Introduction

Grandia is a turn-based RPG from the Sega Saturn (1997) and PlayStation (1999). It's noteworthy for having very, very good characterization for its time, a grand sense of scale and adventure, and fun gameplay. It's not a perfect game by any means, and whether or not its sequel is better is up to you, but having played both this game and its sequel, I can without a doubt say I like this game more. I'm not sure as to the status of this game LP-wise, whether or not it has been cursed, but I can say that the sheer length of the game coupled with its more grindy elements will seem a bit daunting for most.

However, I will probably have more fun playing this than I would, say, Kartia. I said I was going to do either a MediEvil or Klonoa: Empire of Dreams LP, but I think I'll save those for the future as those will be purely vLPs and I don't have a lot of time to make constant videos. This LP will work as mostly screenshot and transcription-based, with (hopefully) videos of boss battles.

I've never played this game before, what's it like?
Grandia is a 2D sprite-based, isometric RPG with 3D backgrounds and 3D effects in battles, as well as sparse CGI sequences. The camera is fully rotational, and a better analogue to how the game looks and plays would be something like Xenogears. However, what this game has over Xenogears are dungeons that can, quite literally, take you hours. The game's bread and butter are these immense dungeons that you'll sometimes visit multiple times, opening up new paths or finding hidden treasure. Some of the later dungeons, unfortunately, become little more than narrow paths.

The game harkens back to a time when adventure was embedded in the heart of the RPG spirit. You spend most of the game traveling to far off and distant lands in search of treasure and discovery. To this end, most of the game is very light-hearted and it's only towards the last fourth of the game that the story takes a very limited, cliche jRPG approach.

As far as gameplay goes, I'll get into that as we progress through the game. Updates will be very infrequent as I'm currently in college, but I'll do my best to have either one or two updates a week should I get time. I am hoping that discussion/popularity of the game will keep the thread alive without my aid (which was mostly my fault with the last two LPs for playing relatively obscure games). First update should be along in an hour or so.

oh and here's some art, those who follow my LPs know what it references, by Deceitful Penguin:

Grandia

by Azure_Horizon

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Introduction

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