The Sega Saturn was an ill-fated system. It had its fair share of games, but it somehow never caught on to become as popular as its rival, the Playstation. Which is a shame, because I've heard nothing but good about games like Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force 3 and Dragon Force to name a few. It definitely had its great games, one of which many would argue is Grandia.

Grandia was released for the Saturn in Japan only around the time of Final Fantasy 7, and many called it a Final Fantasy-killer. It was so highly praised in Japan there was quite a mighty boatload of frustration when it was announced that there would be no port to America. However, a light soon shone bright for those who had all but forgotten its existence: Sony would bring the game overseas to the Playstation, which was probably better anyway, as it allowed more people to experience the highly-awaited RPG. But when it was released, the question arose: was it really for the better?

I'll do the Story segment of this review first, so my last comment above will be addressed sooner. As we all know, the story of an RPG is what really makes it worth playing. Grandia delivers only in a lukewarm way. You play Justin, a young boy who wants to become a great adventurer. As we all know, so many stories begin this way, but the ones that know what's better for them soon develop this thread into a much deeper and richer story. Sorry, kids, we got a no-show here. Throughout most of the game, the driving force is to "adventure." That's it. Why do we want to go here? It's an adventure! Sure, we get deeper as we go, and have a fair amount of plot twists, but not until well into the last fourth of the game, if memory serves. Oh, and not to spoil anything, but I was severely disappointed by the ending here. What? Do I smell cheese? Yes I do.

I do it injustice though. While light on the story side, there's a certain charm in Grandia that probably stems from its GameArts heritage, no matter how badly Sony mangled it. The characters, while they can be somewhat annoying, are nicely developed, and if you can get past the overuse of words like bogus and darn (censoring…blech), you may very well find yourself engrossed in your characters, caring about what happens to them. Except Sue.

Oh, how I wish Working Designs had fought to translate this game. Sure, I'd probably be reviewing a new game right now if they had, but that is preferable to what we got. Simply put, this is the worst localization of a game I have ever seen (well, second - Star Ocean 2 takes the "win"). Just for an example, how many of you, when falling to your imminent deaths, would ask: "Bogus. Does this mean my adventure is over?" (Don't worry, that's not really a spoiler.) I pray that none of you just raised your hands. Yes, this is a direct quote from the game. Yes, there are many, many more horrible lines like this throughout the game. I do this weird thing where, as I go along in a game or movie or show or book, I'll take the context of said item and reword it in my head to make it sound better, and make more sense, to myself. In a well-done item like this, I'll notice how similar the writer's words and mine are. In Grandia, I had to abandon some lines because I couldn't make sense of them at all. I really wish Sony would hire a decent localization team, because this is the second otherwise good game they've done this to (Star Ocean 2 was the first, unless there were even more, God forbid). Add this to the already lackluster story, and you get something like a: 75%

Ok, one more complaint, one more prayer to Sony. Sound/Music can, some would argue, make or break an RPG. Right now, I wish these were two separate categories, as the category name "Sound/Music" does both. First, music. In a word, whatever. No offense, but only the best composed musical scores get to me at all (Final Fantasy, Front Mission 3, Legend of Mana, Lunar). Grandia's music is good, I think. I say that because there was nothing special, so I don't really remember it. However, I would remember if it were bad, so there you go.

And now, the sound. I said above I'd remember if something was bad. Well, Grandia is vivid in my mind. Normal sound effects never really merit a discussion, as there's nothing really to talk about. Swishes of swords, the magic sound of spells (you know what I'm talking about; you can't really type it out), it all blends together in every game in my opinion. So, sound really comes down to voice acting, at least in games that have it. Grandia's voices hurt my ears. All I can say is, why does this happen? I've heard good voice acting (Lunar) and therefore see no excuse for things like this (and Star Ocean)!

Every single voice in this game is so bad, the boring "plain vanilla" voices are the best there is! First, Justin is rather annoying, and being your main character he turns out to be the strongest, thereby winning the most battles for you. You are "treated" to a sound bite from the battle's winner at the end of each fight. Not only are these bad enough, but hearing them over and over is, well, less than fun. And Sue is the most annoying video game character I have ever known, even more so than Nash (Nash was translated by Working Designs!). Her high squeaky voice does not help, I assure you. And Milda's southern drawl/caveman grunt (Big win! Big win!) is less than pleasurable. And the last character you get (Ack! Spoiler!) sounds like it's dead, or half asleep as it casts its killer spells. I swear to God, I expected it to yawn in the middle of a lightning bolt casting. Ugh. I could go on and on about how bad these voices are. Sound/Music gets a 25% / 80%, but I can't do that, so overall I give it a 65%.

You probably think this game sucks by now, but you're wrong. I just chose to get the most painful part done with first. Gameplay, while being quite a loosely defined term, is IMO what you do in a game (yeah, it's not really narrowed down too much, is it?) Well, whatever it is, I like Grandia's! First off, the battle system. This is my third favorite battle system ever, behind Star Ocean's and the Tales series'. First off, you can see enemies on screen before you get into a battle, so there are no "random" battles. Walk into an enemy to initiate combat. Whether you walk into their backs, they hit yours, or you collide face first determines the kind of attack formation in the battle (ambush, etc.)

