Grandia and Grandia II Getting HD Remaster, Coming to Switch

Published: August 22, 2018 12:16 AM /

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grandia 1

GungHo Online Entertainment America announced that Grandia and Grandia II would be coming to Switch, fully remastered. The announcement was initially reported via IGN. Additionally, Grandia HD will arrive on PC, joining Grandia II on Steam. This will mark the first time Grandia is easily available since 1999, when it was released for the PlayStation in North America. Grandia II, while available on PC, hasn't been available on a console since the early 2000s, when it was released for the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast. There's no specific release date yet, but you can get your hands on a legendary RPG sometime this winter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYMOJJZ8UNs

Developed by Game Arts, makers of Silpheed and the Lunar series, Grandia has seen just four main releases, plus an MMO, a bonus disc, and a spinoff. Still, similarly to the Lunar series, the Grandia games have prided themselves on deep combat mechanics and sprite art. The first Grandia game follows the young Justin as he adventures in a world full of emerging technology. As he and his companions find a strange artifact, they attract the attention of a powerful empire, and are forced to flee.

While the brief description here doesn't quite do Grandia justice, it was extremely well-received, both at home and abroad. As Grandia released around the same time as Final Fantasy VII the two were compared with Gamespot describing Grandia as "[superior to] FF7 in all of the ways that matter." Initially released for the Japanese Sega Saturn, it found a second home on the PlayStation, later coming to Japanese PS3s on PlayStation Network. PC and Switch owners will finally get a chance to taste Grandia for themselves later this year.

Switch owners get another bonus too: Grandia II. Moving away from the sprite graphics of the first game, Grandia II aims for a more "mature" story compared to the first. Telling the story of Ryudo, a blade-for-hire, he is tasked with protecting a songstress from the church of the god of light. The same church that has been leading humanity to prosperity and peace for the past thousand years.

Originally released on the Dreamcast, it later saw a subpar port for the PlayStation 2 and PC. Still, similarly to its predecessor, Grandia II garnered rave reviews. In expanding on the positional-based battle system, Grandia II was praised for a deep battle system and challenging difficulty, even as the story and characters were one-note. The Steam version of Grandia II is a remastered version of the Dreamcast version, offering upgraded visuals and Japanese audio, plus the standard array of PC port features. Grandia II will be playable at PAX West, and available as part of a package for the Switch later this year.

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Kyle Johnson
| Japanese Gaming Specialist

Professional painter. Semi-professional weeb. I've played hundreds of games, but finished very few. I speak Chinese and Minnesotan.