An interesting point about Ryudo you made was the tone switch at times from a punk kid to an almost Shakespearean way of speaking. Like during his ultimate Move “Sworn Enemies, you shall be defeated” Loved the voice acting in this game. I was never bothered by his callous and rude attitude because as an angsty 17 year old kid it gets somewhat explained with his rough past
I finished Grandia 2 recently and just wanted to say you’ve made a great video on it. There’s not many out there so I appreciate this one and all your work on it. Also you used Octopath Traveler music so 10/10
Grandia 2 was such a banger man. I used to play this game with my big brother back in the day, and reliving these moments through this retrospective turned out to be a much more emotional endeavour than I expected. Especially the whole dynamic between Ryudo and Melfice, which is somewhat relatable on a personal level - especially in retrospect. But not only that, I remember being devastated by Mareks sacrifice and that sh*t still hits home. The soundtrack is absolutely outstanding, and the battle system is still one of the best of its genre in my opinion (minus the long a$$ spell animations of course). In general the visuals really didn't age all that well but the characters, the story (again, especially the whole melfice arc) and especially the body horror inspired enemy designs have ingrained themselves into my brain. Timeless banger game.
Omg I LOVE ur in-depth video 😍🥰🥰 it is my favourite game of all time and I can’t overcome the fact, that I am not the only person that really dives deep into the lore and the character designs haha
You mentioned Millenia being sort of the "ID" to Elena and this is she way I interpreted the Valmar possesion: Valmar bring forth the dark side/hidden desires/shadow/ID of the host. If the host succumbs to them they change their body to reflect those feelings. Different character get influended differently depending on thier personality as well, it seems that only if you give up and succomb to it you full transform into whatever form your ID would take. I like to think Millenia is the manifestation of Elena's repressed emotions that she's done in order to become a songstress within hte church. Lastly, if Millenia is the "ID", we can think of Elena as the "Super-Ego" with all its strict rules and dogmas, which then makes Ryudo the "Ego", the "mediator" which doesn't fully take a side but tries to listen to both.
Finally! A lengthy review of one of my top 3 JRPGs. A few years ago I made kind of a movie of it, wrote a summary and told the story to my Spanish teacher. Took me about 5 full lessons, he-he))
I am so glad I found this video, I was crossing my fingers I'd find a good quality video of someone discussing their thoughts about Grandia 2. Grandia 2 has been one of my favorite JRPGs growing up. It was a joy to watch this video, and I've already re-watched it several times haha! Great video!
You know, if I had a nickel for every time I was sent on a quest to escort a priestess on a sacrificial mission to save the world with the power of a corrupt, false religion that goes wrong very early on, accompanied by a sexy, snarky magician along with a halberd-wielding beast-man and/ or a robotic girl, I would have 3 nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened three times.
What were the other two games? I mean, the character archetypes we get in this game are basically every JRPG ever. But I specifically wonder about the halberd-wielding beast-man and/or robot girl.
I remember really liking this game back in the day. To my shame, I also remember that the primary reason for that was that Millenia made me feel funny things. That and the game's practically Linkin Park-esque levels of edge. Maybe I should give it another shot sometime, I'm sure there must have been more to it than that. ... Oh shit, an actual _kiss_ in a JRPG?! Not a chaste hug or the usual lewd handholding? Damn, what an audacious title this was.
Grandia II was what solidified my absolute love for JRPGs. everything in the second half of the game just got me in the heart strings and every time i replay it, I sob... ;m; Also... MILLENIA BEST GIRL! TIO IS MY DAUGHTER!!
All i remember is that they spoiled main villain from the get go. I mean, Zera Innocentius? You couldn't be more obvious with that "zero innocence" name. But overall i remember as a kid trying out Grandia 2 several times, and i always dropped the game somewhere after first major boss (Gluttony) mostly because of the camera and lags on my ps2 port. I even had that game on pc disk, but i'm no pc player, so i couldn't last long there. Several years ago, when i was already 30, i was showing my friend old games i had and amongst them was Grandia 2. I saw that i still have a save file, so i decided to continue from that part (i already knew the beginning, so i was lazy to replay it, and i also was afraid of dropping the game again), so i started somewhere from the middle of the story and fell in love with it immediately. After that it took me several weeks to finish the game, and i was really happy that i had a chance to play that masterpiece. Amazing game, amazing plot, amazing characters. One of my favorites, i'm sure to replay one day.
