I gotta say. Wes Does Games makes great videos. I got some shirts from his shop and they are quality shirts. Wes is a good dude. I suggest giving a like and follow. When it comes to the merch I personally like the heavy shirts over the light ones. Keep up the great work Mr Wesley of the does games family.
I really needed this video, I've been terribly depressed lately and this trip down memory lane (I was 11 when I played it at release) has been therapeutic. Thank you sir. 😊
I played Grandia II in Dreamcast. It was my first jrpg and it became my standard. One I wanted to play and never did was Skies of Arcadia. I played the demo to death.
grandia was my first rpg. the bad voice acting was instrumental for me to learn english. In my mind, every jrpg cliché originated in grandia. thanks for almost 2 hours on this sentimental gem
It's weird to play the game now knowing all the tropes. It kinda makes you wonder which tropes the game used, and which ones it invented and others have since copied
My man, you released this just three days before I beat my first playthrough of Grandia. Seeing that you had a video on it motivated to to hardcore grind my way through those last several dungeons. It was a slog, but a beautiful one and we'll worth it. This game is easily now up there in my all time favorites alongside Ff9, Yakuza 0, and SMT DDS. Thanks for the quality content on media that deserves more coverage.
Was always that kid in my friend group who was like "Why haven't you played Grandia?" Borrowed a friend's Lunar copy in elementary school and it lit a fire in me to find more games like it. I've always really liked the feeling of progression in Grandia's story, where Justin and co just start out as the local kids but mature and grow as people throughout the story. He gets angry, upset, doesn't always understand things, but is always trying to improve. He strives to do what he feels he is supposed to do as an adventurer, but when push comes to shove his one memento of his father is willingly sacrificed to save others. Justin at his core is someone inspired by their dreams, but not willing to keep them over their morals. Compare this to the other big protag of the time period, Cloud. From the start we got a mercenary willing to work for eco-terrorists in an attempt to blow up large sections of the city he lives in. We don't really get to see Cloud object too harshly to all the death and destruction they, and by extension, he causes because in his mind the Shinra Corporation that runs Midgard is a worse evil. As the story goes on Cloud doesn't really grow so much as get deconstructed, with everything he believed collapsing around him and even his mind retreating away from reality. He regains his motivation through friendship but is ultimately motivated by revenge, for the fallen and himself. As character, he just doesn't really go anywhere. His personality is a little more open by the end but without revenge he doesn't really have strong motivations.
While I never played Grandia 1 and 2 when they came out, I played Grandia 3 on PS2. In fact, it was the second game I ever played on that console. To this day, I'm still sad there is no way to replay it. I have played some of Grandia 1 today thanks to being available on PlayStation but I never finished the game. This video was nice. Loved all the little intermissions! Made me nostalgic despite not having a deep connection with this game. Loved the retrospective!
Great video! Grandia is an amazing game. I've been playing a ps1 undub with retroarch recently. My love for rpgs started with final fantasy vi. I played it when i was 14 or 15. I'm 42 now
It's the japanese dub with english text. I don't know if they put english text on the japanese iso or japanese audio on the english iso. It's either way
Excellent video! Wonderful vibes throughout! My first experience with Grandia was the HD Collection on Nintendo Switch. I played a little of Grandia 1 but completed Grandia 2. It was just something about the "Dreamcast Aesthetic" and the gameplay of the sequel that kept me coming back. I definitely consider Grandia 2 one of my favorite videogames of all time and I look forward to your thoughts on it.
I'm excited to play Grandia 2 (I've got the HD Collection too) but I'm almost wondering if it'd be better to try to get the original Dreamcast version just for the genuineness
A friend of mine said he wanted to play the game. I annoyed him long enough so he caved and went with the English Dub. He immediately doubted me as soon as Mullen had his first lines RIGHT IN THE OPENING, but stuck with it nonetheless. Afterwards, he agreed that the bad voice acting added to the charm. Thinking about it now, I believe the cheesy lines and horrible voice work help with staving off any seriousness, allowing you to fully enjoy the childish adventure the game takes you on. This game is just that: A kid going out to seek adventure, getting far more than he bargained for, but staying the same plucky kid with boundless optimism and a carefree attitude all the way through. The devs absolutely nailed Justin as a character.
Great observation. I was the same way, when I first downloaded the game I turned it off after Mullen started talking. Took years to come back to it and give it a genuine go. Sometimes you're in the mood for something serious, sometimes you're in the mood for cheesy fun adventure
New favorite channel, forreal. The adult swim homage is done perfectly man. The commentary on the game is rock solid (I think, never played it tbh hah)
Just listened to the video today while at work. Loved the production values with the classic commercial-like bumpers(even if I couldn't pay a ton of attention to the visual details). Grandia was my first RPG and is still one of my favorites, and overall this was a very good retrospective. If I had much to nitpick, I'd say maybe the Garlyle Forces motivations could've been touched on a bit better. Only mentioning General Baal's world domination plans kinda makes it sound like the soldiers knew very well they were doing a bad, when in reality they were just told they were "working for a better future", until Baal reveals his real motivations. On another note, it's absolutely WILD that when detailing the games that followed Grandia, you mention all the games that were never officially released in English, but completely skip over Grandia Xtreme, which DID have an English release. It even had Mark Hamill voice one of the villains.
