Icky monsters, love, and friendship - A Grandia 2 review
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- Опубликовано: 15 июл 2024
- Light Spoilers for the first 3 or 4 hours in the beginning. Major spoilers have a warning.
Back with another classic JRPG. Can resident edgelord, Ryudo, save the world AND find love? Probably... it's a video game.
Follow me on Twitter: / hey_prettycody
Chapters:
Intro & brief history of Game Arts: 0:00
My history with Grandia 2: 02:21
Setting up the story : 3:22
Combat Systems: 13:05
More party members: 16:00
Music and Sound Design: 20:49
Unique Worldbuilding: 24:02
[BIG SPOILERS START] Romance: 30:17
Valmar - the body horror guy: 34:03
Story Synopsis: 36:28
Voice Acting Detour: 41:00
Back to the story: 43:33
[spoiler free again] Wrapping up - themes and why Grandia 2 works: 1:08:03 
Игры
I finished Grandia 2 recently and just wanted to say you’ve made a great video on it. There’s not many out there so I appreciate this one and all your work on it.
Also you used Octopath Traveler music so 10/10
Grandia 2 was such a banger man. I used to play this game with my big brother back in the day, and reliving these moments through this retrospective turned out to be a much more emotional endeavour than I expected. Especially the whole dynamic between Ryudo and Melfice, which is somewhat relatable on a personal level - especially in retrospect. But not only that, I remember being devastated by Mareks sacrifice and that sh*t still hits home. The soundtrack is absolutely outstanding, and the battle system is still one of the best of its genre in my opinion (minus the long a$$ spell animations of course). In general the visuals really didn't age all that well but the characters, the story (again, especially the whole melfice arc) and especially the body horror inspired enemy designs have ingrained themselves into my brain.
Timeless banger game.
Correct on all counts imho
The excuses and women line is great
True, but no heart for you 😅
Yeah, sometimes i miss 'em... But the real heart was the comments we made along the way.
Awwwww ❤️
I am so glad I found this video, I was crossing my fingers I'd find a good quality video of someone discussing their thoughts about Grandia 2. Grandia 2 has been one of my favorite JRPGs growing up. It was a joy to watch this video, and I've already re-watched it several times haha! Great video!
Great review. I like how you gradually introduce each character.
Great video Cody, this game doesn’t get enough love these days!
"Anytime Millenia is asleep... Millenia can actually take over" (30:56)
Oh nice catch, haha. I went right in a circle there.
Awesome video, and for one of my favorite games! Thanks for the fun trip down memory lane.
Hey, listen!
A Maj video, a Mando video and now a PrettyCody video? This day is STACKED.
Grandia 2 has special place for me. It was my very first RPG of all of them. I don't think that demo of Fallout Tactics counts as RPG so I consider that Grandia 2 was. It was horribly translated pirated version of the game, where in Rydo's home village every "o" was replaces with Y so he was RyudY, gYing fYr revenge against Melfice with his Friends - Elena, Mareg and TiY.
But it didn't matter. It was weird JRPG but I didn't know any better at that time and I loved it. And to be honest, I still love it to this day.
My first pirated version of it was bugged so that when you arrive in Ryudo's village, the ambient sound would crash the game so I found the file name and replaced it with another sound from the same folder by copying and renaming, which turned out to be a loud growl which looped endlessly, but it made it possible to continue playing.
An interesting point about Ryudo you made was the tone switch at times from a punk kid to an almost Shakespearean way of speaking. Like during his ultimate Move “Sworn Enemies, you shall be defeated”
Loved the voice acting in this game. I was never bothered by his callous and rude attitude because as an angsty 17 year old kid it gets somewhat explained with his rough past
This is one of my favorite RPGs from the PS2 era. And despite how much I enjoyed the first game, Grandia 2 remains my series favorite by a large margin. It was such a good story and good characters and excellent gameplay. There's still some tracks (Cancao do povo, in its various forms) that hit me hard when going back to listen to them (emotions are still something I try to suppress normally).
The TIO bit in the automaton factory reminds of of Robo's character mission. Not that that is a bad thing, it's just "easy" to go to (even though it usually works).
When these games came out in the HD remaster collection, this was a day 1 purchase for me on Switch and I loved replaying both games. Both games also still have such satisfying conclusions (and/or ending sequences).
Yeah, I'm really glad I gave it a chance. I missed it as a youngin' so it's really fun to go back and play it for the channel.
Stumbled across this video. Really well done.
Glad I found your channel early on like this. I like the generally positive but realistic approach to the video essay format. You seem like one of those guys who's going to blow up after making that one video you didn't expect to be popular, so keep it up and good luck.
