Grandia Complete Series Retrospective

[@Xygor]

What do you think was the best game in the Grandia series, and why? Gain early access to my videos by supporting me at www.patreon.com/xygorgaming OR through KZbin membership by clicking the JOIN button above!

[@DeanThomson]

I also think that Grandia to this date has one of the best battle systems in any JRPG. No matter how many times you fight in this game it always stays fun no matter what and that is truly hard to do.

[@burgervonstadt6503]

The skill/leveling system might be the best as well.

[@theshotgundog]

I hope an indie dev makes an RPG mimicking this series battle system. I'd buy I'd be down

[@Lonewolfz24]

I have made this same argument for years. I would also consider this battle system the BEST version of a turn based RPG. It was so good that Ubisolf stole (borrowed?) it for another great RPG, Child of Light.

[@Lonewolfz24]

@@theshotgundog Child of Light =)

[@grantmiller6002]

PSA - Grandia 1&2 HD on steam can be modified to remove the filtering which gives you the original sharp pixel graphics but now with widescreen support natively

[@DeanThomson]

Grandia 2 on the DC was at its pinnacle. A perfectly balanced game (if a little easy), a story that went from light hearted to quite dark at times. And we have Cam Clarke as the main VA :)

[@Lonewolfz24]

And Ariel (Jody Benson) as Millenia .... That wonderful woman played TWO of the hottest redheads of all time. (As far as younger me was concerned)

[@Zorpox]

For Grandia 3 in particular it also doesn't help that it was clearly unfinished. Technically the main story is complete, but it obviously gets less and less clear/coherent/cohesive the closer it gets to the end. Not to mention the number of places on the overworld map that have a name and a description, and are clearly meant to be somewhat important or have a gameplay purpose, but you can't actually land there and they never get mentioned or explored in-game. It definitely could've used some more time in the oven, I enjoyed it well enough but it's a step down compared to Grandia 2 (my personal favorite).

[@si-level]

yeah, i wonder what happen in grandia 3 development. if you play Grandia 3 too much you will notifce that the problem is not the story but its incomplete story and content

[@abemontes2518]

Grandia 2 was awesome! Mareg was an amazing character. Melfice was a cool bad guy. I love all the characters in this game.

[@raina1848]

For real. I cried during both Mareg and Melfice's death scenes the first time I played the game.

[@joshuapatrick682]

People didn't pass up Grandia II because it came out on DREAMCAST, a system not known for RPGS. They past it up because only 6 people in the US owned a Dreamcast (I was one of them:)

[@dancingabbot]

3 of my friends and I had a Dreamcast at launch so we gotta find that 6th person haha Loved the Dreamcast and I was so bummed to see it not get the love I wanted it to- but I’m also guilty of using burned discs from a buddy so I got to play a lot of the library. If not for that, for sure I would have thought it was just bleh

[@lonewolfgames7779]

I was one of them and Grandia 2 was incredible for it's time.

[@briancastillo5106]

Some here I had it too

[@drowningin]

Not true, my entire highschool owned Dreamcasts it seemed like. Know what they didn’t own? Games, they all pirated them. I remember people selling binders full of every game week 1. It was right when CD burners became pretty common and cheap. I know piracy had to have hurt that system from what i saw alone. I also read just from what they tracked more pirated games sold than real games. Then guess about all the numbers they couldn’t track, so it just seems like no one owned the games because of poor sales

[@ghettofreakshow781]

I still own my original DC as well as Grandia 2

[@frubam]

Grandia 3... the Grandia game that died when the 2 best chars in the game left the party for good.

[@adammason4314]

I've always helped my friends play jrps when I was younger but it was beating Grandia 1, 2, and then Skies of Arcadia that I've been playing them since.

[@Crimsonknight111]

I bought myself a physical copy of the Grandia collection for the Switch and I’m digging it.

[@HWFchamp]

Love the retrospective videos! Xtreme is still my favorite combat system out of every jrpg.

[@Xygor]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@NightwishNick]

I remember when I played the first game on PS1 I was floored as a kid that there was voice acting in scenes (and a lot of scenes at that) and not just in combat like in other games around the same time, like Star Ocean 2 another fave, and that got me so invested I ended up loving the series and trying to get all my friends to play it.