@WesDoesGames it was my first jrpg. The battle system is like a turned based fighting game with you putting in inputs to string together attacks and make super moves. It's got an amazing soundtrack and a really kinda unique world. Characters are a little basic, but they are likable and done well. It's one of my favorites.
also I absolutely love the old school adult swim approach to this video. the bumps are insanely on point too. A1 man, ill be running through your channel through out the next couple days.
I appreciate it! I've been gradually developing this style, so for similar vibes I'd suggest working your way backwards chronologically. Some of my first videos I'm embarrassed by 😅
I bought this game second hand physically back in the day as a playstation port in Germany. When you think the english voice acting is bad, let me introduce you to the atrocious double dub of the german version. Regular gameplay is dubbed in english only. But when a voiced movie plays, the english dub plays in the background with an additional german voiceover... Very strange experience. I played the grandia 2 port for PC after, and I think it was really nice english voice acting. Playing grandia 3 as a european was a pain in the butt tho as we didn't receive an official release. You had to get the offical PS2 harddrive attachment, buy the ntsc game and rip it or get a rom, put it on the harddrive via an external frame and attach the harddrive back to your PlayStation 2. Now you only need a special CD to trick your PAL PS2 and you can finally play grandia 3 lol. I really loved the game and getting it to work was part of the adventure :'D
I used to get annoyed at how wordy the Grandia characters and NPCs are... but now that I'm on Trails into Reverie (Sky trilogy, Crossbell duology, and Cold Steel quadrilogy prior, phew), I'm now sufficiently OK with endless dialogues.
Oh Grandia's dialogue is nothing compared to Golden Sun and other rpgs that needed to fill a word quota lol. How is the Trails series? I always wanted to get into it but never knew where to start
@@WesDoesGames Start with Trails of Sky first chapter, second chapter, sky the 3rd, Trails into Zero, Trails into Azure, Trails of Cold Steel 1-4, then Trails into Reverie, Trails through Daybreak 1-2 and then Trails Farewell, O Zemuria. It's the Avenger of JRPG series with huge world building and never ending NPC dialogues. All the games are connected just like MCU.
Grandia was one of the rpgs my big brother introduced me to back when it came out and being 10 I was hooked by the story and gameplay. I love this game with all my heart and actually someone found most of the voice cast from the game and interviewed them (Davey Valentine, I believe his name is) Btw I love the editing of this video a lot! Something nice and somewhat 90s feel to it with the small breaks
sorry not sorry for posting so much, im invested now. i am downloading the rom to this as we speak. you convinced me. I still got 50 minutes to go but damn the game is so good. Ive never played it before
Hey how ya doing? As someone that has played through lunar 2 eternal blue a couple times ( i know its the second one, but still) It is in my top 5 all time favorite games. The characters are all so well designed, its quirky as hell (even down to its ability descriptions and items and stuff) There's a ton of content within the game itself, the battle system was one of my favorites, it has full on anime cut scenes that are fully voiced ( with some other dialogue also being voice) Honestly top tier game that will still holds up today. Well worth the play through.
Loved this video (both as a Grandia fan and as someone who stayed up late to watch Adult Swim back when I probably shouldn't have haha). So happy to have a well produced Grandia 1 video out in the wild. One thing that I think Grandia 1 truly deserves some praise against FFVII is how it handled 3D. Where FFVII had 3D sprites and 2D backgrounds, I think the graphics, especially when they are 'remastered' haven't aged as well. Whereas I find the 2D sprites in a 3D world to look superb. It would have been interesting to see what Game Arts would have done if they continued down that path - though Grandia 2 does look great.
I never got to play grandia on the Saturn. I wanted a saturn for Christmas growing up. So naturally i got a N64 from Christmas... Lol. But I absolutely fell in love with Grandia II on the Dreamcast.
@@WesDoesGames Well I say the direction you need to go, it points to an exit, the first direction it points is to advance and you can press a button to change it to other exits, there's also certain locations where it doesnt point to anything.
My favorite thing about this game is the feel. The shitty voice acting, the graphics, the world building, the characters, combat system, everything feels fun and relaxed! Its a bit TOO easy, but I fixed that on my second playthrough by Not upgrading the characters weapons or armor. You will level up your weapons so uard that youll still feel overpowered.
It's a shame it's so easy because the magic and weapon leveling system is pretty unique and doesn't make much of a difference since you can breeze through it
I think video games were still mostly seen as "kids territory" back then so good voice acting wasn't expected. So we can probably thank games like TLoU for killing this esthetic, lol
24:10 Soo... I NEVER had the issue you describe. The game is made so you TURN THE CAMERA AND LOOK AROUND... ALLOT. 24:45 That compass usually shows you where you supposed to go, like at this Leck Mines example it shows you where the entrance to the mines is.
