Growlanser: Generations (PlayStation 2, 2004)

Growlanser: Generations contains both Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice and Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness. These games are two strategy Role Playing Games packed with hours on end of game play and amazing voice acting. The main weapons that are use in both games are ring weapons. These rings can also be equip three different gems with many different properties. Each gem has its own level and the higher the gem is, the more powerful it will be. The main character and the hero of Growlanser II is Wein Cruz, a young ring weapon master. However, It is up to Wein and seven members to protect the tenuous peace between three major rival kingdoms. Chose carefully when recruiting your characters because you will be unable to recruit others and this will have an impact on the ending of the game. In addition there will be multiple storyline branches during course of the game. Therefore at one point Wein will even have an option of completely abandoning his quest. In Growlanser III, time jumps back One Thousand years to a world slowly dying which is dooming man kind. The main character Slayn is a young amnesiac and is nursed back to health by the beautiful Annette who is the daughter of the Federation President. Slayn has no memory of his past and has agreed to help her save her country from the horrible drought and the major threats of invasion. With only the limit of four characters in battle, you now must focus even more on your strategies and tactics. Even though that the game play is similar to Growlanser II and there will be a few new features. One of the features in Growlanser III is characters can team up to cast even more powerful and destructive joint spells. Growlanser II and Growlanser Ill can have up to hundreds of hours of play and guess what, you even get to keep your stuff after you beat the game(Which the stuff can be use on a new game). If you want to know more about the stuff you will get to keep, you will have to play and beat the games.

Reviewed for Big Boss Games by: TRC

Growlanser Generations is split into two games, Growlanser 2 and 3.

This review is of Growlanser 2.

After a long delay of this game, Working Designs has released Growlanser
Generations and it is well worth the wait. If you love strategy RPGs this
game is a must have. Because of it’s griping story and great game-play. You
start out as Wein Cruz, a young boy with a dream of becoming an Imperial
Knight.

The music in the game is perfect. Although the voice acting was laughable, it
was still funny at times. Good-bye battle grid, you have free roam over the
battlefield. Your game uses navigation points to move from town to dungeon
and back again. The strategy aspect of this game goes from easy to pulling
out your hair hard after a few battles. The Graphics for this game seem like
the best of playstation 1 graphics.

Overall for Growlanser 2

I give this game a:
9.5 – Game Play
9 - Sound
6 - Graphics
9 - Overall

This game is very rare. The game is so cool. I recommend you buy this.
Cool graphic, interesting story and animation.

two games in story...... who won't want check it out? the graphic are sickly good, and story line is so awesome!! check check check!!!

I decided to buy Growlanser: Generations because I love RPGs and because this game had gotten consistently good reviews. I was not disappointed. From the minute I started playing it, I was hooked.

For those of you who love FF Tactics, this game will be very familiar, and though some might not like this fact, others will enjoy it fully, as I have. Even the music is very reminiscent of FF Tactics.

This game consists of two parts, technically Growlanser 2 and Growlanser 3. They were both originally on another platform, and the graphics that result from porting it over to the PS2 are probably the only disappointing thing. The graphics, however, do not detract from playability.

Growlanser 2 is addictive right from the beginning. Growlanser 3 brings a pleasant change from Growlanser 2 - you can walk around and interact with people in towns, and is just as addictive.

Though I am not as tempted to replay this game as I have with FF Tactics (5 times), I definitely had to play it in every spare minute until I finished it. I am one of those who loves to level up a lot, and this actually made the final bosses and the extra dungeons a bit too easy, but at least I was able to finish the games fairly quickly.

Not as many secrets as in other games, but the ATLUS lovers out there will find it very comfortable and familiar. I did not have to rely on a guidebook or website, though if I had really wanted all the secrets, I would have needed to, especially in Growlanser 3.

They both contain elements of games such as Star Ocean 2 & 3, where the relationships between the characters affect the endings, though the endings are rather "ho-hum" anyway. Game play more than makes up for this, however.

