Grandia 1 is one of those games whose success is utterly baffling: a game with an unoriginal premise, a predictable plot, stock character archetypes that don't evolve beyond their predictable pattern, and a graphical presentation that has NOT aged gracefully. And somehow, some way, it's STILL one of the freshest, most amazing games you'll ever play. How could this happen?
Stop me if you've read this story before: a young, red haired boy dreams of following in his father's footsteps as an adventurer. All he has left of his father is a mysterious memento that seemingly serves no function. A visit to the local museum inspires him to go to the local ruins, where his memento suddenly shines and a mysterious girl tells him to meet her in an unknown, faraway land. From here, the boy goes off on a world saving quest where he will meet allies, enemies, and eventually get entangled in a quest to save the whole world!
From the word "go" we know where the story is going: the guy with the eyepatch leading an army? He's evil and most likely the main bad guy. The blond man who's his second in command, his son, and actually gets respect from the army? A main antagonist that maybe or maybe not becomes a good guy in the end. The woman who aids the blond guy? Four out of five says they have the hots for each other. And those are JUST the first ten minutes of the game!
A seasoned RPG player will guess each plot point the second they get a whiff of anything. Justin's memento being an important plot device? Come on, that's so cliché that even SUBVERTING the cliché is a cliché! The moment Feena gets introduced you just KNOW she and Justin will hook up! The instant you find out she lives alone with her sister, you'll know something's special about her ancestry.
The game offers nothing new in terms of character development. You just know that, by the end of the game, Justin will become a seasoned adventurer, Feena will be his wife, and everyone will live happily ever after. You KNOW the bad guy will die, you know the head of the evil army will attempt to become one with the planet devouring menace he's trying to control, and you know Justin will beat it. There's nothing NEW here.
So, why does the game still feel fresh? If you KNOW what will happen, then what's the point of carrying on? What good is a story if you already know the ending?
Something I've learned recently is that, when the ending is spoiled for you (or if it's your second viewing of a story) then you stop paying attention to the big details and instead turn it to the smaller things you may have missed. And in many ways this is true for Grandia. When you KNOW how the major things will play out, you start keeping an eye for the smaller details, the little things you'd otherwise miss.
For example, knowing that Justin WILL embark on his journey means that you'll pay more attention to his relationship with his mother. You KNOW he will leave her behind, so you're savoring the little moments he shares with her, like his last dinner with her before his journey. You pay attention to the fact that Justin isn't telling her that he plans to leave by himself, that he's a bit quiet, and that he's savoring his meal.You also pay more attention to the story his mother tells him, of how she and his father met for the first time. So, when he leaves in the early hours of the morning without a goodbye, him finding his mother's letter, where she wishes him luck and gives him her blessing, hits harder than it otherwise would. You don't care that Justin's leaving, you care that his mother knew, and in her own way, gave her only son her blessing.
It's the little things in the presentation that help keep the story not just afloat, but authentically fascinating. Another fantastic example is in Sue, one of the main party members in the game for about the first half or so. Sue is an 8 year old child who just so happens to be pretty damn good at using hammers as weapons. In any other game, Sue would be a playable character who happened to be an 8 year old child, like Relm from Final Fantasy 6. What I mean by this is that it is not often that a child character FEELS like a child; children are often written as too precocious (thereby ruining the image of being a child) or as too innocent. Sue is one of those happy exceptions.
How does the player meet Sue? Simple: she's playing a game with Justin. The two are going on a pretend adventure, going through town pretending to be seeking legendary weapons and armor, which in reality are little more than toy swords and aprons. It's this little detail that immediately helps the player become attached to not just Sue, but to Justin as well. Here's a 14 year old kid, playing with an 8 year old, and clearly enjoying himself. And here's an 8 year old girl doing what ACTUAL 8 year olds do: playing!
But that's not all, because there is one important element to Grandia that helps set it apart from other games: the sense of exploration and wonder. The main theme in Grandia is adventure, exploration, and discovery. It's all about finding something you never saw before, the joy of going farther than you ever thought you could ever go. The game perfectly captures those emotions.
