Few things: 1.) Just like Xenosaga episode 1, I didn't explore many of the specific moments of the story - I elected to keep it broader and avoid spoilers in the clips I used because there are a few MAJOR turns that, while a little predictable, really hit hard. 2.) I know I jumped right into a defense of its story but a LOT of reviews go out of the way to apologize for its "YA" elements and praise its combat (understandable). I just wanted to immediately bite back at that. 3.) Sorry for the random upload and removal of the video, ran into some silly mistakes in Premiere Pro that left the video in 360p. Thanks for the patience! 4.) The next review is up in the air. I was going to do Phantasy Star 4 but I'm thinking I want to tackle another PS1 title. Any suggestions are recommended!
I love how you bring up flow in the combat and how it is so important. A lot of games fail at this so much and I hate it when games fail at it. I think that's one of the reasons why I loved Grandia 2 so much, even though Valkyrie Profile 2's battle system surpasses it, the combat in Grandia 2 had the right flow to never feel monotonous. There are games outside of JRPG's that do this well of course but I love JRPG's because of how you can progress without having to deal with the stress that some games throw your way. I think that's one of the big appeals to the genre. I also didn't know that defending increases your SP accumulation, very insightful. As for all the people who dismiss the story for having "Unchallenging writing" let me tell you all something. When I play a videogame, I want my story to be instantly gratifying. I am not reading a novel, I am playing a game and if I am challenged by the writing, my experience is impeded as a result. The story in videogames is meant to carry the gameplay, not the other way around. If I want to be "challenged", I'll just go and read a novel or watch a movie. When I play a game, I'm not playing it to piece together an understanding of the story, I'm playing it to engage in its gameplay primarily, the story is just a means of motivating me to continue engaging myself in the gameplay. For this reason I consider Grandia 2 to have the best videogame story ever and that's not because it's the best story ever, it's because it is instantly gratifying and offers a great mixture of humor and serious moments to make something memorable and extremely rewarding, it is one of the few JRPG's that I've played in my adult years where I felt like I couldn't wait to see what happened next in the story, not because I wanted to see what plot twists would happen, rather to see what kind of witty comebacks Ryudo would bring to the table and how the characters would evolve throughout the journey. Many JRPG stories tend to have me snoring through the dialogue... but not Grandia 2. There was always that one moment where the game threw the unpredictable at you and it was always in the dialogue. Like you could be in the middle of some exposition and suddenly one of the characters says something hilarious and it keeps your attention. That's what makes a good videogame story, something that can keep your attention and is valuable, Grandia 2 succeeds at both of these things, that's why I consider it to be the best.
YOU HAVE RETURNED! And what a treat! I love the Grandia games- the first one especially being the standout to me. The mythology of the games are still breathtaking and still reign supreme even today. I can't wait to see what other fantastic titles you review in the future!
“The story isn’t going to subvert your expectations” I think in a post Game of Thrones and The Lest Jedi society, most of us would be glad for that. I rarely grinded in this game either, and still found it relatively easy. I’m generally not a fan of the gameplay in JRPGs, but I do think that in this is better than that in most games in the genre.
I'll say that I applaud truly challenging and tightly constructed subversions but this isn't a story that needed one and wouldn't have added much to it. I said it in the review and I'll always say it, people really don't seem to appreciate simple stories told earnestly any longer.
This was the most intelligent review, I watched. I'm so glad I found this channel randomly on twitter. Awesome review, I cant wait to watch your future work!!!!!
Don't remember if we discussed this or not, but I had the PS2 port crash after battles a few times. IT really sucked to lose 45 minutes of progress due to something completely out of your control. Other than that, I loved this game on both Dreamcast and PS2. Combat is a bit easy, well except for a few boss fights, but it remained fun throughout.
