Grandia III (PlayStation 2, 2006)

Grandia 3 is a game that has great strengths in most areas but is also lacking in some. You will not be disappointed when it comes to it's fast-paced action-packed combat, amazingly crisp and detailed graphics, awesome backgrounds, supurbly detailed and developed characters graphics, character controls and feel, and it's beautiful visual cutaway scenes. I absolutely love some of the battle controls and the new and original battle moves! I also thought that the main battles were a welcomed chaleng, and I do mean a challenge.

The creators of this game did a great job on creating an interesting and unique storyline with a very likable main character that draws you into the game very fast. They did great with the graphics and battle moves and even did alright with the music and sound, but...... Where they left off is the most important area for a true RPG fan..."THE STORY" I know I said it has an interesting and unique storyline, but that is only at the beginning. The story starts strong but does not maintain. The game does not have very many side plots or alternate storylines with the great freeplay that a Final Fantasy or Suikoden has. It also begins to lose some of your interest as you realize that some of the most interesting characters are in and out of the story very quickly (never to return) and you are stuck dealing with some pretty average characters most of the time. It also only has about 30-35 hours of total gameplay, which I really prefer 70-120 hrs. if the game is worth it.

All in all it has some very strong attributes that you will like, but for those that hunger for all of the side quests and a lot of plot twists and free play, you will be a bit disapointed. I truly hope that Grandia 4 will take the awsome battle style and graphics and build a more involved story with more side quests and keep the interesting characters around longer.

This game for me is in a kind of a hate/enjoy relationship. I enjoy the way the game plays out in battles and while running around the map, but the dialogue and cutscenes strike me as super cheesey, and I honestly feel little attachment to the characters. The level of difficulty also takes some amazing jumps in toughness at times. I spent a little bit of time leveling up at the beginning then breezed through the next couple of hours of gameplay and then smacked right in the face with monsters that utterly wiped the floor with my butt. So all in all at times its a fun game but I don't think I'll ever play again once I beat it.

Most people like to say the storyline to this game is cheesy but I disagree. I am a hopeless romantic and this game was an excellent game to cuddle with my boyfriend too. I am very picky with my gaming and I am an RPG fanatic. My boyfriend had first played this game at his friends house and I looked at the reviews and I wasn't quite pleased with them. My boyfriend was upset that I trusted the reviews rather than him and I decided to give the game a shot. I love to play an RPG with a romance storyline, if it doesn't have romance I probably won't play it through, luckily my boyfriend is the same way. If you like the classical storylines of the hero with the sword and the female lead as the damsel in distress that can heal you would love this game. Now I am never sexist in storylines I grew up with the hero saving the damsel in distress so getting these storylines never bothered me in fact I favor them more finding them to be more romantic. Yuki goes out to fly his plane to the main land and winds up crashing at the very sight of seeing Alfina in danger. He soon meets her and nonetheless he falls in love with her on his journeys. This Grandia storyline got me into Grandia the series. If you like classical romance stories this is the game for you. That is just my opinion as I am a picky gamer I beat it really quick after buying it I was so hooked. As for the game play it is SO addicting, the battle system makes you want to run into the monsters it's so much fun to cancel and combo! Overall I give this game a 5/5!

Overall, this is a fun game. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though not quite as much as the previous Grandia games.

I will break this review down into many subcategories to make for a more fluid review.

Character development: average. Not as good as I would have liked. The characters are horribly linear and you always know what their going to do or say before they do it. Alfina, the heroine, is a lot like Elena from G2 (Grandia 2), only not quite as naive. Then theres Yuki's mother. Do you remember Justin's mother from G1? She's pretty much the same way, which is a good thing. She's the best character playable character in the game. Not to mention this is the only game I've played that you fight alongside your mother. Most the characters have a previous Grandia equivalent character. Ulf=Rapp. Yuki=Justin. Hect=Liete. etc. Well, I guess that's just my opinion, anyway.
The characters do grow on you after a while, though, and you do begin to care for them. I do love Miranda and Alonso. Best characters in the game.

Exploration quality: poor. You can't walk off the linear paths set in front of you. Can't walk off the roads or anything. Instead of having the compass like the other games you have a map. (with how linear the roads are you really don't need the map.)

