Grandia III

[Dogysamich]

Well, today is my last day of class, and thus my first day of spring break, so I finally decided to crack open Grandia III, I've had it for about a week.

Now, first things first, I didnt really know what to expect from this game.
I didnt get it because of the reviews, I aboslutely hate reading or caring about reviews of people. And the reason why I picked this up becasue of other is; one, one of my best friends at college picked up Wild Arms 4, and I'll borrow that from him when the time comes (and on a sidenote, I like the battle system in Wild Arms 4. Awesome), second, I ordered Tales of Legendia from my school tech shop, and it didnt come in by the time I left, so I'll probably pick that up when i get back and chip away at it till summer comes.

All that aside, onto the main thing.
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So I got Grandia III cause I wanted to get an RPG that wasnt a strategy RPG (granted I've practically got all of those), and one that did look like a traditional turn based rpg (i.e. Dragonquest VIII) so here I am.

Now, I never played Grandia II, which I heard was awesome, but i played the original Grandia, and it pissed me off.
**Grandia I spoiler**
The reason why i skipped Grandia II is because of a plot twist in the first one that completely wrecked my party permanently.

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So, needless to say, I was kinda skeptical about Grandia III. I knew the battle system would work out nice, I like the Grandia system. I just wondered how the game would be.

So far, I've only played an hour into it, and I've got one thing to say about this game that I rarely (read, practically never have) said about a game.

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Wow this game is pretty. Like seriously, I'm just amazed by the graphics.

Now, I have a personal pet peeve(sp) with games, and have coined a phrase for this.

"Graphics dont make a game good, they make a good game better." I absolutely hate people who say "This game is awesome" simply because of the graphics...

..however, when i popped in Grandia III, I was seriously sucked into the graphics, especially when i reallized the clean modeling *just 3-d rendering, i think*
(i've played so many cel-shaded, 2½D, and other weird games, i actually forgot the name for this).

Needless to say, so far, this game is lookin to be nice.

Good battle system, nice graphics (again, odd for me to say that), only thing I cant really speak for yet is the story. Although it's kind of a text-book idea for the story, it's actually taking a weird angle that just has me asking "Who the heck got the idea to put this in a story).

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I'll post more as I play more, but right now I'll say that if you're a fan of either of the first two Grandia games, this one's just the same.

[sd-]

I played II and it had so many graphical/fps problems, but it was that good that I still loved it. I had the ps2 version I think the dreamcast version was supposed to be a lot better

[Suicidal Bastard]

now that i think about it, i loved the battle system of II (the storyline was horrible imo though). I might take a look into getting III

[pho-nam]

My grandia is still wrapped up... still trying to finish up legendia... damn by the time i get to grandia kingdom hearts 2 will be out

[Freakle]

Already beat grandia III. There is no doubt the battle system rapes and the graphics are great but....

Below are Not really spoilers but are mainly just things i found disappointing



Story eventually becomes pretty shitty and cliche. My main gripe is that once you beat it, that's it. There are hardly ANY sidequests.



But you gota love the battle system :b

[Dogysamich]

Already beat grandia III. There is no doubt the battle system rapes and the graphics are great but....

Below are Not really spoilers but are mainly just things i found disappointing



Story eventually becomes pretty shitty and cliche. My main gripe is that once you beat it, that's it. There are hardly ANY sidequests.



But you gota love the battle system :b

I finally got around to finishing this game today (i'm kinda glad i didnt beat it over spring break like i said I was, gave me something to do for a while, lol)

And freakle, you're right and you win. God that story went downhill so quick. :(

But i will say Square does one thing well, if there's ever a point where shit gets bad, not only does it get bad in the story, but they make sure you feel it in your party.

Hect showing up put me in a bad mood

[Dogysamich]

Ya know, after playing through Tales of Legendia, and thinking back to some of the other RPGS i've played, I think i've started to not like Grandia III so much.

Dont get me wrong, the battle system is still top-notch, great enough to save the game by itself imo, but the rest of it just seems so....... --throws his hands up in the air--

It just seems kinda like one big blur to me now. Like, I remember the story, even the key points, and I remember the characters, but there isnt anything that sticks with you afterward.

The characters arent exactly the most memorable, mainly because half your party basically are "some rag-tag people who join you just because" and have little-to-no build up behind them to give you a reason to like them.

It's to the point of, the more I thought about it, the more i reallized I didnt like any of the characters in the game. No kool back stories, no kool personalities or characteristics, not even a kool quote or two.

Ok there's one, kool quote, but that's only cause i whored the mess outta Crackle Fang for the longest.

--scratches head--

I think i really do have a built up immunity against cliched stories, cause the story wasnt bad to me, just didnt have anything that stuck to me.

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Side note to Freakle
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Since you're the only person who said he's beaten it, is there any chance that the God Killer is good enough for me to go back through the game and see.

I wanted to see that move, but I was kinda scared it'd wipe me out in one turn, but i was dumb enough to forget about double-saving so I could see it later.