Grandia II is the first new RPG game, I've played in years. This meaning that I haven't seen nor or played any games for the new consoles before this. Therefore I have no idea as to what the standards for RPGs for the modern consoles are, but this game triggered my attention from the beginning. It was just good.

Ryudo is a geohound, a fighter who is a mercenary for trade. Whatever job you need to have done, Ryudo will do it. For money, at least. When Ryudo is signed to help the songstress Elena, he must protect her in all ways, and he will learn that not all in life is about money. Alongside the songstress Elena, her alter ego Millenia, the boy scout Roan and other characters, you'll be dragged into a battle between the evil god Valmar and the friendly god, Granas.

As said in the beginning, I don't know the RPG standards very well, however I found this game to be quite all right. The fighting scenes are great, and when Millenia, one of the characters in the game, uses her spells, it looks quite good. The in game graphics are anime type, which is not my favourite look at all, but it is quite tolerable in this game. A thing that might annoy some people is the rotating cameras, which can be a bliss sometimes and other times it can be quite terrible!

The sound is not too good. I'm missing a good score, with melodies that you'll remember instantly if you hear them several years later. The melodies are mediocre, sometimes annoying and mostly worthless. I would have liked it a bit more if they had improved it a little. The voices of the various characters are well chosen, however - especially little Roan's voice is so annoying that you just want to steal his cokies!

The gameplay, on the other hand, is good. Turnbased fighting scenes like in all good RPG games. The controlling is easy, and easy for anyone to learn quite quickly. The style of combat can be learned in a tutorial at the very beginning of the game, and should not be any trouble at all. The dialogue can be too long sometimes, but hey, it's nice to have a story, isn't it?

The publisher of the game is Ubi Soft, which is not a terribly known name when it comes to RPG games. Grandia II shows that they do know how to make a good game for all fans of RPG games to enjoy.

All in all - this is a good game, which appeals to any fan of RPGs in all ages. The game isn't a masterpiece, but a good game, which will challenge you quite a bit. Can you withstand the excessive amount of dialogue then you'll have no troubles in helping Ryudo and his comrades.

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