[@vdogaymer]

Great collection, I did not know about all these Grandia games, I knew of the earlier ones, including the Dream Cast one. Thanks for your excellent reviews.

[@darkzentai7417]

I quite like it when character permanently leaves your party they leave behind their experience points . I also like that a lot of the plot gets explained over dinner .

[@ultimate_pawnch]

I just want to note on your comment about the "big name voice actors" in Grandia Extreme. Specifically, that it wasn't the 1st game in the series to do so. Grandia 2 had a couple high profile voice actors, namely Cam Clarke as Ryudo and Jodi Benson as Millenia.

[@leonlashway]

Love your channel Friend, the 10 hour game review vidja is on a weekly rotation.

[@Xygor]

Glad you enjoy it! This makes my day!

[@joshuakolton9955]

I’m actually in the middle of my first play through on the switch.

[@Xygor]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@DaveVoyles]

I LOVED Grandia II on the Dreamcast. It was gorgeous for its time and the soundtrack was a certified banger. Years later I would play the first game, and that morning music, *chef kiss*

[@drowningin]

Dreamcast was my favorite era of 3d geometry. Grandia 2, Skies of Arcadia, Power Stone 2 just look so darn charming. You can tell exactly what you are looking at with it looking cartoonish before photorealism blew up game budgets. I wish games still got made with that kind of 3d

[@MangyB4033]

Always happy to check out your videos. Thanks for the hard work you put into these. If I'm having a bad day your soothing voice kind of chills me out, sorry if that's weird.

[@realadelphstar]

I know we all have takes, but skies of Arcadia is the best rpg on dreamcast😂😂😂

[@Senumunu]

the OST of the first game... its just in the S-tier class of all JRPGs

[@KnifeH]

Best one for me was Grandia 1, second up being Grandia 2. Just deciding to go on a reckless adventure and being ignorant (Justin) reflected so much with my childhood when I had to become an adult and explore and learn things. I've traveled so many countries, learned so much since then and even to this day just listening to the music brings back the nostalgia of wanting to just keep going. Good vid btw ^^

[@chronosp9252]

bout time you cover this series! great video bro

[@Xygor]

Glad you liked it!

[@leko3969]

grandia was the best rpg i ever played...and replayed so many times with different mods...good old times i was a kid with no responsabilities and just have fun and have adventure... G2 was amazing too... too bad we will never see again a game like grandia...

[@Lonewolfz24]

9:20 The Music at this part of the game always chokes me up. I'm going to go listen to it now....for anyone that wants to look, named Grandia II - A Deus with Lyrics "I'm not crying, Shut up"

[@burgervonstadt6503]

I literally just started another playthrough of Grandia. One of my most favorite games ever.

[@LongTran-kp3kz]

Feena being the whip wielding lady adventurer with a nice booty and Grandia 2 basically all but straight up confirming an OT3...Yeah, good times. But, in all seriousness. Grandia 2 was my favorite game in the series mostly bc I liked the characters more and the battle system was more fun. I... didn't mind Justin, but I kinda always hated playing the younger, hyper boy protag. He wasn't too bad though, and the party chats were always fun. Also, Tio from 2 is also one of my favorite characters cuz I like those kuudere types. Poor Mareg. I didn't bother with Xtreme. Not because it was a dungeon crawler. No, I love dungeon crawling. I... just hated the character designs... 3 was pretty and had fun combat but was... super blah so I didn't even finish it. Verdict? Just the first 2 games for me. I do wish they did have a better, longer future though. The combat is really fun.,

[@destinysaiyan014]

Grandia 1 remaster doesn't add voice acting or was clearly present on the Playstation release😜

[@Paul_McSeol]

Only ever played Grandia 2 (way back when) but I really enjoyed it. Fun video! Thanks.

[@Xygor]

Thanks for the visit!

