Grandia HD Collection

Genre: Compilation / Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Grandia HD Collection is a Compilation of two classic Turn-Based JRPGs. The original Grandia was first released on the Sega Saturn in Japan, but US audiences wouldn’t get the game until it received a PlayStation port two years later in 1999. Grandia II was released on the Dreamcast in 2000 and ported to other platforms a few years later. Both games in this collection feature remastered graphics to bring them closer to modern-day standards.

That’s not to say that either of these games looks even remotely like a modern-day game. Not only are Grandia and Grandia 2 both still clearly games intended for PlayStation and PlayStation 2-era platforms, but they both have visuals that feel like they’re pretty firmly entrenched in the early parts of each of those generations.

The first Grandia eschewed the pre-rendered backgrounds that JRPGs like the Final Fantasy series made a hallmark of that generation, instead going for 2D sprites on fully 3D backgrounds. However, by today’s standards these backgrounds are really low-poly, feature blurry low-resolution textures, and are so repetitive that navigating towns and dungeons becomes a chore as it becomes easy to get lost. And while the overall resolution and framerates have been improved here, that makes it all the more noticeable when the visuals run into issues, such as when the framerates chug, or when the sprites jitter as they struggle to remain in the proper space in the 3D environments.

Grandia II definitely looks better, though still pretty archaic by today’s standards. This time the game features fully 3D graphics, and thankfully the improved resolution and framerate don’t seem to come with any downsides this time, though the character models are still pretty low-poly and the environments are still pretty repetitive.

Both games feature pretty decent though unspectacular music, as well as dialogue that is partially dubbed with voice acting (players can opt to hear this in English or Japanese), with the quality of the voice acting being okay but not spectacular.

As for the story, the first game is fairly lighthearted, following the adventures of a pair of children whose playful desire for “adventures” leads them to discover the remains of a precursor race that is currently being sought after by a militaristic empire. This game’s story is pretty poorly localized and not especially original, but its lighthearted tone and characters are nevertheless appealing.

The second game, meanwhile, follows a “geohound” (mercenary) hired to escort a priestess to a sacred ritual, only for things to become complicated when the ritual goes awry and it appears as though the forces of evil may soon be unleashed on the land. Again, not a very original plot, though the localization is somewhat better this time. It also bears mention that the tone of this game is much darker than the original and its characters more grim and morose in nature, which may appeal more to some players, though fans of the first game may find it a huge departure from a facet of that game that appealed to them.

In terms of the gameplay, both of these games feature a similar battle system that has players making turn-based actions on a timing bar, with both a “combo attack” that can chain multiple hits for more damage, as well as a “critical attack” that can interrupt enemy actions in progress and set them back farther on the timing bar, with much of the game’s strategy in choosing which of these two types of attacks to use on which enemies. Overall, these are both solid JRPGs, but as I mentioned above, the way their presentation has so noticeably aged has affected the gameplay

There is another issue here, and that is one of the value of this package. $40 is a pretty tall ask for two games that are both at least 20 years old, and both with pretty much only cleaned up visuals in terms of added value in this release. There’s no production art, no QoL improvements, and certainly nothing that takes advantage of the Nintendo Switch’s unique features. Plus, it’s not like this is a comprehensive collection – if so little effort was going to be put into porting these games to the Switch, for this price we could have at least gotten Grandia Xtreme and Grandia III as part of the package too.

As-is, fans of JRPGs may still want to get this package as these are certainly two landmark JRPGs, and they are both improved over their original releases. However, players used to more morder games in the genre and who don’t have fond memories of those original releases will probably want to skip Grandia HD Collection – these games have not aged well, and the price is a bit too steep for what’s on offer.

tl;dr – Grandia HD Collection is a Compilation of two Turn-Based JRPGs, Grandia and Grandia II, with improved resolution and framerates. However, even those improvements do little to hide how outdated these games are, and the price tag for these old games is too high for a package so lacking in features. Fans of the genre may still want to pick up these classics, but those who don’t have nostalgia for the original games will probably want to skip them.

Grade: C+

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