Grandia 2 was one of my absolute favourite games in my youth. There were times when I considered Grandia 2 as way better than the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises. I played this game over and over, I must've completed the game tens of times and cried when Millenia got eaten every single time. I loved Millenia so much.
44:09 nop it was the village daughter who went to check the seal and then got possessed. Melfice killed her out of mercy and for killing her he go possessed. The reason he turned evil is cause he wanted to be the greatest swordsman and for wanting to be more powerful he succumbed the possession cause his will is low. 44:54 the cool thing about the first battle is that depending on how you fight that battle is what gives or takes difficulty of the second battle. 52:55 Zera Innocentius hence Zero Innocence It's Latin, and all the singing in this game its Latin.
I loved Grandia 2, excellent music. Fun game, and one hell of a plot twist IMO... EDIT: But for the life of me I cannot remember the bird. I don't remember it really playing much of a part in the game.
This is one of my favorite RPGs from the PS2 era. And despite how much I enjoyed the first game, Grandia 2 remains my series favorite by a large margin. It was such a good story and good characters and excellent gameplay. There's still some tracks (Cancao do povo, in its various forms) that hit me hard when going back to listen to them (emotions are still something I try to suppress normally). The TIO bit in the automaton factory reminds of of Robo's character mission. Not that that is a bad thing, it's just "easy" to go to (even though it usually works). When these games came out in the HD remaster collection, this was a day 1 purchase for me on Switch and I loved replaying both games. Both games also still have such satisfying conclusions (and/or ending sequences).
Grandia 2 has special place for me. It was my very first RPG of all of them. I don't think that demo of Fallout Tactics counts as RPG so I consider that Grandia 2 was. It was horribly translated pirated version of the game, where in Rydo's home village every "o" was replaces with Y so he was RyudY, gYing fYr revenge against Melfice with his Friends - Elena, Mareg and TiY. But it didn't matter. It was weird JRPG but I didn't know any better at that time and I loved it. And to be honest, I still love it to this day.
My first pirated version of it was bugged so that when you arrive in Ryudo's village, the ambient sound would crash the game so I found the file name and replaced it with another sound from the same folder by copying and renaming, which turned out to be a loud growl which looped endlessly, but it made it possible to continue playing.
People say Grandia 1 is better but I play Grandia 2 first and to me it's the better game, better characters, plot and one of the BEST turn-based battle system to date.
I had the opposite experience. I played Grandia 2 back in the day and got the HD collection to replay it. I still can't bring myself to play more than a few hours of the first game. One of these days I'll buckle down and finish it though
Also i ggave up on this gamr right before it got good so was nice to be carried through the story. Another great video good job definitely deserve more views
While we're doing requests, your take on Chrono Cross would be interesting. The finger following the rope during your rope rant gave me a good chuckle 😂 Your spoiler warning bit was A++ loved it I won't give it away, but what a pleasant surprise at the start of the spoiler section. Knew it was worth venturing in. The Charlie bit was golden...but...por que no los dos.
Good review! I've watched a few yt reviews on this and I feel like you're the first person that pointed out some of the game's actual faults.I enjoy this game overall and I agree it's a "more than the sum of its parts" situation. I recently finished this for the first time since I played it on release and honestly well... I was kinda shocked at how many issues it had. This might be the most repetitive RPG I've played to completion. The game basically repeats its first hour or so over and over and over again until the end. Normal enemy encounters are basically a non factor once you get a few aoes, the bosses are all essentially the same (admittedly good) boss, the dungeons also feel like essentially the same thing over and over and they even fucking numbered them EXACTLY the same every time... There are so many issues here and yet it's hard not to love it. The characters, the world, the voice acting, story, etc is just too endearing.
Glad I found your channel early on like this. I like the generally positive but realistic approach to the video essay format. You seem like one of those guys who's going to blow up after making that one video you didn't expect to be popular, so keep it up and good luck. Thinking you'll stick with the JRPGs or go more broad?
First of all: thank you for the kind words! I dunno if I'll ever blow up, but I'm happy people enjoy these videos. I have a couple genres I really like so there are a couple other games I have in mind to touch on in the future-- and I'm always happy to take recommendations.