@@WesDoesGames I doubt only you had the issue, there are bound to be a few more. I thought it is obvious that the compass needle usually points towards where you need to go, apparently it was not, lol. I always wanted to replay the game in English, but since the PS1 time I never got around to do it. At the time of the PS1 release there where other games I played, later on the PSP I was wasting my time mostly with Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics and now the "HD" re-release has flaws, that's why I not bought it yet. I forgot to say, I played the Japanese Sega Saturn version, right after Shining Force III all 3 scenarios(also in Japanese). That is why I didn't have any issue with turning the camera to look around, because the perspective of both games is similar(thought Shining Force III is a tactical game, not a RPG). But... otherwise great video, keep making them!
Grandia failed for the same reason PDS failed. It came out on the Sega Saturn and took 2 years to release on the console people actually bought, the PS1, by then Grandia wasn't competing only with FF7, it was competing with FF7, FF8 and all the other JRPGs that were coming out at that point. 3d was already becoming the standard at that point and Grandia looked like a step back, from the marketing perspective. It was my favourite JRPG then, it is my favourite JRPG now.
Working designs did not localize Grandia. Sony did it in house. They wanted to but ultimately lost the bid to Sony who were willing to pay more for the property
i clicked because i saw grandia and i played it on my playstation decades ago. i like these retrospective videos and subscribed to some like majuular, neverknowsbest, the salt factory, max derrat etc. so i will subscribe to this channel as well. just a bit criticism, your intro is good, just make it a little bit shorter, everything else is good.
13:16 So in the original Japanese I think that it might have been a regular bar, because Java's Japanese name is Gin (ジン). They localised it to coffee to keep within the US age ratings. Edit: I'll be replying to this thread with comments as I go though! Really enjoying the vid so far :)
26:20 I think this kind of relates back to something you said earlier in the video, in that the game is the "Saturday morning cartoon" of JRPGs. Definitely during Disc 1 (imho the strongest part of the game) a lot of these quests have a kind of "monster of the week" vibe to them. I personally quite like that, it's utilising context-relevant tropes to really solidify the themes.
24:27 (earlier comment got deleted I think because of the link I included) The compass points towards either your destination, or the exit of the area you're in. You can hit L2/R2 to toggle between destinations, and the compass spins faster the closer you get. The red bit also always points towards cardinal north. I think this is vaguely explained during one of the save point hints early in the game, but the manual gives a full breakdown of how it works. Modern games obviously are designed so you don't need to read the manual, but I think it's pretty par for the course for 80s/90s games. In fact the manual for grandia gives you a bit of extra exposition, it's definitely worth checking out!
34:50 I think the main place this shows is in that many, many enemies have elemental weaknesses and resistances and other than a few specific instances (the ghost enemies in the optional Tower of Temptation needing the anti-ghost mace from way back in the Dom ruins) you just... Don't even realise that they even have them lol
35:20 I think the wall goes all the way around and could potentially also be found west of Messina. There's a great map by Osamu Kobayashi which seems to indicate that the wall extends fully off the map in both directions, so as the world of Grandia is a planet (which I think we see from Alent) it would make sense that the End of the World goes all the way around.
56:50 So fun fact about this: the original Japanese name for the Twin Towers is already in English: ツインタワー, which is romanized as Tsuintawaa. Note that it is not pluralised here. In fact, the tower seen in the intro with the bright orb above it is quite likely to be the Twin Towers during the height of the Angelou civilisation! It's likely that a more accurate localisation for it would be Twin Tower, or perhaps even Twins' Tower, as the Twin here refers to the Icarians who were born in Twin pairs, as opposed there being more than one tower, when there is in fact only a single tower there!
I hate to be that guy, but Working Designs had nothing to do with Grandia. Sony Computer Entertainment translated it. That's why Justin's English VA is the same as Parappa.
On the note of the dub, the german version's is even worse lol They clearly got some random friends or family to do it and didnt even remove the english audio, just recorded on top of it xD
I did not giggle at magical lucky nuts. I did giggle at post nut clarity though; so I guess that I do have to like and subscribe. I have never seen one of your videos before but this is fun; thank you for sharing it with us.
Aren't we lucky that we can play an fan translated english subbed Japanese voiced version on the Saturn as god intended? But where's the fun in that? Edit: So uhh, the acid rain actually does drain your health after a while, there is no visual tell other than checking if your health has gone down, I even remember this being a thing back when I played it.
When I feel an itch to replay Grandia I'll probably play that version. The acid rain really drains your hp? That blows my mind because I didn't notice the hp drop at all. I mean the acid river would make a noise if you touched it. 💀
@@WesDoesGames If I recall, at least on the psone version of the game, at one point in the middle of the quest, Gadwin warns you about the acid becoming more dangerous, that should be the point where it starts depleting your health without any visual cue. Since I've never played the remaster I don't know if that feature is just missing, I do know however that they didn't use the Saturn source code for the remaster, it should have the same structure as the psone had. I might need to revisit the game to double check it for myself.
