20:02 when I went back to Dragon Valley towards the end of the game, it had been attacked and invaded by their sworn enemies. A lot of the warriors were killed off, and Ulf's dad was wounded. He wanted to see Ulf one more time before he passed, but I don't think Ulf wanted to after their history. 🥺
16:46 I agree this part was weird. I think it's because the second disk was done by an entirely different director. Even at the end of the game, I tried to go back to Yuki's original village to see her- but they weren't there. Ulf is still my favourite character though.
The dropped characters and side plots of this game reminds of when live action TV shows have characters drop into a void never to be seen and in some cases never mentioned again. Does anybody remember Tori from Saved By The bell? She was that one girl who came into the show halfway through the final season when Kelly and Jesse temporarily left the show. She leaves the show from the third to the last episode of the series it is never mentioned again including The 2020 reboot.
RE: the final boss' Death Knell Move. You CAN move your characters in a limited way. by using the guard command you can select one of many areas on the field to send your character to defend. Its not really explained if you dont experiment with the command but there IS an in-battle way to move your characters. It has limited applications but its there.
What?!!!!!! I had no idea! I never once used the guard command. The game never forced me too. See, that’s my point. I shouldn’t need to learn that DURING the final boss! 😂
@@locloudanerpg For what it's worth, I tried using the Defend command to avoid that boss' attack and we simply couldn't get our turns fast enough. It's such a big AoE and our party casually walks, not runs to their destination.
@@locloudanerpg its kinda your fault though. defending is always used to just lessen the dmg or on a rare occasion the only way to survive an attack that comes once in awhile. you can see what the enemies are gonna do and who they are gonna target throw that in with a strong attack (lets say the attack that killed you) and should have at least tapped it, thats normal instincts. I'm guessing you spammed magic and items ( with talk about running out of mp and items.). the game even gives that broken ORB that ruins any fight its used in. Grandia 3 was a disappointment for me. The battles are the only thing worth looking towards and the bosses are too easy. I don't think i seen a bosses moves throughout the entire game , unless i went back to see them. even the desert lord was taken out as soon as you can fight it. really defend isn't that useful in Grandia as you can always keep cancelling threatening attacks and its really the messed up timing button.
I'm playing the game right now as of this writing I'm in the 6 hour mark. Let me tell you that I completely agree even without getting further into the game that Miranda and Alfonso were the best thing to happen in this game. I honestly couldn't care less about Yuki and Alfina as I find that the chemistry of Ryudo, Elena and Millenia that their goals, motivations and development are much more enjoyable. Like homeboy was already head over heels for this Elf Chick the moment she was introduced. I also prefer the battle and magic system from 2. It was concise and the UI was simple
I just noticed that the music when Yuki calls Miranda mom is the same music when Justin reads the letter his mom wrote to Gauss in Grandia I. It's a shame that I can clearly remember the scene in Grandia I, but I totally forgot the scene in Grandia III.
I had this game roughly when it came out. I remember wanting to like it but I dropped it right away for the explosion of better games that came out around that time. I would like to give the game a fair chance now that I'm not a restless teen. Back then the jrpg industry hadn't yet gone thru its 7th gen dark age. Grandia is underwhelming in a lot of ways but its still a time capsule worth peering into, especially for the voice talent.
I'm playing this game for the first time, and there's another dropped side character. Gladys, the screaming woman from the scene where Kornell shows up start of the game. If you return to Anfog Village after getting a plane, the townspeople all mention she went missing in the forest. But if you go into the forest, there's nobody to find. Spooky.
I agree with you, the game becomes excessively difficult towards the end. I didn't finish the game because I knew all the elements of the story. A game should be fun and not stressful. Grandia 2 is better (I don't know 1) because the story has much more depth and is truly touching.
This is going to be an amazing series. So glad you’re going to cover many games that are hardly talked about anymore (like this one and Stella Deus). We always always see videos about FFX and Kingdom Hearts but there were so many RPGs during that time that came and went on a whimper. Can’t wait to see more. Subbed.
Whew..... you've got your work cut out for you. BUT we're rooting for you! As for Grandia 3, it would have been an EXCELLENT game if the story wasn't so damn goofy and nonsensical. Also, I get they only wanted 4 main party members to focus on, but I feel like if they managed to write around Alonso and Miranda STAYING in the party, the story, and bad as it is, would've been astronomically better!
Could not agree more. Think what this story could have been if it had this whole mother son dynamic throughout. Maybe Miranda starts feeling uncomfortable about how close Yuki and Alfina are getting, or Yuki has to build a father like relationship with Alonso. Instead we get a copy paste RPG story. What a drag haha.
Honestly, I feel like they should just take a shot and remake it with these ideas. Like, they managed to do several party members fine in Xtreme. And with little tweaks to the battle system here and there, I feel like it could actually be a fantastic game, as well as give fans of turn-based JRPGs something to enjoy. The battle system still holds up.
did you guys find the Final Fantasy 12 sound effects in this game yet? SqaureEnix intended to make this game more grindy than the others. It's the only one in the series published by Square.
the game have a really rough development. Alfonso and Miranda suppose to come back but didn't. If I remember correctly, someone did died during the development of the game. They tried to do a lot of stuff, and it ended to big of a project. I think the game was to early for its time, but I still enjoy it.