As a fellow one trick Grandia 2 player, I could not agree with these views more! Spot on and extremely well done! I'm looking forward to many, many, many more EPIC reviews!!!
yes! I'm currently playing a mod of this game called hard type mod. I've beaten the original and it's far too easy to be fun on replays. Hard type mod significantly buffs all monsters in more ways than just stats (uses certain abilities more frequently/more ACT/inflicts you with debuffs) and significantly nerfs all your characters. been having a blast.
@@animaticlunatic9259 Don't mix them up. Here. Hard Mode - The Anniversary Edition difficulty that tunes things up about 20%. Hard TYPE - An extremely difficult mod that changes many of the enemies mechanics and values. If you want help with installing it, it works with Anniversary Edition and replaces your normal mode values, I can help you just lemme add ya on disc or something
Great Video! I've been replaying Grandia 2 from the HD collection on steam recently and have definitely been feeling the "1 more battle" bug, even if it is easy. What surprised me is you mentioned all those Metal Gear voice actors, but never mentioned Cam Clark (Voice of Liquid Snake) voiced Ryudo! P.S. He also voiced Leonardo in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.
I've had the DC copy for around two years. Finally got around to playing it. It's got some rough edges, but I'm liking it. I think it's going to be really good.
i loved g1 and finished it and sold it. Then I played g2 on pc and got stuck on some dungeon. sold it and bought g1 back. But haven't played. I can really recommend to not play g2 on pc.
![Grandia II Review! [Dreamcast] - The Game Collection](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/m53Q4qOCPcQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![Grandia II Review! [Dreamcast] - The Game Collection](/img/tr.png)
Few things:
1.) Just like Xenosaga episode 1, I didn't explore many of the specific moments of the story - I elected to keep it broader and avoid spoilers in the clips I used because there are a few MAJOR turns that, while a little predictable, really hit hard.
2.) I know I jumped right into a defense of its story but a LOT of reviews go out of the way to apologize for its "YA" elements and praise its combat (understandable). I just wanted to immediately bite back at that.
3.) Sorry for the random upload and removal of the video, ran into some silly mistakes in Premiere Pro that left the video in 360p. Thanks for the patience!
4.) The next review is up in the air. I was going to do Phantasy Star 4 but I'm thinking I want to tackle another PS1 title. Any suggestions are recommended!
Dragoon
Valkryie Profile, would be awesome!
Seconded @ Legend of Dragoon
I love how you bring up flow in the combat and how it is so important. A lot of games fail at this so much and I hate it when games fail at it. I think that's one of the reasons why I loved Grandia 2 so much, even though Valkyrie Profile 2's battle system surpasses it, the combat in Grandia 2 had the right flow to never feel monotonous. There are games outside of JRPG's that do this well of course but I love JRPG's because of how you can progress without having to deal with the stress that some games throw your way. I think that's one of the big appeals to the genre.
I also didn't know that defending increases your SP accumulation, very insightful.
As for all the people who dismiss the story for having "Unchallenging writing" let me tell you all something. When I play a videogame, I want my story to be instantly gratifying. I am not reading a novel, I am playing a game and if I am challenged by the writing, my experience is impeded as a result. The story in videogames is meant to carry the gameplay, not the other way around. If I want to be "challenged", I'll just go and read a novel or watch a movie. When I play a game, I'm not playing it to piece together an understanding of the story, I'm playing it to engage in its gameplay primarily, the story is just a means of motivating me to continue engaging myself in the gameplay. For this reason I consider Grandia 2 to have the best videogame story ever and that's not because it's the best story ever, it's because it is instantly gratifying and offers a great mixture of humor and serious moments to make something memorable and extremely rewarding, it is one of the few JRPG's that I've played in my adult years where I felt like I couldn't wait to see what happened next in the story, not because I wanted to see what plot twists would happen, rather to see what kind of witty comebacks Ryudo would bring to the table and how the characters would evolve throughout the journey. Many JRPG stories tend to have me snoring through the dialogue... but not Grandia 2. There was always that one moment where the game threw the unpredictable at you and it was always in the dialogue. Like you could be in the middle of some exposition and suddenly one of the characters says something hilarious and it keeps your attention. That's what makes a good videogame story, something that can keep your attention and is valuable, Grandia 2 succeeds at both of these things, that's why I consider it to be the best.