I'm afraid you're blaming the wrong people for the voice acting. Working Designs tried to get the rights to release Grandia in English, but they couldn't. Instead Sony decided to have their American branch handle Grandia's localization in-house. If you want to blame someone for the bad voice acting, blame Sony. If WD had gotten the rights, the voice acting would have still been a bit corny, but a higher quality of corny.
I gotta say. Wes Does Games makes great videos. I got some shirts from his shop and they are quality shirts. Wes is a good dude. I suggest giving a like and follow. When it comes to the merch I personally like the heavy shirts over the light ones. Keep up the great work Mr Wesley of the does games family.
@@IXArcanine this is high praise, thank you!
what's this? an almost two hour video about my favorite childhood game? looks like christmas came early
Meats back on the menu, boys (Grandia is meat)
The intro had my attention, the theme song earned you a sub.
Thanks for subbing!
I really needed this video, I've been terribly depressed lately and this trip down memory lane (I was 11 when I played it at release) has been therapeutic. Thank you sir. 😊
I'm thankful you took the time to watch it :)
Full toonami style bumps?!
Subscribed!
❤️🎉
Seconded!
Thank you both
The fact that this has BUMPERS, i'm sold. This is quality.
A viewer of taste, I see
First time seeing your channel, and it will take awhile to chew through this one, but it's started off strong, so here's a comment for the algorithm.
I appreciate it alot friend
@@KalTheSkeleton ooh you're in for a TREAT!
I played Grandia II in Dreamcast. It was my first jrpg and it became my standard. One I wanted to play and never did was Skies of Arcadia. I played the demo to death.
I haven't played Grandia 2 but have played Skies and it's my favorite game of all time. Highly recommend!
I played grandia 2 on the Dreamcast also. It was epic and had some great characters
It's been a long time since I've said this, but awesome intro dude. Weirdly nostalgic. 😂
I'm glad you like it :)
I looooove the intro absolute.banger
@@stefen777 🙌
great video, convinced me to pick it up, never heard of the game, but now im excited
You're in for a treat!
grandia was my first rpg. the bad voice acting was instrumental for me to learn english. In my mind, every jrpg cliché originated in grandia. thanks for almost 2 hours on this sentimental gem
It's weird to play the game now knowing all the tropes. It kinda makes you wonder which tropes the game used, and which ones it invented and others have since copied
This is indeed a great video about a game I truely love, both deserve more attention!
Thank you, that's kind of you to say 🥰
Immediately subscribed based on your intro alone. My childhood! 😭
The names of these locations, man. Parm(esan), Gumbo, Garlyle (Garlic), Dight (Diet). Feels like Brave Fencer Musashi. XD
Cafu (Cafe)
Didn't realize this! And now I'm hungry
4 kids did Pokemon and Ultimate Muscle. Those voices were perfect.
My man, you released this just three days before I beat my first playthrough of Grandia. Seeing that you had a video on it motivated to to hardcore grind my way through those last several dungeons. It was a slog, but a beautiful one and we'll worth it. This game is easily now up there in my all time favorites alongside Ff9, Yakuza 0, and SMT DDS. Thanks for the quality content on media that deserves more coverage.
Thanks for the kind words! Hopefully I didn't spoil the ending for you. I'd love to do videos on the Yakuza games eventually
Was always that kid in my friend group who was like "Why haven't you played Grandia?" Borrowed a friend's Lunar copy in elementary school and it lit a fire in me to find more games like it. I've always really liked the feeling of progression in Grandia's story, where Justin and co just start out as the local kids but mature and grow as people throughout the story. He gets angry, upset, doesn't always understand things, but is always trying to improve. He strives to do what he feels he is supposed to do as an adventurer, but when push comes to shove his one memento of his father is willingly sacrificed to save others. Justin at his core is someone inspired by their dreams, but not willing to keep them over their morals.
Compare this to the other big protag of the time period, Cloud. From the start we got a mercenary willing to work for eco-terrorists in an attempt to blow up large sections of the city he lives in. We don't really get to see Cloud object too harshly to all the death and destruction they, and by extension, he causes because in his mind the Shinra Corporation that runs Midgard is a worse evil. As the story goes on Cloud doesn't really grow so much as get deconstructed, with everything he believed collapsing around him and even his mind retreating away from reality. He regains his motivation through friendship but is ultimately motivated by revenge, for the fallen and himself. As character, he just doesn't really go anywhere. His personality is a little more open by the end but without revenge he doesn't really have strong motivations.
These are good breakdowns of their characters!
While I never played Grandia 1 and 2 when they came out, I played Grandia 3 on PS2. In fact, it was the second game I ever played on that console. To this day, I'm still sad there is no way to replay it. I have played some of Grandia 1 today thanks to being available on PlayStation but I never finished the game. This video was nice. Loved all the little intermissions! Made me nostalgic despite not having a deep connection with this game. Loved the retrospective!
I really loved this game back in the old days. I might have to revisit it and see how its held up. Great video
Thanks!