In battle, little character icons move along a little bar at the bottom of the screen in real time. When an icon hits a little mark 3/4ths from the end, the character chooses what to do. Your characters can A) Combo. You do two normal attacks. B) Critical. You do one critical attack that can knock an enemy back on the time bar. C) Special move/magic. You execute a, well, special move or magic spell, consuming sp or mp respectively. D) Item. Take a wild guess. However, each character can only hold so many items, 12 I believe, and can only use the ones they themselves hold in battle. E) Escape. F) Defend. You can choose whether to defend "Evade" or "Endure" style. Evade lets you move on the battle map, evading danger. Endure has you stay put, but take less damage in the process. G) Look.. Basically, you look at a character's status. This can be used infinitely. Then there's AI tactics you can set for characters. As you choose these, your character will advance along the bar at the bottom, and when they reach the end, hey will execute their choice. As you can imagine, the more powerful attack you use, the longer it takes to go across the time bar. However, the more you use a skill, the faster it will move on the bar.

In battle, placement on the field will affect your attacks. When you use attacks, you have to walk up to the enemy and hit them. If this enemy is out of range or the computer can't figure out to walk around the large groups of characters in one spot, a character will flail around a bit until it stops trying and the turn is wasted (don't worry, it's rare). Magic and some skills are unaffected by range. However, there are also area spells and skills that affect the target and those around it, for example.

You earn magic and skills in a way foreign to most RPGs out there, and this is really an intriguing system. Each character can use weapons from certain classes (For example, Justin uses swords, maces and axes, while Feena uses whips and knives), and the more you use a weapon or magic from a certain class the more experience and levels it gains. Each level up for a weapon or element grants a few status bonuses, depending on the class.

Skills are learned by having the levels for certain weapons high enough. If you only have Justin use a sword throughout the whole game, you're not going to learn any skills above his first. The same leveling up applies to Magic, too. The more you use a spell, the faster it will respond in battle. Spells are learned by getting levels in the elements up to requirements, in the same way as weapon skills. Some skills require proficiency in Magic and weapons (Fire Whip for Feena requires Whip at level 14 and Fire at level 12).

Elemental powers are dealt with strangely, too. At certain places and points in the game, you will find or be rewarded with mana eggs. Trade these in at a store for one person to become proficient (well, they start at level one) in one element and learn a basic spell for it. Use this spell to learn more and learn skills.

The four elements are Earth, Fire, Wind and Water (of course). There are also dual elements that result in the combination of two others. A lightning spell is learned by having proficient levels in wind and fire. Earth and water give you forest, Water and wind give you ice, and fire and earth produce explosion. A dual element doesn't count as an actual element though, and using one will get you experience for its 2 source elements instead of for itself.

Wow, I went on for quite a while about Gameplay, didn't I? Well, I suppose that's good; I'm being informative and helpful right? Right. Why are you shaking your head no? : P In short, gameplay is no less than awe-inspiring. I give out a: 100%

GameArts is possibly the happiest RPG company out there. Lunar, Grandia…all of their games have really bright, colorful graphics. Grandia is not a dark game, I'll tell you that off the bat. Unlike the somewhat more popular Final Fantasy series, Grandia keeps us happy all the way through, and doesn't toy with our emotions, depressing us with sad or disheartening turns of the story. Even in the few parts of Grandia that would do that to you, the colors on the screen are so…happy, for lack of better description, you cant feel sad about much of anything, really.

Some of the dungeons have darker colors, and some have some pretty weird stuff (those tentacle traps…), but even areas dark in color, they still seem to emanate an aura of…cheerfulness, I guess. It may just be the characters in your party-they are all pretty brightly colored, and the character portraits accompanying the dialog boxes of more important characters always seem…cheery. The battle graphics are standard for the game - happy and colorful, just with weapons. I'm not saying this is a bad thing either (although brightness/happiness doesn't help the Sue problem - blech); I'm just pointing it out for those who like darker feelings from their games.

Anyway, graphics in general are similar to Xenogears, in that on-screen characters are represented by sprites, and the rest is made up of polygons. Most areas of the game allow you to freely rotate the camera around you, and paired with the on-screen compass, this makes navigation of the 3D towns and dungeons much easier. Towns and dungeons are large places, and it can take a while to get the hang of an area so that you feel like you know your way around, but I suppose it's preferable to cramped little villages where there's only a place or two to go - the average Grandia town is a sprawling metropolis compared to some of those in other games. As it's much easier to get lost (easier, not easy), a pop-up map of towns is available to help you find your way around - a helpful tool when you first stagger into a new area after a long, hard adventure through the desert. Graphics are good, and help set the mood for the cheery adventure. Did I mention they're bright? 90%

Overall, Grandia is a good game. I am still fuming, however, about the butchering Sony gave it, especially after going back and playing it and Star Ocean and reliving the horror (Star Ocean got the worst of it though), because my enjoyment of the otherwise classic game was severely tainted by the wretched voice acting and translation (and Sue). It's worth a look at least, and if you have the uncanny ability to overlook bad dialogue, I couldn't recommend this game more. This Game is worth an: 85%.