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PS2 | RPG | Grandia III

Boxart for Grandia III
Grandia III 15 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.5
  • SOUND: 3.5
  • CONTROL: 5.0
  • FUN FACTOR 4.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.1
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.5

Review: Grandia III

Review by Mysterious Mr. Bones | 02/23/2006 | 11:44:01 AM PST

With an addictive combo battle system, gorgeous graphics, and two DVD's worth of role-playing adventure, Grandia III is the long awaited sequel series fans have been craving.

Grandia III breathes a little life back into the fading PS2 with great graphical presentation and an interesting twist on party based RPG combat. Though it may be flawed in places, the game manages to uphold the sky-high Square Enix reputation for quality role playing quests with a lengthy adventure and plenty of gameplay.

Combo Killers
Graphically, Grandia III is a brightly colored and beautiful wonder, with lush environments and stunning cut-scenes that take full use of the aging PS2's potential. While the individual character designs might not be the most original or interesting, the superb anime style and clever monsters are sure to delight fans of the series. For the most part, the sound effects and voice acting are also excellent, but the soundtrack (which seems to combine elevator music with whimsical Japanese nonsense, and a dash of ear splitting Kelly Clarkson-ish pop) is aggravatingly cheesy to the determent of the otherwise decent adventure. The story also tends to forgo speech in favor of stale text reading segments in some parts, but the stellar cinemas compensate for these tiny dramatic droughts.

The biggest strength here, however, is the innovative and addicting combo-based combat system. By properly timing your party's attacks, you can unleash merciless chains of aerial attacks against a single enemy while knocking them out of their turn to retaliate. The combat setup also allows for semi-real-time gameplay as fighting between different characters takes place simultaneously, giving the effect of big, chaotic fights and allowing you a small degree of control over your character's position in the fray. Although the battle system fairly easy to master, its unique format might not appeal to everyone and may take a little getting used to. But once gamers get a taste for this new style of fighting, tried and true turn-based gameplay will seem stale and obsolete.

A Grand Adventure
Grandia III is also a big game, with hours and hours of playability tucked away in hidden secrets and side quests for you to explore. But while the quest may be large in scale, the story often feels more clich?d and campy than epic and amazing. The characters all fall into conveniently familiar categories and fail to attract any serious interest in their concerns or circumstances. But even if the silly story feels like a bit of a childish disappointment, the high quality of the gameplay makes up for the lack of interesting or original subject matter. The brilliant graphics and intriguing combat system make Grandia III an excellent choice for PS2 RPGersand should happily tide them over until Final Fantasy XII arrives.