@@prettycody No problem, praise where praise is due. I do expect you to grow pretty quickly in the semi-near future. At least catching up with similar, older channels. Out of curiosity, what genres?
Fun fact, according to the cutscene, after Granas clashed Valmar, Granasword falls down on the territory of Ukraine, Ukraine is separated by two banks of the river Dnipro, so since i was small in my mind i always thought our river is the Granas cliffs flooded with water XD
The apologized to a chair gave me a chuckle. I’m gonna assume you’ve also apologized for apologizing as well and so on, I know I have. That said I really should finish this game, probably next year when I’ll probably have more free time.
I missed the bottom part of this. I honestly hadn't considered doing a patreon or anything. I would have to put some thought into how I would want to do the levels, but if it's something folks want I'll consider it.
Changed my name several years ago. First name is obviously important, but middle names aren't used at all where I live, so I decided to try out some random middle names for fun to check which passes the naming committee thing. Turns out Millenia is in fact an allowed name lmao
This is a good jrpg, even for today's standards. It was also one of the few jrpgs that's available on the PC once upon a time. I was a student that only had access to a PC for "studying" back then, and having come from the PS1, I was hungry for good jrpgs. This game staved that hunger multiple times.
I always forget this game got a PC release back in the day. We're finally starting to see the genre get pc releases but I bet back then this was amazing to have
I mean hey, it is current year ma dood, maybe the end is a cheeky nod to a very strange polyamorous relationship between two versions of the same person and the guy they are into.
Sega Saturn game Holy Ark Shining in theDarkness has unexpectly aqesome and well written story if youve never played it the writing rea Ly carries it and something about the difficulty really feels good to play
The Church of Granas is not evil; the heads of the church end up being corrupted by Valmar. All the priests you talk to throughout the game are good people, even Zera was a good person until his corruption, and Selene had been corrupted by Valmar before the events of Mirumu village. If you try to talk to the Cathedral Knights when they are guarding the exit to the village, they don't speak and Roan says he sees red eyes underneath their helmets, suggesting they aren't human. Selene was obviously corrupted due to her overzealous nature of "purifying" evil, only to be corrupted by evil herself due to her extreme mindset. Zera was corrupted due to his wavering faith and learning that Granas died; he becomes corrupted by the Will of Valmar which twists his wavering faith to become a God himself due to his insecurity for a lack of one. The whole game is about people being corrupted by evil, while trying to achieve personal ideals and goals, and I dislike it when other reviewers try to connect Christianity with the Church of Granas like the game is critiquing religion; the game is critiquing the concept of Darkness and corruption and how people can be consumed by evil despite their intentions of doing good. - Gadan was corrupted because of his pursuit of money; originally to pay the workers better wages only to be corrupted and becoming greedy. - Aira wanted everyone to live happy lives free of pain and suffering; this was corrupted to steal their souls and trap them in an eternal dream. - Melfice wanted to become a strong swordsman to protect the people he loved most, believing he wasn't strong enough to do so yet; he became corrupted to chase after power indefinitely making him cruel and unhinged. - Selene wanted to purify the world of Darkness and evil only to become the very thing she despised.
The game does this through the framing of religion, and how blind faith is easily exploited and corrupted. The church of granas may not be innately evil, but it is definitely saying something about how faith can lead to corruption. It also basically details that the church of granas is built on false pretenses.
@Persephiroth No, it is not saying this. It is saying that good can become corrupted by evil when taken to the extremes and you lose sight of your original ambitions. The enemy is Valmar, NOT the Church of Granas. Granas isn't as strong as Valmar is but his teachings live on through the people and through people's willingness to follow him; Valmar seeks to corrupt this because that is how he gains power. This is the fundamental teaching of Christianity, ironically, which is why it stresses personal enlightenment and trying to overcome the devil's vices in order to keep yourself pure. Valmar corrupts everything it touches, much like Satan does, by whispering in your ear about your deepest desires, or telling you that others do not have your best interests at heart, to try and find a way to twist you, and your desires, to do its bidding.