The timing on this is great. I actually just finished a 100% Achievement run on Steam and posted a written review of the game there. Great video!
Is there any 100% completion bonuses or anything cool?
This game felt soo cozy when I played it. I just love this 90's anime style.
Cozy is a great word for it 😍
I love this.
I love this game
I love these commercials breaks.
I'm an instant fan of this channel.
Thanks so much.
Thanks for the kind words!
Great video! Grandia is an amazing game. I've been playing a ps1 undub with retroarch recently. My love for rpgs started with final fantasy vi. I played it when i was 14 or 15. I'm 42 now
Undub meaning it's a Japanese version of the ps1 version??
It's the japanese dub with english text. I don't know if they put english text on the japanese iso or japanese audio on the english iso. It's either way
@@miasma82 oh I get it. Yeah that makes sense. Honestly the cheesy English VA does something for me, but I get it's not everyone's bag.
Just finished this. What a great video. I agree it was truly an unforgettable adventure. Thank you
That means alot, thank you!
Yo the sonic music when Liete joins instantly had me dying 🤣🤣🤣🤣
OMG man! What did you do!? This must be one of the best retrospectives I've ever seen. thank you!
Wow, thanks!
I absolutely adored this game growing up. It's right there with FFVII & Chrono Trigger in my forever top 3.
I love these Toonami-esque commercial breaks
Thank you ♥️
Wow, what a sick intro! I really loved this game, so I'm stoked to see such a meaty retrospective!
Thanks!
The cutaways and transitions as well omg, what a great production!
Oh, look! My favorite JRPG of all time! ❤
It's definitely made its way onto my top 5
I completely got the fighting game vibe. Canceling an enemy's attack with the right option feels like landing a counter hit.
I can kinda see that
My favorite game of all time.
Excellent video! Wonderful vibes throughout! My first experience with Grandia was the HD Collection on Nintendo Switch. I played a little of Grandia 1 but completed Grandia 2. It was just something about the "Dreamcast Aesthetic" and the gameplay of the sequel that kept me coming back. I definitely consider Grandia 2 one of my favorite videogames of all time and I look forward to your thoughts on it.
I'm excited to play Grandia 2 (I've got the HD Collection too) but I'm almost wondering if it'd be better to try to get the original Dreamcast version just for the genuineness
high quality production. looking forward to the G2 video
Thanks!
1:18 Oh man, that intro gave me early 2000 Cartoon Network, after 12 am, Adult Swim vibes.
That's my favorite style ♥️
I'm glad my favorite RPG game is getting more attention.
I'm shocked by how few videos there are on Grandia. It certainly didn't help with research for the script, lol
A friend of mine said he wanted to play the game. I annoyed him long enough so he caved and went with the English Dub. He immediately doubted me as soon as Mullen had his first lines RIGHT IN THE OPENING, but stuck with it nonetheless. Afterwards, he agreed that the bad voice acting added to the charm.
Thinking about it now, I believe the cheesy lines and horrible voice work help with staving off any seriousness, allowing you to fully enjoy the childish adventure the game takes you on. This game is just that: A kid going out to seek adventure, getting far more than he bargained for, but staying the same plucky kid with boundless optimism and a carefree attitude all the way through. The devs absolutely nailed Justin as a character.
Great observation. I was the same way, when I first downloaded the game I turned it off after Mullen started talking. Took years to come back to it and give it a genuine go. Sometimes you're in the mood for something serious, sometimes you're in the mood for cheesy fun adventure
New favorite channel, forreal. The adult swim homage is done perfectly man. The commentary on the game is rock solid (I think, never played it tbh hah)
Thank you very much! I appreciate you watching!
Great video. Hope more like these will come in the future. Subbed!
Thanks for the sub!
Hey just started chewing through this retrospective and loving it, hope we see a Grandia 2 retrospective
Thank you! I've got Grandia 2 in the queue. How would you compare it to 1?
Rpg maker times were wild.
There were some really good gems
Just listened to the video today while at work. Loved the production values with the classic commercial-like bumpers(even if I couldn't pay a ton of attention to the visual details). Grandia was my first RPG and is still one of my favorites, and overall this was a very good retrospective. If I had much to nitpick, I'd say maybe the Garlyle Forces motivations could've been touched on a bit better. Only mentioning General Baal's world domination plans kinda makes it sound like the soldiers knew very well they were doing a bad, when in reality they were just told they were "working for a better future", until Baal reveals his real motivations. On another note, it's absolutely WILD that when detailing the games that followed Grandia, you mention all the games that were never officially released in English, but completely skip over Grandia Xtreme, which DID have an English release. It even had Mark Hamill voice one of the villains.
Thanks for taking the time to watch! (or listen). I had to cut X for time but you're right, I probably should have mentioned it. Mark Hammil is great
This and legend of legaia started my addiction back in the 90s on ps1.
I'm only a little familiar with Legaia, how is it?
@WesDoesGames it was my first jrpg. The battle system is like a turned based fighting game with you putting in inputs to string together attacks and make super moves. It's got an amazing soundtrack and a really kinda unique world. Characters are a little basic, but they are likable and done well. It's one of my favorites.
