Worst MMO Ever? - Granado Espada

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There isn't even a Pomegranate Sword.
Thank you to all the supporters on Patreon who keep the channel alive :D

[@mystman7722]

*Here are all the Josh nicknames for the game* - Granada Babado - Granespa Abespa - Grandiose Pomegranate - Pomegranate Land - Grand Cabbage - Grindibli Adibli - Grand Vegetable - Granabado Ababado - Grandedada Abedada - Granado Encanto - Grandada Spandex - Grandi Espandi

[@Nana721nah]

Not all heroes wear capes

[@Revilerify]

Grandiose Pomegranate was funniest lol

[@markup6394]

He really outdit himself here XD

[@NatLaS]

Josh Strife Names

[@HasegawaRayven]

​@@Revilerify extra funny to me because Granado is the pomegranate word

[@MyAwfulUsername]

I remember this game. Tried it for a while as a kid. It went a little like this: Play game > Pretty boring > Exit game > Game music still keeps playing on desktop for some reason > Uninstall

[@shahshakuras700]

Cursed.

[@badrequest5596]

Lol pretty much same thing as me except no music played outside of the game

[@gwensstepbro4966]

I kekked

[@Jason0binladen]

Wuhclassmistmahha

[@ZeldaTheSwordsman]

The EXE was probably taking a while to fully spool down. I bet you would have seen it still spinning if you'd checked the processes tab of Task Manager.

[@xaen-kfpstammkunde3081]

"A man so aggressively french just being near him makes me wana protest something" XD

[@Real-Name..Maqavoy]

*La Bagutee?*

[@kokocaptainqc]

@@Real-Name..Maqavoy thats not even a word in any language

[@Pundae]

​@@kokocaptainqcHe's a single letter off baguette

[@kokocaptainqc]

@@Pundae several letters...

[@XCal]

I used to love Granado Espada. I usually play strategy or tactical games, and when it was announced and first opened, the 3-character system lured me in. What actually got me hooked the most were NPC soldiers sometimes fighting alongside you, which was a rare atmospheric detail that made it feel like there was a world out there caring about the problems and not just you doing all the things. But... it all went wrong in the end. Here's some things Josh didn't figure out because of the bad new player experience and the fundamental design flaws: The weapons type and stances system was amazing at the start, let's say you have Sword and Shield of a fighter class, that will give him Back Guard and High Guard stances, which aside of being real life historical fighting methods, each switch to a completely different set of bonuses and skills. In Back Guard, you do more damage while in High Guard, the fighter is a tank who has a high chance to block out damage completely, so Sword and Board type fighters are tanks, but can switch to damage - it's not as good as say, greatword or polearm DPS, but it's what you have on Sword + Shield config as an option. This meant aside of having 3 characters, each character contained several classes within themselves depending on your equipment configuration. Musketeer stances make them dual wield pistols or kneel down with rifles and snipe at a distance. The character cards you earn were also amazing, because those were often specific NPCs you met who had their own specific fighting style and equipment configurations. Take Panfilo de Narvaez for example, he is a battle cook, he is uniquely able to access a stance that involves Saber + Fire Elemental Bracelet where he combines melee attacks with fire spells. Sometimes, they had better stats than the stock characters you could always create or very focused fighting styles, like that boy Josh recruited, Ramiro, is capable of the highest movement speed in the game and I had hilarious fun making him be the Flash. While its true recruited characters outperform stock characters in most cases as a result, Stock characters always had versatility going for them, there's going to be recruited characters who are tankier than the base fighter, but they have equipment limitations while the fighter will take almost everything and goes as far as combining Sword + Pistol into a stance called Heaven & Hell that I was obsessed with getting. But recruited characters sometimes had completely out there fighting styles, such as Jack the Engineer and Yeganeh who just outright craft buildings and turrets onto the field or Catherine, who puppeteers dolls as AI summons to fight for her. Creating a unique team was a big thing for me, and I remember my combo of H&H Stock Fighter + Puppeteer Catherine + Soho of the Wind (does healing and martial arts) fondly. On a theoretical level, Granado Espada had the chance to be an amazingly tactical game, you could use your fighter to taunt and turtle, your scout could swap from healing to pouring in DPS if you tech it correctly, you cast CC spells to deal with the mobs and stunlock bosses into long animation of ultimate attacks. IN THEORY The reality was different and sad via several fundamental problems the game started with and never fixed. The first problem was the spawning patterns and enemy stats, namely en masse and all over the place with an HP to damage ratio that encouraged 1-2 shotting. If you were punching above your weight with a technical fighting style around teamwork and tactics, that wasn't going to work because the game never lets you 'solve' singular encounters, it's an endless horde all day, all the time, and if you wanted to stay sane, you just played it as an AFK autobattler where a scout autoheals and 2 people continuously kill the hapless spawns quickly. Sometimes, you might even cast an AoE spell if you're really pushing it, and sometimes a boss spawns and you actually get to use one of the cool single-target moves, but that was it. The game just insists on being an AFK-battler despite all the cool design around characters. The second problem was the diminishment of stock characters. It all started with there being no real reason to use a Stock musketeer over Grace Bernelli with rifles, who just had better stats period, that was fine at first, stock musks could run pistols, but over time more and more NPCs took away what roles the certain stock units had left. This flowed into the last problem, premium characters. They were only available for real money, and they were oftentimes superior versions of their existing free counterparts. A friend gifted me Soho of the Wind, the premium version of Soho and frankly, there was little reason for the original to exist. This meant that in a game about building cool teams, you just had some locked behind cash walls, unobtainable other than through the auction house for tons of ingame currency if the whales decided to sell them. I can get through bad new player experiences myself, because I'm a high research/engagement player, but knowing the game was never going to get better in the ways that counted, and every improvement usually involved interesting characters that half the time were gated behind real currency killed the fascination I once had.

[@zondor8123]

Ain't gonna read all that, but good luck to you or sorry if that happens

[@alphaluda]

Thanks for your perspective!