YOU HAVE RETURNED! And what a treat! I love the Grandia games- the first one especially being the standout to me. The mythology of the games are still breathtaking and still reign supreme even today. I can't wait to see what other fantastic titles you review in the future!
“The story isn’t going to subvert your expectations” I think in a post Game of Thrones and The Lest Jedi society, most of us would be glad for that. I rarely grinded in this game either, and still found it relatively easy. I’m generally not a fan of the gameplay in JRPGs, but I do think that in this is better than that in most games in the genre.
I'll say that I applaud truly challenging and tightly constructed subversions but this isn't a story that needed one and wouldn't have added much to it. I said it in the review and I'll always say it, people really don't seem to appreciate simple stories told earnestly any longer.
This was the most intelligent review, I watched. I'm so glad I found this channel randomly on twitter. Awesome review, I cant wait to watch your future work!!!!!
Don't remember if we discussed this or not, but I had the PS2 port crash after battles a few times. IT really sucked to lose 45 minutes of progress due to something completely out of your control. Other than that, I loved this game on both Dreamcast and PS2. Combat is a bit easy, well except for a few boss fights, but it remained fun throughout.
As a fellow one trick Grandia 2 player, I could not agree with these views more! Spot on and extremely well done! I'm looking forward to many, many, many more EPIC reviews!!!
yes!
I'm currently playing a mod of this game called hard type mod. I've beaten the original and it's far too easy to be fun on replays. Hard type mod significantly buffs all monsters in more ways than just stats (uses certain abilities more frequently/more ACT/inflicts you with debuffs) and significantly nerfs all your characters. been having a blast.
also no im not referring to the hd version hard mode. thats way too easy
@@Ethanasia The name of it?
@@animaticlunatic9259 The name is literally Grandia II Hard Type Mod.
@@animaticlunatic9259 Don't mix them up. Here.
Hard Mode - The Anniversary Edition difficulty that tunes things up about 20%.
Hard TYPE - An extremely difficult mod that changes many of the enemies mechanics and values.
If you want help with installing it, it works with Anniversary Edition and replaces your normal mode values, I can help you just lemme add ya on disc or something
Great Video! I've been replaying Grandia 2 from the HD collection on steam recently and have definitely been feeling the "1 more battle" bug, even if it is easy.
What surprised me is you mentioned all those Metal Gear voice actors, but never mentioned Cam Clark (Voice of Liquid Snake) voiced Ryudo!
P.S. He also voiced Leonardo in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.
The eyes of valmar was both difficult and fun battle
Got this on the switch haven't played it yet.
It's been a year. Did you play it yet??!
@@mattmurray07
I played it on the switch its really good. People say the dreamcast is the best version.
Thanks for the new review
I've had the DC copy for around two years. Finally got around to playing it. It's got some rough edges, but I'm liking it. I think it's going to be really good.
It's on switch too
Another awesome review!! 😁😁😁
Mentioning the voice talent assembled and leaving out the Fact that Millenia was voiced by Jodi Benson of The Little Mermaid fame. Come on!
I must've just missed that because I certainly would've mentioned it. :(
@@HighLevelReviews Great video by the way! While I have you here, any chance of a Skies of Arcadia review? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
@@spriles absolutely! it's on my list and will eventually get a review (spoiler, i love the game in nearly every possible way).
Grandia II is the best! It's really good game.
i loved g1 and finished it and sold it. Then I played g2 on pc and got stuck on some dungeon.
sold it and bought g1 back. But haven't played.
I can really recommend to not play g2 on pc.
FFx copied from Grandia 2
In my opinion FFX is one of the most overpraised games of all time. Doesn´t hold a candle compared to VII-IX.