Grandia III
Platform: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Square Enix
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail
Yuki, the protagonist in Grandia III has a bizarre relationship with his mother. Firstly, he calls her "Miranda." Those post-divorce years must have been tough. And then there's the thing with girlfriends. When Alfina, a pointy-eared, magic-using (and perhaps mildly retarded) cutie makes the scene, mom can barely keep herself from shoving the two youngsters into the sack. Creepy.
This family dysfucntion is one of the few the highlight of Grandia III's story. The rest is more of the same anime/fantasy hogwash we've seen done better a million times before. Dreams, destinies, ancient relics, airships, etc. In fact, the retro-looking flyer that Yuki obsesses over (sorry, Miranda) is more than a little reminiscent of the aircraft in Hayao Miyazaki's Porco Rosso. Protip: It's bad news when a video game's narrative inspires you to reach for your DVD shelf.
But here's the crazy part. Once you start fighting, almost all of Grandia III's story problems melt away like so many remedied status effects. In most RPGs I hurry through combat, feeling compelled to push the story forward. In Grandia III, I found myself itching for fights, longing to escape the breathless anime voice actors and plodding "gather-your-party" detours. And credit goes to the battle system, a clever hybrid of turn-based and real-time combat. Imagine Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic infused with multi-character combos.
The whole thing revolves around a sort of combat clock, with an "attack zone" between 3 and 6-ish. Everybody in the brawl moves around the dial at their own pace, when the clock strikes three the action pauses and it's their turn to make a move. And here's the cool part; if one of your enemies is plotting a big attack, you can ruin their day by timing your blow to cancel theirs. It's less complicated than it sounds and it's the kind of innovation to the mechanic of RPG games that we're going to see a lot more of in the years ahead.
My problem could be that I'm not a 13-year-old girl. Which is cool in a way. Firstly, because I've grown accustomed to being a 33-year-old man. And I'm also pretty jazzed that anime-flavored Japanese fantasy is becoming the drug of choice for America's tween-aged estrogen set. My poor sister (a future NASA scientist) had to make do with Barbie and Care Bears. Grandia III is a big improvement, but I think we can do even better.
Publisher: Square Enix
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail
Yuki, the protagonist in Grandia III has a bizarre relationship with his mother. Firstly, he calls her "Miranda." Those post-divorce years must have been tough. And then there's the thing with girlfriends. When Alfina, a pointy-eared, magic-using (and perhaps mildly retarded) cutie makes the scene, mom can barely keep herself from shoving the two youngsters into the sack. Creepy.This family dysfucntion is one of the few the highlight of Grandia III's story. The rest is more of the same anime/fantasy hogwash we've seen done better a million times before. Dreams, destinies, ancient relics, airships, etc. In fact, the retro-looking flyer that Yuki obsesses over (sorry, Miranda) is more than a little reminiscent of the aircraft in Hayao Miyazaki's Porco Rosso. Protip: It's bad news when a video game's narrative inspires you to reach for your DVD shelf.
But here's the crazy part. Once you start fighting, almost all of Grandia III's story problems melt away like so many remedied status effects. In most RPGs I hurry through combat, feeling compelled to push the story forward. In Grandia III, I found myself itching for fights, longing to escape the breathless anime voice actors and plodding "gather-your-party" detours. And credit goes to the battle system, a clever hybrid of turn-based and real-time combat. Imagine Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic infused with multi-character combos.
The whole thing revolves around a sort of combat clock, with an "attack zone" between 3 and 6-ish. Everybody in the brawl moves around the dial at their own pace, when the clock strikes three the action pauses and it's their turn to make a move. And here's the cool part; if one of your enemies is plotting a big attack, you can ruin their day by timing your blow to cancel theirs. It's less complicated than it sounds and it's the kind of innovation to the mechanic of RPG games that we're going to see a lot more of in the years ahead.
My problem could be that I'm not a 13-year-old girl. Which is cool in a way. Firstly, because I've grown accustomed to being a 33-year-old man. And I'm also pretty jazzed that anime-flavored Japanese fantasy is becoming the drug of choice for America's tween-aged estrogen set. My poor sister (a future NASA scientist) had to make do with Barbie and Care Bears. Grandia III is a big improvement, but I think we can do even better.
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