[@Arudon117]

I did read all that, and that is FASCINATING. That's such a cool design, and it actually makes me angry thinking about how the game devs squandered it. Ugh... Sounds like development got wires crossed somewhere or, probably more accurately, executive meddling. This stinks of the corporate changing what the game's supposed to be 80% of the way to completion, so they rush to patch the gaps and kick it out the door.

[@EmeffMonkey]

​@@zondor8123brainrot detected

[@jhonvargas7539]

That was interesting, and informative hoping if Josh ready it

[@b1ackwa1tz2]

"Like a vegtarian barbecue, there's no steaks"😂😂😂😂

[@Chrisuke81]

I actually laughed out loud for once.

[@manaquinn5837]

This has always been the issue with end of life MMOs. I started this game back when it first came out, The quests were more theme park. That first quest where he gets teleported into a fight? That was not how it was originally. They tell you to do essentially all the stuff he does -after- until you reach that area through quests. It wasn't even a fight with a random demon, it was a fight with a very important NPC boss that you find out things about inside that big building on the other side of the bridge. Crescemento equipment was not in the game. Random equips were all you could use back then and they would change the look of basic units like the Warlock (Use to be called Elementalist), Scout, etc. The last thing, the translations were always bad. This is because this game was thrown around multiple publishers and the first one had so many issues with even getting updates from the main publisher from Korea. There was a whole year of no updates and worries it would die over here before publishers were changed. As a player, I don't know the specifics of what happened, but if you guys remember K2 and GamersFirst and when this game was called "Sword of the New World". There is clearly a way the game was meant to be played and the streamlined choices to push people to end game as quickly as possible just ruins that "learning" that helps you take the systems this game has in bite size bits. So it became overwhelming and 'boring'. A game of its time in every sense of the word. I miss it, but hate what it became.

[@czarkusa2018]

It's a sad trend, I miss when levelling WAS the game in many MMOs that have since been cut down into instant teleport quest farces. Lord of the Rings Online is the only one I can think of that maintains the philosophy of 400 hours of leveling per character.

[@hsanrb]

That's seemingly the way some of these "Worst MMO..." videos go. IF you go visit an end of life MMO they just boost your way towards the end to get where everyone else is, or you get a game that is genuinely bad. There's no money to be made if someone has to play X hours on their own to eventually find someone leveling a new character. Some of these games were fun to play when it was new and buzzing, and the mechanics are actually required because you didn't have your HP boosted to insane levels. I'd actually hate to replay games I played when I was 15 now and notice the entire early game just doesn't exist anymore. Even something like the critique about the hotkeys for maps and quests and things, well when you have 20 keybinds for your party as default, how are you supposed to use Q for quests when Q is a skill. Combined that some people (like modern MMO players) use alt and ctrl as key modifiers to map multiple skills for Q and they make sense. I used to play a golf MMO, and I'm pretty sure if I logged in now, the first course isn't the first course anymore (they added a 9H) and new quests so the path to 21 or 41 is accelerated instead of playing a hundred rounds on stock gear learning how to play the game. When you finally got out of Beginner, the people you were playing with actually expected you to be competent because who wants to play foursomes (the fastest leveling method) with someone who couldn't hit a fairway to save their life. Your bad play meant your teammate could potentially lose XP.

[@madamepoutine2807]

​@@hsanrbpangya?

[@hsanrb]

@@madamepoutine2807 Shot Online

[@lunar69666]

I miss sword of the new world when it first launched

[@rusticgiraffe4262]

I got an ad for Dream World with this video. I’m amazed they’re still trying to make something of that.

[@Nerathul1]

You'd think they'd spent money making the game rather than advertise

[@rallae1]

Me too 😂

[@nathangaspar4989]

You’re joking, right?

[@rusticgiraffe4262]

@@nathangaspar4989 sadly no, it was advertising for a channel called PlayDreamWorld that’s what was advertised. I have no idea if it’s actually run by the Dream World devs but it’s an active channel and tries really hard to promote Dream World, apparently to the point of paying for advertising space.

[@serene1172]

@@nathangaspar4989nope. I’ve seen advertisements over the last few months.

[@ElkiLG]

10:10 Fun fact, in french we call this game "exquisite corpse". The original game is played with words instead of a drawing, and the very first instance of that game gave the sentence "The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine."

[@joeyj6808]

Invented by the Dada Movement, adopted by the Surrealists! Glad to hear people still do this!

[@jacuul6735]

I actually did this in college when I took an animation class. Everyone had a week to come up with their starting frame, which was then passed onto the next person, who had two weeks to come up with a 6 second clip to come up with a transition between the frame they were given and the frame they came up with, which makes a very fast paced and surreal 5 minute video

[@BloodfelX]

(When the comments section is more fun and cultured than the video game that is being reviewed)

[@Real-Name..Maqavoy]

@@BloodfelX It do be like dat; Nowadays.

[@EvanCWaters]

Oh yeah I've played that! Version I'm familiar with, you start with a sentence, then the player who gets that one draws a picture based on that sentence, and the player they pass too writes what they think that picture is, etc.

[@jonathonphillips4056]

I remember this waaay back in 2007, my friend and I got to level 100 and got to the end-game land. I left out the part where about 70% of the game was stocking up on ammo and healing items, going into a field and afk grinding while I was at college. My wife still has a mix CD we made from the music from this game.

[@mattforthelikes]

The music, artstyle and setting of this game were all so amazing. I get so much nostalgia from it.

[@0That_Guy0]

"Two hours in there's a quest where you beat a child into adoption." There are strong openings, then there are Josh Strife Hayes' openings.

[@brunitop4753]

"Granado" actually refers to the tree that gives pomegranates, not the fruit itself. That would be "granada", which also means "grenade" in spanish. "Espada" means sword.

[@CyberMonkey03]

We call the fruit granadilla in Honduras

[@s.t.a.pstudios4231]

That's even worse icl

[@markup6394]

I mean... it still doesnt explain the idea behind the title ^^°

[@syleedlibra0712]

Alright so... "Pomegranate tree Sword"?

