Despite the necessities of them signing on the dotted line along with Grandia developer GameArts, Ubi Soft proudly displayed a playable demonstration of the still-innovative enemy encounter system inherant to all Grandia installments, right there on the show floor. And, as if that wasn't impressive already, Ubi Soft soon signed Kris Zimmerman as the North American version's Voice Director, thereby ensuring translations of each voice-acted scene that always equal, if not surpass, those found in the Japanese version. (For those who don't know, Kris Zimmerman is primarily responsible for the excellent English voice-acting found in Konami's "Metal Gear Solid".) Thankfully, the game's aural translation treats the original Japanese dialog with the utmost respect, all while fitting in quite well with the witty, well-written dialog. Put simply, Grandia II's entire translation, for the most part, is better than about 99% of the other RPGs on the market today.

  Grandia II finally made its journey to North America on December 8th, 2000, after being met with a relatively successful Japanese debut on August 3rd, 2000. Unfortunately for fans of the original Grandia's rather light-hearted storyline of a young-boy-turned-adventurer and his various escapades, Grandia II takes the series in a distinctly different direction. Gone are the youthful exchanges of the original Grandia's brat pack cast; taking their place are philosophical discussions between the new cast, led by a skeptical, sarcastic malcontent named Ryudo. A Geohound by trade, Ryudo makes it his first priority to take on almost any job available. Unfortunately for him, his latest odd job, to escort a party of Sisters from the Church of Granas to an ancient tower turns out to be more trouble than he originally agreed to handle. During his journey, he must turn and face his past, as well as discover the shocking truth concerning the world and its current state.

  Despite the changes in both tone and maturity though, the innovative real-time enemy encounter system from the first Grandia returns, albeit with several minor, yet significant refinements. First of all, enemy encounters look and sound much better. For those who have yet to experience the original, Grandia II features an updated version of the first title's non-random, real-time conflicts. Unlike most role-playing games that force the player to take turns exchanging blows with a variety of villianous creatures, Grandia II's battle system allows players to gain strategic advantages against every type of enemy, including bosses. Unorthodox as it may seem at first glance, it's quite possible, as well as strongly encouraged, to Counter or even Cancel your enemies' next attacks. To do so, you must first understand how the Initiative Point Meter, a single timeline on which all playable characters' and enemy units' turns are tracked, can actually work to your favor.

  Effectively choosing when to use the two most basic attacks from the spherical on-screen menu, namely Combo and Critical, is the key to victory. The former allows you to physically attack with your equipped weapons two or more times, while the latter allows for a slower, more forceful attack that will Cancel any of your enemies' upcoming attacks, provided that certain conditions are met. These conditions involve seemingly complex, yet remarkably simple timing skills, as you must hit the attacking enemy after he reaches Act on the I.P. Meter, but before he reaches the Meter's end, at which point the enemy will use their attack and said attack can no longer be Cancelled nor Countered. Countering can only be accomplished by Combo attacking an enemy before they attack; that said, however, Countering only delays the attack for a second or two at most, rather than Cancelling it, which pushes the enemy back on the I.P. Meter. Obviously, speed-based forethought is an absolute must in Grandia II, especially in the lengthy boss encounters, where proper timing and execution becomes essential.

  Interestingly enough, the one area of Grandia II that failed to truly impress me was the storyline. I don't mean to sound so harsh, but if you're looking for an original storyline with numerous plot twists that'll keep you guessing, you should definitely look elsewhere. Whereas Grandia had a lighthearted story of a young boy who realizes his dreams, falls in love and saves the world, Grandia II has a flat, extremely predictable (and dare I say formulated?) storyline in which almost every character is exactly who they say they are. This would have been easily forgotten if the plot's clincher hadn't been treated as such an afterthought. Even the ending, which I had incredibly high hopes for, fell way short of the mark and resolved a smaller portion of my unanswered questions than even I would have expected. Thankfully, there weren't a lot of times when I didn't get the drift, as many of the plot twists usually stated the conclusion I had come to hours before.

  I definitely don't blame Ubi Soft for the blundersome plot or awkward pacing of Grandia II; that particular pointed finger would aim right at the developers. My advice to GameArts for their next RPG: make sure your next plot's clincher isn't so readable. I figured the whole thing out before I was even an hour deep into the game. Maybe it's just me, but there's nothing quite as disappointing as being able to clearly read every obvious plot point that comes down the pipe. This is the way I look at it: without some sort of cover-up, mysteries are no fun to solve. However, despite this glaring flaw, the excellent character development in Grandia II serves as a glowing beacon of hope for the main plot, which seems to have beached itself somewhere along the way. In other words, you'll likely be quite attached to each and every one of the playable characters before the end of the game, which is really very sad, since you won't be given much of a finale. Just be glad that the soundtrack, composed by Noriyuki Iwadare, isn't half-bad.

  Contrary to the conclusion that most of you would probably expect to see me reach after playing through Grandia II, I still enjoyed most of the thirty-six hours I spent playing it. Sure, most of the plot twists were about as subtle as a freight train in my back yard, but the further refined enemy encounters, as well as the superb character design and development, more than makes up for Grandia II's otherwise inexcusable deficiencies. In short, what Grandia II lacks in innovation, it makes up for with refinement; what it lacks in storyline, it makes up for with playability. Still, it's a little too ironic that this time around, it was the developers, and not the translators, that ultimately hindered the title's ability to deliver a solid experience.
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