I’ve heard something similar. If I remember correctly, an optional overworld location got left behind in development too. It was supposed to be a racing flight area if I remember correctly.
I remember actually really liking this game. The gameplay was good but it was a bit short and it didn't give me the feeling of going on some grand adventure compared to the first 2. I think that's what it's main problem is, comparing it to the first 2 games. Grandia 1 and 2 kinda set a standard of what Grandia was and this game didn't fully meet those expectations. So more disappointment rather than people objectively thinking this is a bad game. Maybe I'm just defending it cos I actually liked it
I thought I'd watched all these videos of yours, and just realised I hadn't watched this one. What was I thinking? Anyway, it's a shame that this game doesn't look to be as fun as the first or second games. Seems like both Grandia and the Lunar series fizzled out, sadly. :( Anyway, great video, as always!
There is in fact only one thing to find while flying the airplane, and that's the whale that's in the sky. It's always flying around somewhere and he has some dialogue as well. A lot of the side plot is also only discussed by NPCs in town who have consistent plot points each one follows as the story progresses, and they change in every town after just about every cutscene, requiring a lot of backtracking, such as Bianca introducing new and interesting items to the people of Baccula as well as effecting the look of the market stall that's there. Even the dragon in the canyon has dialogue that consistently changes, they clearly put too much into making up story with the NPCs. I do agree that it's ridiculous the plot completely forgets about Miranda and Alonso, dropping a lot of plot on the way. It feels like some things were cut and are missing.
Hahahah yeah! It’s only brought up vaguely by NPC(s). I was a little kid when I played G3, so the “interact with everything” style of playing paid off for once hahah!
Grandia 3 had heavy Story issues. Everything feels rushed and pushed. It didn't feel as natural as Grandia 1 or 2. Gameplay wise it was still great tbh only the Story was lacking and the music was weird at some points. Graphically for a PS2 game it was fine.
I get this is a year old, but Grandia 3's main issue, outside of story related stuff, is being bad at teaching the player the things they need to learn in order to have fun. I'll preface this with saying that you aren't wrong about how you experienced these things, but the game had things to fix/expand on those things that you didn't know about. As an example, Desert Lord is usually beatable at the level you encounter him at, although it is very boring and it overlevels you if done that early (just cancel it a million times, I've seen it done at 16 by abusing status effects and items (and luck), but you can do it somewhat consistently at anything over 25ish (without items)). Excise is avoidable on the overworld, or at least the ones on that long bridge before the boss (you want to stun the roaming ones to pass, and the last group you can just walk around). Their auto cancel can be dealt with in multiple ways because they can only do it when they are actionable and it isn't on cooldown (I think it has a 100% chance to trigger outside those conditions but it has been a while). There is nothing to tell you that is how it works, and nothing explains how hitstun works so you wouldn't know how to cause it (it's whenever your crit would launch without counter hitting I think, but it's only important to understand in that fight since IP damage/stalling is a different mechanic). There is actually a detective side quest in the town where the parents leave you (it's just text, but it lasts most of the game). Final boss is terrible, but you can move your characters manually (select guard then select a place to move to), plus how your characters move after attacks is decently predictable. My strat for the final boss is to abuse skill seeds and feathers I stocked up on from earlier, but on my first playthrough I had more than enough MP/SP regen off skills to last forever with the normal setup of Alfina dedicated healer / water damage user, Yuki as dps/backup healer, Ulf as pure dps, and Dahna as magic dps (abusing her free spells special). Just slap enough skills on them to refill MP from whatever and you are set. The battle itself still took I think 1.5 hours, which is why I abuse items now. You did make a factual error too though, the last 30 hours do have new things in the combat system. You even pointed multiple things out, like the new character and the unique enemy abilities like auto cancel. What enemies are doing and what your characters are best at shifts throughout the whole game too. Your HP in the failed final boss attempt is a bit higher than my first run's (had to bust out the old brick to check this), so I'm guessing you were overleveled and you unlocked stuff a while before it was supposed to. That being said, and I know this is a year old and I didn't watch any new stuff, you need to review a game for what it is, not what you want it to be. Grandia 3 has a distinct lack of builds and a preset party, that is not a bad quality of the game, it is just a quality. It also has terrible multiplayer and the town building mechanics aren't even close to sim city 2000's, but those are obviously hollow complaints. Grandia 3's lack of customization is probably a good thing, it allows for fine tuning of the combat which in turn lets them crank up the difficulty in order to engage players who enjoy mastering complex systems. Grandia 3 has a terrible story, so does super mario Bros, the difference is that G3's bad story gets in the way of the good parts of the game and kills the pacing, whereas SMB's doesn't matter because it is easily ignored. I'm not saying you should like Grandia 3, your preferences are your own, it is just that there is nothing to be gained from telling me them.
