The reviews for this game are staggering to me. I absolutely loved this game personally, and to this day it's still one of my favorite RPGs of all time.
Same here, i bought this back in the day and loved it, i miss Quintet so much, Soul Blazer trilogy is the most memorable thing in videogames ever created for me.
I'm not gonna lie, I think the look of early poliginal games are a weird kind of charming. I actually love seeing those low polly, early 3d engines. Granstream Saga was actually the first game I ever bought with my own money from my first job, so I'm a little biased, but I liked it. PS Best video ever
Derek, Derek. Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, consider this collaboration a gift on the day of some guy's daughter's wedding somewhere. Joking aside, this turned out great man! I forgive you for shutting the TV off on me and not adding the Granstream Saga to the Game Collection. It was really fun working with you on this...I wish I would have known which clips you were using so we didn't double up so much, but it's no biggie I guess. Anyway, you know what channel to tune into when you start doing Suikoden reviews. ;)
i know that is better if you got it for realz, BUT, when the games are pricey... you can bypass that, i mean, is that or his show will be only about cheap games. "welcome back to the game collection and today i will review super marios bros and duck hunt for the nes"
Hey Jimmy quick question: being fluent in Japanese, have you played the Japanese version of this game and if so, can you confirm if Derek was right and THQ did botch the localization?
The first jrpg I remember, for that alone it holds a fond place in my heart. It had interesting features like its relationship choices and how your armor would whinge with what was equipped.
Late to the party, this game is actually the 4 game in the Soul blazer trilogy, "Shade" is the ps1 dev team of quintet and consisted of many of the people who worked on Blazer, Illusion and Terranigma including the director, art director and lead programmer
I hated this game with my guts when I was a child. But I REALLY tried to like it, so I could finish it. To this day, I still remember the mixed feelings I had towards it. More to the negative side.
What a great collab! I really enjoyed this guys, the Derek and Jimmy Hapa duo is two of a kind that work really well together, both of your segments were enjoyable! :) Now for this game, boy, it's interesting when hearing both sides, it looks fun for a playthrough, I will have to give it a chance one day to just play and see how it is. The character models with no face though, kinda creepy... But hey, it's got a good soundtrack! ;D
***** I'm really glad that I pulled Jimmy in for this one, he was awesome to work with. Plus, he really balanced out this review. 10/10 would collab again. :)
Holy moly. I didn't know this. Gonna pull this off the shelf and play it. It's been sitting there in the backlog for years. Thank you, Derek. Love the soul blazer trilogy. Finishing up terranigma as we speak once again.
Here in europe, due to a playable demo full of action and with the famous shower scene, the game became kinda popular for a really short time. Many ppl btw was stuck at the beginning of the game, in the "make the tea" quest :D
First of all, thanks for introducing me to Jimmy's channel. Since seeing this, I've subscribed and watched a good bit of his content. Good stuff. :) Secondly, I have not played this game before, although I've heard of it. I had no idea this game's links to the Soul Blazer saga. I will have to pick this one up myself, even if it doesn't get the full recommendation from this video. ;) Great collab review! :) I'm pretty sure I haven't commented on this video already. UA-cam likes to hide my comments sometimes, and it's a little embarrassing when I comment on the same video twice. :P
Hello! Im curious to know what game is being played at the very end of the video annotation? The link brought me somewhere else than the game. Thanks in advance!
+Minotaorus +Minotaorus It's an import game that Jimmy reviewed on his channel, The Adventure of Little Ralph. Here's a link to his video: ua-cam.com/video/lr2lCr6q2ak/v-deo.html
Unfortunately it sounds like this is actually was incorrect. The manga in question does not exist, and is apparently some sort of rumor started by a rando magazine back in the day that just became more common over time. I believe it's talked about in a book called "The Untold Histories of Japanese Game Developers" that talks about this more in depth, it's worth a read.
Jimmy knows what's up. And funny coincidence: just yesterday I accidentally ran into the video where that fanservice picture is from :/ Yeah I know that's a very specific fetish but it really was an accident. It really was... *shut up!* It was.
i love the grandstream saga and i think its nice that someone finaly puts some thought into it and is not just saying "meh the grafics suck so the game sucks" like many (not all) but many say...
No, Shade is not Quintet. It was formed by former Quintet staff and some key member (scenario writer and music team) worked on Granstream Saga but Quintet was a separate entity. Quintet in the meantime was developing games for Saturn (Solo Crisis and Code R). Also Granstream Saga didn't dethrone FFVII from charts (not per Famitsu charts at least) since the game came out 11 months after FFVII release. FFVII was dethroned 5 weeks later by a Saturn game. Don't believe everything you read on the net.
This game need to be brought back in a modern format but with more advanced gameplay mechanics, like certain skills and such. Maybe a prequel to the original game. About how planet's axis shifted and how the wise men first sent the continents up above the flooded surface.
