Grandia II

THE BAD:
Compared to other PS2 games, the worst graphics this side of finger painting.

SUMMARY:
Grandia 2
First of all...- *sigh* Another Dreamcast port to PS2? I bet that's what you're thinking. Well, whether or not you like to admit it, Grandia 2 is a good game. It's DAMN good. Now that it's on Playstation 2, you have no excuse to miss out on this wonderful gaming experience, unless you don't have a PS2. If that's the case then buy a Dreamcast for 40 bucks and Grandia 2 for another 15. You WILL play this game and enjoy it, damnit. Look into my EVIL eyes.

Visuals- 5.5 While these aren't the best graphics in the world, they're pretty average. Some of the spells and items use CGs, which make them look pretty but for some odd reason, SOME of the story CGs look like complete ass(when Mareg sacrifices his life to save you). It may just be my copy or something, I guess. The environments and backdrops are stuck in mediocre town.

Sound- 7.5 Well, the music is of traditional RPGs, which is pretty basic and average but some of the tunes stay in your head and you'll be whistling some of them without even knowing it. The voice acting, while laughable at certain times, is pretty good most of the time.

Battle System- 11.0 Grandia has by far, THE BEST BATTLE SYSTEM OF ALL TIME. The battles are not exactly turn based. The battles revolve around an Action Bar. There are 3 sections of the action bar, a standby section, an action selection section, and an action execution section. How you approach the enemy determines where on the bar you are. Surprising the enemy will result in your party starting off close to the action selection section with your enemies in the standby section. Being surprised results in your party being in the standby section with your enemies in the AS section. Anything else and you and your enemies will be on middle ground. Your ACT stat alters how fast you move up the action bar. There are spells and items which also increase your ACT speed and decrease your enemy's. I'm getting to detailed in this. Anyways, the battle system's GREAT. This is where the game really shines. It's so good, it excedes my 10.0 scale.

Gripes- 1. Why didn't they update the graphics?
2. Some of the spells and items have lengthy CG sequences, which while pretty at first, gets quite annoying after a while.
3. The laughable voiceacting sometimes.
4. the fact that no one appreciates, this game because of Final Fantasy!! Not that FF is bad but, jeez, that game hogs all the spotlight.


Final Note: Please note that the graphics and sound are the only thing that takes from the score of this wonderful game, BUY IT!!!
(5.5+7.5+11.0)/3=8.0 Wahoo!