Love the feedback but I am very confused. It sounds like you didn't think I did a good job reviewing the game but that you also kinda agree with my points. I gave everyone my experience and I think my conclusion is the same as yours for the most part. It's a poorly built game with an addictive battle system and a terrible story. I do get your point on the battle system evolution thought I would say it wasn't substantial enough to really call it out as a progressive system through the playthrough. The majority of what you know, you know after the first 10 hours. Again, thanks for the feedback, just trying to get better!
@@locloudanerpg Grandia 3 is my favorite JRPG, so the conclusion is a bit different. Essentially your review has a lot of valid points, but they don't make an argument for the quality of the game. It's less a review and more a report on your experience. What makes a good review is having arguments for how well it does what it does. For example, the story sucks, it sucks because characters aren't motivated and they really just move where the plot needs them to be. The plot is a standard plot which puts the main emphasis on the characters, so when the characters have no interesting qualities and have nonsense emotional reactions it fails to be enjoyable. This also leads to the good parts of the game, the combat, suffering because the story is mandatory and it ruins the pacing of combat progression by taking a long time. The argument is the important part, but I'd also frame it by saying I personally found it easy enough to zone out through the story and the combat was definitely good enough to justify playing (and since I value combat much more than story it ends up being my favorite JRPG). The insight on the game is the important bit because it is what prompts further thought and discussion about the thing, and the framing is just for watchability. I don't dislike your review btw, I just had already wrote a huge comment so I might as well have put some constructive criticism in there too.
I had Grandia 2 on ps2 back in the day, and really ejoyed it! Grandia 3 I have on my ps3's hdd and tried it out for the first time today. it's ok. prefer Grandia 2 imo. when i first loaded up Grandia 3 and saw the opening movie and theme song, i had questions lol. moved through so many different scenes in such a hurry, I was not sure what game I was going to play. I may finish 3 before I buy 1 and 2 again and the others.
@@locloudanerpg my gripe is not enough sidequests and the last few enemies before the last boss that just blatantly cheat the battle...it's a good looking game but simply not enough to do compared to say FF12...
I'll admit when I was a kid I did not know Miranda was Yuki's mom until that cutscene. He treats her more like some older woman he knows from his village that takes care of him because he is the traditional anime main character aka. no parents and no ability to actually take care of themselves beyond their main character interest. Which is even weirder now that I think back on the game. Yuki is not really a good pilot. That was so weird to me as a wee lad. You just leave your mom like that and she never comes back into the story.
I can't find full ost to this game anywhere, i wanted to listen to it. Also i dropped that game somewhere in the first dungeon on disc 2 bc the game was lagging af, every fight was suuuuuper laggy, so i couldn't enjoy battles anymore. + Dahna was really weak character in comparison to characters we lost to the plot, that i was really annoyed.
Grandia 3; the very definition of strong start and bad finish. The final game seemed incomplete. Can I make a recommendation for this series? Radiata Stories and Atelier Iris 2 were two obscure PS2 JRPGs that I remember liking
Will you be doing Xtreme too? I understand that game might be the priciest of them all but eh XD Also I think it might really be Online which killed it, probably more than 6 killed the BOF series (that one was so much later than the others). I dunno really.
@@hitkid2456 Yeah, its pretty similar to Evolution games and personally i enjoyed it a lot. In my opinion its much better than Grandia 2 which was the biggest disappointment in the series for me.
Yessir! I'm a little worried about Star Ocean. I've always struggled with it. Although, I just beat the newest Star Ocean and it's making me rethink my opinion of the series.
@@locloudanerpg Star ocean 3 is one of my favorite game ever. I also am currently playing the last one. Looking forward for your star ocean and dark cloud gameplay :)
@@locloudanerpg Ah dude star ocean till the end of time for ps2 was really good. Are you gonna run Unlimited saga? And Nightmare of Druaga? If you've never played Unlimited saga I think that would be a really fun one to watch hahaha.
While the game does have glaring shortcomings, dropped characters and the story is meh at best, I still don’t think that it’s a bad game. Flawed, but not bad.
I really, really wanted to enjoy Grandia 3, but as soon as miranda and elazo where removed the story went downhill from there, and I really hated the obsession with trying to redeem emilios 😬
Wait dude you do know you can move your characters in their turn right? It's in the defense icon and it will give you options for what spot you want to move them for that turn. It's an evasion tactic. It's been in the series since G1
Man, that flying bit looks like it had such potential, they could’ve done something skys of Arcadia with hidden spots to find. This whole game seems to be a huge potential wastage. Also changing a party member just before the final, and toughest, boss fight seems psychotic, truly insane decision. Massive respect for to actually go back, grind and finish it.
@@locloudanerpg im sorry i mean your video resolution is 720p. Wouldn't it be better if you upload em on higher resolution? I hardly ever find gaming channel below 1080 these days..
I beat the game at level 39 average. I did not remember the final boss being hard. I was expecting u to say the boss was too easy. I was just canceling the attack of the boss and preparing cancel attack before the boss even declared an attack.