The one difficulty I found with Growlanser 3, in particular, is if I forgot what I was supposed to do next, I could not go back and replay the conversation that told me what was the next task. You only get to see it once.

The storylines are not particularly thrilling, and as a seasoned RPGer I found them a bit too easy, but all in all, an excellent, easy, fun and addictive game!

Growlanser 2 (Part of the Growlanser Generation Package)

Graphics: 8/10
Music: 8/10
Battle System: 8/10
Character Design: 9/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Game Value: 10/10

Score: 9.0

(Game Value is based on the total package)

Publisher: Working Designs
Developer: Career Soft
Genre: Role-Playing
Release Date: Dec 7, 2004
Players: 1 Player

Genre: Strategy / RPG
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Curve: About 30 Min

ESRB Content Rating: Teen

Graphics: This game uses the old school 2d graphic style we all love or hate, I must admit that this game reeks of nostalgia and is a *joy* to play, as a big RPG fan I must say that this game has what it takes to get people glued to the screen, not just because of the graphics but for its entirety.

Music: Professional composed music that makes this title even more enjoying, also the ocarina song that the main hero plays is so neat!

Battle System: Strategy meets tactical RPG in this unique mix between thinking and action, this is not turn based so being aware of what you do is a key factor, do something foolish and it might be you who perish.

There is also an Auto-Battle option to make random encounter battles faster to finish and a gift to those who love to power level their characters.

Character Design: Every Anime fans would love it, as the anime artist Satoshi Urushihara is the man behind the character design, it’s a *joy* to see every chat scene between the hero’s and the other’s.

Gameplay: The Gameplay is smooth and when it comes to the world map they use in this title a grid system like in Final Fantasy Tactics where u can go between cities and places, occasionally there’s battles between monsters or bandits when walking between places, you might also stumble upon side quests and scenes.

Other things to notice is the Ring Weapon system where each hero has the option to equip a ring that can hold up to 3 gemstones, depending on the ring it may enhance the attribute on the hero and contain various levels of gemstones.

One of the key parts of the game is to gather information and you can do that by talking to the local town folks at the places you visit, towns usually have shops where you can Equip rings or buy gem stones or even sell your unwanted extra items, you also got the inn where you take can take a nap.

Game Value: You get a Deep story with a old school 2d graphic style, well composed music and a unique if not special battle system, and not to forget character’s designed by an anime artist. What more can you demand of a game?? And not to forget you get Growlanser 3 in the same package!

Final Words: After playing this game fore only 5 hrs I can conclude that this game is a MUST try for all RPG fans out there also highly recommended fore collects of RPG games, grab it now, you wont regret it!

Special Note: MULTI MULTI STORY BRANCES, It will take forever to finish the game 100%, after u finish the game you can start over in new game + with all equipments and money

My 1st Playthru: 19h 50m
My 2nd Playthru: i forgot O.o

Let's just say if you don't like Final Fantasy Tactics then you are not going to like this game. This consist of 2 games: Growlanser II and Growlanser III! When first looking at it yes the graphics are a bit out of date but, are still appealing! The music for both in my opinion was pretty good and I wouldn't mind buying the soundtrack (I don't buy many soundtracks). The game play works simular to FF: Tactics on the world map for Growlanser II but, Growlanser III is more like a regular Final Fantasy where you have the freedom of walking and entering towns. On the battle field with there are some differences from FF: Tactics. Unlike in FF: Tactics where you can only move so many blocks at a time, in Growlanser II and III you can either click and choose an attack and that character will walk towards him/her and begin attacking when in range. You can also select to move anywhere on the battle field which is used a lot in certain missions. The voice acting is not all that bad either and everyone seems to fit into their characters pretty well...

The game runs around $20 - $40 now I think and is not a waste of money if you like good strategy RPG games...

Excellent Game, Another Working Designs Epic. Amazing, Very Intelligent Gameplay. Top Notch Voice Acting, And Animation.