[@jonathonpotter1059]

I don't think any game of this time captured a pure sense of adventure like Grandia, it's my all time favourite game. Love the second one as well

[@StephenDinosaur]

G1 and G2 were so great. Something really special about them

[@JaredD7503]

Grandia 2 is one of my favorite games, and I can still hear the Dreamcast strain itself to play Millenias techs

[@decusq]

My favorite will always be the first game. Grandia truly captured the idea of a coming of age story and one of pure adventure. It does turn into a Save the World plot and the villains are a bit weaker compared to Grandia 2 but this game just brings me pure joy for the sense of adventure it gives me. Sadly Xtreme and Three couldn't hold a candle to the first two games for me personally. I'm sad the original creator passed away but at least the first two games of his can live on, on PC and modern consoles for more people to play. And who knows maybe someday someone could take up the mantle to continue where he left off. One can hope the adventure continues one day.

[@si-level]

kinda disagree with villain part there. Villain in Grandia 1 have more variety than 2. Melfice is just evil because he is controlled, no purpose except as Ryudo char development and the rest is just mad boring evil villain. In Grandia 1, we got comic relief vilain there. top tier development villain from i think Mullen? The big bad mad boring evil villain son. Also big bad villain itself.

[@glyninmonsterland547]

Grandia and Skies of Arcadia will always be my favourite jrpgs. Xtreme and Grandia 3 were never released in Europe, not even digitally but I hope maybe one day

[@oink988]

I still play G1 once every couple of years. Mr.Iwadare's score is spotless

[@mikemath9508]

Had a demo disc with Grandia on it. It had two options to play, one was in Parm and you run around trying to find "java" (I didn't pick up it was a guy, i thought it was coffee) the other part was after in new parm when you have Feena, it was the two sections of the mountains where you can find a mana egg in each. i was obsessed with that part. year had to be 1999, since we were living in new mexico and saw the millennium ball drop on tv after that christmas where i got the game. replayed it once more but started a dozen new save files over the years. grandia ii was a'ight, never finished it, i quit shortly after you get Roan? back and Mareg is gone. played grandia iii without a memory card and didn't get very far never tried grandia xtreme played a little of grandia on the gameboy with an english patched rom

[@anthonycarter1528]

If it weren't for the Dreamcast release, I may have never gotten into RPG's, save PKMN. Grandia II was a complete watershed moment for me as a kid. Loved it to pieces.

[@andrewsingsthehymns9567]

grandia xtreme was supposed to be about the battle system. they took the battle sys cranked it up to 11 and focused on that. it was never meant to be for anyone other the fans of the battle system.

[@projectmayhem6898]

I beat that one recently and rather liked it. I did not care much for the 20 hours of farming I had to do to get the top-level mana eggs but it allowed me to beat the final boss on my first attempt.

[@jeremyhall2727]

I liked part 2 the most. I stop playing the last one on console after two hours or three. The FMVs was just so boring. I'm fine with the art style..but damn. It just felt so slow.

[@musiksoulchild]

Grandia 2 was a masterpiece of the game Ryudo voiced by the legendary Cam Clarke ❤

[@jeffcourty6321]

Loved Grandia Xtreme😊

[@TheEpitomeofSass]

I LOVEEEE this series, still one of the best jrpgs ever

[@Xygor]

Yes it is!

[@rdh_gaming]

As someone who love Dungeon Crawler, Xtreme sounds like my kind of game

[@drowningin]

Only played the first 2 for the Switch release. Grandia 2 has risen to one of my top 5 RPGs. Dreamcast had some of my favorite JRPGs. I do plan to play the other games in the series. I’m trying to find the perfect emulation handheld, or console to play them though as I hate playing JRPGs on PC, and I can no longer afford retro games unless they are rereleased

[@Xygor]

The Ayn Odin 2 is a good option!

[@ThePWing90]

Uh! Looking forward to this one 👀 I have only played the first Grandia for the Switch collection. And I absolutely adore it! Haven’t started on the second game yet but I’m looking forward to it, and to hear what you think about the whole series! 💜

[@vtheofilis]

Grandia 2 also had a PC version in 2002. I remember reading a review about it on a local PC gaming magazine.

[@eduardo0379]

I have that version, and it is very buggy. I remember that many spells and moves (the ones that use FMVs overlayed on top of the game) had a kind of lag before the animation started. It had other issues like audio desync and CTDs. I wouldn't recomend it to anyone.