@@locloudanerpg it annoys me though, someone who steals, gambling addict, hated by the main characters, all of a sudden, randomly turns into some father figure overnight and shacks up with miranda. Just trash writing in my opinion. They could have wrote him so much better.
So I guess the whole "barrel" thing when he first appears never really gets explained. Just an 'accident' and Bianca seems to be involved. Ngl but it really made me think of Gaimon from One Piece kinda.
After watching this vid i kind of disliked the game a little bit now...I still like the combat system tho, i always find that engaging and the fact u can cancel the enemy's attack and send them flying was fascinating to see for me. I also never liked Dahna, Ulf, and Hect and i can't say i like Alfonso and Miranda either...No offense but i couldn't care less about Alfonso and Miranda's love affair i don't need that, only romance i need is the MC's romance (Yuki and Alfina)...For me i think they could've made other characters that look interesting. The only character that i like tbh is Alfina because she's an Elf. I've always liked Female Elf characters be it in games or anime... Guess u can say Female Elf/Elves is my fetish 😅 I also don't like the lack of aftermath in the ending, they could've done better. Almost everything u said in the video i think i can agree with, just not the romance between Alfonso and Miranda...If this game were to get a reboot i hope it'll be better and the flight-exploration system should be revamped. Replace Dahna, Ulf, and Hect with more interesting characters and give Alfina more relevance to the plot/more role instead of always just being a Damsel in Distress.
Haha at that point it might as well be a completely different game. I think when considering everything Miranda and Alfonso at least had character traits.
@@locloudanerpg Well that's what Remakes exactly are, the game would have a complete overhaul and make a lot of changes...With today's standards i think they could do it if they want to. PS2 era had too much limitations compared to PS4/PS5 era and i think players would like it if they they make a Remake of this game with lots of improvements. This game had a lot of potential which unfortunately weren't fully utilized.
@@locloudanerpg Alfonso and Miranda having character traits, that i can agree at least. If Yoko Taro was the one who handled this game it would've been an award-winning game 😆
@@locloudanerpg That would be hilarious if that were the case 😂. On a serious note, if Yoko Taro were to direct this game all of the characters would be really fleshed out tho i wouldn't like it if he kills Alfina. Elven lives matter!
![ลองสุ่มไอโฟน 990 โกงมั้ย? [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.101 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfsWe0j492k/mqdefault.jpg)
20:02 when I went back to Dragon Valley towards the end of the game, it had been attacked and invaded by their sworn enemies. A lot of the warriors were killed off, and Ulf's dad was wounded. He wanted to see Ulf one more time before he passed, but I don't think Ulf wanted to after their history. 🥺
16:46 I agree this part was weird. I think it's because the second disk was done by an entirely different director. Even at the end of the game, I tried to go back to Yuki's original village to see her- but they weren't there. Ulf is still my favourite character though.
The dropped characters and side plots of this game reminds of when live action TV shows have characters drop into a void never to be seen and in some cases never mentioned again.
Does anybody remember Tori from Saved By The bell? She was that one girl who came into the show halfway through the final season when Kelly and Jesse temporarily left the show. She leaves the show from the third to the last episode of the series it is never mentioned again including The 2020 reboot.
14:14 I used to ship Ulf and Rulia together so much back in the day. 😄
The opening song is still my favorite videogame song of all time.
RE: the final boss' Death Knell Move.
You CAN move your characters in a limited way. by using the guard command you can select one of many areas on the field to send your character to defend. Its not really explained if you dont experiment with the command but there IS an in-battle way to move your characters. It has limited applications but its there.
What?!!!!!! I had no idea! I never once used the guard command. The game never forced me too. See, that’s my point. I shouldn’t need to learn that DURING the final boss! 😂
@@locloudanerpg i mean that's been a thing since before grandia 3 lol, but good vid regardless
@@locloudanerpg For what it's worth, I tried using the Defend command to avoid that boss' attack and we simply couldn't get our turns fast enough. It's such a big AoE and our party casually walks, not runs to their destination.
@@ZappBranniglenn haha that makes me feel better. That final boss is a bitch.
@@locloudanerpg its kinda your fault though. defending is always used to just lessen the dmg or on a rare occasion the only way to survive an attack that comes once in awhile. you can see what the enemies are gonna do and who they are gonna target throw that in with a strong attack (lets say the attack that killed you) and should have at least tapped it, thats normal instincts. I'm guessing you spammed magic and items ( with talk about running out of mp and items.). the game even gives that broken ORB that ruins any fight its used in.
Grandia 3 was a disappointment for me. The battles are the only thing worth looking towards and the bosses are too easy. I don't think i seen a bosses moves throughout the entire game , unless i went back to see them. even the desert lord was taken out as soon as you can fight it. really defend isn't that useful in Grandia as you can always keep cancelling threatening attacks and its really the messed up timing button.
I'm playing the game right now as of this writing I'm in the 6 hour mark. Let me tell you that I completely agree even without getting further into the game that Miranda and Alfonso were the best thing to happen in this game.
