpgs, but other examples of using simple and complex models hide their differences much more effectively, such as in Final Fantasies X and (to a greater extent) X-2. The rest of the game world is colourfully designed, but it's simplicity and lower frame rate fails to really impress on a regular basis. There are instances where broad vistas and landscapes open up beautifully in the sunlight, but these moments are too few and far between to allow you to forget the simplicity of the paths that lead between them.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh. The game slots nicely in with late-gen worlds graphically, but when other games such as Radiata Stories are creating much brighter, more vivid worlds to explore, what would otherwise shine in Grandia II turns to more a of a dimmer glow. I have only played the first 2 and a half hours so it really is 'first impressions' here.
Graphical issues are largely turned to on side in battle, however, as fights explode into action in full 60fps glory. The battle system remains largely unchanged from what has come before, which is definitely a very good thing. Fights carefully blend a mix of action and strategy without ever getting too far into either end. Enough data is presented to allow you to make a shrewdly accutate tactical decision at any time, but there's never too much data such that you unecessarily have to stop to think hard about each and every move. Important decisions must be made regularly, but each of these decisions take little longer than a few seconds to make. It's an exciting and compelling mix of action and strategy that means that even though battles can be sidestepped by simply running around enemies on the world map, few foes will be left unbeaten.
The battle interface has a slightly 'techno' feel, with targets and cursors that reward strategical success with a thrilling succession of visual and aural cues. For the Grandia uninitiated, battles revolve (literally in this instalment) around the time bar in the top left of the screen, indicating when each charater will have their turn to make a move. At its simplest, characters have a chioce to make a quick, powerful double-strike or a slower, weaker single-strike that knocks their opponent further backwards on the time bar. catching someone with a slow strike just as their making their move (they may be charging a spell or in the animation frames of attacking someone) cancels their current move, pushing them far back along the time line. Add to this the ability to charge and cast spells and abilities (some of which can cancel moves, much like the single-strike moves) and the ability to move about and defend in order to avoid attacks, and Grandia suddenly has a great level of detail and subtlety that makes each fight so engrossing.
Grandia fans will notice two changes to the battle system. Cancelling moves have gained the additional characteristic of becoming launching moves - cancelling an attack drung the 'Act' phase will result in the enemy being flung into the air. Other characters that are at the 'Command' stage on the time bar as an enemy is airborne can combo attack the suspended foe in a highly dmamging, extravagantly animated aerial attack, with a hugely satisfying flourish for an 'aerial finish' when the enemy is killed in such a fashion. Keeping enemies' positions on the time bar in firm control with cancels and attacks was thrilling fun before this addition, but the shimmer of pulling an aerial attack together in the thick of a fast, hectic battle comes as nothing short of orgasmic, and the visual and audio promts really try to emphasise that point. It's an excellent addition to what was already the finest combat system in traditional Japanese RPGs.
A subtle help system is also present in battles now, with halp markers offerring suggestions on which moves to make according to situations. It's a useful aid to newcomers and pros alike, offering suggestions of how to best take advantagge of the games' strategic subtleties by suggesting how to cancel attacks and defend spells, as well as indicating which spells and moves are simply too quick to cancel (the only impediment of the japanese language upon the battles is the data on which move an enemy will use next, which can be important when timing for cancels and aerial finishes). As with Grandia II, the tutorial does an exemplary job of explaining the combat system, even if the player has no grasp of the Japanese language.
