<div style='font: 12pt Modern; text-align: left; '>20 hours into the game, just got back from Valmar's Moon. Probably will take at most another 5 hours to finish this game. I think the length is quite appropriate. I think any game > 30 hours has to be really good or otherwise it's just dragging on and on. Kind of a nice contrast from Grandia 1 which took me around 75 hours or so (mostly from leveling up my techs... level 80 sword!). The day where RPGs need to be artifically long is gone. Like Cross the levelup pace in this game is fast enough so that you don't feel compelled to fight stuff over and over again. I think I prefer Cross's enemy placement on the map over Grandia 2, because often times you end up fighting everything anyway because you don't want to risk trying to run past an enemy but get surprised because they caught up to the last guy on your party. There's a pretty nasty swing time to bring the tail of your party away from an enemy. E.g.
You -> Enemy
You decide not to fight, so you try to turn around while the enemy notices you, but what happens is something like
<- You Last guy in party Enemy
And you end up getting surprised (and that's where I usually end up using a Sky Dragon Slash or some big spell to end the fight quicker). A minor annoyance when you just want to get straight to the boss without fighting enemies.
The diffculty drops off rather quickly after the Eye of Valmar (I seem to have the worst luck with AI. 4 Delta Bursts on the first turn!). Most bosses have attacks that simply takes too long to charge, the only way they'll ever get these attacks off is if all four of your guys are on wait. I killed one of the bosses without even getting hurt, and most bosses get off about 1-2 attacks on average for the duration of the fight. In the end Grandia 2 is almost as easy as Grandia 1, but they've a lot of interesting ideas that just didn't work. Having instant cancel moves on all four people make canceling trivial.
I like how there's always a restore HP/MP area before bosses, that way my casters can actually cast spells rather than meleeing all day (though sometimes it's quicker to just have everyone melee). The spell animation is rather annoying. I'd use stuff like Zap more if it didn't take so long for it to finish.
Charge time on moves and spells is a good idea. Unfortunately they're not nearly long enough to matter. With Magic Recover you basically have instant cast spells, and techniques pretty much go at instanteous speed (well, only the cancel ones, but that's the ones where speed really matters).
Thoughts on the characters:
Ryudo - I thought he does a good job as a hero. Also has decent lines as opposed to stuff like "This is it, prepare yourself. WAHHHH!" He's not as ridiculously overpowered as Justin was, but still easily the most powerful character. He's not as cool as Vyse from Skies of Arcadia, but as heroes go, he's a pretty good one.
Elena - I swear at some point you'll reveal that she's actually an Icarian. :) Her role is almost identical to that of Feena's. Her voice acting is pretty respectable. I tried using her White Apocalyse and it did like 900 damage or something when Sky Dragon Slash does 3500... :( It's a lot like when you use Aika's Omega Psyclone and watch her blow up the world and then some and it does next to no damage.
Milennia - I don't know, I think I'd rather listen to Sue than her. At least Sue's lines are funny. It seems to me whenever she berserks she always cast Taint of Wind first which doesn't do anything whatsoever...
Roan - Nothing about him stands out in my mind. He's not poorly developed or anything, but just isn't that exciting.
Mareg - Gadwin turned philsopher? He doesn't get too many lines, but the voice acting is decent. A good character too.
Tio - Rapp in training. But her monotone has nothing on Rapp's legendary monotone threats, like "Blow you away, take that." I still can't figure out what she's saying at the normal and 'they didn't even hurt us' victory sayings. She sounds like a boy when she gets hurt... The weapon she uses (rings) are a pretty clever weapon without being impossible (like, say, guitars).
Gadan, or something - The skyway guy, or something...
Aira - KIM KIM KIM KIM KIM! Oh, she's not Emeralda, but she's just as cute, and actually quite well developed, too. It seems to me she's the only well developed character that you can't control aside from Melfice. She actually has motivation for her actions.
Melfice - I swear his horn is on his nose, not on top of his head. Aside from the fact that he looks ugly, he's actually a cool character. Decent voice acting too.
Selene - Supposedly she has some significance in this game, I haven't figured it out yet...
Zera - See Selene.
The fuzzy animals called Carros - See Zera.