@@peachesandcream8753 If that were the case, why do so through the framing of religion? The game is not saying religion is bad, however it does go into detail about how faith can be corrupted. Selene in particular is an example of how powerfully faith can be corrupted--the heart of valmar enhances it to zealotry, to the point where her idea of purity is burning away anything that can be construed as darkness. I am not saying the church itself is entirely bad, but I think there is something to be said about the game examining the idea of faith and corruption, and how figures in positions of power can pretend to be beneficial and kind even as they exploit a populace. The game also goes into detail about the people who once served Valmar, and how they had to hide it even at the present point of the game for fear of persecution, despite not following Valmar anymore. I just think that it is in part a game about examining that which you follow, and finding the balance between them. As represented by Millenia and Elena in the most obvious way.
@Persephiroth it doesn't do it through the framing of religion, it does it through the framing of people. Gadan, Aira and Melfice were not part of the church, Elena is part of the church but she rejects Valmar's influence because her will and belief is pure. Selene and Zera are the only two of the church who are corrupted, so I would not consider that a focus on religion at all. There is a focus on good and evil, and how religion plays into this, throughout the game, but it's less about religion and more about the strength and purity of the human spirit which religion can help strengthen and fortify. It also shows that the heads of religious institutions might not always be the purest, or hardiest, in spirit, because their ambitions are far more reaching than your simple church priest in a village; the simple church priest has less to corrupt them because their ambitions are smaller and more community based. The simple church priest is still in a position of power so I reject this idea that the game is critiquing people in positions of power.
Major spoiler. My biggest issue with the game is the end when you lose the boy and marrig dies, leaving you with only elena and millenia. All the items on those members are gone and all grinding done for them during the game felt wasted.
Man, grandia looked so boring and tame, the main character in II actually got my attention. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean he isn't a good character seen through the eyes of an "adult". I think you're on something if you think being polite or overly polite is a purely positive thing lol I can't watch the rest of this.
@@franciscojose6512 I actually have the first trails game sitting on my steam account for about a year now - I think it's the time commitment for the series that intimidates me, but I have heard nothing but glowing reviews for the series. I should really give it a shot one day though.
An interesting point about Ryudo you made was the tone switch at times from a punk kid to an almost Shakespearean way of speaking. Like during his ultimate Move “Sworn Enemies, you shall be defeated”
Loved the voice acting in this game. I was never bothered by his callous and rude attitude because as an angsty 17 year old kid it gets somewhat explained with his rough past
Called it I CALLED IT, very first spoiler I just KNEW it, I have played TOO MANY JRPGS to let that one pass me by
I finished Grandia 2 recently and just wanted to say you’ve made a great video on it. There’s not many out there so I appreciate this one and all your work on it.
Also you used Octopath Traveler music so 10/10
Grandia 2 was such a banger man. I used to play this game with my big brother back in the day, and reliving these moments through this retrospective turned out to be a much more emotional endeavour than I expected. Especially the whole dynamic between Ryudo and Melfice, which is somewhat relatable on a personal level - especially in retrospect. But not only that, I remember being devastated by Mareks sacrifice and that sh*t still hits home. The soundtrack is absolutely outstanding, and the battle system is still one of the best of its genre in my opinion (minus the long a$$ spell animations of course). In general the visuals really didn't age all that well but the characters, the story (again, especially the whole melfice arc) and especially the body horror inspired enemy designs have ingrained themselves into my brain.
Timeless banger game.
Correct on all counts imho
Grandia II is one of the best 8/10 games of all time.
Omg I LOVE ur in-depth video 😍🥰🥰 it is my favourite game of all time and I can’t overcome the fact, that I am not the only person that really dives deep into the lore and the character designs haha
You mentioned Millenia being sort of the "ID" to Elena and this is she way I interpreted the Valmar possesion:
Valmar bring forth the dark side/hidden desires/shadow/ID of the host. If the host succumbs to them they change their body to reflect those feelings.
Different character get influended differently depending on thier personality as well, it seems that only if you give up and succomb to it you full transform into whatever form your ID would take. I like to think Millenia is the manifestation of Elena's repressed emotions that she's done in order to become a songstress within hte church.
Lastly, if Millenia is the "ID", we can think of Elena as the "Super-Ego" with all its strict rules and dogmas, which then makes Ryudo the "Ego", the "mediator" which doesn't fully take a side but tries to listen to both.
