Grandia II Anniversary Edition Review

On being asked to cover a Grandia title I was a little excited I'll admit. The thought of revisiting a franchise I had played in my earlier years is always a welcome one. However along with it came the thought it could affect that fond memory, and possibly even taint it, something more and more of us face in the current trend of re-releases and remasters.

We all have different views and opinions when it comes to remastering old titles, and while the purists will argue classic games are to be seen as an art that shouldn't be messed with, I am quite open to the fact that revisiting, remastering, and inviting new life into classic titles can bring great things. Unfortunately I am not sure Grandia II Anniversary Edition has achieved that...

Getting started, you have the launcher with an array of added options and the expected extras you would think of for any updated release. I think the most commendable option for me personally is the ability to select either English or Japanese voice overs, something any JRPG fan will be excited for, and considering the target market that is a great move. For the graphics options, while I don't see all the jaggies and low resolutions in my Dreamcast memories, I am sure they were more than present, so the addition of increased resolution options and anti-aliasing are more than welcome.

At this stage you feel pretty good about things, options cranked up, expectations running high, but then you load up on your more-than-likely widescreen monitor to find that they decided not to add any true widescreen support. I am not sure what the decision process here was, but it wasn't a good one in my opinion. The only ‘option’ of widescreen support you do have is to unlock the aspect ratio and have the image stretched, leading to a warped and odd experience. Considering this is, in effect, a remaster I found this to be a big oversight at such an early stage.

One thing to note is that in all their advertisements and announcement materials, they never actually state it being a re-release, remaster, a HD version, or any variation of. While it could be considered clever marketing to stay away from the labels and the backlash that could come with it, they have no problem stating it's 'better than ever', and that it has 'Visual upgrades to textures, lighting, and shadows'. To me it's a remaster attempt, I don't think you can claim the above without it being, but it's certainly open to your own interpretation.

I mentioned earlier the hope of bringing new life into classic titles, and with a series like Grandia and its established story, I think there could have been a great opportunity here to revamp the intro cut-scene and introduce possible new players to the franchise and world of Grandia. Its an opportunity completely missed when presented with the original cutscene, devoid of any information, voice over, background, or story introduction of any kind for a newcomer. Personally if I were releasing my classic title onto today's Steam platform and other distribution channels, I'd want a piece of that huge potential player-base and would focus my game to get it. JRPGs are already such a niche market, why make things harder on yourself? A rework and introduction to the story surely would not have been much trouble, would have been exciting for new and old faces, and could have set an entirely different tone for the opening experience. It seems to be an ongoing list of decisions that just don't fit in today's market in my opinion, but I guess time and sales will tell the true story.

All that aside, we get into the game and it's great, Grandia II always has been, there is no way to take away from that, and any JRPG fan new or old will quickly feel at home. It has the typical dark vs light tale, edgy Japanese humour, busty low polygon women, and a combat system way beyond its time. In an amazing mix-up of both turn-based and real time elements, the combat is by far the best part of Grandia II, and the addition of a Hard Mode brings a new challenge for the experts, and a little replayability for new players. The Hard Mode is a welcome addition no doubt, but when broken down it's some reworked HP tables and attack frequencies. I will leave you to decide if that's enough, but again I can't help but feel there could have been a lot more done here, an emerging theme.

As time went on, I found myself wanting to change the audio volume, the mismatch of musical scores and sound effects becoming more and more apparent. Of course there is no way I should have expected that to be available via in-game menu in 2015. What was I thinking? Really, how hard an addition could that have been. The more you play the more painfully clear it becomes there are volume issues with the entire port, and while not entirely uncomfortable or unforgivable when staying true to mostly original assets, the fact that I have to quit the game, load the launcher, pick a value, and then hope it's right next launch is quite frankly insane. To add that goes go for any option, graphics, controls, anything. There are zero options available to you while inside the game. When you couple this with the fact that you have to reach a save point to keep your progress, it's just a frustration that literally a few small code additions could have prevented.

I know I have sounded quite annoyed at times over the Grandia II Anniversary Edition, and it's become more a review of the port itself than the game, but with such an already established title with great reviews all over, and years and years of play under its belt there is no denying Grandia II is an amazing JRPG. It is, that's a fact and if that's all I had to review today it would have been a 9/10 title. However Grandia II Anniversary Edition on the whole is a disappointment. Is it really 'better than ever' as claimed? I guess it's better than anything else we have readily available. Maybe that's what they were going for, but I can't help but feel it's a mass of missed opportunities, and just another JRPG port that will fail to bring in anyone but the already hooked hardcore fans...