i really dont understand why no one ever has anything good to say about this game! sure i agree at points it can be boring and there is no leveling system but this game i hold very dear to me! when i was kid i got sick with chicken pox, and was out of school for two weeks cause of it, during my first week of having my sickness my grandma went out and got me two new games, ff8 and this game, i ended up playing this more then ff8 cause i liked the look and feel of the game, it wasnt a ff game where you take turns hitting each other and give commands, it was all done in real time, and having skill and the right equipment also helped but no matter where i turn people bash this game.... i know people will always have their own taste in there own games but compared to a lot of shit rpgs that i have played id rather come back to this one cause i know im going to enjoy it, for example i get on the second disk of ff7 and just loose all interest in it, its no longer fun cause to me that game drags ass (like moat ff games), this game is short and simple, another complaint people have is that this game is to short, i have no issues with it being short, its forward the story is simple and you not going on to 3/4 disks of bullshit, dont get me wrong i LOVE FF games but this game is the most hated on in the ps1 era, and to me there is no reason why. GREAT GAMER!! IMO
Julian Newcomer Hey Julian, in the review Jimmy and I took opposing sides as basically an excuse to do a video together, it was a lot of fun -- but we both realize that there are good and bad parts to the game. It was our intention to be fair and talk about both sides of the game, rather than just bashing or praising it. We basically just got all of the bad out of the way first, sort of like how I reviewed Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter. :)
SuperDerek RPG Reviews i liked the review very much cause it wasnt nothing but hate on it (like most reviews i have seen), but to me it must be the nostalgia that i have for this game, personally i like to think people should give it a try at least, and you all made very good and bad points of it, im 25 now, and yeah i had high hopes for it as well, for example it would have been nice to play as different characters in the game. maybe get a better understanding of them all, but since it is all from our hero's point it is blan, i agree... but once you get past this that this game is enjoyable, to me at least
because people who played this game when young and play it again start judging it on today's standard bias , thats all, i played it also back then and loved it
They can bash Grandstream saga ps1 video game all they wanted I would rather be enjoying the game myself and I will enjoy it once again so let's let them have their own views of the game itself 😉
last thing i want to ask from you, you said this was the final end of the soul blazer series? would i need to go back and play this series to really get the understanding of it all?
Julian Newcomer Nope! The Soul Blazer series is sort of a loose collection of games by a developer known as Quintet, and in this case, Shade. The titles are mostly unrelated, except for a few crossover characters, themes, and locations. You don't have to play all, or any of them to know what's going on. However, I still highly recommend them, especially Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma if you're in the market for a good action RPG experience on your SNES. Also, I've reviewed them all here: ua-cam.com/play/PLic15f5zMC6fcf_D59hKD_Wmy_-mObYZL.html :)
I bought this game back in 2005, but the Pal version, which was actually published by Sony (SCEE - Sony Computer Entertainment Europe). Seems to me no changes were made from the US version. I have never played the Japanese version. Not a lot of people say anything good from GS, but seriously I don't know why. I still think this games still lingers its then reputation of being subpar, which is false to my belief. Sure, it's no Zelda beater but it's a fun game! Remember kids, it was made before Ocarina of time, before Z targeting and most other action 3D Rpgs. Zelda Oot got it right for the first time, the other before that were like GS - they were still experimenting (GS has a fixed targeting system towards the enemy and in a confined space). It came out in Japan before coming a year later to the US and 2 wholes years to Europe , so basically players were already spoiled from other games. You see, that's the main problem with this game. It came out a bit too late. It should have been released by 1997 everywhere and I bet the reviews would have been a bit more warm. Another thing that could have placed the game higher in people's "want" list is not having the Quintet or Enix Badge on it. A lot of people still don't know this was made by the same guys as Terranigma and could be placed in the Soul Blazer Series, although probably as a spiritual sequel (but it also seems a lot of people refuse this). But I digress, about the game: Yeah, it's your standard Action Rpg story-wise, but you have to admit it has a good vibe and the world has a nice aura about it. Graphically it's not a bad looking game, the textures are good, animations are ok too, shame about the eyes, but you can't have a grudge on a guy for not having eyes, right? I'd say it's a 7 out of 10 graphically speaking. An 8 out of 10 if you consider this was made in 1996-1997. The fighting system does have its problems and is repetitive (a wierd killer blow system, using these is a bit clunky), but c'mon, even the Snes games had a similar system, they just worked better on 2D. I'd say a 5-6 out of 10 in gameplay, as the action is fast. As for the sound the game has amazing soundtracks, they are some of the best on the Ps1 library, they are really that good. Real nice work here from the team, the best aspect of the game. I'd say it's a 9 out 10 since some of the sound effects are basic like hitting your opponent or some magical effects. It's not that long of a game, you'd probably reach the end by the 20 hour mark, but it is compelling and a decent romp throughout the game and is very replayable, but should have had some mini games along the way as they are missing. 7 out of 10 in duration, it's decent. I'd give this game a 6.8 ou of 10. It's decent, fun but ultimately has its flaws that lower the score a bit, but it's not a terrible game like Beyond the Beyond or Monkey Hero. On par with Alundra 2, though. I'd say it's a buy it if you find it below 10$ in the US, or lower than 15€ in Europe (it's a little more pricey in Europe). They should really remake this game along with Ephemeral Fantasia on the Ps2.
This is another game that I remember playing and remember enjoying but don't remember much about. I remember loving that you looked different with every armor you equipped. So few games at the time or even now do that and it's such a shame. But this game did and I loved that about it. Not going to lie...13 year old me had a save kept right before that shower cut scene.
I've owned it, played it, beat it, and loved every minute of this game. Best anime cutscenes and I didn't have no problem when I bought it. I wish this game was on PSN so I can rebuy it.
This was actually one of the first RPGs I played on the PS. Despite being utterly irked by the characters not having faces, I remember this game fondly.
Just beat the game today (4-8-19), it's a pretty good and unique game. The anime cutscenes were great, also, the characters and twist at the end was pretty cool too.
Why don't the character models have any faces ? Drawing on faces doesn't even take more polygons to make ! And it would help to portray some emotions when displaying dialog text boxes and character portraits .