I like that read, a lot of JRPGs in the era liked Fruedian concepts as a motif a lot, so this feels pretty on point.
Finally! A lengthy review of one of my top 3 JRPGs. A few years ago I made kind of a movie of it, wrote a summary and told the story to my Spanish teacher. Took me about 5 full lessons, he-he))
I am so glad I found this video, I was crossing my fingers I'd find a good quality video of someone discussing their thoughts about Grandia 2. Grandia 2 has been one of my favorite JRPGs growing up. It was a joy to watch this video, and I've already re-watched it several times haha! Great video!
You know, if I had a nickel for every time I was sent on a quest to escort a priestess on a sacrificial mission to save the world with the power of a corrupt, false religion that goes wrong very early on, accompanied by a sexy, snarky magician along with a halberd-wielding beast-man and/ or a robotic girl, I would have 3 nickels.
Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened three times.
What were the other two games?
I mean, the character archetypes we get in this game are basically every JRPG ever. But I specifically wonder about the halberd-wielding beast-man and/or robot girl.
@@ThorsShadow I'm pretty sure one of them is Final Fantasy 10
Great video Cody, this game doesn’t get enough love these days!
This game, the first grandia and xenogears were the best games I have played for a long time until totk.
I remember really liking this game back in the day. To my shame, I also remember that the primary reason for that was that Millenia made me feel funny things. That and the game's practically Linkin Park-esque levels of edge.
Maybe I should give it another shot sometime, I'm sure there must have been more to it than that.
... Oh shit, an actual _kiss_ in a JRPG?! Not a chaste hug or the usual lewd handholding? Damn, what an audacious title this was.
Great review. I like how you gradually introduce each character.
Grandia II was what solidified my absolute love for JRPGs. everything in the second half of the game just got me in the heart strings and every time i replay it, I sob... ;m;
Also...
MILLENIA BEST GIRL!
TIO IS MY DAUGHTER!!
The game is so good. I was kinda mad it took me so long to get around to playing it. I am glad I did though.
Hey, listen!
A Maj video, a Mando video and now a PrettyCody video? This day is STACKED.
Incredible review, loved it! Grandia will always have a special place in my heart! Thanks for taking your time in doing this!
All i remember is that they spoiled main villain from the get go. I mean, Zera Innocentius? You couldn't be more obvious with that "zero innocence" name. But overall i remember as a kid trying out Grandia 2 several times, and i always dropped the game somewhere after first major boss (Gluttony) mostly because of the camera and lags on my ps2 port. I even had that game on pc disk, but i'm no pc player, so i couldn't last long there. Several years ago, when i was already 30, i was showing my friend old games i had and amongst them was Grandia 2. I saw that i still have a save file, so i decided to continue from that part (i already knew the beginning, so i was lazy to replay it, and i also was afraid of dropping the game again), so i started somewhere from the middle of the story and fell in love with it immediately. After that it took me several weeks to finish the game, and i was really happy that i had a chance to play that masterpiece. Amazing game, amazing plot, amazing characters. One of my favorites, i'm sure to replay one day.
Grandia 2 was one of my absolute favourite games in my youth. There were times when I considered Grandia 2 as way better than the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises. I played this game over and over, I must've completed the game tens of times and cried when Millenia got eaten every single time. I loved Millenia so much.
44:09 nop it was the village daughter who went to check the seal and then got possessed. Melfice killed her out of mercy and for killing her he go possessed. The reason he turned evil is cause he wanted to be the greatest swordsman and for wanting to be more powerful he succumbed the possession cause his will is low.
44:54 the cool thing about the first battle is that depending on how you fight that battle is what gives or takes difficulty of the second battle.
52:55 Zera Innocentius hence Zero Innocence It's Latin, and all the singing in this game its Latin.
This game has the best RPG Battle mechanics ever.
No, I haven't played it in over two decades and my nostalgia glasses are definitely on.
I loved Grandia 2, excellent music. Fun game, and one hell of a plot twist IMO... EDIT: But for the life of me I cannot remember the bird. I don't remember it really playing much of a part in the game.
