Grandia III

Another RPG that I had the chance to play some time ago is Grandia III.

Again, although quite a few of the games I've played are long established series, I regret to say I have not played the predecessors. Grandia III is a Square Enix effort, the masterminds behind the phenomenally successful Final Fantasy series, which I love to bits.

Grandia III follows the exploits of young pilot, Yuki. Kinda sounds feminine, but I am no expert in names. In this picture, Yuki tries to 'touch the sky'...


The environments are beautifully drawn, as expected from Square. Some environments look really cool... you can even see hints of northern lights from this snowy landscape area.


On to battle mechanics... RPGs are all about fighting lots of baddies, right? One cool feature in the game is the ability to knock enemies into the air. Then, once they are freefalling back to the ground, you can do some extra moves that are more damaging and look cooler than your normal ones.

4.6 metres high... a new personal best!

The other nice part is the way magic is contolled. Anyone can do any kind of magic. Some are better suited to the job, but to have anyone to be able to do the super insane magic attacks gives you a lot of flexibility. You can even 'hatch' new magic by combining special items called Mana Eggs in a little machine that looks like a robotic chicken with 2 heads. You have to play the game to find out what I mean...



As usual too, all the characters have special moves that have lots of coloured lights and are real flashy. Also, you have to practice these moves to make them more powerful and also to learn new moves. However, the fights are rarely very challenging. Maybe because it gets quite easy to churn out special move after special move towards the end.

One of the key things I was hoping for was an engaging story line. All Final Fantasy games have such gripping story lines, so how did Grandia III fare?

To me, this game had some hits and misses. They reused the tried and true formula of a young upstart male hero protecting the fragile heroine. That's fine... it is a tried and true formula. The dream about Yuki striving to become a top notch pilot is believable. The plot development to bring all the main fighters together was also quite good and flowed naturally.

The final climax fight that leads you to meet the big bad boss was kinda boring. The struggle between Alfina and her brother, which is like the 2nd level big bad boss was also kinda boring. I guess there was not enough plot about character attachment or loss, so it felt like a let down. I guess not every story fantastic.

Also, not too many secrets or in game activities to delve into, and feels too straight forward at times.

I enjoyed the journey getting to the finale more than the finale itself for this game.

Still it is an okay game to while away the hours.