I honestly couldn't care less about Yuki and Alfina as I find that the chemistry of Ryudo, Elena and Millenia that their goals, motivations and development are much more enjoyable. Like homeboy was already head over heels for this Elf Chick the moment she was introduced.
I also prefer the battle and magic system from 2. It was concise and the UI was simple
Enjoy the second half! Let me know what your thoughts are once you've beaten it.
The main menu chime gets me every single time. And that is enough for me to love this game.
I just noticed that the music when Yuki calls Miranda mom is the same music when Justin reads the letter his mom wrote to Gauss in Grandia I. It's a shame that I can clearly remember the scene in Grandia I, but I totally forgot the scene in Grandia III.
That about sums up this game. Weirdly forgettable
I had this game roughly when it came out. I remember wanting to like it but I dropped it right away for the explosion of better games that came out around that time. I would like to give the game a fair chance now that I'm not a restless teen. Back then the jrpg industry hadn't yet gone thru its 7th gen dark age. Grandia is underwhelming in a lot of ways but its still a time capsule worth peering into, especially for the voice talent.
A minotaur boss in a JRPG that tests your knowledge of the game's mechanics, where have i heard that before
Put on a good show... Don't forget the Durham Minotaur either (at least on hard perhaps).
Wow that was a very accurate description of everything about the game. You do a good job sir.
Thanks! More to come. I'm planning on hitting every RPG in the same way.
I love grandia 3 so much, literally made my childhood so much happier
I'm playing this game for the first time, and there's another dropped side character. Gladys, the screaming woman from the scene where Kornell shows up start of the game. If you return to Anfog Village after getting a plane, the townspeople all mention she went missing in the forest. But if you go into the forest, there's nobody to find. Spooky.
I had assumed Miranda was Yuki's adoptive mother hence why he had trouble calling her "mom".
Nope, or at least it never said he was...
@@locloudanerpg Who refuses to address their biological parents as such?
I haven't gotten fully into this series but picked up the grandia collection. Hopefully one day I can get through them.
I agree with you, the game becomes excessively difficult towards the end. I didn't finish the game because I knew all the elements of the story. A game should be fun and not stressful.
Grandia 2 is better (I don't know 1) because the story has much more depth and is truly touching.
This is going to be an amazing series. So glad you’re going to cover many games that are hardly talked about anymore (like this one and Stella Deus). We always always see videos about FFX and Kingdom Hearts but there were so many RPGs during that time that came and went on a whimper. Can’t wait to see more. Subbed.
Welcome to the family! Radiata Stories is coming up in two weeks.
Whew..... you've got your work cut out for you. BUT we're rooting for you!
As for Grandia 3, it would have been an EXCELLENT game if the story wasn't so damn goofy and nonsensical. Also, I get they only wanted 4 main party members to focus on, but I feel like if they managed to write around Alonso and Miranda STAYING in the party, the story, and bad as it is, would've been astronomically better!
Could not agree more. Think what this story could have been if it had this whole mother son dynamic throughout. Maybe Miranda starts feeling uncomfortable about how close Yuki and Alfina are getting, or Yuki has to build a father like relationship with Alonso. Instead we get a copy paste RPG story. What a drag haha.
Honestly, I feel like they should just take a shot and remake it with these ideas. Like, they managed to do several party members fine in Xtreme. And with little tweaks to the battle system here and there, I feel like it could actually be a fantastic game, as well as give fans of turn-based JRPGs something to enjoy. The battle system still holds up.
@@valhalla3566 yeah Extreme will be an interesting play through. I’ve also never played Grandia 2 so I’m excited to get there.
did you guys find the Final Fantasy 12 sound effects in this game yet? SqaureEnix intended to make this game more grindy than the others. It's the only one in the series published by Square.
Granida games don't get rid of the best characters challenge: difficulty impossible
Haha, instant fail.
the game have a really rough development. Alfonso and Miranda suppose to come back but didn't. If I remember correctly, someone did died during the development of the game. They tried to do a lot of stuff, and it ended to big of a project. I think the game was to early for its time, but I still enjoy it.
I’ve heard something similar. If I remember correctly, an optional overworld location got left behind in development too. It was supposed to be a racing flight area if I remember correctly.
I remember actually really liking this game. The gameplay was good but it was a bit short and it didn't give me the feeling of going on some grand adventure compared to the first 2. I think that's what it's main problem is, comparing it to the first 2 games. Grandia 1 and 2 kinda set a standard of what Grandia was and this game didn't fully meet those expectations. So more disappointment rather than people objectively thinking this is a bad game. Maybe I'm just defending it cos I actually liked it
Grandia has a history of dropping characters during the games. Grandia II the least of all, probably because it was short and rushed.
I thought I'd watched all these videos of yours, and just realised I hadn't watched this one. What was I thinking?
Anyway, it's a shame that this game doesn't look to be as fun as the first or second games. Seems like both Grandia and the Lunar series fizzled out, sadly. :(
Anyway, great video, as always!
Glad you found it! Yeah it was ok. Poor Lunar series haha.