"But how?" I hear you ask. Simple: through presentation. Right off the bat, when Justin and Sue leave for New Parm (about two hours into the game, give or take). The player asks him/herself "what's New Parm like?" Because Parm, the first town in the game, is a Steampunk styled city, with cobbled streets, pipes, and factories. So the player is expecting something similar, but 'shinier' if it were. Personally, I was expecting something more 'New York' in style: tall buildings, modern streets, cars, you name it. Instead, I got a small, 'frontier' style hamlet. The two styles clash so much that the player experiences a sort of whip lash.
I personally HAD to look around town. I was suddenly surrounded by nature; stone buildings were replaced with tents. Instead of pipes, trees. Instead of factories, and Adventurer's Club. This really was, far and away, a whole new world. And that's not even getting into the shock and amazement that was climbing over The End of the World, a wall so high it was considered unclimbable! And what you discover on the other side? A whole other side of the world, far bigger than the one you left! And it's full of wonders, like beast-people, man eating plants, volcanoes, oceans with siren like creatures, among many, many other things!
That amazing sense of wonder, of not knowing what you'll find on your trip, is what truly helps set Grandia apart from other RPG's released before AND after this one. Other games TRIED to incorporate a sense of wonder into their games as well, such as Final Fantasy 10 or No Man's Sky, but to me, they always fall just a weee bit short. Grandia was the first game I ever played where I stood in awe over how wonderfully vast the world truly was.
But what truly sets Grandia apart from its peers is the simple fact that Grandia respects itself. Rather than mock its own cliche story, the game presents it with utmost seriousness. But rather than try to act like it's doing anything new, Grandia presents itself with earnestness. The player comes to CARE about Justin, not because they first meet him waking up on a regular day before his quest, or jumping off a train, but because they meet him HAVING FUN! The player immediately buys that he's a 14 year old kid, itching for adventure!
Ultimately, Grandia stands out because it's a game that strives to be good, and because of that the clichés don't stand out as roughly as they otherwise would. It's sort of like Harry Potter: when you think about it, the story of HP isn't that original (average boy learns he isn't average, grows up to become the savior of the secret, magic world he was destined to save), but because of its presentation, it WORKS.
And that, ladies gentlemen, is how you make an unoriginal work seem fresh: by presentation. Don't skimp out on the minor details; make them flourish. If you make a fantasy world, make it come alive. THAT is precisely what Grandia did, and precisely the reason why Grandia is a modern classic that every RPG aficionado owes to him/herself to experience.
Stop me if you've read this story before: a young, red haired boy dreams of following in his father's footsteps as an adventurer. All he has left of his father is a mysterious memento that seemingly serves no function. A visit to the local museum inspires him to go to the local ruins, where his memento suddenly shines and a mysterious girl tells him to meet her in an unknown, faraway land. From here, the boy goes off on a world saving quest where he will meet allies, enemies, and eventually get entangled in a quest to save the whole world!
From the word "go" we know where the story is going: the guy with the eyepatch leading an army? He's evil and most likely the main bad guy. The blond man who's his second in command, his son, and actually gets respect from the army? A main antagonist that maybe or maybe not becomes a good guy in the end. The woman who aids the blond guy? Four out of five says they have the hots for each other. And those are JUST the first ten minutes of the game!
A seasoned RPG player will guess each plot point the second they get a whiff of anything. Justin's memento being an important plot device? Come on, that's so cliché that even SUBVERTING the cliché is a cliché! The moment Feena gets introduced you just KNOW she and Justin will hook up! The instant you find out she lives alone with her sister, you'll know something's special about her ancestry.
The game offers nothing new in terms of character development. You just know that, by the end of the game, Justin will become a seasoned adventurer, Feena will be his wife, and everyone will live happily ever after. You KNOW the bad guy will die, you know the head of the evil army will attempt to become one with the planet devouring menace he's trying to control, and you know Justin will beat it. There's nothing NEW here.
So, why does the game still feel fresh? If you KNOW what will happen, then what's the point of carrying on? What good is a story if you already know the ending?
Something I've learned recently is that, when the ending is spoiled for you (or if it's your second viewing of a story) then you stop paying attention to the big details and instead turn it to the smaller things you may have missed. And in many ways this is true for Grandia. When you KNOW how the major things will play out, you start keeping an eye for the smaller details, the little things you'd otherwise miss.