I NEVER knew this was done by the Quintet guys! I was a massive Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia. Young me would have been SO bummed to learn i missed out on 3rd entry Terranigma AND this lol. At least i think i missed out on this. I played so many rpgs on ps1 that some blend together so if i did play this i had bo idea about the Shade and quintet thing...
Okay. Now you just have to do one on Alundra. Best game on PS1 ( in my opinion) and spiritual successor to landstalker. ( as if you allready didn´t know that) Great channel. Allways looking forward to your next episode. Best voice on youtube. :) Best wishes from Sweden.
Thanks ThePiraja66, I've got a copy of Alundra, and I want to play it, but I'm a little action-RPGd out for the moment. I think I'm going to review some turn-based games then come back to Alundra a little later. :)
If you are going into the game nowadays for the first time it's definitely offputting. However when I first got my hands on this game after playing through the likes of Final Fantasy 7 and Megaman Legends this game was a great change of pace. While I found it odd I gained experience at storyline checkpoints I loved searching for weapons and armor and of course the combat!
I wanted this game for several years after playing a PS magazine demo. I was similarly disappointed when i got it - not enough to stop playing before the game ended though. For a game made early in the PSOne era, I can't judge the graphics much (though the manaquin looking characters do hurt the eye at times, the anime cutscenes are great). The plot and characters disappointingly didn't develop much, the story was exactly what you'd expect from the introduction. The gameplay was unique, but not in a good way sadly. I remember being very annoyed by the fire level (or the fact that there's element based levels like this is a platform game).
I watched this...but didn't like or comment on it. What was I thinking?! Well, I just rewatched for a second time, and when I saw my lack of interaction, I thought, better fix that! This was a great review, guys. I've only briefly played Soul Blazer but really couldn't get into it, but I'm interested in actually giving this a shot after watching this review. After all, I do own it and have had it sitting in my PS1 collection for some time. The walking mechanics look pretty stiff though, I think that's going to be my biggest complaint based on what I've seen.
I remember playing this game as a kid for the first time, got stuck in the beginning of the game after intro as i wasn't know what should I do 🤣 Than my mom tried the game and told me, "do you know that you actually need to fire the stove and heating the water?" Never knew that was the first task in the game i should do, and i was stuck for days 🤣
i love this series, but haven't played granstream of yet. i own it, but haven't played it... anyway it was really interesting to see your two viewpoints about it. loved the ending :)
I really wanted to get this game back in the day because I had just played Lunar andloved all the anime scenes and this game boasted on the cover that they did that too lol. Thankfully my lack of money spared me.
was this the game that asks you some deep life choices. eg: if i remember correctly, what's important love or money? then they break it out to you that it needs to be the balance of the two.
heavy spoiler, in the end this game will also ask to sacrifice one of the two heroines, the ending will be based on which heroines you sacrifice, its hard choice tbh
Ahh Granstream Saga never knew it was apart of a series before. I loved that game, the faceless avatars was a bit weird, but after awhile I found myself totally ignoring that fact and enjoying the game.
fan translation is in order. it's absolutely a different game in japanese. also yea the lvl up thing was weird... not as bad as chrono cross's lvling up only with boss fights.
Quite frankly, this is the best review in the whole Super Derek "Soul Blazer" series of reviews, and Jimmy's contributions added quite a bit of humor. It was also quite informative. I loved the history of Shade. There is so little out there regarding the studio. I've always had extremely low expectations of GS, especially before I knew that it was in the Soul Blazer series. THQ had always produced poor games and this just looked generic in a sea of excellent Playstation RPGs. And even though there are far better games from Quintet, I still look forward to at least trying this game. I picked it up earlier last year and I may even play it before playing the remaining SNES Quintet games. Early PS1 games are pretty terrible looking, in hindsight, and are hard to pick up these days. I find even 2600 games to be more palatable at times. But this game surprisingly holds up fairly well in terms of graphics, outside of the downright creepy faceless characters. I have no idea why they thought that was a good idea. Thanks for the review!
I remember being really excited for Granstream Saga when it first came out because a friend told me that Ryo Yonemitsu was working on the soundtrack... and that turned out to not be true, but the soundtrack was pretty good anyway. I really wanted to love the game, but I just didn't. It's got its high points: the overall premise and last few hours of plot, the combat system, the music... but that's bogged down too much by the boring characters and dialog, the pointlessness of actually fighting enemies, and the tediousness of the rest of the gameplay. A modern remake of it could be great, but I'm sure that'll never happen.
Really tidy, nice work man. I am a real sucker for that early 3D look in games. I guess there's something aesthetically pleasing about it and the fact it's unique to the era... Unlike 2D games and even modern pixel titles like ShovelKnight, we'll never see things like blocky sprites arranged in a stark 3D environment or those big, featureless polygons... And at the time, it was genuinely exciting.. I honestly can't think of a bigger leap forward in gaming and it's possibilities than when true 3D become a reality.. Literally changed the scene.
Leftover Culture Review I get what you're saying, and the later PSX games (Like Chrono Cross for instance) don't bother me at all, and neither do early N64 games. It's really just those really early PSX titles that bug me... But I can still see past them at least, but they're probably never going to charm me like 2D graphics do. Who knows though, maybe with enough exposure I'll learn to like 'em. :)
To each their own when it comes to their game preferences. But to me... this game brings only nostalgia and good times even though I haven't had the pleasure of finishing it. And maybe I'm only saying this because It was my first introduction to RPG gaming but the game as some good points even if the game does seem primitive now in today's standards. But if I had to be honest, I reckon to do this game real justice is to give this game a complete overhaul in the graphics, re-vamp the entire battle system and fix up the puzzle solving parts of the game and maybe some of the dialogue but still keep it true to granstream saga fans. I think this game would be a hot seller. Hell! If they can do it for Legend Of Zelda why not Granstream Saga.