Grandia 1 - Laputa - Castle in the Sky
Grandia 2 - Princess Mononoke
Grandia 3 - Porco Roco.
*Your welcome* ^_-
There is in fact only one thing to find while flying the airplane, and that's the whale that's in the sky. It's always flying around somewhere and he has some dialogue as well. A lot of the side plot is also only discussed by NPCs in town who have consistent plot points each one follows as the story progresses, and they change in every town after just about every cutscene, requiring a lot of backtracking, such as Bianca introducing new and interesting items to the people of Baccula as well as effecting the look of the market stall that's there. Even the dragon in the canyon has dialogue that consistently changes, they clearly put too much into making up story with the NPCs. I do agree that it's ridiculous the plot completely forgets about Miranda and Alonso, dropping a lot of plot on the way. It feels like some things were cut and are missing.
There’s a flying whale?!!!
I'm surprised to know there's a flying whale in the game. I've used the plane so many times yet i never encountered it.
Hahahah yeah! It’s only brought up vaguely by NPC(s). I was a little kid when I played G3, so the “interact with everything” style of playing paid off for once hahah!
Grandia 3 had heavy Story issues. Everything feels rushed and pushed. It didn't feel as natural as Grandia 1 or 2.
Gameplay wise it was still great tbh only the Story was lacking and the music was weird at some points.
Graphically for a PS2 game it was fine.
A game called chained echoes just released and it seems like it would be right up your alley.
I plan on checking it out though I do have an unpopular opinion of Chrono trigger….
@@locloudanerpg what's your opinion on chrono trigger? I'm playing though both games right now
@@michaelclifton9498 I just didn’t grow up with it and when I finally beat it, I had mixed feelings about it. I just might like Chrono Cross better….
I honestly had no idea there was a Grandia 3
Yeah, the first time I had ever seen it was on Xplay in the mid 2000s haha
They brought back the Grandia 1 goodbye music?!?
I get this is a year old, but Grandia 3's main issue, outside of story related stuff, is being bad at teaching the player the things they need to learn in order to have fun.
I'll preface this with saying that you aren't wrong about how you experienced these things, but the game had things to fix/expand on those things that you didn't know about.
As an example, Desert Lord is usually beatable at the level you encounter him at, although it is very boring and it overlevels you if done that early (just cancel it a million times, I've seen it done at 16 by abusing status effects and items (and luck), but you can do it somewhat consistently at anything over 25ish (without items)).
Excise is avoidable on the overworld, or at least the ones on that long bridge before the boss (you want to stun the roaming ones to pass, and the last group you can just walk around).
Their auto cancel can be dealt with in multiple ways because they can only do it when they are actionable and it isn't on cooldown (I think it has a 100% chance to trigger outside those conditions but it has been a while). There is nothing to tell you that is how it works, and nothing explains how hitstun works so you wouldn't know how to cause it (it's whenever your crit would launch without counter hitting I think, but it's only important to understand in that fight since IP damage/stalling is a different mechanic).
There is actually a detective side quest in the town where the parents leave you (it's just text, but it lasts most of the game).
Final boss is terrible, but you can move your characters manually (select guard then select a place to move to), plus how your characters move after attacks is decently predictable. My strat for the final boss is to abuse skill seeds and feathers I stocked up on from earlier, but on my first playthrough I had more than enough MP/SP regen off skills to last forever with the normal setup of Alfina dedicated healer / water damage user, Yuki as dps/backup healer, Ulf as pure dps, and Dahna as magic dps (abusing her free spells special). Just slap enough skills on them to refill MP from whatever and you are set. The battle itself still took I think 1.5 hours, which is why I abuse items now.
You did make a factual error too though, the last 30 hours do have new things in the combat system. You even pointed multiple things out, like the new character and the unique enemy abilities like auto cancel. What enemies are doing and what your characters are best at shifts throughout the whole game too. Your HP in the failed final boss attempt is a bit higher than my first run's (had to bust out the old brick to check this), so I'm guessing you were overleveled and you unlocked stuff a while before it was supposed to.
That being said, and I know this is a year old and I didn't watch any new stuff, you need to review a game for what it is, not what you want it to be. Grandia 3 has a distinct lack of builds and a preset party, that is not a bad quality of the game, it is just a quality. It also has terrible multiplayer and the town building mechanics aren't even close to sim city 2000's, but those are obviously hollow complaints. Grandia 3's lack of customization is probably a good thing, it allows for fine tuning of the combat which in turn lets them crank up the difficulty in order to engage players who enjoy mastering complex systems. Grandia 3 has a terrible story, so does super mario Bros, the difference is that G3's bad story gets in the way of the good parts of the game and kills the pacing, whereas SMB's doesn't matter because it is easily ignored. I'm not saying you should like Grandia 3, your preferences are your own, it is just that there is nothing to be gained from telling me them.
