Grandia III Best Quality

I love the Grandia series.

Let me repeat that. I _LOVE_ the Grandia series. I've played all of them so far and have never been disappointed until now. Grandia has always offered a variety of unique gameplay opportunities and compelling storylines as well as characters. It wasn't everybody's cup of tea, but that's okay. It was mine.

Grandia III is the worst of the series. Let me explain.

The Good:
1. The gameplay was still in the spirit of Grandia. In other words, the battle system was still based on the Grandia engine. That's the saving grace of Grandia III.

The Bad:
1. The Story (spoiler alert): The story was very short and uncomplicated. It followed a very linear progression with no surprises or logic. The group is ripped off by a jerk and then treats the jerk like a trusted family member. He quickly becomes the main character's father figure. That's not the worst part of it all. There are some set boss battles which must be fought. This is the standard in all RPGs. Grandia III's boss fights do not match up with the story. There are several fights which you have to win, just like in most RPGs. After the fight, the boss doesn't even recognize, or act, like he just got beaten. After one battle, the boss kidnaps one of the characters!!!!! It plays out as if the characters lost to the boss!!!! There's no logic nor reason to it at all!

2. Character design: One dimensional. The characters appear to have been inspired by anime. There's nothing original nor unique. To make matters worse, the voice acting is painful to hear. The voice actors hired sounds like they are reading from a script and nothing more. I've never heard "I love you" sound like "I want to go get a cup of coffee" before playing this game, but well, there you go.

3. The "big bad guy." * SPOILER ALEART* - Xorn. The one dimensional bad guy. The guy hates love. He repeats that a lot. He hates love. That's his motivation. He hates love. Wow....he wants to kill love. That's as deep as it goes. The player never learns why he hates love. It is because he is the representation of hatred? Did he get spurned by a rival god/goddess? That's never flushed out. He has only one dimension. He hates love.

4. The soundtrack: The game's main theme is a bubblegum song by some Japanese female band. It could easily be played on the Disney Channel by one of their generic cookie cutter groups. The song didn't inspire awe, wonder, excitement, nor adventure. It had no place on an adventure RPG. The rest of the soundtrack was largely forgettable. Grandia tended to have beautiful music. This one broke from that tradition and proceeded to be just plain awful.


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