This is one of my favorite RPGs from the PS2 era. And despite how much I enjoyed the first game, Grandia 2 remains my series favorite by a large margin. It was such a good story and good characters and excellent gameplay. There's still some tracks (Cancao do povo, in its various forms) that hit me hard when going back to listen to them (emotions are still something I try to suppress normally).
The TIO bit in the automaton factory reminds of of Robo's character mission. Not that that is a bad thing, it's just "easy" to go to (even though it usually works).
When these games came out in the HD remaster collection, this was a day 1 purchase for me on Switch and I loved replaying both games. Both games also still have such satisfying conclusions (and/or ending sequences).
Yeah, I'm really glad I gave it a chance. I missed it as a youngin' so it's really fun to go back and play it for the channel.
Grandia 2 has special place for me. It was my very first RPG of all of them. I don't think that demo of Fallout Tactics counts as RPG so I consider that Grandia 2 was. It was horribly translated pirated version of the game, where in Rydo's home village every "o" was replaces with Y so he was RyudY, gYing fYr revenge against Melfice with his Friends - Elena, Mareg and TiY.
But it didn't matter. It was weird JRPG but I didn't know any better at that time and I loved it. And to be honest, I still love it to this day.
My first pirated version of it was bugged so that when you arrive in Ryudo's village, the ambient sound would crash the game so I found the file name and replaced it with another sound from the same folder by copying and renaming, which turned out to be a loud growl which looped endlessly, but it made it possible to continue playing.
Awesome video, and for one of my favorite games! Thanks for the fun trip down memory lane.
People say Grandia 1 is better but I play Grandia 2 first and to me it's the better game, better characters, plot and one of the BEST turn-based battle system to date.
You went above and beyond for this one.
Great breakdown of one of my favorite games! It had its flaws but was such a fun game
I had the opposite experience. I played Grandia 2 back in the day and got the HD collection to replay it. I still can't bring myself to play more than a few hours of the first game. One of these days I'll buckle down and finish it though
Also i ggave up on this gamr right before it got good so was nice to be carried through the story. Another great video good job definitely deserve more views
While we're doing requests, your take on Chrono Cross would be interesting.
The finger following the rope during your rope rant gave me a good chuckle 😂
Your spoiler warning bit was A++ loved it
I won't give it away, but what a pleasant surprise at the start of the spoiler section. Knew it was worth venturing in.
The Charlie bit was golden...but...por que no los dos.
Breathtaking art style in the game world!
Good review! I've watched a few yt reviews on this and I feel like you're the first person that pointed out some of the game's actual faults.I enjoy this game overall and I agree it's a "more than the sum of its parts" situation. I recently finished this for the first time since I played it on release and honestly well... I was kinda shocked at how many issues it had.
This might be the most repetitive RPG I've played to completion. The game basically repeats its first hour or so over and over and over again until the end. Normal enemy encounters are basically a non factor once you get a few aoes, the bosses are all essentially the same (admittedly good) boss, the dungeons also feel like essentially the same thing over and over and they even fucking numbered them EXACTLY the same every time...
There are so many issues here and yet it's hard not to love it. The characters, the world, the voice acting, story, etc is just too endearing.
"Anytime Millenia is asleep... Millenia can actually take over" (30:56)
Oh nice catch, haha. I went right in a circle there.
Can’t believe you didn’t mention the obvious Yin-yang floor on the final boss fight. Great video all through though!
Very true. The duality of man writ large on the battlefield floor. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Glad I found your channel early on like this. I like the generally positive but realistic approach to the video essay format. You seem like one of those guys who's going to blow up after making that one video you didn't expect to be popular, so keep it up and good luck.
Thinking you'll stick with the JRPGs or go more broad?
First of all: thank you for the kind words! I dunno if I'll ever blow up, but I'm happy people enjoy these videos. I have a couple genres I really like so there are a couple other games I have in mind to touch on in the future-- and I'm always happy to take recommendations.
@@prettycody No problem, praise where praise is due. I do expect you to grow pretty quickly in the semi-near future. At least catching up with similar, older channels.
Out of curiosity, what genres?
Y'know i had trouble thinking of genres once you adked haha - Metroidvanias, souls like, 2d fighters and lately rogue likes.
God damn I love this game.
Millenia is objectively the correct choice, indeed.