Love the feedback but I am very confused. It sounds like you didn't think I did a good job reviewing the game but that you also kinda agree with my points. I gave everyone my experience and I think my conclusion is the same as yours for the most part. It's a poorly built game with an addictive battle system and a terrible story. I do get your point on the battle system evolution thought I would say it wasn't substantial enough to really call it out as a progressive system through the playthrough. The majority of what you know, you know after the first 10 hours. Again, thanks for the feedback, just trying to get better!
@@locloudanerpg Grandia 3 is my favorite JRPG, so the conclusion is a bit different. Essentially your review has a lot of valid points, but they don't make an argument for the quality of the game. It's less a review and more a report on your experience. What makes a good review is having arguments for how well it does what it does. For example, the story sucks, it sucks because characters aren't motivated and they really just move where the plot needs them to be. The plot is a standard plot which puts the main emphasis on the characters, so when the characters have no interesting qualities and have nonsense emotional reactions it fails to be enjoyable. This also leads to the good parts of the game, the combat, suffering because the story is mandatory and it ruins the pacing of combat progression by taking a long time. The argument is the important part, but I'd also frame it by saying I personally found it easy enough to zone out through the story and the combat was definitely good enough to justify playing (and since I value combat much more than story it ends up being my favorite JRPG). The insight on the game is the important bit because it is what prompts further thought and discussion about the thing, and the framing is just for watchability. I don't dislike your review btw, I just had already wrote a huge comment so I might as well have put some constructive criticism in there too.
This was the last rpg I played on PS2
Baccla was absolutely awful. Pretty sure I muted my TV when I got there.
I'm down for this journey!
Got my second review coming up next week! Stella Deus.
I had Grandia 2 on ps2 back in the day, and really ejoyed it! Grandia 3 I have on my ps3's hdd and tried it out for the first time today. it's ok. prefer Grandia 2 imo. when i first loaded up Grandia 3 and saw the opening movie and theme song, i had questions lol. moved through so many different scenes in such a hurry, I was not sure what game I was going to play. I may finish 3 before I buy 1 and 2 again and the others.
I’ll be getting to Grandia 2 soon!
@@locloudanerpg my gripe is not enough sidequests and the last few enemies before the last boss that just blatantly cheat the battle...it's a good looking game but simply not enough to do compared to say FF12...
@@aerisgainsborough2141 I hear you!
I'll admit when I was a kid I did not know Miranda was Yuki's mom until that cutscene. He treats her more like some older woman he knows from his village that takes care of him because he is the traditional anime main character aka. no parents and no ability to actually take care of themselves beyond their main character interest. Which is even weirder now that I think back on the game. Yuki is not really a good pilot.
That was so weird to me as a wee lad. You just leave your mom like that and she never comes back into the story.
Very jarring. Yuki is a block of wood.
Grandia was sick an amazing franchise. Part III was a let down, but it’s still dear to my heart.
I can't find full ost to this game anywhere, i wanted to listen to it. Also i dropped that game somewhere in the first dungeon on disc 2 bc the game was lagging af, every fight was suuuuuper laggy, so i couldn't enjoy battles anymore. + Dahna was really weak character in comparison to characters we lost to the plot, that i was really annoyed.
Grandia 3; the very definition of strong start and bad finish. The final game seemed incomplete.
Can I make a recommendation for this series? Radiata Stories and Atelier Iris 2 were two obscure PS2 JRPGs that I remember liking
Absolutely! I'm playing Stella Deus next but can't wait to sink my teeth into the Altelier Iris series.
Will you be doing Xtreme too? I understand that game might be the priciest of them all but eh XD
Also I think it might really be Online which killed it, probably more than 6 killed the BOF series (that one was so much later than the others). I dunno really.
I already own Xtreme so we will most definitely be doing it.
Awesome! I've always wanted to try that one to be honest (it seems to be pretty similar to the Evolution games which I was a fan of).
@@hitkid2456 Yeah, its pretty similar to Evolution games and personally i enjoyed it a lot. In my opinion its much better than Grandia 2 which was the biggest disappointment in the series for me.
Hey so you're gonna do star ocean till the end of time and Dark cloud 1 and 2 also ? Great games recently replayed them.
Yessir! I'm a little worried about Star Ocean. I've always struggled with it. Although, I just beat the newest Star Ocean and it's making me rethink my opinion of the series.
@@locloudanerpg Star ocean 3 is one of my favorite game ever. I also am currently playing the last one. Looking forward for your star ocean and dark cloud gameplay :)
@@lapusanmirel5707 thanks! I’m playing Stella Deus next but we’ll get there!
@@locloudanerpg Ah dude star ocean till the end of time for ps2 was really good.
Are you gonna run Unlimited saga? And Nightmare of Druaga? If you've never played Unlimited saga I think that would be a really fun one to watch hahaha.
@@ezgetems1399 yeah I just bought druaga. I’m thinking unlimited saga will be sooner than later. Is it as bad as everyone says?
While the game does have glaring shortcomings, dropped characters and the story is meh at best, I still don’t think that it’s a bad game. Flawed, but not bad.
