Now, let us step into the more recent past: October '99, a month greatly anticipated by many veterans of the Great Saturn Grandia Hype, myself included... for it was in October of 1999 that a Playstation port of Grandia finally made its way to US shores, courtesy of SCEA. On the evening of release day, double jewel case clutched firmly in hand, I hurried home and fired up the first of two shiny new Grandia CDs, eager to discover whether or not the results were worth the wait. Well, I've finally chewed my way through the English-language Grandia, and can safely give a nod in answer to that one... despite some low-challenge issues and a very typical Japanese-RPG plot, this sucker is gold.

For starters, Grandia has aged well. I mean, REALLY well. Having never spent any time with the original version, I couldn't say whether the Playstation version has been enhanced in any significant way... but I do know it's just WRONG for a port of a two-year-old Saturn game to look this good. The overall appearance of Grandia is not unlike that of Xenogears: nicely animated (if occasionally pixelicious) 2D sprites moving around in polygonal environments. These locations are surprisingly detailed and handsomely textured, considering the age and platform of the source material. My only real complaint about the Grandia's visuals is that some of the more complex areas really send the framerate into the toilet, but though annoying, this is bearable; we're not talking about a precision-demanding first-person shooter here. The BGM, composed by Japanese game music veterans Two-Five, is also more than sufficient, if somewhat repetitive. It sets the mood nicely, and the technical quality is a good deal better than that of FF8's BGM (what is it with Square and midgrade PCM lately?). I don't really see what the big deal is about Skywalker Sound, however... if the end credits aren't misleading me, SS's main contribution to Grandia was its sound effects. The FX ARE nice, no question about it, but Grandia isn't exactly the type of game that constantly hits you with room-shaking aural assaults. I would also like to note that the voice acting, while occasionally passable, is usually right around typical US-redub levels: in other words, it sucks rocks. The actor voicing Mullen, in particular, sounds like he recorded most of his lines after two full bottles of NyQuil.

Good visuals and sound make nice gravy, but the heart of any good RPG lies in its story and gameplay, and Grandia measures up very well in both departments. The controls are not very customizable, but fortunately, the default setup feels quite natural. Inventory management is handled in a fashion similar to that of Lunar: each character has an individual inventory that maxes out at 12 objects. This system works well, as it encourages good planning with respect to who should carry what, and also introduces an element of decision-making due to Grandia's highly treasure-laden dungeons; on many occasions, you may not be able to cart home all the goodies you'll find during a dungeon crawl. Grandia's combat system resembles the mutant child of Lunar's (degrees of movement, lots of area-effect spells and attacks) and FF's (ATB-style timing), and works beautifully. Unlike most combat systems, Grandia's allows several characters and enemies to perform simultanous movements and weapon strikes, which frequently leads to chaotic, exciting melees.

An adventurous youngster, a tragic legend, a love interest who is more than what she seems. If you just said "Lunar", give yourself a gold star, as Grandia's story shares several key elements with that other celebrated Saturn port... and Lunar's story was hardly original in the first place. However, also like Lunar, Grandia makes up in characterization and execution what it lacks in originality. It's hard not to want to cheer for the hero, Justin; his enthusiasm is catching. The requisite love story is well-done and convincing... at least, it is whenever the voice actors aren't mutilating the emotional moments. Even most of the unimportant townies have something interesting to say.

Grandia's one really serious failing is its difficulty. My first run through clocked in at about 52 hours, so it certainly doesn't have a length problem, but however long and satisfying the journey, the experienced RPG player is unlikely to find many moments of genuine challenge. The last two dungeons will gladly pull your pants down and laugh at you (though neither approaches the pure evil that is Lunar's Blue Dragon Cave), but otherwise, most regions and boss battles are cake.

This is due in large part to Grandia's FF8-like tendency to give you sufficient resources to turn your party members into unstoppable death machines. If you've been at all careful in your resource gathering and allocation, by the end of the game, nothing will pose any kind of significant threat to your team... endboss included. This has been a disturbingly common experience in recent RPGs (the last battle of FF8 saw ONE SUCCESSFUL ATTACK landed on my characters, and I did not spend an inordinate amount of time pumping them up), and Grandia is guiltier of it than most. Fortunately, there are three hidden, optional dungeons that are truly wicked creations, worthy of even your walking-Armageddon self. Cleaning them out is an accomplishment on the level of slaying FF8's Omega.