Grandia 2 or Skies of Arcadia?

[dreamcast4ever83]

Hi so I made this post cause I have heard heated debates about this and I was woundering which one you guy's prefer? I have played both but actually have not finished grandia 2 although I plan a playthough very soon.

Im aware that the dreamcast was not loaded with rpg's like the late great saturn but there were some Great gems hidden in there.

Which do you like better and why? Also what your fav rpg on the system? (Im not including shenmue in this)

[Gamerforlife]

Grandia II has a far better battle system, but Skies has more charm, better characters, and a better story and a lot of extra content (especially if you play the Gamecube port)

Overall, I give it to Skies, but the Grandia games have one of the best combat systems I've ever seen, though Grandia II dumbed it down slightly from the original Grandia.

The original Grandia is better than both games IMO, though Skies comes very close to matching it in every area except combat.

[Gunstar Green]

Basically what he said. Grandia 2 has an excellent battle system and no random encounters.The story itself is pretty overblown and the world feels very linear. The art design is still pretty good today though and its definitely one of the funner RPGs I've ever played.

Skies on the other hand has a pretty basic battle system and way too many random encounters, but the story is full of charm. It's a very up-beat game compared to all the dark and broody post-Final Fantasy VII RPGs of the time. The world with its flying island countries is very interesting and fun to explore and the airship battles are pretty cool.

They're both worth owning on the Dreamcast, but I'd give Skies of Arcadia the edge since it's by far got the more interesting world and characters and that matters a lot in Japanese RPGs.

[outlaw_moon]

From what I can remember, i think I enjoyed the battles in Grandia II more than SOA. Before you jump me though, i am not talking about the airship battles just the hand to hand ones

Nothing can beat the airship battles of SOA

[Breetai]

I've played through and own Grandia II, but never even tried SoA. Grandia II is very, very good. You can't go wrong with it if you like RPGs. People seem to like SoA more overall, so I guess you can't go wrong there either. Get whichever one is cheaper first, then get the other later.

[Gamerforlife]

This may sound harsh, but I think if one plays the original Grandia, than Grandia II is entirely skippable. As a sequel, it doesn't really reach or surpass the accomplishments of the first game in any way, shape, or form.

Though if someone had no way to play the original Grandia (maybe they don't own a Saturn or Playstation), then I would most definitely recommend Grandia II so they could get a taste of that awesome battle system. It's a fine game on its own merits, but just never reaches the heights of its predecessor. The story and characters are its biggest failings when compared to the first game, which had a great story and some of the most charming, endearing characters of all time.

Skies is just a classic through and through, and I agree that the ship battles are very cool. They're not all that deep or challenging, but it was a cool idea that helps to make up for the rather bland regular, hand to hand fights. I will say one thing I like about the regular combat though. Even when they were not taking an action, you could see your party members going through attack animations to create the sense of an ongoing battle. It's a little detail, but I liked that. I also liked the shared pool every party member had to borrow from to take actions. It created a sense of teamwork as each character's actions affect the party as a whole. A character initiating a powerful attack and using up a big chunk of the shared pool, would limit the amount of things the next party member could choose to do on his/her turn.

What really impressed me with Skies was its complete dedication to its theme. There are tons of little gameplay elements that all contribute to that idea that you are a pirate and an explorer. Little things that didn't really add to the story and weren't even necessary parts of the game, but added to the theme. You had bounties, ship to ship battles, a pirate reputation to manage, treasures to find, hidden, mythical creatures and locations to discover as you explored the world map, a pirate hunter to do battle with, storms to fly through, lots of cool little things that really made this feel like a bonafide rpg about pirattes and explorers.

[aaron]

This may sound harsh, but I think if one plays the original Grandia, than Grandia II is entirely skippable. As a sequel, it doesn't really reach or surpass the accomplishments of the first game in any way, shape, or form.

Though if someone had no way to play the original Grandia (maybe they don't own a Saturn or Playstation), then I would most definitely recommend Grandia II so they could get a taste of that awesome battle system. It's a fine game on its own merits, but just never reaches the heights of its predecessor. The story and characters are its biggest failings when compared to the first game, which had a great story and some of the most charming, endearing characters of all time.

agreed 100%, very well written. i'd actually recommend playing the second one first.

i haven't played Xtreme or III, though...

[Xeogred]

Yeah I've heard some others say that from time to time. I liked Grandia II a good bit (although played the PS2 port, which had tons of lag which apparently isn't there in the original DC version?), but yeah the story was... just awful and hilarious. I remember the music being kind of bad too or something. But yeah I'm definitely interested in checking out the first sometime.

Still haven't gotten to Skies myself, but I always hear great things.

[Gunstar Green]

Indeed, the PS2 port of Grandia 2 is all sorts of messed up. The Dreamcast one plays wonderfully and is the definitive version.

The story is unbelievably silly no matter the version though .

[Breetai]

The story is unbelievably silly no matter the version though .

That's the charm! I've only played the PS2 version (I didn't have a DC then), and I had tons of fun with it. The slowdown didn't really bother me.