[@vtheofilis]

​@@eduardo0379 According to the PC Gaming Wiki article, the game does have some issues inherent to the port itself, but some are due to the fact that the original came on PC 22 years ago. There are some issues with corrupted music files and a bug that prevents some of the characters to cast some spells if they speak to a tutorial NPC.

[@OneTato]

Og Grandia was the best. I just got the collection on ps5 😊

[@Xygor]

Right on!

[@rh8560]

Grandia 2 definitely is in my top 10 RPGs of all time

[@coreygeiger81]

Gumbo Volcanoe track from Grandia I is one of my top ten favorite RPG tracks

[@statesminds]

Grandia one of my favorite series of all time

[@Lamasis2]

Stopped my playtrough of 1 because of Eiyuden, have to come back later after I played them. And I finished Beyond Oasis, I really liked where everywhere you could summon the spirits from.

[@FullBeardSk8]

habla ingles

[@LordQuadros]

My first experience with Grandia was 2 on Dreamcast, but I eventually fell off of it for whatever reason (I personally just chalk it up to good old-fashioned ADHD hyperfixation jumping). I got back to it with the HD Collection on Switch, but after playing both the first two games, I actually wound up preferring Grandia 1. There's just kind of a hard-to-capture Castle in the Sky-esque vibe it really nailed for me. I definitely get the annoyance around the filter, but as someone whose first experience was that version, I think there's just really no "bad" way to experience Grandia 1.

[@IaconDawnshire]

I still have my PS copy of Grandia

[@Xygor]

Excellent!

[@HappyDay2512]

the OST are crazy memorable

[@theshotgundog]

We need an indie dev to make a game mimicking the battle system from these games!

[@JonNogo]

Grandia II is my favorite, played it on Dreamcast way back and then again on PS2 and then again when it was remastered on Steam. Only gripe with the steam version is the added difficulty mode just making enemies damage sponges and not adding any real challenge. Soundtrack is so much fun and the story is great, can be corny at times but I love it. Grandia I is a really really fun game as well, i just prefer 2 I loved the gameplay and look of Grandia III but holy crap what a bad story. Corny brought up to a new level in this one.

[@Safersephiroth777]

I remember the series! I have played the first 2 o nly though.

[@cpthardluck]

Filter looks good. Though they should have offered the option to switch back and forth for the obsessives.

[@diegoarmando5489]

The 2002 PC port of Grandia 2 was a buggy mess and the crooked frogs over at Ubisoft never patched or supported it. (I'm Québécois. I'm allowed.) I somehow managed to finish it. I even remember being able to run it on XP but not on 98 or ME even though XP wasn't actually supported lol The game was good, but I preferred the fire 1.

[@thatweekzz]

ANOTHER BANGER 🗣🗣💯

[@Xygor]

Thank you!

[@yamimizuno]

to this day i still dont understand why people prefer the magic/skill system of grandia 2 over the original

[@Lonewolfz24]

I'm sorry you had to play Grandia 2 on PS2 first, and then on the remaster (A port of the PS2). Just like the first game, the graphics are far better on the original console. I own each version, and the only way I will play G2 is on the DC or a DC emulator. I love the DC version and played it all the way through when I got it, doing everything I could. I remember the first time I started to play the PS2 version, got to the point where they are outside the tower at night talking(1-2 hours in) , and just thought to myself, this isnt right, something looks off. I left the game running, dug out my DC, searched for my s-video cables and switch box, and played through to the same point. What I found were clear textures, and ambient lighting of the fire, in the dark of night, VS the PS2 giving no light, horrible textures, and a bright scene (again, at night). Also, as the PS2 box says, 80+ hours of "new" CGI video, yup, sure does, many in game cut scenes in the DC version are now horrible CGI video (because the PS2 couldn't render them without slowdown?) That is as far as I played in the PS2 version.

[@nobodyimportant5140]

I remember playing Grandia 3 with a friend back in high school and while it had a strong start, I remember it falling off super hard after the halfway point. And that final boss was just awful…

[@ThanatosTheDH]

I would do anything for a New Grandia game similar to the first 2.

[@waygraph1920]

"Gadwin secret move...!"