I really, really wanted to enjoy Grandia 3, but as soon as miranda and elazo where removed the story went downhill from there, and I really hated the obsession with trying to redeem emilios 😬
Agreed, what a bummer.
listen,
theres at least two people on here that really like 3.
avalanche reviews is the culprit. The fool says its better than one and two combined!
It would be nice of this playlist was in release order, its reversed by default
I can fix that. Good point
Wait dude you do know you can move your characters in their turn right? It's in the defense icon and it will give you options for what spot you want to move them for that turn. It's an evasion tactic. It's been in the series since G1
I didn’t when I played. This was my first Grandia. The game never once told me and it was only after I published this video that I found out.
Move got incorporated into Guard in G3. So no, not exactly the same.
With how some of the characters were handled, i think this game might have been rushed
That’s my guess. I feel like they repurposed some assets, and I’m half convinced Miranda was never designed to be Yukis mom.
Man, that flying bit looks like it had such potential, they could’ve done something skys of Arcadia with hidden spots to find. This whole game seems to be a huge potential wastage.
Also changing a party member just before the final, and toughest, boss fight seems psychotic, truly insane decision. Massive respect for to actually go back, grind and finish it.
@@fd5934 thanks! Yeah wasted potential is the MO of this title.
Who is best Grandia 3 now!
Too difficult haha
It’s a tie between Dhana and Ulf.
i love your concept but...... why 720?
Thanks. I’m confused what do you mean 720? I’m drawing a blank.
@@locloudanerpg im sorry i mean your video resolution is 720p. Wouldn't it be better if you upload em on higher resolution? I hardly ever find gaming channel below 1080 these days..
@@keypath4389 oh 😂 yeah I recorded on my laptop. I just bought a PC so everything should be 1080 from now on.
Well in Japan Dragon quest arc lad popular but not on west.Whats pop on Japan not on west.
My favorite combat system in RPGs, but just the worst story and characters.
I beat the game at level 39 average. I did not remember the final boss being hard. I was expecting u to say the boss was too easy. I was just canceling the attack of the boss and preparing cancel attack before the boss even declared an attack.
What can I say. I’m a beta gamer.
Heh, the best grandia in visual design, but the worst overall, even xTreme as a dungeon crawler with trash story is a better game.
I couldn’t stand Alonso. I skipped through all of the scenes with him in it.
At least he wasn’t a block of wood though. I mean I’d take annoying flaws over sterile virtues in a character any day.
@@locloudanerpg it annoys me though, someone who steals, gambling addict, hated by the main characters, all of a sudden, randomly turns into some father figure overnight and shacks up with miranda. Just trash writing in my opinion. They could have wrote him so much better.
@@blueg3027 haha I can agree with that. This had terrible writing throughout and character development was almost completely void.
So I guess the whole "barrel" thing when he first appears never really gets explained. Just an 'accident' and Bianca seems to be involved. Ngl but it really made me think of Gaimon from One Piece kinda.
the combat system was great but the story and characters sucked really, really bad.
Glad you started with that awful song
Amazing gameplay, rubbish plot. I swear if I hear emilios one. more. time!!!!!
Did u skip grandia 2..……?
Yeah but I’ll be playing it soon.
After watching this vid i kind of disliked the game a little bit now...I still like the combat system tho, i always find that engaging and the fact u can cancel the enemy's attack and send them flying was fascinating to see for me.
I also never liked Dahna, Ulf, and Hect and i can't say i like Alfonso and Miranda either...No offense but i couldn't care less about Alfonso and Miranda's love affair i don't need that, only romance i need is the MC's romance (Yuki and Alfina)...For me i think they could've made other characters that look interesting.
The only character that i like tbh is Alfina because she's an Elf. I've always liked Female Elf characters be it in games or anime... Guess u can say Female Elf/Elves is my fetish 😅
I also don't like the lack of aftermath in the ending, they could've done better.
Almost everything u said in the video i think i can agree with, just not the romance between Alfonso and Miranda...If this game were to get a reboot i hope it'll be better and the flight-exploration system should be revamped. Replace Dahna, Ulf, and Hect with more interesting characters and give Alfina more relevance to the plot/more role instead of always just being a Damsel in Distress.
Haha at that point it might as well be a completely different game. I think when considering everything Miranda and Alfonso at least had character traits.
@@locloudanerpg Well that's what Remakes exactly are, the game would have a complete overhaul and make a lot of changes...With today's standards i think they could do it if they want to.
PS2 era had too much limitations compared to PS4/PS5 era and i think players would like it if they they make a Remake of this game with lots of improvements. This game had a lot of potential which unfortunately weren't fully utilized.
@@locloudanerpg Alfonso and Miranda having character traits, that i can agree at least.
If Yoko Taro was the one who handled this game it would've been an award-winning game 😆
@@Moa_Smug haha they would have been previously tortured secret androids working a brothel until they were recruited into a shady organization…
@@locloudanerpg That would be hilarious if that were the case 😂.
On a serious note, if Yoko Taro were to direct this game all of the characters would be really fleshed out tho i wouldn't like it if he kills Alfina. Elven lives matter!
Too bad that we cannot use miranda at the end 🥲