My one gripe with the battles in GIII, however, is the camera angle. Ga have tried to make the fights feel more hectic and faster by placing the camera lower to the ground with a wider angle. For this task, it does its job - battlse seem very exciting to watch indeed, but tactically it feels like a hinderance, leaving me wanting a higher, Grandia II-esque overview of the entire field. The camera usually locks onto one of the characters in battle (the character focused upon can be altered withthe shoulder buttons), but this leaves parts of the battlefield and other characters out of sight. It's not such a problem when battles are in motion, but it makes things a little awkward when making decisions and giving commands. An overview persective can be obtained by holding L2 or R2 but this is mainly for looking over each character and enemy and their statuses - commands from the main menu can't be selected in thsi view. It'd be nice to be able to lock the camera in this higher view for the whole battle, but it can't be done. It'd be useful to see who is looking at who (enemies look at who they're going to attack next, even when waiting for their turns, though this data can also by putting the cursor on them) when giving commands. The lower view also makes it much harder to judge distances (characters can only move so far in each move - if commanded to attack an enemy that is too far away, they'll waste a turn trying in vain to reach them) and positions when moving characters in order to dodge. It's an annoyance that is overcome in time, but is an annoyance that could and should have been avoided by simply offering options on where the camera lies in battles.
I haven't quite gotten to grips with the levelling up system, but it looks like abilities and spells level up through repeated use, rather than by allocating points, as was the case in Grandia II. Mana Eggs and Spell Books return, though it's a little too early for me to quite realise exactly how they work this time around. The story begins with the theme of flight, the intro sequence showing how protagonist Yuki is inspired by the famous pilot Shcmidt, but this theme seems to dissipate soon after in favour of travel on land, at least for the opening few hours. Leading lady Alfina arrives in a mannr not unlike Skies of Arcadia's Fina, being chased by soldiers led by a rather mean-looking Dunkel. Real originality will no doubt arrive in time, but for now it's only the brightness of Yuki and Miranda that really entice, story-wise. The vioce acting seems quite down-to-earth, which I quite like, though I can only pick out choice phrases so it's not like I know exactly what a good VA will do that a bad one won't, but I like the voice acting in this. The soundtrack, too, seems good so far.
As a bit of a fan of Grandia II (especially the battles), GIII does it right for me, building upon its successes by offering a faster battle system with bigger areas to explore and fight in, though I'm sure it'll be a few more hours before I can really tell from what extent it's been able to build and where.
Whilst the graphical step onwards from Grandia II and Xtreme is unquestionable, the size of the step often feels unremarkable. Cutscenes are attractively rendered with voice acting matched to accurately animated lips and expressions leading to the creation of vibrantly exciting characters, but non-close-up shots use much simpler, lower-poly models which break the effect slightly. It's not a technique that hasn't been used before in the world of rpgs, but other examples of using simple and complex models hide their differences much more effectively, such as in Final Fantasies X and (to a greater extent) X-2. The rest of the game world is colourfully designed, but it's simplicity and lower frame rate fails to really impress on a regular basis. There are instances where broad vistas and landscapes open up beautifully in the sunlight, but these moments are too few and far between to allow you to forget the simplicity of the paths that lead between them.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh. The game slots nicely in with late-gen worlds graphically, but when other games such as Radiata Stories are creating much brighter, more vivid worlds to explore, what would otherwise shine in Grandia II turns to more a of a dimmer glow. I have only played the first 2 and a half hours so it really is 'first impressions' here.
Graphical issues are largely turned to on side in battle, however, as fights explode into action in full 60fps glory. The battle system remains largely unchanged from what has come before, which is definitely a very good thing. Fights carefully blend a mix of action and strategy without ever getting too far into either end. Enough data is presented to allow you to make a shrewdly accutate tactical decision at any time, but there's never too much data such that you unecessarily have to stop to think hard about each and every move. Important decisions must be made regularly, but each of these decisions take little longer than a few seconds to make. It's an exciting and compelling mix of action and strategy that means that even though battles can be sidestepped by simply running around enemies on the world map, few foes will be left unbeaten.
The battle interface has a slightly 'techno' feel, with targets and cursors that reward strategical success with a thrilling succession of visual and aural cues. For the Grandia uninitiated, battles revolve (literally in this instalment) around the time bar in the top left of the screen, indicating when each charater will have their turn to make a move. At its simplest, characters have a chioce to make a quick, powerful double-strike or a slower, weaker single-strike that knocks their opponent further backwards on the time bar. catching someone with a slow strike just as their making their move (they may be charging a spell or in the animation frames of attacking someone) cancels their current move, pushing them far back along the time line. Add to this the ability to charge and cast spells and abilities (some of which can cancel moves, much like the single-strike moves) and the ability to move about and defend in order to avoid attacks, and Grandia suddenly has a great level of detail and subtlety that makes each fight so engrossing.