I'll have to add it to the queue!
also I absolutely love the old school adult swim approach to this video. the bumps are insanely on point too.
A1 man, ill be running through your channel through out the next couple days.
I appreciate it! I've been gradually developing this style, so for similar vibes I'd suggest working your way backwards chronologically. Some of my first videos I'm embarrassed by 😅
1:09
Them: how many times did you watch the intro?
Me: yes
Thanks for the intro appreciation!
I bought this game second hand physically back in the day as a playstation port in Germany. When you think the english voice acting is bad, let me introduce you to the atrocious double dub of the german version. Regular gameplay is dubbed in english only. But when a voiced movie plays, the english dub plays in the background with an additional german voiceover... Very strange experience. I played the grandia 2 port for PC after, and I think it was really nice english voice acting. Playing grandia 3 as a european was a pain in the butt tho as we didn't receive an official release. You had to get the offical PS2 harddrive attachment, buy the ntsc game and rip it or get a rom, put it on the harddrive via an external frame and attach the harddrive back to your PlayStation 2. Now you only need a special CD to trick your PAL PS2 and you can finally play grandia 3 lol. I really loved the game and getting it to work was part of the adventure :'D
Wow, that's dedication! I feel spoiled now that I can just play it on my switch or ps5 without any trouble. Kudos to you
Oooh the way the video is produced got an instant sub out of me homie.
Glad to have you aboard!
I miss this series so much
Which games did you play?
@@WesDoesGames 1 and 2. I should get to the other ones in the series
I used to get annoyed at how wordy the Grandia characters and NPCs are... but now that I'm on Trails into Reverie (Sky trilogy, Crossbell duology, and Cold Steel quadrilogy prior, phew), I'm now sufficiently OK with endless dialogues.
Oh Grandia's dialogue is nothing compared to Golden Sun and other rpgs that needed to fill a word quota lol. How is the Trails series? I always wanted to get into it but never knew where to start
@@WesDoesGames Start with Trails of Sky first chapter, second chapter, sky the 3rd, Trails into Zero, Trails into Azure, Trails of Cold Steel 1-4, then Trails into Reverie, Trails through Daybreak 1-2 and then Trails Farewell, O Zemuria. It's the Avenger of JRPG series with huge world building and never ending NPC dialogues. All the games are connected just like MCU.
@@roastpork5437 that gives me an ungodly amount of anxiety lol
Grandia never felt overdone. Modern j rpgs go on way to much.
I really hope you do the second one too
It's in the queue!
Grandia was one of the rpgs my big brother introduced me to back when it came out and being 10 I was hooked by the story and gameplay. I love this game with all my heart and actually someone found most of the voice cast from the game and interviewed them (Davey Valentine, I believe his name is) Btw I love the editing of this video a lot! Something nice and somewhat 90s feel to it with the small breaks
I appreciate it! I mention Davey near the end of the video. Cool guy
@@WesDoesGames absolutely!!
sorry not sorry for posting so much, im invested now. i am downloading the rom to this as we speak. you convinced me. I still got 50 minutes to go but damn the game is so good. Ive never played it before
You'll have a great time!
Ok..... you officially have my favorite UA-camr intro. 😅
That means alot!
Came for the RPG stayed for the Adult Swim vibes
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Hey how ya doing? As someone that has played through lunar 2 eternal blue a couple times ( i know its the second one, but still) It is in my top 5 all time favorite games.
The characters are all so well designed,
its quirky as hell (even down to its ability descriptions and items and stuff)
There's a ton of content within the game itself,
the battle system was one of my favorites,
it has full on anime cut scenes that are fully voiced ( with some other dialogue also being voice)
Honestly top tier game that will still holds up today. Well worth the play through.
My favorite bit of dialogue comes from Milda's bra armor. The description is just "sexy." if I remember correct, lol
Loved this video (both as a Grandia fan and as someone who stayed up late to watch Adult Swim back when I probably shouldn't have haha). So happy to have a well produced Grandia 1 video out in the wild.
One thing that I think Grandia 1 truly deserves some praise against FFVII is how it handled 3D. Where FFVII had 3D sprites and 2D backgrounds, I think the graphics, especially when they are 'remastered' haven't aged as well. Whereas I find the 2D sprites in a 3D world to look superb. It would have been interesting to see what Game Arts would have done if they continued down that path - though Grandia 2 does look great.
Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you liked it.
I definitely agree, 2d sprites on 3d bg ages way better than the reverse
Grandia was so much fun.
It really grew on me quickly
I never got to play grandia on the Saturn. I wanted a saturn for Christmas growing up. So naturally i got a N64 from Christmas... Lol. But I absolutely fell in love with Grandia II on the Dreamcast.
I always wanted a Dreamcast growing up, ever since I saw that whale chasing Sonic. How was Grandia 2?