[@markup6394]

@@syleedlibra0712 whelp XD Makes as much sense as the rest of it :D

[@kaidestinyz]

I played this game as a teenager and it was glorious. The game has one of the best PvP systems in "Colony wars". It was a global PvP mode between guilds and you could engage multiple guilds at once. Members of the opposing guild will appear "red" and you can attack them at any location. Guilds can declare wars on each other which would be announced on the top of the screen. This led to many interesting twists. Like the 2nd and 3rd guild teaming up to take on the top guild. The 3 characters that you control also made PvP very different from other games. RTS players actually have an advantage because of this. The OST is also unrivaled back in the day and probably even now. "Esa Promesa", "Main theme", "Al Quelt Moreza", "The G appears", "Forget me not" and plenty more. I sank so many hours and even years into this game back in 2007 and it was worth it. The game has since evolved into a pay2win mess so I wouldn't recommend it anymore.

[@tarmynastyr]

Absolutely, this game brought many innovations to the mmo genre and themusic is still fantastic.

[@ruekurei88]

The characters can be heavily tinted depending on how much money you pay though, PVP was always P2W in this game. It also didn't help that you could simply pay to get certain characters who were just straight up better than standard free characters. But if everyone paid the same amount of money, PVP could be cool.

[@Aiveq]

@@ruekurei88 dunno man. as long i played, fighter was top dog and that as default you get

[@Tenraio]

Remind me of that one early Taekwondo Korean dude where you had him fight with the Glacialo or whatever his name called. The red yanky guy that has quite an anime-ish character arc, ends up pipelining a cash shop product equivalent to a steroid like a salesman and then you have to bought those for the dude as a part of quest to recruit him 😂

[@RosefMudson1414]

korea@@ruekurei88

[@jazzytunester]

I like how Josh starts to generate lalafell names the further he is into the video

[@sutorippuwebmaster8783]

Fun fact: This game was released as "Sword of the New World" on CD-ROM back in the early 2000s, complete with an exclusive version of a character card of another recruitable NPC. It had English voices and everything. But the translation, if you'll believe it, was even worse than it is now. They were slowly updating it, one step at a time, but in some places it was complete nonsense. Also, a hacker invaded the servers and for a day, every player was treated to the female characters all appearing fully nude. Fun times. I sort of miss this game but it was one big gimmick anyway.

[@RLMemeLord]

early 2000s? you mean 2007?

[@slimesplash_wiz]

that explains why its designed like a 2000s game, with the weird key bindings and all

[@jakebennett9130]

damn, that hacker was the goat

[@TheDve00000]

Wtf are u talking about theres no nude character in thus game. even if your character has no armor they will still have clothes

[@sutorippuwebmaster8783]

@@TheDve00000 This is true, but the hacker messed with the models and replaced them with nude versions. It took over a day to fix.

[@Remianen]

What I remember most about this game is its soundtrack. There was a song on it (Rosa Rosado) led by a Spanish guitar with what I thought were maracas in the background but turned out to be the Cabasa sound from a Roland keyboard. I never really paid much attention to the mashup of cultural aesthetics in the game though I do remember how AFK-friendly it was (like many Eastern games).

[@A_Stereotypical_Heretic]

The game supposedly translates to "Distinguished Sword", or "Royal Sword" if one uses synonyms.

[@THEPELADOMASTER]

I'm spanish, and let me tell you, that must be the most obscure way to say distinguished.

[@Ezullof]

If it said "lo mas granado de espadas" then you could translated it as "it's la creme de la creme of the swords". But just "granado espada" is like saying in english "creme sword", it doesn't make any sense and it can certainly not be considered a synonym of "royal sword".

[@takimi_nada]

@@Ezullofi adore "creme sword" so much

[@Clawthorne]

@@takimi_nada😏

[@nibblesnarfer]

They localized it into "The Sword of the New world."

[@EJ_Red]

Gotta admit, making the crocs hop around and jab targets makes them really terrifying I know what to homebrew for my next campaign

[@xxyoboigxx]

just gotta say, i love the different names you say throughout some of these videos. definitely gives me a good chuckle when i notice it

[@geovaughan8261]

Dude I loved this game back when it was known as “Sword of the New World”. It was so weird and janky, but the music really hooked me. So glad you’re covering this!

[@alderic]

Great video! It captures very well how confusing and strange Granado Espada is to a new player. I played this game for a long time and (sorry for the ad), I did write a series of blog post about it on user blog in Giantbomb, so I can maybe clarify a couple of things: - Fun fact: This game was made by the same guy behind Ragnarok online. - The reason why total play time is so huge on those reviews is because the idea is that you would left the game running while in autoplay. Later on, you do get a pet which can even auto collect stuff from the ground (but requires food) - The game itself would change hands a couple of times, which added to the confusion, as ideas, concepts and stuff would be added or removed. - This game is old, so it features a ton of systems, areas and stuff, which they tried to streamline but with little success, so that why all of those skips and rushed explanations. - Crescemento weapons and armor are meant to scale with the player level, until a fix point where they stop. But the game never explains this. - That rifle is meant to be used by the Musketeer class (and some unique recruitable npcs), but again the game never explain this. - The idea behind the Family aspect is that you would change between "stock" character (the ones which you made) or "unique" npcs which can get form quest (like the kid) or by cash shop.

[@Ezullof]

Sorry but what's the point of a game that plays itself? Honest question.

[@SteamedToast]

The RO connection makes so much sense, that cobble stone texture at the beginning, the health bars, the overuse of Alt shortcuts, music choices, a place called Rachel, the upgrade system...

[@alderic]

@@Ezullof to be fair, I don't know, it is one weirds aspect of the game. I wonder if it was meant (the game is from 2006) to combat bots (not that actually help in any way or form, the game is plagued with bots). It also creates a bizarre problem: early on the game is fairly easy to a point you never need to do anything, until you reach a later point, where suddenly using skills, potions, position suddenly matter a lot, but the player never trained the said muscles to do it so. Still, it is a way to get stuff to sell, as xp itself you mostly gain by using items.

