Grandia 2 stands alongside legends like Chrono Trigger, Suikoden 2, and Wild Arms 3 in its outstanding quality. The Stuff That Actually Matters: Grandia 2's story is gripping, meaningful, and intelligently paced. Its characters are nuanced, excellently developed, and memorable. Its writing is exceptional, equally expert in both making you laugh with witty quips, and in tugging at your heartstrings with strong, cutting emotion. Every part of the story and characters of this game is an experience, as the game starts slow but fun and draws you into a truly epic tale of heroism, history, faith, free will, love, duty, sacrifice, and individuality--all the great stuff that RPG players want and enjoy. One of the best parts in all this is that Grandia 2 is also a tour de force of JRPG nostalgia--when you get right down to it, the foundations for this game are very standard JRPG tropes; it's just that the game executes these cliches in a spectacular way. So on top of the spectacular cast, events, and themes, it also very much has that classic feel of the JRPGs of the Playstation 1 + 2 era from whence it originates. The Stuff That Kinda Matters: The voice acting is adequate--could be better, but it gets the job done well. The soundtrack is solid and utilized well, adding to and emphasizing the mood of each event and setting well, and many of its tracks have a distinct personality. The Stuff That Doesn't Matter (But Some People Care About It Anyway): Graphically, this game is decent for its time, getting the job done competently. Additionally, a lot of the CGI footage for the cut scenes is quite good, and some of the CGI magic attacks actually still look good--reminds me a bit of Planescape: Torment that way. The general gameplay's basic but functional, and Grandia 2 possesses one of the best, intuitive turn-based battle systems to be found, even to this day. Conclusion: If you like RPGs, get this game. GET IT. It is a true masterpiece in the art of gaming.