Pretty cool format, groovy
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"Compas is brocken" Nah it just points you in the direction you need to go
Maybe I'm dumb but I genuinely could not figure it out. Anytime I followed it, it would just continue rotating and send me into walls lol
@@WesDoesGames Well I say the direction you need to go, it points to an exit, the first direction it points is to advance and you can press a button to change it to other exits, there's also certain locations where it doesnt point to anything.
@@ttrriiggeerrhhaappyy lol yeah I never would have guessed that 😅
@@ttrriiggeerrhhaappyy Grandia 2 does the compass much better and quicker to understand.
I’m here to SEED not to READ 😂
Thank you for this video
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How do you have so few subs? The style on this video is really good
Thank you kindly!
Sensational man!
❤️🙏
I am stunned by the quality of
Thank you ❤️
My favorite thing about this game is the feel. The shitty voice acting, the graphics, the world building, the characters, combat system, everything feels fun and relaxed! Its a bit TOO easy, but I fixed that on my second playthrough by Not upgrading the characters weapons or armor. You will level up your weapons so uard that youll still feel overpowered.
It's a shame it's so easy because the magic and weapon leveling system is pretty unique and doesn't make much of a difference since you can breeze through it
Also, yeah. I actually appreciate the crappy voice acting. It's a nice nostalgia hit, y'know?
I really like the goofyness of older media, its just not the same with new titles (looking at you silent hill 2 remake).
It's almost a skill unto itself to be bad enough to be charming, but not enough to be offputting.
I think video games were still mostly seen as "kids territory" back then so good voice acting wasn't expected. So we can probably thank games like TLoU for killing this esthetic, lol
Serious Toonami vibes :D I love it.
Thanks friend
Loved this series growing up…sucks that grandma 3 isn’t in the remaster and Hudson is…gone forever
😢
It's more like the marketing team insisted you make your grizzled adventurer a teen. So you change nothing aside from the bio.
I'm just your average fourteen year old trying to fight demons and save the world from the evil empire (lights cig)
24:10 Soo... I NEVER had the issue you describe. The game is made so you TURN THE CAMERA AND LOOK AROUND... ALLOT.
24:45 That compass usually shows you where you supposed to go, like at this Leck Mines example it shows you where the entrance to the mines is.
Must have just been me 😅
@@WesDoesGames I doubt only you had the issue, there are bound to be a few more.
I thought it is obvious that the compass needle usually points towards where you need to go, apparently it was not, lol. I always wanted to replay the game in English, but since the PS1 time I never got around to do it. At the time of the PS1 release there where other games I played, later on the PSP I was wasting my time mostly with Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics and now the "HD" re-release has flaws, that's why I not bought it yet.
I forgot to say, I played the Japanese Sega Saturn version, right after Shining Force III all 3 scenarios(also in Japanese). That is why I didn't have any issue with turning the camera to look around, because the perspective of both games is similar(thought Shining Force III is a tactical game, not a RPG).
But... otherwise great video, keep making them!
After I played Final Fantasy 7 I played Grandia and Lunar.
How do they all compare?
Killer intro!
Thanks! ❤️
Classic RPG, they dont make them like this anymore! Traded my FF7 in for this as a kid.
Grandia failed for the same reason PDS failed. It came out on the Sega Saturn and took 2 years to release on the console people actually bought, the PS1, by then Grandia wasn't competing only with FF7, it was competing with FF7, FF8 and all the other JRPGs that were coming out at that point. 3d was already becoming the standard at that point and Grandia looked like a step back, from the marketing perspective.
It was my favourite JRPG then, it is my favourite JRPG now.
That makes alot of sense! It's too bad though, Sega had great RPG potential but never seemed to have very good luck
Working designs did not localize Grandia. Sony did it in house. They wanted to but ultimately lost the bid to Sony who were willing to pay more for the property
Thanks for the correction
i clicked because i saw grandia and i played it on my playstation decades ago. i like these retrospective videos and subscribed to some like majuular, neverknowsbest, the salt factory, max derrat etc. so i will subscribe to this channel as well. just a bit criticism, your intro is good, just make it a little bit shorter, everything else is good.
Thanks for the feedback. I love majuular too, lll have to check out some of those other ones
13:16 So in the original Japanese I think that it might have been a regular bar, because Java's Japanese name is Gin (ジン). They localised it to coffee to keep within the US age ratings.
Edit: I'll be replying to this thread with comments as I go though! Really enjoying the vid so far :)
26:20 I think this kind of relates back to something you said earlier in the video, in that the game is the "Saturday morning cartoon" of JRPGs. Definitely during Disc 1 (imho the strongest part of the game) a lot of these quests have a kind of "monster of the week" vibe to them. I personally quite like that, it's utilising context-relevant tropes to really solidify the themes.
24:27 (earlier comment got deleted I think because of the link I included) The compass points towards either your destination, or the exit of the area you're in. You can hit L2/R2 to toggle between destinations, and the compass spins faster the closer you get. The red bit also always points towards cardinal north. I think this is vaguely explained during one of the save point hints early in the game, but the manual gives a full breakdown of how it works. Modern games obviously are designed so you don't need to read the manual, but I think it's pretty par for the course for 80s/90s games. In fact the manual for grandia gives you a bit of extra exposition, it's definitely worth checking out!