[@kyoken8691]

@@Ezullof Because you play as 3 characters in real time combat the devs added some ease of use features like auto attack, auto move etc. This is a character collection game, with over 250 playable characters, and you'll need to level them up individually. So auto-grinding is how players do it, compare this to modern idle mobile games that play themselves with minimal player input.

[@SoulOfFenrir]

​@@Ezullof Power progression and character collection mainly (at least to me.)

[@AvauntVanguard]

Imagine playing your favorite MMO. Kinda niche but you enjoy it. Then you see a small horde of alts named "Strife Hayes" run down the street. Oh no.

[@Tarutaru1234]

Same energy as eating in a restaurant when Gordon Ramsay walks in. It’s either a REALLY good or REALLY bad sign.

[@InvadeNormandy]

This was one of my most anticipated games ever, the in game style, the over the top class outfits and texture art for the time was gorgeous, (Hell the actual assets inside the game folders were hard password protected! One of the rarest things to do as a asian MMO at the time IMO which was funny given I wanted to peek and see some of the class armors ahead of time) but the actual gameplay was such a drag and the amount of "Pick a spot, that's where you're going to live for a day" that cropped up later was heinous. And when it practically had an in game botting system and you were absolutely expected to just park yourself somewhere at that point and not even play the game and I just blurted out "No." and had to drop it. It was a shame because some IDEAS were solid - Which is a how a lot of these dead games go. You had character class progression where some things could wildly diverge even if the role and purpose was identical (IE: you are damage rogue person, but instead you can go a knife juggler/thrower path) or instead of melee being boring fightman with the usual paths of BURST TREE, DUAL WIELD TREE and TANK TREE it's simply expanding upon how you fight. Like a stance based (Literally changing the animation btw - and your attacks full stop. Not just a bland modifier like WOW) 2H sword style, then having a bizarre hill guard version where you do a lot of fanciful leaps and if you have the high ground you punish enemies with counters, etc etc. Or just I THINK sword and pistol style. That and you could recruit NPCs after questlines to be playable characters in your roster, like I had a old man engineer with me who had a few neat abilities. It was however like all these things are, undercooked to hell in the gameplay. The actual amount of active abilities you had per advancement was thin, it would often feel like a crippled and bare bones ARPG where you simply don't get to progress in the world for days at a time with the amount of active abilities available to you and the sheer grind cliffs it had.

[@seasicksensei7699]

This review hurts my soul cos I used to play this game non-stop when I was younger. I had so much fun that I was willing to ignore and embrace its flaws. I still thank you for an honest review of the game I loved.

[@zondor8123]

Used to love the game but the more I grow up the more I realize this game sucks 😂 I even confused why the hell I liked it in the past

[@echiko4932]

Happens to the best of us.

[@mattforthelikes]

@@zondor8123 the art, the music, the setting, and the characters were all so amazing. The gameplay and the story were definitely the weak points.

[@AdekMaulana]

@@mattforthelikes fax

[@LG1ikLx]

27,887 hours is 1,161 days incase anyone was wondering

[@zondor8123]

The dude literally said that he afk the game 😂 so it doesn't count to his real time session and it's a lie

[@futanahriadventures]

Banger OsT, played for like 3-4 years until a few patches past the whole Armonia episodes. Loved the vibes and art, but 90% of the gameplay was afk grinding, literally. You find a good spot for the your main 3 to farm (or just get a good undead weapon and farm those giant golems) and leave it there for hours and hours. Nowadays the game is on life support, where the devs are slowly releasing new upcs and cashing in on the gacha (yes, they implemented gacha around Armonia, it was dumb).

[@HikingFeral]

Why would you play a game like that? you are just wasting the electricity used to power your GPU and may as well use money to wipe your arse.

[@HowlingDoom]

IDK sounds like a good game to manage on the side while playing another game. @@HikingFeral

[@YourMomMyBed8000]

100% These aren't even games at all, just cashapps in disguise, designed to take your money @@HikingFeral

[@Lysinc825]

@@HikingFeral Despite all its flaws, it did have some things going for it that were unique and fun

[@derpingdead]

@@HikingFerali guess you are sooo young perhaps new born that you have never heard of runescape

[@tarnetskygge]

Granado Espada! What a wonderful phrase Granado Espada! Ain't no passing craze…

[@Kelohmello]

I loved this game as a kid. Especially the music. This was conceived by the creator of Ragnarok Online and later Tree of Savior, which i think you can tell because it's so full of unique ideas. Seriously it's crazy enough you control a family of characters, but the fact that you can beat up some NPCs and then make them playable in your family is... what? I love it. I played the oldest version of granado espada when it first released in english. I don't remember there being anti-autoing mechanics back then, and i assumed that the fact that you could effectively bot for levels was a feature. That being said i also remember the dungeon having multiple music tracks in a playlist, not just that one with the chorus. As well, i remember a playlist part of the UI that told you what song was playing and who composed it. This game, like Ragnarok and ToS had lots of music by the legendary korea game music group soundtemp. It's been over a decade and a half since this released so I'm sure it's aged, but it was so fresh when i was a kid. Especially for an f2p MMO of the time.

[@NoneRain_]

Had the same experience. It was different and that made it exciting. I didn't play it as much as I played Ragnarok, but It was fun when I was a kid (:

[@Magemaster55]

Oh, that's way that paved stone texture reminded me of streets of Prontera.

[@TheNewOption]

Yeah, sword of the new world has the best music of any MMO and im not even kidding, it was EPIC especially the PVP arena music.

[@BloodDX2]

8:16 I know it doesn't at all suit the game, but I'm ngl, I liked and searched up that music and to be fair... It slaps. Close Encounter - Phynn (For anyone interested)

[@Zespeth]

This series has reminded me of Shaiya. An MMO i played around 15 years ago. I would love to see a video on it. See how much nostalgia hits :)

[@vraolet]

My god I remember playing that game for so long as a kid, looking back it was such a dumpster fire but I didn't know any better.

[@GabrielMaciel-tr9kl]

@@vraolet Grindiest shit I ever played, and I played some horrible MMOs.

