I know quite a few folks here on GAF like this game, and I'd like to know if I'm missing something.
I am a Grandia whore. Grandia is my favorite game of all time, and G2 while hugely disappointing, was still enjoyable. GrandiaX was suddenly announced. After hearing rumors of a Grandia Online and whatnot, I was shocked to see that a new "normal" Grandia was coming out. As I saw the Trailer online, my desire grew immensely. So I leapt at the chance to get it, and ended up buying it on Jp launch date.
And what I got wasn't quite what I expected. Yes, the type of game has changed to a dungeon crawler. I don't like some of these changes such as having the only save point be in the 1 town the game has to offer. I didn't like how the music was really mediocre compared to the other two... as if Noriyuki didn't really care about this game either. I didn't like how the visuals were often less inspired and less detailed than G2 which came out on Dreamcast. But I did have fun with some of the new changes - combined attacks, learned attacks, and the sheer customization of the skills was interesting.
But there was something about the fundamental game design which killed it for me. I was about 13 hours in. I got to a boss... possibly one of the last... which took two turns to kill off my party. One turn to kill off all other party members... and one more turn to kill me.
Er... excuse me? Since when were you ever -forced- to level in a Grandia game? I had killed every enemy I came across up until this point which from a design perspective says I'm ready to be here. But somehow GA or Enix screwed this up immensely. Suddenly, they put this invisible barrier which says: "You must go back to fight old dungeons to level up before you come fight me."
And so I do. So another feature of GX is that enemies get harder when you revisit them. Sounds awesome in theory, as it keeps battles interesting. But it's wretched in execution. I go revisit some areas. The enemies grow beefier where each normal battle takes like 5 minutes to fight. Nevertheless, the experience points gained from fighting them aren't really scaled. So I'm getting like 100 xp per fight, when I need 30,000 to level up.
That is when I realized that the game was sadistic. And stupid. First they kill off all imagination by limiting the locations you can visit. Now they stick you in this endless cycle of fighting in order to level up. Yes, the fighting is fun. But now it's entirely forced, with its duration extended, and its purpose diminished. Grandia became a chore for the first time.
So the fact that some respectable people here enjoyed the game has piqued my interest. What was it about GX that appealed to you?
Once I get a jPS2, I plan to replay it again to see if my opinion still stands. But as it is, it's left a really bitter taste in my mouth. It was probably the biggest disappointment I've faced in gaming.
I am a Grandia whore. Grandia is my favorite game of all time, and G2 while hugely disappointing, was still enjoyable. GrandiaX was suddenly announced. After hearing rumors of a Grandia Online and whatnot, I was shocked to see that a new "normal" Grandia was coming out. As I saw the Trailer online, my desire grew immensely. So I leapt at the chance to get it, and ended up buying it on Jp launch date.
And what I got wasn't quite what I expected. Yes, the type of game has changed to a dungeon crawler. I don't like some of these changes such as having the only save point be in the 1 town the game has to offer. I didn't like how the music was really mediocre compared to the other two... as if Noriyuki didn't really care about this game either. I didn't like how the visuals were often less inspired and less detailed than G2 which came out on Dreamcast. But I did have fun with some of the new changes - combined attacks, learned attacks, and the sheer customization of the skills was interesting.
But there was something about the fundamental game design which killed it for me. I was about 13 hours in. I got to a boss... possibly one of the last... which took two turns to kill off my party. One turn to kill off all other party members... and one more turn to kill me.
Er... excuse me? Since when were you ever -forced- to level in a Grandia game? I had killed every enemy I came across up until this point which from a design perspective says I'm ready to be here. But somehow GA or Enix screwed this up immensely. Suddenly, they put this invisible barrier which says: "You must go back to fight old dungeons to level up before you come fight me."
And so I do. So another feature of GX is that enemies get harder when you revisit them. Sounds awesome in theory, as it keeps battles interesting. But it's wretched in execution. I go revisit some areas. The enemies grow beefier where each normal battle takes like 5 minutes to fight. Nevertheless, the experience points gained from fighting them aren't really scaled. So I'm getting like 100 xp per fight, when I need 30,000 to level up.
That is when I realized that the game was sadistic. And stupid. First they kill off all imagination by limiting the locations you can visit. Now they stick you in this endless cycle of fighting in order to level up. Yes, the fighting is fun. But now it's entirely forced, with its duration extended, and its purpose diminished. Grandia became a chore for the first time.
So the fact that some respectable people here enjoyed the game has piqued my interest. What was it about GX that appealed to you?
Once I get a jPS2, I plan to replay it again to see if my opinion still stands. But as it is, it's left a really bitter taste in my mouth. It was probably the biggest disappointment I've faced in gaming.
). I wasn't disappointed at all playing it after Grandia 2 (I haven't played the 1st though). The graphics are improved over Grandia 2 in way coz it was 60fps; it was really nice seeing Grandia this smooth. And at first I thought the music was a disappointment compared to the excellent Grandia 2 (especially the battle music), but it grew on me.