1:33 did you ever come across the magazine ads for Granstream Saga? I have, and there are actually two versions. The original, the female character on the right is pictured normally but then they made an edit(idiot more like) to it in another to have her featuring rather large and prominent, metal bustier clad breasts and bared forearms. When I saw this reading through a (then) new issue of Game Informer way back when, I immediately went back and looked at the first ad I saw for it. I thought it was shameless back then, still do.
I really enjoyed the very interesting and unique set up to the story to this game the battling was very challenging at first but it was like a mix between final fantasy and Zelda and helped me to decide what kind of an RPG/adventure gamer I am I'll give you a hint I have a Triforce tattooed on my arm LOL
Oh yeah also when this game came out it was just like anime it was lucky enough to just barely pass the creation of our species being so divided we use terms like anime archetypes stereotypes and reboots back then all animes were just kind of like that except Miyazakis movies he was very unique
Granstream Saga was no masterpiece, but at the time of it's release, it was okay if you didn't want to take polygonal RPGs too seriously at the time. I enjoyed it when I first played it, but I can't bring myself to play through it again. I'd rather go play any of the three prequels, mostly, Illusion of Gaia.
I had this game as a kid I loved it the protagonist Eon reminds me of Adol from the YS series and as for the graphics well the lack of Faces was odd but stylistic polygons where new and developers where still figuring out the new hardware limitations just look at from softwares games on the same console kings field and its sequels where great but no one can call them pretty not to mention how slow and cumbersome the battles are in those games granstream saga runs circles around Kings Field!
Oh god, I hated that game... as a kid, those long, face-less character models creeped me the f* out. And I still find them abhorrent . That and the absolute bird's eye top-down view - I'm not a bird! What were they thinking?
I suspect you didnt play this at launch did you? I feel like you would've enjoyed it alot more if you had played it back in the ps1 hey dayn the 90s and early 2000s
to make the graphics a little better I wished they worked with the creators of the ps1 fighting game, Evil Zone!!! Evil Zone perfectly show each characters personality through 3D graphics and they had pretty good voice acting as well! In Granstream saga I wish they let you play as Arcia And Laramee!! With some kind of limit breaks!!! All In All Granstream Saga Is one of my favorites, but if they were having a lot of troubles with graphics couldn't they ask for help?
This damned game... I bought it back in 1999 or 2000 where I found it in a bargain bin and I've tried playing it from time to time since then, but it's so boring that after an hour or so I have to turn it of and just go cry in a corner :( But you mentioned boobs in the game? I think I have to give it another shot ;)
Sounds about right to me. I remember the one time I did rush through this game it being a very linear feeling and overly boring experience. If this is someone's best game ever thing good for them but as for me I had already played a million and a half rpg's at the time. This one felt weak as all get out.
That was part of 99% of all observations about this game "Where are the faces.?". ^_^ Strange because there are texture maps but not where they critically needed them. O_o??? Like Jimmy said, what about the bewbs?
The reviews for this game are staggering to me. I absolutely loved this game personally, and to this day it's still one of my favorite RPGs of all time.
despite my stellar acting, I dint actually hate the game. I just had mixed feelings about it that I brought in Jimmy to help me illustrate. :-)
Same here, i bought this back in the day and loved it, i miss Quintet so much, Soul Blazer trilogy is the most memorable thing in videogames ever created for me.
Sapphire Valley yeah I have to agree with you, this was definitely one of my favourites back in the day. gonna have to play it again.
Same here I loved this game back in the day.
Heyyyy I watched this with you, on your couch, live! So I baisedly gave it a thumbs up :D
@@BeatEmUps funny seeing you here lol
Love love LOVE the soundtrack in this game.
One of the most underrated soundtracks in RPG-dom, in my humble opinion, of course.
I'm not gonna lie, I think the look of early poliginal games are a weird kind of charming. I actually love seeing those low polly, early 3d engines. Granstream Saga was actually the first game I ever bought with my own money from my first job, so I'm a little biased, but I liked it.
PS
Best video ever
I agree, I love those early 3D graphics as well! They remind me of my childhood lol
Derek, Derek. Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, consider this collaboration a gift on the day of some guy's daughter's wedding somewhere.
Joking aside, this turned out great man! I forgive you for shutting the TV off on me and not adding the Granstream Saga to the Game Collection. It was really fun working with you on this...I wish I would have known which clips you were using so we didn't double up so much, but it's no biggie I guess. Anyway, you know what channel to tune into when you start doing Suikoden reviews. ;)
Just a matter of finding a buyer for my kidney, then I'll be able to start reviewing the Suikoden titles. ;)
Super Derek fucking suikoden ! yesss!!! (emulate them, or buy them on psn or something man!)
i know that is better if you got it for realz, BUT, when the games are pricey... you can bypass that, i mean, is that or his show will be only about cheap games.
"welcome back to the game collection and today i will review super marios bros and duck hunt for the nes"
i dont care about "vga" games or whatever, those a ripoff and a bad practice, normal price for smb & dh is 5 bucks on ebay and i stick with that.
Hey Jimmy quick question: being fluent in Japanese, have you played the Japanese version of this game and if so, can you confirm if Derek was right and THQ did botch the localization?
The lack of faces for the character models really killed this game for me as a kid.
in the end doesn't matter for shit - this game was pearls before swine (me as a kid too of course)
as a kid? it killed it for me as an adult. fucking nightmare.