[@jrrystone1398]

Shaiya was the best worst mmo in the 2000s

[@verzeihturncoat27]

Played it under the name "Sword of the New World" (Guess now I know why I could not find it again) when that server was opened. Best thing about the game was the feeling of how big the battle were when just a few player fought. 3 Player are already 9 Characters. Really wish another MMO would pick up this Gimmick.

[@Dan1loBC]

Woah, I'd never expect to see Granado Espada here. I used to play it when it was ported as Sword of the New World and it was great. The enemies offered a decent challenge, you had none of that "new played 30-day boost" nonsense, cinematic events were a new thing, and the OST was a banger. The active skills and evolved jobs/classes were great, and it's the only MMO I know which features the Unique Playable Character concept, having you recruit people to you "family". My best memory was farming a new area, listening to the OST, spending a "Megaphone" to note how good that OST was, and then being invited to a clan full of positive people who enjoyed the game. The game has some cool skills, scenery, songs and quest lines, but isn't impressive or mindblown, and it's certainly nothing compared to more modern titles. It could feel similar to Genshin Impact in the sense that you collect UPCs and have them be in your party, but GI is way more fluid and enjoyable nowadays, even with the monetization aspect and gacha.

[@100Servings]

Exactly! I played it as well. It was originally supposed to be that you're exploring a fantasy version of America. It was fun, if a little simple.

[@TheNewOption]

yeah, the game is awesome, and unfortunately ...he's really misrepresenting the game, just sh*t talking it. Boring and pretty intellectually dishonest review in my opinion.

[@BigDrewski1000]

Same. My dumbass left it to play Shaiya tho. Mistakes were made. Lol

[@BigDrewski1000]

@@TheNewOption well to be fair it went downhill as time went on. I tried it again like a year ago & was honestly surprised how bastardized it was.

[@TheNewOption]

@@BigDrewski1000 THat sucks havent played it since launch but it was really fun at that time. Especially PVP, you actively had to control your 3 characters auto-combat wasnt good in pvp.

[@banaman7746]

the real pomegranate sword is the friends you never met along the way

[@asteroth1986]

😂

[@elinasanglert1520]

At 12:30 you mention how the enemies look different but act the same. I thought it was quite the funny coincidence that the enemies happened to be spiders and a small flying creature. Im very new to game development but in one of the games i worked on we had a boss that spawned small flying bats and spiders. We artists communicated well with the programmers and planned so the creatures would act different from eachother. This game feel alot like the artists and programmers never really spoke to eachother.

[@fbgmerk8178]

Please remake a spartacus legends like gladiator game! From back in the day on Xbox. Like genuinely I beg you.

[@kokocaptainqc]

lots of people know about coding...but just a very few know HOW to code

[@IamThatChris]

The music still rocks to this day. Played this game hundreds of hours back in the day when it was called Sword of the New World.

[@michel0dy]

I wanna give props to Josh's script writing. All the different ways to mock Gazebo Estrada's name with no repetition. Very good.

[@RAIS0KU]

I respect this guy for tolerating playing Grenade Spade for so long when you could tell how bad it was within the first hour or so

[@0Fyrebrand0]

That's a lot of effort to put into a video about Gazpacho Empanada!

[@Flailmorpho]

oh hey my friends retweet your furry erotica

[@metallboy25]

​@@RAIS0KUIve never played this game. But thats exactly how I feel about Old School Rune Scape. 😂

[@goncalo33]

0:13 Coimbra's in Portugal, which makes it even better.

[@goncalomoncarcho9179]

Portugal caralho!

[@goncalo33]

@@goncalomoncarcho9179 30, CARALHO! :D

[@TheBorkLaser]

Portugal, crlho!

[@abra4662]

Devolve o ouro

[@goncalo33]

@@abra4662 Os reis gastaram-no todo em palácios, coches e outras coisas inúteis. Vai bater à porta da casa do António Costa; pode ser que tenhas sorte.

[@Hellios]

ah I miss this game. best BGM hands down. Esa Promesa look it up the charm of this game was actually the ability to "recruit" the NPCs once you're done with their questline. also the appeal of the ability to just AFK play back then was much appreciated before the age of smartphones.

[@ccl19951]

I played it in the Eu version and the SEA version , music was great and the weapon system was really neat to see and learn. Recruitable NPC was really nice too as they all had their unique mechanics + paid versions , Dr torsche mansion was a really nice quest line for example , you crafted a RNPC . Most of the time it was a afk grind fest - pop your squad on a farm zone after taking some farm quest , buy a pet to pick items up etc and you leave em there for a day The newest global version is weird though , a scalable weapon which just outright wastes some of the named rare weapons you could get , 2-3currencies , and no more farm quests that I could remember from those statues weirded me out

[@FirstLast-cg2nk]

I suspect, given context, that the main character's class wasn't supposed to be "Scout", but rather "Pioneer". Just a guess, but given how common mistranslations are, it's a pretty solid guess.

[@vatzfu]

That would be correct but actually they force you to create the scout first as a way to prevent early deaths as the potion usage in this game is hotkey based for each of them, you start with 4 slots and can create a fourth and replace it later.

[@NeviTheLettyFan]

Holy shit Granado Espada. Hope you highlight the music, some of it is dope.

[@AnimatronicBadgerlord]

I still listen to it regularly. Never actually played the game

[@sahaara7946]

@AnimatronicBadgerlord I also still listen to the soundtrack quite often. It´s charming and amazing!

[@owenreynolds8718]

The music? What about those loud grunts? Every single time a bi-croc pokes your sister in the chest with its snout: Huuueuhhh, Huooo, Huhwaaa. It sounds like Zangief's gym.

[@slanderpop8771]

It just doesn’t make sense when playing it. It’s so random with no common theme. If ya need a rave, techno, French orchestra playlist then yes ya get it here lol

[@Cue-Ball.]

The music isn't fitting for the game. Fitting music is more important than just having good sounding stuff so I wouldn't call it a good soundtrack. Just a good collection of songs.

