GRANDIA 3 -- WHAT'S WITH THE HATE?

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Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
author=Craze
soli: ...why?


She's just an insipid, insufferably bland character. So is Hect. And pretty much anyone who isn't Miranda and maybe Alonso.

I remember I thought it was really cool when Alonso showed you his map. "Oh, hey, his map is only places he's seen with his own eyes. That's really cool. I bet we get to help him finish this map over the course of the game!

And then he leaves an hour later and is never mentioned again.


Also all the things Ephiam said.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
see i just

like

are you expecting the next great work of literature or something? because they're not A+++ characters but everybody brings something to the table. ulf's impulsiveness paired with how laid back he really is helps spark discussions among the group, like a dinner conversation about eating sheep/bunnies and how that disgusts dahna/alfina (and then they politely agree to disagree by the end). alfina gets people to talk about what they really want, and yuki inspires people to stand and fight instead of whimpering off to the side.

alfina herself is a whimsical princess-ish figure who realizes how different and dirty the world is outside of the perfect mountainside village where she was raised (after Emelious ran from Arcriff). over the course of the game, she represses (xenogears-style) her childhood memory of Emelious cutting himself and going nuts, until after she thinks all the guardians are destroyed, and finally breaks down. i mean really, she should have broken down way earlier, due to all the terrible shit that happens to her (being chased by kornell, falling into the versphere at randotto, watching her brother laugh maniacally while killing gryph, multiple plane crashes), but she is bubbly instead because she's shoving all that shit deeper and deeper inside herself. and then she gets darker, but also more honestly herself, when yuki brings her out of her funk and they hook up (and learn that there's one last guardian).

so yeah, she's all "I MUST WARM YOUR HANDS," but that doesn't mean she's not cute and interesting and a bit deeper than she lets on. she's a genuinely good person who is trying to do her duty, but doesn't really understand what the duty entails until the game gets further in. she gets more and more aggressive, too, but also adamant that she loves her brother. that's some hardcore shit right there. you literally watch your brother kill your god in front of you, and yet hey, you forgive him. damn. you don't see a lot of jrpg heroes or heroines actively rooting for the villain as a good guy.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150


You could always play the game on your computer, if it's powerful enough. Might want to use an iso though, I used to try to play my PS2 games right off the disc and it was laggy as hell.
So the protagonist and his mom have the same voice actors as another game I played semi-recently, except in that game they are lovers. So of course my mind wanders to the taboo when they speak to each other.

Also, fix the aspect ratio of your emulator. Your screenshots look awful. To compare:

http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/2988/locker/g3_01.png
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/2988/locker/g3_02.png
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/2988/locker/g3_03.png
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/2988/locker/g3_04.png

If you really want to run in widescreen, there is a patch here: http://ps2wide.net/g.html

However, said patch will still stratch UI elements and may cause problems in other areas.
Hmm, Grandia III. Personally I loved Grandia II more.

But anyway, the game itself wasn't bad, it was pretty straight foward, cutscene wise, my only gripe was there was no subtitles in the game when those crazy cutscenes happened.

But really, my main gripe about the game was the fact that I had to constantly train and train to the point where I fell asleep, and if I have to keep leveling up to beat up one annoying boss or two, then the game loses my interest, and I just go look it up on youtube or something.

The big thing that does make me want to play it, is the opening theme. My god, that theme is so fuckin' godly, I have it on my MP3 player. Once you hear In the Sky, it gets you in the game, but the constant level grinding really kills it for me.

I wanted to like the game like the rest of them, but it just got to the point where I said, fuck it.