Fun fact, according to the cutscene, after Granas clashed Valmar, Granasword falls down on the territory of Ukraine, Ukraine is separated by two banks of the river Dnipro, so since i was small in my mind i always thought our river is the Granas cliffs flooded with water XD
The apologized to a chair gave me a chuckle. I’m gonna assume you’ve also apologized for apologizing as well and so on, I know I have. That said I really should finish this game, probably next year when I’ll probably have more free time.
"I’m gonna assume you’ve also apologized for apologizing as well and so on" you better believe it.
Stumbled across this video. Really well done.
Rex showing up in the bottom right corner nearly made me choke to death from laughing
Wow. Incredible video man, truly high quality. Great work!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
PC version and PS version didn't have the problems you described with the sound mixing, so I suppose it is the problem with the Switch version.
I recognized Cam Clarke but Jennifer Hale and Jodi Benson?! Holy shit I almost spit out my drink
Yeah, they went hard for this one. It took a long time for me to stop picturing Leonardo from TMNT, but that's more on me.
Okay final comment now that I've finished the video.
Awesome job dude, absolutely top tier.
Now set up a way for me to throw money at your head.
I missed the bottom part of this. I honestly hadn't considered doing a patreon or anything. I would have to put some thought into how I would want to do the levels, but if it's something folks want I'll consider it.
@@prettycody do it (please insert meme here)
Oh hey! That's the voice of MOEBIUS, THE TIME STREAMER!
Bravo, great video for one of my all time favorites.
I had this on the Dreamcast many moons ago. Didn't click with me back then but since it's on Steam maybe I should go back and try it.
im gonna marry this video
Changed my name several years ago. First name is obviously important, but middle names aren't used at all where I live, so I decided to try out some random middle names for fun to check which passes the naming committee thing. Turns out Millenia is in fact an allowed name lmao
An excellent choice!
what an EVIL Cat
This is a good jrpg, even for today's standards.
It was also one of the few jrpgs that's available on the PC once upon a time. I was a student that only had access to a PC for "studying" back then, and having come from the PS1, I was hungry for good jrpgs. This game staved that hunger multiple times.
I always forget this game got a PC release back in the day. We're finally starting to see the genre get pc releases but I bet back then this was amazing to have
@@prettycody the PC version had game breaking bugs that were unfixable for years, and was never patched.
6:31 EEEEHEHEHEHEHEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHE I just let out the WEIRDEST giggle but like.. .you are so right.
Recently came across your channel when I was looking for long JRPG reviews like this. Love your vids man!
A danger turducken. 😂
Also: the haaaaaaat 🤣
Absolutely wonderful video! Thanks PrettyCody!
I read the title as "Friendship and Icky Manners" for a sec and thought "Ryudo IS kinda rude-o for a while, sure."
also please do thousand arms
edit: and maybe legend of legaia
I mean hey, it is current year ma dood, maybe the end is a cheeky nod to a very strange polyamorous relationship between two versions of the same person and the guy they are into.
Sega Saturn game Holy Ark Shining in theDarkness has unexpectly aqesome and well written story if youve never played it the writing rea
Ly carries it and something about the difficulty really feels good to play
I have heard nothing but good things about the shining dungeon crawler games. I should give them a shot sometime.
The Church of Granas is not evil; the heads of the church end up being corrupted by Valmar. All the priests you talk to throughout the game are good people, even Zera was a good person until his corruption, and Selene had been corrupted by Valmar before the events of Mirumu village. If you try to talk to the Cathedral Knights when they are guarding the exit to the village, they don't speak and Roan says he sees red eyes underneath their helmets, suggesting they aren't human. Selene was obviously corrupted due to her overzealous nature of "purifying" evil, only to be corrupted by evil herself due to her extreme mindset. Zera was corrupted due to his wavering faith and learning that Granas died; he becomes corrupted by the Will of Valmar which twists his wavering faith to become a God himself due to his insecurity for a lack of one.
The whole game is about people being corrupted by evil, while trying to achieve personal ideals and goals, and I dislike it when other reviewers try to connect Christianity with the Church of Granas like the game is critiquing religion; the game is critiquing the concept of Darkness and corruption and how people can be consumed by evil despite their intentions of doing good.
- Gadan was corrupted because of his pursuit of money; originally to pay the workers better wages only to be corrupted and becoming greedy.