Thinking you'll stick with the JRPGs or go more broad?
First of all: thank you for the kind words! I dunno if I'll ever blow up, but I'm happy people enjoy these videos. I have a couple genres I really like so there are a couple other games I have in mind to touch on in the future-- and I'm always happy to take recommendations.
@@prettycody No problem, praise where praise is due. I do expect you to grow pretty quickly in the semi-near future. At least catching up with similar, older channels.
Out of curiosity, what genres?
Y'know i had trouble thinking of genres once you adked haha - Metroidvanias, souls like, 2d fighters and lately rogue likes.
While we're doing requests, your take on Chrono Cross would be interesting.
The finger following the rope during your rope rant gave me a good chuckle 😂
Your spoiler warning bit was A++ loved it
I won't give it away, but what a pleasant surprise at the start of the spoiler section. Knew it was worth venturing in.
The Charlie bit was golden...but...por que no los dos.
A danger turducken. 😂
Also: the haaaaaaat 🤣
Absolutely wonderful video! Thanks PrettyCody!
You mentioned Millenia being sort of the "ID" to Elena and this is she way I interpreted the Valmar possesion:
Valmar bring forth the dark side/hidden desires/shadow/ID of the host. If the host succumbs to them they change their body to reflect those feelings.
Different character get influended differently depending on thier personality as well, it seems that only if you give up and succomb to it you full transform into whatever form your ID would take. I like to think Millenia is the manifestation of Elena's repressed emotions that she's done in order to become a songstress within hte church.
Lastly, if Millenia is the "ID", we can think of Elena as the "Super-Ego" with all its strict rules and dogmas, which then makes Ryudo the "Ego", the "mediator" which doesn't fully take a side but tries to listen to both.
I like that read, a lot of JRPGs in the era liked Fruedian concepts as a motif a lot, so this feels pretty on point.
Also i ggave up on this gamr right before it got good so was nice to be carried through the story. Another great video good job definitely deserve more views
You went above and beyond for this one.
Bravo, great video for one of my all time favorites.
Fun fact, according to the cutscene, after Granas clashed Valmar, Granasword falls down on the territory of Ukraine, Ukraine is separated by two banks of the river Dnipro, so since i was small in my mind i always thought our river is the Granas cliffs flooded with water XD
Grandia II is one of the best 8/10 games of all time.
Ryudo ties the rope in tower. Skye takes it and hooks it as a base down in the forest. Its why he flew away
Sounds reasonable to me. One less plot rope to worry about then.
Okay final comment now that I've finished the video.
Awesome job dude, absolutely top tier.
Now set up a way for me to throw money at your head.
I missed the bottom part of this. I honestly hadn't considered doing a patreon or anything. I would have to put some thought into how I would want to do the levels, but if it's something folks want I'll consider it.
@@prettycody do it (please insert meme here)
Good review! I've watched a few yt reviews on this and I feel like you're the first person that pointed out some of the game's actual faults.I enjoy this game overall and I agree it's a "more than the sum of its parts" situation. I recently finished this for the first time since I played it on release and honestly well... I was kinda shocked at how many issues it had.
This might be the most repetitive RPG I've played to completion. The game basically repeats its first hour or so over and over and over again until the end. Normal enemy encounters are basically a non factor once you get a few aoes, the bosses are all essentially the same (admittedly good) boss, the dungeons also feel like essentially the same thing over and over and they even fucking numbered them EXACTLY the same every time...
There are so many issues here and yet it's hard not to love it. The characters, the world, the voice acting, story, etc is just too endearing.
God damn I love this game.
Rex showing up in the bottom right corner nearly made me choke to death from laughing
Recently came across your channel when I was looking for long JRPG reviews like this. Love your vids man!
Oh hey! That's the voice of MOEBIUS, THE TIME STREAMER!
Great breakdown of one of my favorite games! It had its flaws but was such a fun game
Millenia is objectively the correct choice, indeed.
I had this on the Dreamcast many moons ago. Didn't click with me back then but since it's on Steam maybe I should go back and try it.
Wow. Incredible video man, truly high quality. Great work!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
Breathtaking art style in the game world!
You know, if I had a nickel for every time I was sent on a quest to escort a priestess on a sacrificial mission to save the world with the power of a corrupt, false religion that goes wrong very early on, accompanied by a sexy, snarky magician along with a halberd-wielding beast-man and/ or a robotic girl, I would have 3 nickels.
Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened three times.
