8.6

Hi this is my third review, I was quite surprised that no one has made a review about this excellent game, so I guess I have to do it.STORY: So I start with the most important thing about RP games and that is the story of course. First I tell just a little about the story it self, try not to fell asleep.It starts from the small port town called Parm, there lives this young lively boy called Justin and his good friend Sue who is like a sister to Justin and always trying to keep him out of trouble but hardly ever success on it. Justin's father was a Adventurer who traveled in all over the world, but I think he died in his adventures a some time ago, but now he lives with his mother Lily who owns a restaurant/bar in the Parm.. Anyways Justin's father left something important to him and that is the mystical green stone called 'Spirit stone'. Nor did his father or himself knew what kind of powers this stone held inside of it.One fine day when Justin and Sue was playing their usual adventure games in the city of Parm, they got this letter from the Curator of the museum so they could go search the near 'Sult ruins' but when they arrived there it was urrently being excavated by the 'Garlyle forces', there they met these 3 lieutenant's Nana, Saki and Milo and one of these girls rip the Justin's letter in half and said him to get out of here, but the adventurer's heart was burning so hot that he did not listened them and sneaked inside the Sult ruins with Sue.... And in the end of ruins they found this mystical room where they realized that the Spirit stone in Justin's neck started to glow and the strange statues moved and the path was open to them... In that room they heard a voice calling the Spirit stone.. Then they met her, Liete of the Angelou who tells them about the world of their ancient civilization... And now the story just begins... So I give this story 9, why? I liked who the young boy wants to travel the world by him self, discovering lot of new places and people and while he travels he get to meet new companions who will join to his quest, but of course you can't always have a jolly ride and you have to fight against some evil adversaries in your way.. Story is really easy to follow and you can't really get lost in this game because you can't really move freely in the world map, you just choose your destination and click it.. But some of the Icarian ruins or that one misty forest can be a little confusing so it might take some time to get out of there, but it's not a really a down part if you like to get a little lost some times and don't want that the game is too easy. And I really like most of the characters in this game, even few enemies who are irritating, but they are doing their part just right if you feel that way.. .And one more thing is that the game is voice acted and that was very rare in PlayStation One games, especially when it comes to RP games. So it makes the story much enjoyable when you can sometimes here their speaking loud.Guess that's about all I can say about it, feels like I missed something but anyways let's move on.DEPTH:  So the game is pretty long, they even put it on 2 discs. The down part about this game is that there aren't really any side quests, but still there are few good things that makes the game longer to beat if the player has patience.. In the world of Grandia there are these egg's called 'Mana egg's' and they are found in a different places over the world (you can't buy them any where, so make sure you explore every dungeon etc. very carefully).. With those Egg's few vendors exchange them to magic elements. With one Mana egg you can buy one magic elements.. Example if you buy the Fire element you will get 'Burn!' spell, which is just the first fire spell you can have, but always when you use a fire spell, that elemental will gain it's own EXP. and level up in time to time and it will learn more powerful spells, you can also combine them in few ways.. Example if you have Fire and Earth elements you can learn Explosion spells.. And so on.. You also level your weapons (Justin can use 3 different weapons.), so it's possible to learn let's say 'Lotus Cut' if you have leveled Justin's sword to lvl 12 and Fire to lvl 8.So there are lot of spells and abilities you can learn with various different combinations, which in my opinion makes the game more interesting and you have more reasons to play that game over and over again.But I give Depth only a 8, because there aren't any side quests.GRAPHICS: I really like the graphics because all the enemies, characters, towns, everything is drawn by hands. it gives more joy to play games that does not use so much those 3D programs that makes the game look more "realistic".  Most of the battle animations, like when someone is using a Spell or ability looks really nice and there aren't any glitches in this game, none that I have found. Sometimes when your in some dungeon you might feel your lost, but by changing the camera view (which works perfectly) everything is alright again. There are some little changes when you switch from disc 1 to disc 2.. .Like the menu is different color and I think there was some minor changes in other things too, but nothing that would bother you. Don't know what else to say about this, so I just move on to the next part.I give graphics 9, because there is always something you could have done better.SOUND: I will start with the music, and I have to say the music composer of this game is a brilliant fellow. All the musics that you can hear are really nicely done, in my opinion at least. when I first time heard the Theme song I was like "This game is going to be sooo awesome." And the Boss theme is like "now the you-know-what got real, better brace my self." There are even different music playing if you got ambushed and when you change to DISC 2 the battle music's change too, which can be a good or bad thing, did not bother me though. Enough about the music.Well as I said before this game is voice acted, well not all the time, but most of the scenes are voice acted at least and when you cast a spell or do some special attack with your weapon your character likes to shout something like when Justin uses Earth spell he shouts 'Hear the earth roar!!!' or 'Feel the earths fury!!' so there are lot of catchy quotes in this game.And if you use let's say fire spell, it really sounds like your using fire to your enemy just like when you use swords or something else you can hear the sound of slicing and dicing.I give sound and music 9 because just like in graphics there can always be something much better, or it's just too hard me to give 10 to anyone in anything.. :pDIFFICULTY: I give difficulty 7, there are some bosses that gives you a hard time just like a many enemies in the wilds your going to encounter, but in the end if you have some patience in the training part they should be not so difficult in the end. But I found this game to be quite challenging especially when I played it first time. So if you don't have much experience about RP games and how they work your going to be in trouble. But then again the battle system is quite different compared to let's say Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, because in Grandia you are allowed to change your position in the battlefield, it's sometimes recommendable if you want to avoid being hit by some large AOE (area of effect) damage, can't really explain what kind of the battle system is because I mostly such in explaining things like this.ADDICTIVENESS: I give addictiveness 8, I have started this game many times over again, just because I love the story, the characters and the world of Grandia it self, so I believe that everyone who is a true RP gamer finds this game to be a really good, it's just a little shame that this isn't so known might be because it lingered in the shadow of Final Fantasy series and did not get much light, but happily I found this game from that darkness. And I hope it gives lot of joy to other players who are going to experience the story of Grandia.Hope you had the patience to read my 3rd review and have a nice day, bye !