- Aira wanted everyone to live happy lives free of pain and suffering; this was corrupted to steal their souls and trap them in an eternal dream.
- Melfice wanted to become a strong swordsman to protect the people he loved most, believing he wasn't strong enough to do so yet; he became corrupted to chase after power indefinitely making him cruel and unhinged.
- Selene wanted to purify the world of Darkness and evil only to become the very thing she despised.
The game does this through the framing of religion, and how blind faith is easily exploited and corrupted. The church of granas may not be innately evil, but it is definitely saying something about how faith can lead to corruption. It also basically details that the church of granas is built on false pretenses.
@Persephiroth No, it is not saying this. It is saying that good can become corrupted by evil when taken to the extremes and you lose sight of your original ambitions. The enemy is Valmar, NOT the Church of Granas. Granas isn't as strong as Valmar is but his teachings live on through the people and through people's willingness to follow him; Valmar seeks to corrupt this because that is how he gains power.
This is the fundamental teaching of Christianity, ironically, which is why it stresses personal enlightenment and trying to overcome the devil's vices in order to keep yourself pure. Valmar corrupts everything it touches, much like Satan does, by whispering in your ear about your deepest desires, or telling you that others do not have your best interests at heart, to try and find a way to twist you, and your desires, to do its bidding.
@@peachesandcream8753 If that were the case, why do so through the framing of religion? The game is not saying religion is bad, however it does go into detail about how faith can be corrupted. Selene in particular is an example of how powerfully faith can be corrupted--the heart of valmar enhances it to zealotry, to the point where her idea of purity is burning away anything that can be construed as darkness.
I am not saying the church itself is entirely bad, but I think there is something to be said about the game examining the idea of faith and corruption, and how figures in positions of power can pretend to be beneficial and kind even as they exploit a populace.
The game also goes into detail about the people who once served Valmar, and how they had to hide it even at the present point of the game for fear of persecution, despite not following Valmar anymore.
I just think that it is in part a game about examining that which you follow, and finding the balance between them. As represented by Millenia and Elena in the most obvious way.
@Persephiroth it doesn't do it through the framing of religion, it does it through the framing of people. Gadan, Aira and Melfice were not part of the church, Elena is part of the church but she rejects Valmar's influence because her will and belief is pure. Selene and Zera are the only two of the church who are corrupted, so I would not consider that a focus on religion at all. There is a focus on good and evil, and how religion plays into this, throughout the game, but it's less about religion and more about the strength and purity of the human spirit which religion can help strengthen and fortify.
It also shows that the heads of religious institutions might not always be the purest, or hardiest, in spirit, because their ambitions are far more reaching than your simple church priest in a village; the simple church priest has less to corrupt them because their ambitions are smaller and more community based. The simple church priest is still in a position of power so I reject this idea that the game is critiquing people in positions of power.
@@peachesandcream8753 I disagree, but I don't really want to get into it further.
i tend to care less about if the character is an asshole and more if they're entertaining
Love watching you point out a bunch of things that aren't belts and calling them belts...
I don't often like to brag, but it's my specialty.
You seem like a pretty cool dude,dude.
Any chance of checking out Xenogears for a video?
Xenogears is great. I would love to come back to it for the channel one day, I haven't played it since college.
Major spoiler.
My biggest issue with the game is the end when you lose the boy and marrig dies, leaving you with only elena and millenia. All the items on those members are gone and all grinding done for them during the game felt wasted.
When I played Grandia II, I was a 12-year-old angry gay atheist stuck in a Catholic school until graduation.
Ryudo was absolutely perfect for me.
Man, grandia looked so boring and tame, the main character in II actually got my attention. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean he isn't a good character seen through the eyes of an "adult".
I think you're on something if you think being polite or overly polite is a purely positive thing lol I can't watch the rest of this.
Play Trails In the Sky (the three chapters)
It's Grandia but the plot is grander and better
Unironically Trails Features every thing you said you liked about grandia Lol
@@franciscojose6512 I actually have the first trails game sitting on my steam account for about a year now - I think it's the time commitment for the series that intimidates me, but I have heard nothing but glowing reviews for the series. I should really give it a shot one day though.
Filing this under P for "plot rope" 😂😂🤌🤌