[@captainthunderbolt7541]

imho the Grandia III graphics look fine, both technically and stylistically - the actual problem is that it doesn't look very much like the Grandia games that came before it, and it is far less colourful - which makes Grandia III feel insufficiently authentic as a Grandia sequel.

[@roisinleraefarwell307]

It is amazing how long I have kept watching your videos considering the quality and deepth of content has been stagnant the entire time. If there was any other dude on the internet that played and wanted to talk about all the same obscure RPGs I did, I would have moved on from you a while ago.

[@sc3ku]

2:51 clearly the Playstation version. Can’t unsee the nonsensical mess of ground 😅

[@HoroJoga]

'Rayudo' lol Kiddin'. Awesome video, dude. I love Grandia, but I need to play X-treme and 3. And for those reading this, avoid Parallel Trippers, it's a bad game overall.

[@dera894]

Funfact: I Skipped the First Game and Played it 3 weeks ago on my PS1. I loved Grandia 2 in my childhood because i loved the combatsystem. Thank you for This Nice Video

[@statesminds]

Thankfully working designs didnt do grandia otherwise we wouldnt have them on modern platforms . Poor lunar1&2

[@Ryowhosakazaki]

Grandia 2 is the favorite of the bunch. Grandia 1, a alright game with nostalgia vibe. Never played Xtreme or 3, those were never releases in my country. Shame, but at the same time, looks dull compared to the last two games.

[@joshuapatrick682]

Magus called and he wants his music back!!!

[@Loner098]

He probably would've used it to beat down his mother or something like that.

[@Zabes10]

Grandia 2 was a good game but Skies of Arcadia was the best rpg in the dreamcast and the Gamecube

[@Bailzar]

Grandia 2 my fave i loved it and characters were funny, Grandia 1 i got to disc 2 and often just stopped not sure why if im honest but oh well, i own the other 2 games also but never played them, the battle system was brilliant, i think one thing i didnt like was the coming and going of characters

[@glukon69]

General Bale :)

[@davidjohnson9145]

What about an in depth disgaea series retrospective?

[@Lonewolfz24]

10:14 & 10:30 That one scene hurts me to look at. Play the DC version to that location ... HD my ass.

[@TylerEdlin84]

Ffxs combat always felt like a ooor knockoff of grandias.

[@scuba-people]

i loved grandia and gII i actually ended buying the dreamcast just for this game good times !!! i must say i did not like grandia 3 ... would love to see retrospective on shadow hearts! was great series too

[@Xygor]

It was a good game to buy the system for!

[@scuba-people]

@@Xygor thx for the video learned so much now doing chrono cross will get it on ps5 will be my next one

[@CrimRui]

Happy go lucky? Yeah, but the game has its share of dark themes, especially towards the end. Also, why do English speakers always fail to say that there is Japanese audio option? You said the voice acting is cheezy, but that is only because it's a product of its time and dubs were kinda like that back then. Japanese audio is stellar.

[@lf170]

The great battle systems in these games didn't help when the battles were still too easy. It made all the combos and spells kind of pointless. At least for the first two games which are the only ones I've played.

[@Rosa_Canina]

Grandia 2 is to date one of my most replayed and most beloved JRPGs. The only version I never finished is the bonkers PS2 port. I think this game would have been a lot more known and the series much better if the PS2 version didnt ran like dogshit. Compared to the DC and even the early UbiSoft-PC-Port (not the Anniversary HD thing) its just the worst...

[@Argumedies]

Grandia 2 rocked. I started this way back on the dreamcast and fell in love and was seriously disappointed with the PS2. I later played Grandia 1, and it was... okay but it wasn't as good as Grandia 2 (imho) But none of the others.

[@Xygor]

I think 1 and 2 was the golden age so good stuff!

[@Bdkgucci]

It wasn’t about Justin 😂 I will never play 2

[@ChristopherRogers-g4i]

Taylor Paul Gonzalez Frank Gonzalez Thomas

[@towermoss]

I really want to enjoy these games, but I'm stuck at a spot in the first game (shortly after the boat area). Maybe a younger me would've powered through it, but that one dungeon is just so bad.

[@UltimateDrDoom]

30 minutes for the whole series? Cmon bruv.