Story: Overly cliched, but not painfully so. We have been there, done that a million times. Bad dude trying to destroy the world, and resurrecting an ancient power to do so. At least in G3, he isn't doing it for power, (though, without spoiling anything, one of his henchmen is. But he barely ever comes into the picture. Truth be told, I think they only say his name once...) he is merely doing it to create a world as he sees to be perfect, with no thoughts for his personal gain. This is a bit refreshing. Awesome FMVs to tell the story, too.

Gameplay: Ah, beautiful. If you've played any of the previous Grandia games, you know what to expect. In battle, you're characters and the enemies move around a circle (rather than along a bar like the previous games)called an IP gauge. When they reach a certain point on the gauge, you input a command (attack, defend, magic, etc.) which they will then prepare to execute. Depending on where the enemy is on the circle, the battles tend to call for a lot of strategy.

There is the addition of ariel combos to G3, which are VERY cool. If one of your party members manages to hit an enemy with a critical hit while he is "off balance", then the enemy is thrown into the air. Another party member has to run up, and hit him while he is in the air. If the second party member succeeds, then you have an airial combo, which does a lot of damage. If you kill an enemy with an airial combo, then it is more likely to drop rare items or more money. At the end of the battle, if you get a flawless victory, you get a little extra sp back.

Mana eggs also return this game for learnig magic and increasing their power. Some spells have changed names from the previous games, such as "crackling" is now "Crackle Fang". Oh, and one thing that made me cry is that "Dragon Zap" isn't in this game.

Voice acting: The voice acting actually wasn't as bad as the previous Grandia games. It was way overdramatized in many scenes though. Battle cries are just as silly as the other games, too.

Game length: My game clocked in at about 40 hours. I did lot's of extra stuff, too.


Overall, not the best addition to the Grandia series, but by all means a good one.

Excellent Graphics. Great storyline, plots and animation to keep your interest. Highly recommended game. You can move the view around to see all angles of the board you're on. My favorite thing about this game is once you reach certain parts of the game animation takes play and you watch parts of the story, it's very interesting and keeps you going. I've played it twice already.

Reviewed for Big Boss Games by: T.R.C.

The Cast:
Yuki - A wet behind the ears pilot.
Miranda - Yuki's much to young mother.
Alfina - A communicator.
Alonso - A captain and gambler.
Ulf - A dragon rider.
Dahna - A village chief.
Hect - A lonely girl with great violin talent.

Story (Score: 6/10): Guardians protect the world from great evil. Communicators are the chosen that can speak with the Guardians and pass down the wisdom imparted to them. When one of the Communicators starts to hunt down the Guardians it is up to Yuki and friends to save the Guardians and the world.

Music (Score: 8/10): Popish with some haunting violin tunes and orchestra music plays a big roll in the soundtrack of this game.

Battle System (Score: 6/10): Typical turn based attack system. No random battles! You can fight or stun an enemy and run away from them. Magic system is unique and fun to play with.

Although, after about the 30th time you see the same spell, you will wish for a shortened form of that spell. Mana Eggs can be found in dungeons, you can fuse the eggs together to make stronger Mana Eggs. Which can be converted into stronger spells.

Item of note: You can do combo attacks with your team members. Start by having one of your team members do a strong attack, this will knock the monster into the air. Then have another one of your team attack the monster before it hits the ground and watch the show.
You can have more them 2 people do a combo attack on the same monster if you can time it right.

Game-Play (Score: 6/10): Grandia III was a good game. It took me 41+ hours to complete. This is an average length for a PS2 RPG game.

Overall Score - 6/10: Grandia III was a fun game to play. I enjoyed the battle and magic systems. The story is what kept me playing, even at the times when I was about to walk away from the game forever, when another wonderful plot twist would unfold in the story. That would keep me glued to the TV to find out what would happen to Yuki and his friends. All in all, Grandia III is a good not great gaming experience. I recommend that you maybe rent this one or buy it used.

I ended up buying the title from a store because the person never contacted me and never answered any of my emails about payment. Since I never paid for the item, I never got it, so I didn't leave a feedback on the seller since it wasn't like I paid for the item then never received it. The communication was just really bad.

