5/5 ★ – TheRealness408's review of Grandia.

In Grandia, you play as a kid named Justin who really just wants to go on an adventure, but everyone keeps telling him no. Well, eventually Justin goes on that adventure, and goddammit it kicks ass. In the opening few hours of the game, you'll learn about the Adventurer's Guild and meet a legendary adventurer named Feena. You quickly learn that Adventurers can only go on approved adventures, and need permission to do so. I know thats stupid, you know that's stupid, Justin knows it's stupid. Feena is the only one who doesn't get it. So, after Justin proves his worth to Feena on a certain mission, she realizes the Adventurer's guild is stupid too. That's where the real journey begins. On the surface, the game's plot really is "I wanna adventure, let's adventure." What makes the journey special is the characters and their development. Justin and Feena have one of the best relationships I've seen in a jrpg of this era. At the beginning of the game Feena sees Justin as an immature kid that she needs to protect, but by the end she ends up trusting and depending on Justin. It's honestly one of the better love stories I've seen in a game and it doesn't beat you over the head with the romance. In fact there's very little romance, and the relationship develops naturally over time. I actually rated this a 4 before I wrote that sentence. This is a 5/5 all time classic. There are a few minor negatives like navigation and camera controls, but those are easy to overlook. Combat is traditional turn based, but plays very fast and has a few quirks like cancelling enemy attacks. The progression system is similar to Saga's "use it to boost it" system. Overall gameplay isnt revolutionary, but it is very fun. Overall, this is a must play for jrpg enthusiasts. This falls into my category of "if you played this as a kid, it could be your favorite game."