[@gjits5307]

The bit-by-bit monster drawing is an example of 'exquisite corpse" art. From Wikipedia: Exquisite corpse (from the original French term cadavre exquis, literally exquisite cadaver) is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule or by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person contributed.

[@Agumon5]

I literally bought this game at GameStop when it released a box copy. It was originally published by K2 networks in the US. It actually had really good support, active moderators, and a phenomenal community. I was part of one of the top five clans on my realm back then, and enjoyed the game for hundreds of hours. It was genuinely lively, active, people were excited to play. There were still several issues ... Few months after release the cash shop got pretty bad. When they added pets they went full board into the AFK leveling. Translations for things were always mediocre at best, and the music has always been some of the best in any MMO. Grinding starts to get really bad ... Getting to veteran levels is pretty easy. But once you start getting into Grandmaster level grinds You're gaining like 2 to 3% the level per 24 hours of AFK grinding unless you spend aggressively in the cash shop. You definitely wants to level as much as possible because it makes better stances available. Back to the music, it only gets better as you keep playing. Some of the later zones have some really awesome tracks as well. The art design of the zones is also quite good. You can easily "imagine" a phenomenal story that can be told in this world. It just never ends up happening. This is the kind of game that I wish would get a private server with great support and translations, and zero cash shop. It used to be fantastic to play In the background when you have a busy life and you just have a few minutes to pop in and check on your characters.

[@Makri9]

Omg I remember this! Greatest experience of my childhood. And the most broken thing is a spin slash move of the scout that u unlock down the line that just rips apart everything in existence for some reason as the healer class. Loved it so goddamn much!

[@ItsBoyRed]

That guy with over 28.000 Hours in the game has single handedly spent more time on the game than the entire dev team has, making it.

[@nibblesnarfer]

My childhood memories is overflowing me thanks to this.. AAAAAAAHH. Also, the system where you could use the NPC as your Playable Family member was one of my favorite system. I remembered I had to farm Catherine Torsche body part hours after hours. Gods, bring back memories.

[@MrPsymind]

I used to play this game back when it first came out in english and it was so cool. Don't get me wrong, it was always p2w, you even had to buy cash shop itens with real money to finish NPC quests and get them in your party. But the game was new, well made and had a decent challenge if you wanted to advance instead of AFK grind forever. Also you could recruit basically every NPC with a name to your party, which was pretty crazy at the time. I still listen to the OST for this game to this day. It's fucking awesome.

[@ihaveaplan.ijustneedmoney.9777]

I remember an NPC with "Hwoarang" in his name/title. Something like "Spirit of Hwoarang". I also really liked Tekken at the time, so I really wanted to get him in my party. 😂 I don't remember if I did get him, so I probably didn't.

[@MrPsymind]

@@ihaveaplan.ijustneedmoney.9777 I might be wrong but I believe you're remembering Irawain? Or Gracielo. Both look a bit like Hwoarang! Gracielo was free but very hard to get and Irawain used to need cash itens to finish his quest iirc

[@MesmerAloofly]

same

[@Prizzlesticks]

Missed opportunity to name that enemy 'crocaroo.'

[@rozegunn]

I kinda want to see you do a video on Grand Fantasia. Hit my childhood where it hurts and make me remember the time I bonded with a stranger over Fullmetal Alchemist in a game that had absolutely nothing to do with FMA. Miss you, RedElric. Hope you're making it out there.

[@JoakimFigge]

Oh this game was my jam back in the days, I loved the fact you had 3 characters, making your own party, me and my friends had enough ranged characters to cover large portions of a zone just for us to grind on

[@icestick3]

When Granado Espada introduced to me as a kid (local server version not the Steam one) it was very good. More players grinding and leveling, AFK system was cool coz you can take a break eating lunch or play LAN games like CS 1.6 or WC3 Dota with someone at your local computer shop while this game is on the background. Yeah the keybindings is weird but back then Korean MMORPGs' keybinding is just like they expect you to be a StarCraft player and interesting fact. The gaming company that created this game created Tree of Saviour and once developed Ragnarok Online

[@Tinil0]

HAH, really? This entire video I was thinking "This game seriously is just RO but with the 3 character gimmick". Glad to know I wasn't crazy

[@Warmaker01]

I remember way back in the 2000s anticipating the western release of this game. Originally from Asia and later got a western release. Granado Espada was the original game name. The western release was under the name Sword of the New World. I didn't play as long as I wanted because it was out during an extremely busy time in my life. Lots of travel and all that. I still recall in that old 2000s version there were a lot of gold sellers. There were zones to rent time to play in that gave higher rewards, better drops. I also remember that you had to AFK grind like mad, too.

[@LikaLaruku]

This game is so old, that I installed it via disc... & after a few hours, never plaid it again. Wikipedia claims it came out in English in 2013, but I remember playing it before 2010.

[@rabbit2686]

"How do you fancy a mid-2000's, South Korean made MMORPG. Poorly translated into English, set in 18th century central Europe, where you control a family of French aristocracy, journey through a baroque industrial renaissance America, populated with Italian NPC's, set to a mixure of French classical and German house and techno music. Also the title is Spanish and translates to pomegranate sword and two-hours in, there's quest where you beat a child into adoption." That sounds like a great watch.

[@jonjosephsanjuan4693]

The OST had Soundtemp and Tiesto as well as artists from Black Hole Recordings, a well renown trance label. I was already a fan.

[@revenile]

"Can you guess what opens the inventory?" Me: "Alt...E" "Josh: THat's right, Alt+E" Me: "The hell?"

[@rielleleaf]

24:59 that AQM BGM is such a banger

[@zenalias3131]

Odyssey. That song slapped and still slaps

[@MesmerAloofly]

been listening to this soundtrack for years beforer this vid

[@ryzekiv7147]

“Pomegranate Sword” sounds like a “dragon quest” esque adventure, featuring goofy side quests, quirky characters and a easily taken aback protag and his ridiculously stoic uncle.

[@Cat-sampo]

this one was great! cant wait for you to do Mabinogi!

