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I just finished this game after a 14 year hiatus from the Dreamcast RPG! Long story short, I began playing it long ago, got about 15 hours in and it was stolen. I vowed to keep the Sega VMU and all of my save files, so that someday I could replace it and finish the game. It took longer than expected, but I fulfilled my plan to play through this game again on the Dreamcast, start to finish! Even today, Grandia 2 holds up as an enjoyable role playing experience. The main protagonist is a young "Geohound" by the name of Ryudo, who takes jobs similar to a mercenary. He meets all kinds of different people and becomes enveloped in a classic war of good vs evil with many interesting characters, plot twists and action. I've seen reviews where some people love the story of this title, and others hate it, but I am on the positive side. While the old "good vs evil" thing can be a bit played out, Grandia 2 has a completely original history, full of detailed events and places that bring the world and story to life. The characters are colorful in personality and feature fun voice acting that while cheesy at times, always makes you smile. Two of my personal favorite characters were Millenia and Tio! Next I'd like to touch on one of the best parts of this game. The ingenious battle system. The battle system here is among the best in RPG's altogether and features a classic turn-based system, with a "progress slider bar". This bar graphic in the bottom right shows your party and all the enemies you face, and how long they have until their next move/action. Using this, you can plan your strategy to wipe out enemies that are just about to attack you next, or those who are building up to cast a powerful spell against you. There are also "Cancel" moves, that will not only hurt your enemy, but cancel their action and bump them back on the slider. This is pretty realistic, because if you were fighting someone and hit them with a punch, would they not be stunned for a second before acting again? Combine this with a fully customization set of spells and powers for each character, and you have a very well rounded RPG with good character development. The spell system features Eggs that can be equipped in an equipment slot. These eggs have certain powers, such as holy, chaos or soul, among others. Chaos Egg has mostly attack spells, while Holy Egg has mostly healing and buff spells. With the egg system, you can fully customize your party and make anyone a caster of any type you like by equipping the Egg and equipping skills to boost what you want, where you want it! There is no one telling you Elena has to be the healer, or that Ryudo has to be solely a tank. With this semi-complex system, every town has a merchant shop with an expert on combat and the Grandia 2 system, and I highly recommend you check out their tutorials until you get your feet wet. The spells also feature great FMV sequences that really do them justice. Wait until you see Dragon Zap, Ba-Boom and Dragon Slash! Goofy names, but they look better than they sound lol. If you're wondering why the 1 star deduction, it would be because I wasn't a big fan of the map system. The game is very linear, and while I prefer an open world RPG, for a heavily story driven game it doesn't bother me. What bothered me a bit was the fact that there was no mini-map, but a compass that had a moving arrow showing you which direction to go. It wasn't altogether bad, but I prefer to adventure a bit, pull up the map and find my way! There really isn't much of a world map either. There is one, but it is only to view and move onto the next designated area. You cannot freely travel back and forth to places you have visited in the game via the map. All in all, this is the best RPG I've played on the Dreamcast to date and it ranks highly among JRPG's I've played all time. And trust me, I've played many of them! I highly recommend this one, and coming in at between 35-40 hours of enjoyable game play. Pros - Good characterization and personalities - Excellent combat system - Solid story with dark plot twists and religious overtones - Top notch customization and character development for a JRPG - Good FMV sequences and animations Cons - Very linear - No mini-maps and limited use of static overworld map - Little to no interaction with the environment in towns (cannot search drawers, closets, smash barrels, crates etc etc)Read full review
Verified purchase: No
Very great game and I love it's story a little hard but very great very good indeed
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
One of my top 5 game choices for the Dreamcast console. Compelling gameplay with beautiful graphics that stands the test of time.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
One of my first RPG games, that help me fall in love with the genre, going to enjoy giving it another go around.... happy with the product.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I had gotten Grandia II for the ps2 back when it came out. It was a great game then, but my copy is pretty beat so I decided to buy one for my dreamcast. Although I haven't finished it yet, I still haven't seen any differences in the actual gameplay, but I did receive a soundtrack disc. This is a good game to buy, but might be better to purchase on the ps2 because you will find more copies at a cheaper price, if you don't want the soundtrack disc. Either console it is a good game to pick up and has an interesting storyline.
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