The first jrpg I remember, for that alone it holds a fond place in my heart. It had interesting features like its relationship choices and how your armor would whinge with what was equipped.
I wish they had a remake of this. I loved it back in the day.
Late to the party, this game is actually the 4 game in the Soul blazer trilogy, "Shade" is the ps1 dev team of quintet and consisted of many of the people who worked on Blazer, Illusion and Terranigma including the director, art director and lead programmer
I hated this game with my guts when I was a child. But I REALLY tried to like it, so I could finish it. To this day, I still remember the mixed feelings I had towards it. More to the negative side.
I Really loved this game when i played this as a kid and now its incredibly nostalgic for me so I still really liked it.
What a great collab! I really enjoyed this guys, the Derek and Jimmy Hapa duo is two of a kind that work really well together, both of your segments were enjoyable! :)
Now for this game, boy, it's interesting when hearing both sides, it looks fun for a playthrough, I will have to give it a chance one day to just play and see how it is. The character models with no face though, kinda creepy... But hey, it's got a good soundtrack! ;D
***** I'm really glad that I pulled Jimmy in for this one, he was awesome to work with. Plus, he really balanced out this review. 10/10 would collab again. :)
Holy moly. I didn't know this. Gonna pull this off the shelf and play it. It's been sitting there in the backlog for years. Thank you, Derek. Love the soul blazer trilogy. Finishing up terranigma as we speak once again.
You have brought great honor to our clan! Great work guys!
Here in europe, due to a playable demo full of action and with the famous shower scene, the game became kinda popular for a really short time. Many ppl btw was stuck at the beginning of the game, in the "make the tea" quest :D
First of all, thanks for introducing me to Jimmy's channel. Since seeing this, I've subscribed and watched a good bit of his content. Good stuff. :) Secondly, I have not played this game before, although I've heard of it. I had no idea this game's links to the Soul Blazer saga. I will have to pick this one up myself, even if it doesn't get the full recommendation from this video. ;) Great collab review! :)
I'm pretty sure I haven't commented on this video already. UA-cam likes to hide my comments sometimes, and it's a little embarrassing when I comment on the same video twice. :P
"But wait! What about the boobs?!"
Hello! Im curious to know what game is being played at the very end of the video annotation? The link brought me somewhere else than the game. Thanks in advance!
+Minotaorus +Minotaorus It's an import game that Jimmy reviewed on his channel, The Adventure of Little Ralph. Here's a link to his video: ua-cam.com/video/lr2lCr6q2ak/v-deo.html
Thanks a lot!
Anyone know more about the manga Kros? Cant find anything about it online. Is it just a rumour? Is it perhaps called something else?
Unfortunately it sounds like this is actually was incorrect. The manga in question does not exist, and is apparently some sort of rumor started by a rando magazine back in the day that just became more common over time. I believe it's talked about in a book called "The Untold Histories of Japanese Game Developers" that talks about this more in depth, it's worth a read.
Jimmy knows what's up.
And funny coincidence: just yesterday I accidentally ran into the video where that fanservice picture is from :/
Yeah I know that's a very specific fetish but it really was an accident. It really was... *shut up!* It was.
i love the grandstream saga and i think its nice that someone finaly puts some thought into it and is not just saying "meh the grafics suck so the game sucks" like many (not all) but many say...
No, Shade is not Quintet.
It was formed by former Quintet staff and some key member (scenario writer and music team) worked on Granstream Saga but Quintet was a separate entity.
Quintet in the meantime was developing games for Saturn (Solo Crisis and Code R).
Also Granstream Saga didn't dethrone FFVII from charts (not per Famitsu charts at least) since the game came out 11 months after FFVII release.
FFVII was dethroned 5 weeks later by a Saturn game.
Don't believe everything you read on the net.
Do you know what happened with Quintet?
I really enjoyed this as a kid. I played through it with a strategy guide book.
This game need to be brought back in a modern format but with more advanced gameplay mechanics, like certain skills and such. Maybe a prequel to the original game. About how planet's axis shifted and how the wise men first sent the continents up above the flooded surface.
i really dont understand why no one ever has anything good to say about this game! sure i agree at points it can be boring and there is no leveling system but this game i hold very dear to me! when i was kid i got sick with chicken pox, and was out of school for two weeks cause of it, during my first week of having my sickness my grandma went out and got me two new games, ff8 and this game, i ended up playing this more then ff8 cause i liked the look and feel of the game, it wasnt a ff game where you take turns hitting each other and give commands, it was all done in real time, and having skill and the right equipment also helped but no matter where i turn people bash this game.... i know people will always have their own taste in there own games but compared to a lot of shit rpgs that i have played id rather come back to this one cause i know im going to enjoy it, for example i get on the second disk of ff7 and just loose all interest in it, its no longer fun cause to me that game drags ass (like moat ff games), this game is short and simple, another complaint people have is that this game is to short, i have no issues with it being short, its forward the story is simple and you not going on to 3/4 disks of bullshit, dont get me wrong i LOVE FF games but this game is the most hated on in the ps1 era, and to me there is no reason why. GREAT GAMER!! IMO
Julian Newcomer Hey Julian, in the review Jimmy and I took opposing sides as basically an excuse to do a video together, it was a lot of fun -- but we both realize that there are good and bad parts to the game. It was our intention to be fair and talk about both sides of the game, rather than just bashing or praising it. We basically just got all of the bad out of the way first, sort of like how I reviewed Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter. :)
SuperDerek RPG Reviews i liked the review very much cause it wasnt nothing but hate on it (like most reviews i have seen), but to me it must be the nostalgia that i have for this game, personally i like to think people should give it a try at least, and you all made very good and bad points of it, im 25 now, and yeah i had high hopes for it as well, for example it would have been nice to play as different characters in the game. maybe get a better understanding of them all, but since it is all from our hero's point it is blan, i agree... but once you get past this that this game is enjoyable, to me at least
This was my first psx game as a kid and im loving it! Im playing it right now :D
because people who played this game when young and play it again start judging it on today's standard bias , thats all, i played it also back then and loved it
They can bash
Grandstream saga ps1 video game all they wanted I would rather be enjoying the game myself and I will enjoy it once again so let's let them have their own views of the game itself 😉
last thing i want to ask from you, you said this was the final end of the soul blazer series? would i need to go back and play this series to really get the understanding of it all?