34:50 I think the main place this shows is in that many, many enemies have elemental weaknesses and resistances and other than a few specific instances (the ghost enemies in the optional Tower of Temptation needing the anti-ghost mace from way back in the Dom ruins) you just... Don't even realise that they even have them lol
35:20 I think the wall goes all the way around and could potentially also be found west of Messina. There's a great map by Osamu Kobayashi which seems to indicate that the wall extends fully off the map in both directions, so as the world of Grandia is a planet (which I think we see from Alent) it would make sense that the End of the World goes all the way around.
56:50 So fun fact about this: the original Japanese name for the Twin Towers is already in English: ツインタワー, which is romanized as Tsuintawaa. Note that it is not pluralised here. In fact, the tower seen in the intro with the bright orb above it is quite likely to be the Twin Towers during the height of the Angelou civilisation! It's likely that a more accurate localisation for it would be Twin Tower, or perhaps even Twins' Tower, as the Twin here refers to the Icarians who were born in Twin pairs, as opposed there being more than one tower, when there is in fact only a single tower there!
Big fan of how you edit your videos 10/10 vibes but maybe have less fake commercial?
They're all real commercials because they're advertising something (me), lol
@@WesDoesGames fair enough.
Got interviews with most of the cast on my channel, can confirm it was not done by 4kids. :)
You're the mvp dude
I hate to be that guy, but Working Designs had nothing to do with Grandia. Sony Computer Entertainment translated it. That's why Justin's English VA is the same as Parappa.
Thanks for the correction! I don't know how I crossed those wires
I may find the MC's design kinda... meh. Feena was hot and I enjoyed my time playing the game. Shit was great!
Love those charming pseudo add breaks but I think you did too many. 3 or 4 total would have been good.
Thanks for the feedback
What did you love most about Grandia?
If I had to answer on-the-spot I'd say just the general vibe of the story and characters. (I know that's super vague but still)
Magic System. From it's leveling, to its Magic Combinations.
The story; how it started as a kids' game, playing adventurers that eventually (and gradually) evolved into world-saving stakes.
@@demonsangells THIS!
I love an epic build-up@@demonsangells
On the note of the dub, the german version's is even worse lol
They clearly got some random friends or family to do it and didnt even remove the english audio, just recorded on top of it xD
Well now I gotta find a video...
I did not giggle at magical lucky nuts.
I did giggle at post nut clarity though; so I guess that I do have to like and subscribe. I have never seen one of your videos before but this is fun; thank you for sharing it with us.
If I can entertain one person with my 13 year old boy humor than I'll have done my job
Aren't we lucky that we can play an fan translated english subbed Japanese voiced version on the Saturn as god intended?
But where's the fun in that?
Edit: So uhh, the acid rain actually does drain your health after a while, there is no visual tell other than checking if your health has gone down, I even remember this being a thing back when I played it.
When I feel an itch to replay Grandia I'll probably play that version.
The acid rain really drains your hp? That blows my mind because I didn't notice the hp drop at all. I mean the acid river would make a noise if you touched it. 💀
@@WesDoesGames If I recall, at least on the psone version of the game, at one point in the middle of the quest, Gadwin warns you about the acid becoming more dangerous, that should be the point where it starts depleting your health without any visual cue. Since I've never played the remaster I don't know if that feature is just missing, I do know however that they didn't use the Saturn source code for the remaster, it should have the same structure as the psone had.
I might need to revisit the game to double check it for myself.
One for Grandia 2 ? 🥺💖
I still have to play it! :)
@@WesDoesGamesthat would be so awesome ❤❤❤❤ it is my favourite part :) I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did
Just started playing through it myself and, I must confess: a little annoyed about how little buzz this plucky little game has.
It's a hidden gem for sure
The adventure may be unforgettable, but, I forgot just how bad the voice acting was....
😂
what's the music that starts at 00:35 ?
I'm afraid you're blaming the wrong people for the voice acting. Working Designs tried to get the rights to release Grandia in English, but they couldn't. Instead Sony decided to have their American branch handle Grandia's localization in-house. If you want to blame someone for the bad voice acting, blame Sony. If WD had gotten the rights, the voice acting would have still been a bit corny, but a higher quality of corny.
Thanks for pointing that out. A few people have corrected me on this, I got my facts wrong there. 😅😅😅
Working Designs didn't do Grandia.
I thought Sony did the localization here?
If they did then I've made a terrible mistake 😅😅😅 thanks for pointing that out, I appreciate the correction
Yeah... It's easy to forget to water the wife and kids from time to time. Happens to the best of us, bud! 😅
IS there a Wes Does Games for Xenogears?
That's been on my bucket list for a while. Majuular has a great retrospective on it I'd highly recommend
@@WesDoesGameswell get to it good sir! :) I believe in you and your new anime assistant!
My favorite game of all time, just switch the English dub off.
Noooooo ☠️
Gaias ass 🤣🤣