Well first of all im a huge RPG fan and play ALOT of different rpgs. Now Grandia is a good series and the number III i bought cause i knew what i was going to get, meaning some good hours with quality rpg from a famous series.

What i liked most of it was the graphics and u see clearly that square-enix has come in the picture so compared to other grandia games it was a beauty ;) Battlesystem was nice as always and i like the arial combos u could perform with each character.

What i disliked was Alfinas crying over and over on the fmvs. Meaning lots of sad fmvs wich i would call overdrama. I also disliked that the attacks each person had was almost the same as in the other games in other words no new here, it was also combined with frustrating one liners going on and on.

All in all i would say this is a good game with some annoying elements but else it was quite good. Cool badguys :) with huge swords. Here u get lots of good hours worth your money. Even better if u are a grandia fan.

Although I hate video games, I loved Grandia III. I originally bought this game for my fiance, it was expensive in the stores so I thought that it must be good. I was right! This game is contained on two disks, and the game just never seems to stop. The plot is about a young pilot who finds himself on a journey, with a team of friends he picks up along the way, to save Earth from distruction from a rouge gaurdian. The characters build up experiance, magic, special moves, and upgraded weapons along the way. The graphics on this game set the bar for all other games of this kind (so says my fiance, and he should know). The fighting graphis are a bit confusing at first, but after a few fights, it is very user friendly. When we finnished the game, we had over 100 hours of game time, but I'm sure that if you don't fight every monster you come across, you can finnish it in a shorter lenght of time.

Great game. Love story. Great graphics. Overall awesome.......................................................................................................................................................

This game was cool, but cmon... the story was a piece of crap. too many hmms, uhs, Alfinas and Yukis and not enough words. This game had the worst story since Grandia Xtreme. Bah...

Aside from that, this game was awesome. The battle system was fun, especially aerial combos. It was a bit difficult at times, but that's a good thing! I still say the second one was the best in the series though... you can pick that up for cheap...

If you're looking for a great story..... no.... hell no.

This game is the third venture into the Grandia world and a good one at that. This game is done by Square Enix which means that the graphics are top notch but what about the gameplay? The battle system is solid and the story is well done. The famous Grandia battle system is back in action in this game. This game is well worth the money that you may spend on it and it will be a game you will be glad to have in your collection.

I've played a lot of RPG's. This games has been one of the better ones. Great story line, graphics, and easy to follow. Hope to see more from this series.

after playing Grandia 1 and 2 i picked up Grandia 3. I had high expectations and for the most part it delivers. It's story is both interesting and fun, the characters are great and nicely animated. The battle system is great just not the best of the series. If you played the other games be sure to get this, but Grandia III should not be your first game of the series. Grandia I and II are better animated and have better cut scenes. Do buy but this game isn't a gem like Grandia I and II.

This game is a total Classic, from great story line to awesome attack and magic combo. It's a must have for a collection. If you haven't played it yet, be sure to grab and play and you will be amaze by the graphic, storyline and game play of the game.

I needed a replacement of a game I wanted to replay. No local stores carried it, so I turned to eBay. I was sure it would be online, and this seller had a good price, good condition and fast delivery. Usually I dislike buying by delivery, but this was fast! The bidding page guaranteed a 3-5 delivery time; I got mine at the minimum: 3 days.

Great job, A+

The game is pretty cool. I actually bought the game because my wife and i really like song that is played at the opening credits. We were unable to find the soundtrack in English, so i bought the whole game. Good game though. Lots of replay value which is how i managed to hear the opening sequence so many times.

The game worked as we were not too sure considering it was a used game but it did as promised and was very happy and satisfied with this product and the seller...

Great Game. I needed it to complete my collection :) Thanks again for the great deal............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Love the game, just got started and cant wait to continue playing.
The series as a whole is boss though. Its realtime battle system has stolen multiple hours of my life just mastering it.
If i had the time, it would steal multiple more.

My daughter really likes this game and wanted it for Christmas. She plays it all the time. I am glad I bought it for her. She isn't working and it helps her from getting bored. It is a collectors game, because you can't hardly find it anywhere else. Either that or everybody likes to play it.