Julian Newcomer Nope! The Soul Blazer series is sort of a loose collection of games by a developer known as Quintet, and in this case, Shade. The titles are mostly unrelated, except for a few crossover characters, themes, and locations. You don't have to play all, or any of them to know what's going on. However, I still highly recommend them, especially Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma if you're in the market for a good action RPG experience on your SNES. Also, I've reviewed them all here: ua-cam.com/play/PLic15f5zMC6fcf_D59hKD_Wmy_-mObYZL.html :)
I love this game so much it's one of my favorite RPGs of all time.
Well done lads!
I bought this game back in 2005, but the Pal version, which was actually published by Sony (SCEE - Sony Computer Entertainment Europe). Seems to me no changes were made from the US version. I have never played the Japanese version.
Not a lot of people say anything good from GS, but seriously I don't know why. I still think this games still lingers its then reputation of being subpar, which is false to my belief. Sure, it's no Zelda beater but it's a fun game!
Remember kids, it was made before Ocarina of time, before Z targeting and most other action 3D Rpgs. Zelda Oot got it right for the first time, the other before that were like GS - they were still experimenting (GS has a fixed targeting system towards the enemy and in a confined space). It came out in Japan before coming a year later to the US and 2 wholes years to Europe , so basically players were already spoiled from other games. You see, that's the main problem with this game. It came out a bit too late. It should have been released by 1997 everywhere and I bet the reviews would have been a bit more warm.
Another thing that could have placed the game higher in people's "want" list is not having the Quintet or Enix Badge on it. A lot of people still don't know this was made by the same guys as Terranigma and could be placed in the Soul Blazer Series, although probably as a spiritual sequel (but it also seems a lot of people refuse this). But I digress, about the game:
Yeah, it's your standard Action Rpg story-wise, but you have to admit it has a good vibe and the world has a nice aura about it.
Graphically it's not a bad looking game, the textures are good, animations are ok too, shame about the eyes, but you can't have a grudge on a guy for not having eyes, right?
I'd say it's a 7 out of 10 graphically speaking. An 8 out of 10 if you consider this was made in 1996-1997.
The fighting system does have its problems and is repetitive (a wierd killer blow system, using these is a bit clunky), but c'mon, even the Snes games had a similar system, they just worked better on 2D. I'd say a 5-6 out of 10 in gameplay, as the action is fast.
As for the sound the game has amazing soundtracks, they are some of the best on the Ps1 library, they are really that good. Real nice work here from the team, the best aspect of the game. I'd say it's a 9 out 10 since some of the sound effects are basic like hitting your opponent or some magical effects.
It's not that long of a game, you'd probably reach the end by the 20 hour mark, but it is compelling and a decent romp throughout the game and is very replayable, but should have had some mini games along the way as they are missing. 7 out of 10 in duration, it's decent.
I'd give this game a 6.8 ou of 10. It's decent, fun but ultimately has its flaws that lower the score a bit, but it's not a terrible game like Beyond the Beyond or Monkey Hero. On par with Alundra 2, though. I'd say it's a buy it if you find it below 10$ in the US, or lower than 15€ in Europe (it's a little more pricey in Europe).
They should really remake this game along with Ephemeral Fantasia on the Ps2.
This is another game that I remember playing and remember enjoying but don't remember much about. I remember loving that you looked different with every armor you equipped. So few games at the time or even now do that and it's such a shame. But this game did and I loved that about it.
Not going to lie...13 year old me had a save kept right before that shower cut scene.
I've owned it, played it, beat it, and loved every minute of this game. Best anime cutscenes and I didn't have no problem when I bought it. I wish this game was on PSN so I can rebuy it.
I grew up with this game and even though It has a few flaws it is still one of my favorites.
dam son my man went hard on defending this game at the end haha
This was actually one of the first RPGs I played on the PS. Despite being utterly irked by the characters not having faces, I remember this game fondly.
One of the bests and funniest I've watched soo far!!! I'm on point to subscribe to Jimmi Hapa right now!!
Wow.. this game bring back nostalgic Feeling.. i has finished this game when in Middle school, and very satisfying with the ending scene.
So this game or thousand arms?
I can still remember being so hyped for this game to within an hour of owning it realizing that I was robbed.
Just beat the game today (4-8-19), it's a pretty good and unique game. The anime cutscenes were great, also, the characters and twist at the end was pretty cool too.
Why don't the character models have any faces ? Drawing on faces doesn't even take more polygons to make ! And it would help to portray some emotions when displaying dialog text boxes and character portraits .
I NEVER knew this was done by the Quintet guys! I was a massive Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia. Young me would have been SO bummed to learn i missed out on 3rd entry Terranigma AND this lol. At least i think i missed out on this. I played so many rpgs on ps1 that some blend together so if i did play this i had bo idea about the Shade and quintet thing...