The plot is actually quite good, though toward the end it looks like they're recycling a lot of Grandia 1 elements. Heck, they even have the same naming scheme for end game monsters. Valmar Cow, Valmar Pig, etc... just like Grandia 1's Gaia Cow, Gaia Pig, etc...
Going to finish writing an essay on how reliable IQ tests are (I got a 145, so it must be reliable! ^_^), and then maybe I'll finish Grandia 2.</div>
You -> Enemy
You decide not to fight, so you try to turn around while the enemy notices you, but what happens is something like
<- You Last guy in party Enemy
And you end up getting surprised (and that's where I usually end up using a Sky Dragon Slash or some big spell to end the fight quicker). A minor annoyance when you just want to get straight to the boss without fighting enemies.
The diffculty drops off rather quickly after the Eye of Valmar (I seem to have the worst luck with AI. 4 Delta Bursts on the first turn!). Most bosses have attacks that simply takes too long to charge, the only way they'll ever get these attacks off is if all four of your guys are on wait. I killed one of the bosses without even getting hurt, and most bosses get off about 1-2 attacks on average for the duration of the fight. In the end Grandia 2 is almost as easy as Grandia 1, but they've a lot of interesting ideas that just didn't work. Having instant cancel moves on all four people make canceling trivial.
I like how there's always a restore HP/MP area before bosses, that way my casters can actually cast spells rather than meleeing all day (though sometimes it's quicker to just have everyone melee). The spell animation is rather annoying. I'd use stuff like Zap more if it didn't take so long for it to finish.
Charge time on moves and spells is a good idea. Unfortunately they're not nearly long enough to matter. With Magic Recover you basically have instant cast spells, and techniques pretty much go at instanteous speed (well, only the cancel ones, but that's the ones where speed really matters).
Thoughts on the characters:
Ryudo - I thought he does a good job as a hero. Also has decent lines as opposed to stuff like "This is it, prepare yourself. WAHHHH!" He's not as ridiculously overpowered as Justin was, but still easily the most powerful character. He's not as cool as Vyse from Skies of Arcadia, but as heroes go, he's a pretty good one.
Elena - I swear at some point you'll reveal that she's actually an Icarian. :) Her role is almost identical to that of Feena's. Her voice acting is pretty respectable. I tried using her White Apocalyse and it did like 900 damage or something when Sky Dragon Slash does 3500... :( It's a lot like when you use Aika's Omega Psyclone and watch her blow up the world and then some and it does next to no damage.
Milennia - I don't know, I think I'd rather listen to Sue than her. At least Sue's lines are funny. It seems to me whenever she berserks she always cast Taint of Wind first which doesn't do anything whatsoever...
Roan - Nothing about him stands out in my mind. He's not poorly developed or anything, but just isn't that exciting.
Mareg - Gadwin turned philsopher? He doesn't get too many lines, but the voice acting is decent. A good character too.
Tio - Rapp in training. But her monotone has nothing on Rapp's legendary monotone threats, like "Blow you away, take that." I still can't figure out what she's saying at the normal and 'they didn't even hurt us' victory sayings. She sounds like a boy when she gets hurt... The weapon she uses (rings) are a pretty clever weapon without being impossible (like, say, guitars).
Gadan, or something - The skyway guy, or something...
Aira - KIM KIM KIM KIM KIM! Oh, she's not Emeralda, but she's just as cute, and actually quite well developed, too. It seems to me she's the only well developed character that you can't control aside from Melfice. She actually has motivation for her actions.
Melfice - I swear his horn is on his nose, not on top of his head. Aside from the fact that he looks ugly, he's actually a cool character. Decent voice acting too.
Selene - Supposedly she has some significance in this game, I haven't figured it out yet...
Zera - See Selene.
The fuzzy animals called Carros - See Zera.
The plot is actually quite good, though toward the end it looks like they're recycling a lot of Grandia 1 elements. Heck, they even have the same naming scheme for end game monsters. Valmar Cow, Valmar Pig, etc... just like Grandia 1's Gaia Cow, Gaia Pig, etc...
Going to finish writing an essay on how reliable IQ tests are (I got a 145, so it must be reliable! ^_^), and then maybe I'll finish Grandia 2.</div>