[@Rhiusvell]

With how Nexon is running their games into the ground, Mabinogi definitely deserves to be here... even though I love the game.

[@Reyetta]

Also looking forward to seeing Mabinogi on here!

[@keivkamijo]

8:20 i cannot be the only one who digging this music

[@_Levison]

The music is arguably the best thing in the game; we all knew these games were shit when we were younger, that's why they had to be filled with bangers.

[@pawsouth2897]

it feels like tekken ost back from ps2 days

[@Tigreuh]

It was great, I encourage you to search for more tracks here on KZbin, the soundtrack for Tree of Savior (a more recent mmo from the same company) had some amazing tracks in the same style too.

[@tuanhuynh9006]

anyone know the song's name though?

[@KittyCatTV]

@@tuanhuynh9006It took me a while to find it, but I think it’s Close Encounter. Edit: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5LOqpJrYpuYm9Usi=so4JUGLlmxVVgEbq

[@TheGallicWitch]

As a proud French citizen, I can confirm this is a very good representation of the French experience. We are indeed all immensely rich, powerful and unkillable, we live our lives to a perpetual soundtrack of House music and we indeed believe that there is no worst crime against humanity than a stale baguette. Oh and since half my family is Italian, I'll throw in my approval from that country as well.

[@dousan6515]

Good lord, that intro was the longest breath ever.

[@thecuza9716]

*Developer:* Boss, are you sure the crocodiles should have these animations? They look like they belong to a kangaroo. *Boss:* So? They're both from Australia, they're practically the same thing. I'm sure nobody will notice.

[@argentbast]

Perhaps the real Granado Espada was the friends we made along the way

[@DblBarrelShogun]

I remember this game for the inbuilt AI macros. You could park your team in a bottleneck and AFK farm

[@kailikwoh498]

Oh, that explains the staggering numbers of hours from those reviews.

[@discountdisco2273]

The gameplay: 💤 The music: 🔥🔥🔥

[@einhasad7]

lmao the realization that the crocodile was a kangoroo was so funny

[@sharpshot014]

The line "like a vegetarian barbecue there's just no steaks" tickled me way more than it should have Thank you for the video to :)

[@Fluff_a_tail]

(I named my family "Fellatio" because I thought it sounded cool and fancy. I only found out what it meant later. Still not sure if I should have felt embarrassed.) I remember this game. I played this game. I loved this game. I never forgot its music because that was the best part. The concept of controlling multiple characters was new to me and in a way I found it fun. The worst part was simply how nobody was ever there. For the first few days or maybe first week there were people. Then everyone slowly realized that afk farming existed and the game simply died. No life to it no people populating the world only afk farming bots and a person every so often to check in on their xp gain. It was rather depressing to me. I did make a good friend through this game however.

[@ThisIsntmyrealnameGoogle]

And just like that my entire weekend has been made! Love seeing another MMO review. If you ever do run out of content Josh (which im sure you wont) I would love to see you revist some MMOs after they have gotten some updates.

[@MintyParsley]

Darn, I played this for 3 years in the late 00s, and back then some of these places made me hug the walls trying to sneak around without too much combat, because that hurt if I was on mob level. Lots. Seems they have catered quite a bit to make things 'less painful' (but I don't remember the UI being that clunky). Also, using the three characters unleashing their individual abilities were mostly in raids when I played, but that part of the game did not really matter until around lvl 80+, if I remember somewhat right. And getting to lvl 100 with active play was doable, but tough at levels past 80, but the levels after 100 - not doable without afk'ing a lot, if you also had (the resemblance) of a RL. I loved this game, met some amazing people, had spin parties, goofing around with the pose system, gossip about the other clans and whatever drama that happened on the server. And some of the music is just epic!

[@misusatriyo]

to be fair, it was originally released in 2006, a full year before the first The Witcher was even released.

[@spike2718]

Hey Josh, I was wondering if you planned to check out toon town for this series? The original game is gone now but theirs alot of fan games including ToonTown Rewritten which is pretty faithful to the original game. I don't think its the worst MMO but would love to hear your thoughts on it.

[@lesath7883]

jajajajajajajaj Granada Encanto. I love it when Josh twists the game name. ps: "granado" means the pomegranate tree. The fruit is "granada".

[@lurkergggg8759]

Still listen to the soundtrack to this ancient mmo. Some nice work music to be honest. Recommend the tracks Supercooled Girl (techno), Rosa Rosando (techno instrumental), Touch Me Not (techno), A Witch On A Diet (techno) and my fav is Ice Symphony.

[@etzool]

I swear this was built by the contractors I'm currently stuck with. "This new feature needs to do these six things." "Sure thing. Here you go; nine new JS applications, each with its own UI framework, styling, and navigation idioms. Please configure a new Docker image for each one (sorry, we universally forgot to document their requirements). The teenagers running our code camp didn't teach us that part."

[@Joblomov]

My theory for all first-person scenes being viewed from below is that the graphics were designed for 4x3 aspect ratio, but at some point they made it work for 16x9 and didn't put in the effort to stretch or zoom properly.

[@TechArtAlex]

The loading screen palace is a blend of the Palace of Versailles and the Dome Church of Les Invalides - possibly some other French monuments mixed in.

[@rodrimoso]

In fact it is so, the game has equivalents from all European countries and that palace in the loading screen is the equivalent of France in the game lol

[@wiseSYW]

the game was revolutionary in 2010 great music, great world design, controlling 3 characters makes you a micro god no other MMO have ever used the Napoleonic era theme

[@despisel]

What google translator doesn't tell you is that "Granado" in Spanish also means "honorable" or "illustrious". It is a less common meaning of the word, but the game literally means "Honorable Sword" or "illustrious sword", so the title of the game is totally fine and matches well the general atmosphere of the game.