I watched a friend play this back in high school. Never grabbed me but he seemed to enjoy it.
Okay. Now you just have to do one on Alundra. Best game on PS1 ( in my opinion) and spiritual successor to landstalker. ( as if you allready didn´t know that)
Great channel. Allways looking forward to your next episode.
Best voice on youtube. :)
Best wishes from Sweden.
Thanks ThePiraja66, I've got a copy of Alundra, and I want to play it, but I'm a little action-RPGd out for the moment. I think I'm going to review some turn-based games then come back to Alundra a little later. :)
Off course you should. Just as long as you do it. :-) I can wait.
Hey Derek can you please do a review of Shadow Madness on PS1? It has received a lot if bad reviews but it's one of my favorite rpg's on the system.
This game was unique and really cool. I remember being super excited when I beat it.
If you are going into the game nowadays for the first time it's definitely offputting.
However when I first got my hands on this game after playing through the likes of Final Fantasy 7 and Megaman Legends this game was a great change of pace.
While I found it odd I gained experience at storyline checkpoints I loved searching for weapons and armor and of course the combat!
17 year old me loved this game when it came out! I even bought a bootleg copy of the soundtrack back then!
I wanted this game for several years after playing a PS magazine demo. I was similarly disappointed when i got it - not enough to stop playing before the game ended though. For a game made early in the PSOne era, I can't judge the graphics much (though the manaquin looking characters do hurt the eye at times, the anime cutscenes are great). The plot and characters disappointingly didn't develop much, the story was exactly what you'd expect from the introduction. The gameplay was unique, but not in a good way sadly. I remember being very annoyed by the fire level (or the fact that there's element based levels like this is a platform game).
Took me a long time to remenber the game and finaly i found it and i like it alot.
Im going to play again one these days in 2020.
I watched this...but didn't like or comment on it. What was I thinking?! Well, I just rewatched for a second time, and when I saw my lack of interaction, I thought, better fix that! This was a great review, guys. I've only briefly played Soul Blazer but really couldn't get into it, but I'm interested in actually giving this a shot after watching this review. After all, I do own it and have had it sitting in my PS1 collection for some time. The walking mechanics look pretty stiff though, I think that's going to be my biggest complaint based on what I've seen.
I remember playing this game as a kid for the first time, got stuck in the beginning of the game after intro as i wasn't know what should I do 🤣
Than my mom tried the game and told me, "do you know that you actually need to fire the stove and heating the water?"
Never knew that was the first task in the game i should do, and i was stuck for days 🤣
Yeah i really wanted to like Erghiez so i know how u feel but i did enjoy playing granstream at the time it 1st released
I remember this, this was my first rpg I played and I really enjoyed it. Me and my brother played the crap out of it.
Just realize the backsong is epic
i love this series, but haven't played granstream of yet. i own it, but haven't played it... anyway it was really interesting to see your two viewpoints about it. loved the ending :)
Thanks Game vs Game, that skit was a lot of fun to work on. :)
I really wanted to get this game back in the day because I had just played Lunar andloved all the anime scenes and this game boasted on the cover that they did that too lol. Thankfully my lack of money spared me.
was this the game that asks you some deep life choices. eg: if i remember correctly, what's important love or money? then they break it out to you that it needs to be the balance of the two.
I don't recall, but that does sound like something the game developers would do. :)
heavy spoiler, in the end this game will also ask to sacrifice one of the two heroines, the ending will be based on which heroines you sacrifice, its hard choice tbh
@@artikelservice796 this might be the one then. cause sounds poignant enough. well greater quarantine is up again so i might as well play.
Ahh Granstream Saga never knew it was apart of a series before. I loved that game, the faceless avatars was a bit weird, but after awhile I found myself totally ignoring that fact and enjoying the game.
fan translation is in order. it's absolutely a different game in japanese. also yea the lvl up thing was weird... not as bad as chrono cross's lvling up only with boss fights.
Quite frankly, this is the best review in the whole Super Derek "Soul Blazer" series of reviews, and Jimmy's contributions added quite a bit of humor. It was also quite informative. I loved the history of Shade. There is so little out there regarding the studio.
I've always had extremely low expectations of GS, especially before I knew that it was in the Soul Blazer series. THQ had always produced poor games and this just looked generic in a sea of excellent Playstation RPGs. And even though there are far better games from Quintet, I still look forward to at least trying this game. I picked it up earlier last year and I may even play it before playing the remaining SNES Quintet games. Early PS1 games are pretty terrible looking, in hindsight, and are hard to pick up these days. I find even 2600 games to be more palatable at times. But this game surprisingly holds up fairly well in terms of graphics, outside of the downright creepy faceless characters. I have no idea why they thought that was a good idea.
Thanks for the review!
I feel you man about trying to like a game :D.
I remember being really excited for Granstream Saga when it first came out because a friend told me that Ryo Yonemitsu was working on the soundtrack... and that turned out to not be true, but the soundtrack was pretty good anyway.
I really wanted to love the game, but I just didn't. It's got its high points: the overall premise and last few hours of plot, the combat system, the music... but that's bogged down too much by the boring characters and dialog, the pointlessness of actually fighting enemies, and the tediousness of the rest of the gameplay. A modern remake of it could be great, but I'm sure that'll never happen.
Really tidy, nice work man. I am a real sucker for that early 3D look in games. I guess there's something aesthetically pleasing about it and the fact it's unique to the era... Unlike 2D games and even modern pixel titles like ShovelKnight, we'll never see things like blocky sprites arranged in a stark 3D environment or those big, featureless polygons... And at the time, it was genuinely exciting.. I honestly can't think of a bigger leap forward in gaming and it's possibilities than when true 3D become a reality.. Literally changed the scene.