For example, knowing that Justin WILL embark on his journey means that you'll pay more attention to his relationship with his mother. You KNOW he will leave her behind, so you're savoring the little moments he shares with her, like his last dinner with her before his journey. You pay attention to the fact that Justin isn't telling her that he plans to leave by himself, that he's a bit quiet, and that he's savoring his meal.You also pay more attention to the story his mother tells him, of how she and his father met for the first time. So, when he leaves in the early hours of the morning without a goodbye, him finding his mother's letter, where she wishes him luck and gives him her blessing, hits harder than it otherwise would. You don't care that Justin's leaving, you care that his mother knew, and in her own way, gave her only son her blessing.
It's the little things in the presentation that help keep the story not just afloat, but authentically fascinating. Another fantastic example is in Sue, one of the main party members in the game for about the first half or so. Sue is an 8 year old child who just so happens to be pretty damn good at using hammers as weapons. In any other game, Sue would be a playable character who happened to be an 8 year old child, like Relm from Final Fantasy 6. What I mean by this is that it is not often that a child character FEELS like a child; children are often written as too precocious (thereby ruining the image of being a child) or as too innocent. Sue is one of those happy exceptions.
How does the player meet Sue? Simple: she's playing a game with Justin. The two are going on a pretend adventure, going through town pretending to be seeking legendary weapons and armor, which in reality are little more than toy swords and aprons. It's this little detail that immediately helps the player become attached to not just Sue, but to Justin as well. Here's a 14 year old kid, playing with an 8 year old, and clearly enjoying himself. And here's an 8 year old girl doing what ACTUAL 8 year olds do: playing!
But that's not all, because there is one important element to Grandia that helps set it apart from other games: the sense of exploration and wonder. The main theme in Grandia is adventure, exploration, and discovery. It's all about finding something you never saw before, the joy of going farther than you ever thought you could ever go. The game perfectly captures those emotions.
"But how?" I hear you ask. Simple: through presentation. Right off the bat, when Justin and Sue leave for New Parm (about two hours into the game, give or take). The player asks him/herself "what's New Parm like?" Because Parm, the first town in the game, is a Steampunk styled city, with cobbled streets, pipes, and factories. So the player is expecting something similar, but 'shinier' if it were. Personally, I was expecting something more 'New York' in style: tall buildings, modern streets, cars, you name it. Instead, I got a small, 'frontier' style hamlet. The two styles clash so much that the player experiences a sort of whip lash.
I personally HAD to look around town. I was suddenly surrounded by nature; stone buildings were replaced with tents. Instead of pipes, trees. Instead of factories, and Adventurer's Club. This really was, far and away, a whole new world. And that's not even getting into the shock and amazement that was climbing over The End of the World, a wall so high it was considered unclimbable! And what you discover on the other side? A whole other side of the world, far bigger than the one you left! And it's full of wonders, like beast-people, man eating plants, volcanoes, oceans with siren like creatures, among many, many other things!
That amazing sense of wonder, of not knowing what you'll find on your trip, is what truly helps set Grandia apart from other RPG's released before AND after this one. Other games TRIED to incorporate a sense of wonder into their games as well, such as Final Fantasy 10 or No Man's Sky, but to me, they always fall just a weee bit short. Grandia was the first game I ever played where I stood in awe over how wonderfully vast the world truly was.
But what truly sets Grandia apart from its peers is the simple fact that Grandia respects itself. Rather than mock its own cliche story, the game presents it with utmost seriousness. But rather than try to act like it's doing anything new, Grandia presents itself with earnestness. The player comes to CARE about Justin, not because they first meet him waking up on a regular day before his quest, or jumping off a train, but because they meet him HAVING FUN! The player immediately buys that he's a 14 year old kid, itching for adventure!
Ultimately, Grandia stands out because it's a game that strives to be good, and because of that the clichés don't stand out as roughly as they otherwise would. It's sort of like Harry Potter: when you think about it, the story of HP isn't that original (average boy learns he isn't average, grows up to become the savior of the secret, magic world he was destined to save), but because of its presentation, it WORKS.
And that, ladies gentlemen, is how you make an unoriginal work seem fresh: by presentation. Don't skimp out on the minor details; make them flourish. If you make a fantasy world, make it come alive. THAT is precisely what Grandia did, and precisely the reason why Grandia is a modern classic that every RPG aficionado owes to him/herself to experience.
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