Grandia fans will notice two changes to the battle system. Cancelling moves have gained the additional characteristic of becoming launching moves - cancelling an attack drung the 'Act' phase will result in the enemy being flung into the air. Other characters that are at the 'Command' stage on the time bar as an enemy is airborne can combo attack the suspended foe in a highly dmamging, extravagantly animated aerial attack, with a hugely satisfying flourish for an 'aerial finish' when the enemy is killed in such a fashion. Keeping enemies' positions on the time bar in firm control with cancels and attacks was thrilling fun before this addition, but the shimmer of pulling an aerial attack together in the thick of a fast, hectic battle comes as nothing short of orgasmic, and the visual and audio promts really try to emphasise that point. It's an excellent addition to what was already the finest combat system in traditional Japanese RPGs.
A subtle help system is also present in battles now, with halp markers offerring suggestions on which moves to make according to situations. It's a useful aid to newcomers and pros alike, offering suggestions of how to best take advantagge of the games' strategic subtleties by suggesting how to cancel attacks and defend spells, as well as indicating which spells and moves are simply too quick to cancel (the only impediment of the japanese language upon the battles is the data on which move an enemy will use next, which can be important when timing for cancels and aerial finishes). As with Grandia II, the tutorial does an exemplary job of explaining the combat system, even if the player has no grasp of the Japanese language.
My one gripe with the battles in GIII, however, is the camera angle. Ga have tried to make the fights feel more hectic and faster by placing the camera lower to the ground with a wider angle. For this task, it does its job - battlse seem very exciting to watch indeed, but tactically it feels like a hinderance, leaving me wanting a higher, Grandia II-esque overview of the entire field. The camera usually locks onto one of the characters in battle (the character focused upon can be altered withthe shoulder buttons), but this leaves parts of the battlefield and other characters out of sight. It's not such a problem when battles are in motion, but it makes things a little awkward when making decisions and giving commands. An overview persective can be obtained by holding L2 or R2 but this is mainly for looking over each character and enemy and their statuses - commands from the main menu can't be selected in thsi view. It'd be nice to be able to lock the camera in this higher view for the whole battle, but it can't be done. It'd be useful to see who is looking at who (enemies look at who they're going to attack next, even when waiting for their turns, though this data can also by putting the cursor on them) when giving commands. The lower view also makes it much harder to judge distances (characters can only move so far in each move - if commanded to attack an enemy that is too far away, they'll waste a turn trying in vain to reach them) and positions when moving characters in order to dodge. It's an annoyance that is overcome in time, but is an annoyance that could and should have been avoided by simply offering options on where the camera lies in battles.
I haven't quite gotten to grips with the levelling up system, but it looks like abilities and spells level up through repeated use, rather than by allocating points, as was the case in Grandia II. Mana Eggs and Spell Books return, though it's a little too early for me to quite realise exactly how they work this time around. The story begins with the theme of flight, the intro sequence showing how protagonist Yuki is inspired by the famous pilot Shcmidt, but this theme seems to dissipate soon after in favour of travel on land, at least for the opening few hours. Leading lady Alfina arrives in a mannr not unlike Skies of Arcadia's Fina, being chased by soldiers led by a rather mean-looking Dunkel. Real originality will no doubt arrive in time, but for now it's only the brightness of Yuki and Miranda that really entice, story-wise. The vioce acting seems quite down-to-earth, which I quite like, though I can only pick out choice phrases so it's not like I know exactly what a good VA will do that a bad one won't, but I like the voice acting in this. The soundtrack, too, seems good so far.
As a bit of a fan of Grandia II (especially the battles), GIII does it right for me, building upon its successes by offering a faster battle system with bigger areas to explore and fight in, though I'm sure it'll be a few more hours before I can really tell from what extent it's been able to build and where.
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