[@SrFrankie1]

This game was in development since mid 2003, released in 2006 in South Korea. - The game was way ahead of its time, soundtrack was amazing, the first ever MMO with 3 character control system, let's not forget the graphics are very impressive considering the age of the game. - The mechanics where simple but also complicated to master, the game is Free to play, also as any other gatcha focused game, the more you spend the more advantage you have over other people, their trading system and market was and probably still is one of the best in all MMORPG's there is available until this very day. - The PvP Mechanics where fun, lots of things to do daily, lots of missions, raids, and bosses to farm, daily World Bosses, lots of open map pvp, clan wars where you fight for the rights of a whole map/city and earn income thru it. Clique Battle where it was a 1 single character pvp event where teamwork was key to win. - Over 250+ different characters to play with and all of them have different skills/passive/stances to pick from. Lots of different weapons and sets of armors/accessories, pets. This game might be trash to must out there that don't understand what they seeing, but once u give it a chance and learn the game, trust me and believe me, you will get HOOKED like if it was CRACK.

[@archertoon2]

I remember playing this game for a while and my favourite thing about this game is you can do get npc to join you after doing their quest, allowing you to create a new character as that npc and they usually have unique abilities, but after playing for a while I realised that it doesn’t really matter in levelling because you just do 2dps and scout for auto heal anyway, and that still continue to around level 50 at which I quitted and never return Also cool thing about stance for equipment, you granting new skill and attack pattern for different weapon and there’s many choices for fighter and musketeer like holding sword and gun, twohanded weapon, dual wielding, defensive stance, aggressive stance, but it also doesn’t really matter because you can do way more than enough damage with any build, just more fancy I also remember that in the very high level quest, you can get Andre (seen at 21:04) as a playable character and at one point I saw multiple Andre running around the town, that was weirdly fabulous

[@potentiallyRealWarrenGraham]

Still waiting patiently for that ever elusive "Worst MMO Ever? - Silkroad Online"

[@coffzor123]

Turf Battles, called TB, has been "revived" and is back up under EonicGames. If you want to look at an MMO which was released somwhere between 2002-2005 if I remember correctly. Should be a good video as it's somewhat known around the world.

[@triggered9325]

That intro had me hooked faster than id like to admit, instant like for you sir.

[@MilkyWay-po6cg]

Ooh, I loved this one. It's dated now and its major problems even at the time, but the setting, visuals (especially for the time), and music was so good and it tried lot of really unique things I have yet to see since. What I wouldn't give for a new and better managed game with a similar spirit.

[@deadfr0g]

🧀 Parmigiano Reggiano (cow’s milk, Italy) 🧀 Pecorino Romano (sheep’s milk, Italy) 🧀 Manchego viejo (sheep’s milk, Spain) 🧀 Grana Padano (cow’s milk, Italy) 🧀 *Granado Espada* (MMORPG)

[@Mi5teakBoy]

I just found this "Worst MMO Ever?" series. And I LOVE IT! Im gonna watch all of them. You should do Flyff and Ragnarok Online next!

[@mattshuey1]

Small aside about the pomegranate thing. Pomegranates are known for having worlds within worlds conceptually in the east. The seeds inside look like the whole pom, so the basic assumption is inside those seeds are more seeds, and more, ever down. It speaks to infinite possibility.

[@BlackStarGabusGaben]

Oh man I remember playing this a long time ago. When that music hits, its so awesome. And the gameplay wasn't too bad. Granted it could get a bit confusing but I recall having fun :D

[@willymobile]

This game has SUCH a good OST.

[@Dom_Maretti]

"Fire ze missiles"...that was not a reference I was expecting, but it is very welcome.

[@Laserchicken88]

Who doesn’t like random techno after you get used to the classic music? 🎉 10/10 GOTY

[@Rurukuken]

Oh god do I feel old now. I remember playing this game at launch and played it a ton. SoundTemp being the composer was a massive selling point for me because of their work on Ragnarok Online.

[@cindyluu8523]

I still listen to RO music to this day. I love it so much

[@DJPao86]

there were tracks from Tiesto too !

[@MissJenniJinx]

I think I played this game for maybe 10-20 hours when I was a kid, but TO THIS DAY, I listen to the soundtrack. The tracks by Kubota Osamu are absolutely killer and have this really cool mix of classical/orchestral pieces with early 2000s house beats and it just is SO sick, 10/10 recommend everyone check the soundtrack out. My personal favorite tracks: Odyssey Violin of the Death Granada Espada (title song) Beyond Hope Temptation

[@Grimrapings]

Not IRIS or Forget me not? 🤔

[@HisMagnificence]

Bruh, Granado Espada's music is 10/10

[@NyahstyPlot]

soundTeMP never misses.

[@mariomares6572]

"Granado Espada lets you beat up a lovestruck child then forcefully adopt them" So it's based on the Roman Empire

[@TheGateShallStand]

You know its a bad game when Josh changes the name every time he says it

[@XDeadzX]

I loved this game. I was awful at it and never got anywhere, but I loved it. I lost access to guild wars for a while and was desperately looking for any form of game with npc party management, this game scratched the itch. Idle farming wasn't a big source of fun but it racked up my gameplay hours.

[@TheRoleplayer40k]

Sounds like a waste of your limited time on this Earth

[@NoneRain_]

@@TheRoleplayer40k if he had fun, it wasn't. Well, if you watched a review of a game that is a waste of time and was not looking into playing it in the first place, you kinda did the "bigger waste" of your time on this earth lol

[@XDeadzX]

@@TheRoleplayer40k Hell yeah it is; it's video games being played while I was doing other things instead of playing them. Could be a lot worse.

[@Salbeira]

Oh I remember this game being talked about everywhere on the Ragnarok Online Forums I frequented back when I was 12. The trailer to the game had some song we teenagers really loved, no idea what it was though, and a lot of people tried it out. Because of the assinine quest system everyone just started grinding immediatly and a lot of people dropped off when they realised that 90% of the gameplay is auto battle. I believe some people involved with RO worked on this game? At least the OST felt so very familiar ... By the by ... when will Ragnarok Online get its Worst MMO Ever rundown? :-D

[@NyahstyPlot]

OST is also by soundTeMP, who did all of the RO music you remember and some of Tree of Savior.

[@Zeeye]

The music in this game was fantastic!

[@AA-BB]

😖