Grandia is a JRPG originally released for the Sega Saturn but was later ported to PlayStation. Unexpected for a JRPG released in the era, Grandia features 3D maps and therefore has a rotatable camera. In addition, it supports the analogue stick thus you can use the right stick to move the camera! That said, the characters are in sprite form and the game hasn't aged too gracefully at times due to this. However, it is still impressive in what they were able to render considering the hardware it was developed on. There are certainly some areas where there are lot of details and looks fantastic. The rotating camera can actually be a hindrance as it makes it really easy to lose your bearings and get lost. Considering that there is no minimap on screen, having to constantly press Select to pull up the map in towns can be irritating, doubly so in dungeons when you don't even have this option.
Another neat thing that was ahead of its time was the removal of random encounters. Enemies roam the battlefield and while you can rarely outrun them, at least you know that they are coming and can brace for a battle. Dungeons can be cramped though and since you cannot angle the camera up or down, objects can get in the way. It gets tiring more and more as you progress through the game because the enemy numbers skyrocket and it gets really annoying as you're constantly forced into battles. The problem is that the whole party trails behind you, making it near impossible to dodge enemies when they charge at high speed towards you. The battle system is turn-based but with a few twists. There is a bar at the bottom showing the order of turns and how fast a particular character's turn is coming up. A character an attack, defend, use items or use magic. Hitting an enemy can stall them on the bar thus delaying their attack and there are times where you can stun-lock enemies this way.
Characters have to physically run into range in order to strike the enemy and this can create some interesting scenarios where a character or enemy loses their turn because the distance was too far. There is a fairly deep experience system. Not only do characters gain experience to level up and gain stats, but their equipment has levels as well. A character can equip multiple types of weapons and through usage, gain experience and gain proficiency. As this levels up, the character gains skills to use in battle. This is similar to the magic system as well, the more you use it, the more it levels up. The story focuses on Justin, a kid who wants to be an adventurer in order to explore the New World. He is joined by childhood friend Sue and their relationship is well developed. Grandia does a great job at making you care for the characters, before Justin even sets off for his adventure proper, you already feel the sadness of saying goodbye to his family.
There is voice acting for some of the lines. They're a bit awkward but acceptable considering the early nature of voice acting back in the day. Annoyingly, you cannot speed through text. In voice acting scenes, you're at the mercy of the auto scroll, and in other screens, you have to wait until all the text appears first before advancing to the next piece of dialogue. On the whole, Grandia's gameplay is a bit too slow paced. In addition to not being able to speed up dialogue, you cannot speed past the results screen and have to wait for the experience points and money results to slowly tick up. Loading times between screens and into battle is a tad bit too long. Finally, you are forced to backtrack multiple times which is a pain and a huge grind because sometimes enemies respawn and you cannot easily avoid them. Spells, which you need to keep using to boost your skill levels, feels like it takes forever since you've seen them so many times.
There are many points in the game where you are not given much guidance on where to go. While this is how the old school JRPGs go, it is a bit too directionless and nevertheless doesn't allow Grandia to age that well. The other thing is that characters come and go which makes leveling up characters other than Justin somewhat pointless when they permanently leave the party halfway in. However, this is also the game's strongest part. When characters say goodbye, you feel sad right along with them. While the story doesn't quite pick up, it does escalate into a whole save the world type of scenario by the end of the game. It takes a lot of twists and turns, as well as plenty of pointless diversions before you finally get to the final dungeon. At least the story dungeons aren't too bad, the optional ones are another matter entirely as they are completely confusing without a map (but filled with plenty of great loot).
The game takes around 40 hours to finish, more so if you opt to do the extra dungeons and do a lot of exploring. The game is fairly easy in general and as long as you don't deliberately skip combat you'll be fine. The final boss was a tad bit annoying in how it summons and more and more mooks, crowding the turns. Overall, Grandia is a good game. It has an interesting battle system and a lot of elements that feels like it was ahead of its time. From the full 3D environments and freely rotatable camera to no random battles (but still forces you to fight too many enemies), it is impressive. Nevertheless, there are lulls in the story and filler dungeons but as a whole package, Grandia is a fun and worthwhile game.
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