I wish the Grandia series would continue, but the creator of the series died a couple years ag. T_T;
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
i only level grinded once and it was right before the third boss of Surmania because i wanted to recharge my orb after the second boss, but i accidentally wound up going all the way back through the dungeon to fuse the ultimate spells in bacculan

i literally never grinded out levels before then, and dodged a lot of the fights

i got through surmania pre-third boss at around 36, i beat the third one at 40. i think i beat the first disk around l20?

the game's challenging but if you're smart, everything is absolutely doable. i didn't even die once until the second disc.

edit: the game gives you so many tools. like if you have trouble with the melc crystal, put on a fire ring or two and cancel its form shift. if you want to try the game again, i'd be more than happy to help you through any boss. due to the freely customizable nature of each character, it's easy to adapt to any boss.
I think the last part I was at, was the boss with La-Lim and his dragon, after I beat him, I was worn out from the game.
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
author=Craze
see i just

like

are you expecting the next great work of literature or something? because they're not A+++ characters but everybody brings something to the table. ulf's impulsiveness paired with how laid back he really is helps spark discussions among the group, like a dinner conversation about eating sheep/bunnies and how that disgusts dahna/alfina (and then they politely agree to disagree by the end). alfina gets people to talk about what they really want, and yuki inspires people to stand and fight instead of whimpering off to the side.

alfina herself is a whimsical princess-ish figure who realizes how different and dirty the world is outside of the perfect mountainside village where she was raised (after Emelious ran from Arcriff). over the course of the game, she represses (xenogears-style) her childhood memory of Emelious cutting himself and going nuts, until after she thinks all the guardians are destroyed, and finally breaks down. i mean really, she should have broken down way earlier, due to all the terrible shit that happens to her (being chased by kornell, falling into the versphere at randotto, watching her brother laugh maniacally while killing gryph, multiple plane crashes), but she is bubbly instead because she's shoving all that shit deeper and deeper inside herself. and then she gets darker, but also more honestly herself, when yuki brings her out of her funk and they hook up (and learn that there's one last guardian).

so yeah, she's all "I MUST WARM YOUR HANDS," but that doesn't mean she's not cute and interesting and a bit deeper than she lets on. she's a genuinely good person who is trying to do her duty, but doesn't really understand what the duty entails until the game gets further in. she gets more and more aggressive, too, but also adamant that she loves her brother. that's some hardcore shit right there. you literally watch your brother kill your god in front of you, and yet hey, you forgive him. damn. you don't see a lot of jrpg heroes or heroines actively rooting for the villain as a good guy.

See that's the thing. All the elements were there to develop Alfina as a serious, conflicted character, torn between her duties and her love for her brother. But instead of developing that personality they just gave her the most trite, generic, uninteresting "stock doe-eyed anime girl" personality they could find. She's not a strong enough character to carry the game, and Yuki's character arc more or less ends once he has his plane, so the back 60% of the game or so feels really aimless.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
eh, i guess that i just love THE ADVENTURE enough that i'm willing to accept her as deeper than maybe she really is. i just really got into the game, i guess!
I didn't hate it, but I considered it a letdown compared to the previous two Grandia games. It's clearly unfinished, for one thing; it was rushed to completion and there's a lot of content which was intended but never made it into the final game, so the game feels kind of truncated compared to the first two.

Alfina is childish and saccharine, and utterly lacking in self reliance. There's less development of the relationships between the main cast members as a whole relative to the previous games, and the elements of travel and world exploration, where the charm of the first two games shone through, are severely stunted in the third. Yuki's character development arc is pretty minimalistic compared to Justin's or Ryudo's; he's practically static after the point where he gets his working airplane.

Plus, Raven is just... pointless. Someone clearly wanted him to be the coolest thing since bread slicing machines, but there's no depth to his character, and he basically just exists to look badass and have a few flashy cutscenes. He could be entirely deleted from the story without any substantial alteration to the plot.

The combat offers significantly more challenge than the first two games, more in the neighborhood of Grandia Xtreme, but it doesn't have the same degree of charm as the first installments.
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
I AM NECROPOSTING! quote to see the secret message



I really enjoyed Grandia III. This game was really a lot of fun, but I got seriously burned by the ending. You get through this game and then you fight the end boss, and what happens when you beat the boss? The end credits. Period. It's the same as just getting a game over screen for me. I pawned the game after that and I doubt I'll ever get another copy. Chrono Cross was the same way with my playthrough--I still have that one though. I hear there are endings, but when no ending is the regular ending--no. Just no. It shouldn't even be a possible ending in games like these.
I was never more miffed as a young gamer than when Grandia 3 didn't get a UK release. The original Grandia was my favourite RPG and its sequel almost perfected the battle system, so not getting this OR Extreme was a total let down for me.
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