The Church of Granas is not evil; the heads of the church end up being corrupted by Valmar. All the priests you talk to throughout the game are good people, even Zera was a good person until his corruption, and Selene had been corrupted by Valmar before the events of Mirumu village. If you try to talk to the Cathedral Knights when they are guarding the exit to the village, they don't speak and Roan says he sees red eyes underneath their helmets, suggesting they aren't human. Selene was obviously corrupted due to her overzealous nature of "purifying" evil, only to be corrupted by evil herself due to her extreme mindset. Zera was corrupted due to his wavering faith and learning that Granas died; he becomes corrupted by the Will of Valmar which twists his wavering faith to become a God himself due to his insecurity for a lack of one.
The whole game is about people being corrupted by evil, while trying to achieve personal ideals and goals, and I dislike it when other reviewers try to connect Christianity with the Church of Granas like the game is critiquing religion; the game is critiquing the concept of Darkness and corruption and how people can be consumed by evil despite their intentions of doing good.
- Gadan was corrupted because of his pursuit of money; originally to pay the workers better wages only to be corrupted and becoming greedy.
- Aira wanted everyone to live happy lives free of pain and suffering; this was corrupted to steal their souls and trap them in an eternal dream.
- Melfice wanted to become a strong swordsman to protect the people he loved most, believing he wasn't strong enough to do so yet; he became corrupted to chase after power indefinitely making him cruel and unhinged.
- Selene wanted to purify the world of Darkness and evil only to become the very thing she despised.
People say Grandia 1 is better but I play Grandia 2 first and to me it's the better game, better characters, plot and one of the BEST turn-based battle system to date.
im gonna marry this video
also please do thousand arms
edit: and maybe legend of legaia
Can’t believe you didn’t mention the obvious Yin-yang floor on the final boss fight. Great video all through though!
Very true. The duality of man writ large on the battlefield floor. Glad you enjoyed the video!
6:31 EEEEHEHEHEHEHEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHE I just let out the WEIRDEST giggle but like.. .you are so right.
Changed my name several years ago. First name is obviously important, but middle names aren't used at all where I live, so I decided to try out some random middle names for fun to check which passes the naming committee thing. Turns out Millenia is in fact an allowed name lmao
An excellent choice!
I read the title as "Friendship and Icky Manners" for a sec and thought "Ryudo IS kinda rude-o for a while, sure."
I mean hey, it is current year ma dood, maybe the end is a cheeky nod to a very strange polyamorous relationship between two versions of the same person and the guy they are into.
This is a good jrpg, even for today's standards.
It was also one of the few jrpgs that's available on the PC once upon a time. I was a student that only had access to a PC for "studying" back then, and having come from the PS1, I was hungry for good jrpgs. This game staved that hunger multiple times.
I always forget this game got a PC release back in the day. We're finally starting to see the genre get pc releases but I bet back then this was amazing to have
@@prettycody the PC version had game breaking bugs that were unfixable for years, and was never patched.
Sega Saturn game Holy Ark Shining in theDarkness has unexpectly aqesome and well written story if youve never played it the writing rea
Ly carries it and something about the difficulty really feels good to play
I have heard nothing but good things about the shining dungeon crawler games. I should give them a shot sometime.
You seem like a pretty cool dude,dude.
Any chance of checking out Xenogears for a video?
Xenogears is great. I would love to come back to it for the channel one day, I haven't played it since college.
Major spoiler.
My biggest issue with the game is the end when you lose the boy and marrig dies, leaving you with only elena and millenia. All the items on those members are gone and all grinding done for them during the game felt wasted.
Love watching you point out a bunch of things that aren't belts and calling them belts...
I don't often like to brag, but it's my specialty.
44:09 nop it was the village daughter who went to check the seal and then got possessed. Melfice killed her out of mercy and for killing her he go possessed. The reason he turned evil is cause he wanted to be the greatest swordsman and for wanting to be more powerful he succumbed the possession cause his will is low.
44:54 the cool thing about the first battle is that depending on how you fight that battle is what gives or takes difficulty of the second battle.
52:55 Zera Innocentius hence Zero Innocence It's Latin, and all the singing in this game its Latin.
Play Trails In the Sky (the three chapters)
It's Grandia but the plot is grander and better
Unironically Trails Features every thing you said you liked about grandia Lol
@@franciscojose6512 I actually have the first trails game sitting on my steam account for about a year now - I think it's the time commitment for the series that intimidates me, but I have heard nothing but glowing reviews for the series. I should really give it a shot one day though.
I have such a sweet spot for Grandia 2. PS2 was my first serious console system and I started out with some absolute bangers in hindsight: Final Fantasy X, Grandia 2, Devil May Cry, Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver 2 and...The Bouncer (lol). I have such sweet spots for these games and franchises.
Filing this under P for "plot rope" 😂😂🤌🤌