Leftover Culture Review I get what you're saying, and the later PSX games (Like Chrono Cross for instance) don't bother me at all, and neither do early N64 games. It's really just those really early PSX titles that bug me... But I can still see past them at least, but they're probably never going to charm me like 2D graphics do. Who knows though, maybe with enough exposure I'll learn to like 'em. :)
I can totally appreciate your position :P Spent a lot of childhood with ugly graphics. I've been tainted :P
wow, he's really throwing some SHADE!
Quintet revealed alot of secrets to this world in video game art.
To each their own when it comes to their game preferences.
But to me...
this game brings only nostalgia and good times even though I haven't had the pleasure of finishing it.
And maybe I'm only saying this because It was my first introduction to RPG gaming but the game as some good points even if the game does seem primitive now in today's standards.
But if I had to be honest,
I reckon to do this game real justice is to give this game a complete overhaul in the graphics, re-vamp the entire battle system and fix up the puzzle solving parts of the game and maybe some of the dialogue but still keep it true to granstream saga fans. I think this game would be a hot seller.
Hell! If they can do it for Legend Of Zelda why not Granstream Saga.
this is one of my fav hsrpg from child hood
No matter what ppl said about this game I still enjoy the story, especially Eon & Laramee relationship.
Love this game just ripped my copy and put this on my psp
1:33 did you ever come across the magazine ads for Granstream Saga? I have, and there are actually two versions. The original, the female character on the right is pictured normally but then they made an edit(idiot more like) to it in another to have her featuring rather large and prominent, metal bustier clad breasts and bared forearms. When I saw this reading through a (then) new issue of Game Informer way back when, I immediately went back and looked at the first ad I saw for it. I thought it was shameless back then, still do.
Firs jrpg i played as a kid.And even not understandimg a word it was am amazing experience.
I really enjoyed the very interesting and unique set up to the story to this game the battling was very challenging at first but it was like a mix between final fantasy and Zelda and helped me to decide what kind of an RPG/adventure gamer I am I'll give you a hint I have a Triforce tattooed on my arm LOL
I remember this game.it was okay i had no idea it was related to the soul blazer games
I liked this game as a teenager. Probably because I liked anything from Japan that made its way to the US.
Oh yeah also when this game came out it was just like anime it was lucky enough to just barely pass the creation of our species being so divided we use terms like anime archetypes stereotypes and reboots back then all animes were just kind of like that except Miyazakis movies he was very unique
Whaaaaaat the final entry in the soul blazer series wow
Granstream Saga was no masterpiece, but at the time of it's release, it was okay if you didn't want to take polygonal RPGs too seriously at the time.
I enjoyed it when I first played it, but I can't bring myself to play through it again.
I'd rather go play any of the three prequels, mostly, Illusion of Gaia.
I just couldn't get over the character having no face.
I had this game as a kid I loved it the protagonist Eon reminds me of Adol from the YS series and as for the graphics well the lack of Faces was odd but stylistic polygons where new and developers where still figuring out the new hardware limitations just look at from softwares games on the same console kings field and its sequels where great but no one can call them pretty not to mention how slow and cumbersome the battles are in those games granstream saga runs circles around Kings Field!
2001: A Space Odyssey reference. Nice!
Heh, awesome I was hoping someone would catch that! :D
I beat it as a kid, and absolutely loved it.
Oh god, I hated that game... as a kid, those long, face-less character models creeped me the f* out. And I still find them abhorrent . That and the absolute bird's eye top-down view - I'm not a bird! What were they thinking?
THEY HAVE NO FACES!!!
The US box art for this game killed it for a lot of people
lol I played this game a long time ago, I remember loving it!
I suspect you didnt play this at launch did you?
I feel like you would've enjoyed it alot more if you had played it back in the ps1 hey dayn the 90s and early 2000s
to make the graphics a little better I wished they worked with the creators of the ps1 fighting game, Evil Zone!!! Evil Zone perfectly show each characters personality through 3D graphics and they had pretty good voice acting as well! In Granstream saga I wish they let you play as Arcia And Laramee!! With some kind of limit breaks!!! All In All Granstream Saga Is one of my favorites, but if they were having a lot of troubles with graphics couldn't they ask for help?
Quintet is king and this game was dark even for them. I love this story.
This damned game... I bought it back in 1999 or 2000 where I found it in a bargain bin and I've tried playing it from time to time since then, but it's so boring that after an hour or so I have to turn it of and just go cry in a corner :(
But you mentioned boobs in the game? I think I have to give it another shot ;)
No hair swoosh! Where's the hair swoosh!
Great video. Recently helped me to decide whether to buy or not!
I did.... ;)
Great! I hope you have a great time with it!
Hahaha The Granstream Saga get's left off the Gaming Collection bookcase! very funny ending! ^>^
You should play Silver on Dreamcast it a great lesser known RPG
I'll look into it! :)
Sounds about right to me. I remember the one time I did rush through this game it being a very linear feeling and overly boring experience. If this is someone's best game ever thing good for them but as for me I had already played a million and a half rpg's at the time. This one felt weak as all get out.
Man i really got into that game. It wasnt that bad imo
That was part of 99% of all observations about this game "Where are the faces.?". ^_^ Strange because there are texture maps but not where they critically needed them. O_o??? Like Jimmy said, what about the bewbs?
I loved this game
1:12 RIP THQ
i liked playing this
The worst thing about this game was that the control system was not very smooth but it gets the benefit of the doubt cuz not much was back then