Granas was the god of light. Valmar was the god of darkness. Eons ago, an epic battle between the two - known as 'The Battle of Good and Evil' - ruined the paradise that was once the world of Grandia II. The resulting end of that battle resulted in Valmar's destruction, Granas going into a deep sleep, and a scar around the world left by Granas' sword.

• Grandia 2 Anniversary Edition
• Grandia 2 Anniversary Edition Walkthrough
• Grandia 2 Switch

But now Valmar is about to be revived. And what of Granas? Will his followers be able to wake him before Valmar revives? Play along as Ryudo, his pal and pet bird Skye, and the friends and enemies they meet, go on the epic journey to stop Valmar's return.

Grandia 2 Anniversary Edition

When I first played Grandia II I was initially disappointed with it and if I would have given it a score I would have given it a seven here at IMDb. However, I played it again and it was better than I had remembered and the score it got from me was an eight.

The first Grandia I had given a nine to and still thought it was the superior game between the two. Now, though, I have played both games back to back and this one still seems to be magically catching up to the first game which is why I now think it deserves a nine just like the first Grandia, which I still believe is the better game, but only by a bit. This game was originally put out on the Sega Dreamcast video gaming console and then converted over to PS2, not sure why they bothered making it for the Dreamcast as the first one came out on the original Playstation so anyone familiar with the game was going to be more likely to choose a PS2 over the system that became defunct rather quickly. Thankfully, they did convert this one as well as the Dreamcast is one of those systems I did not really bother with as at this point Sega was known for making a system and quickly ditching it like they did with the Sega CD, Sega 32X and the Saturn.

The story has a young man named Ryudo getting a job in a village. He is what is referred to in the game as a Geohound; basically, a person who takes on odd jobs for a price and the job usually consists of terminating monsters. He goes to the village and learns that he must escort a young lady to a tower for a ceremony as she is a songstress of Granas and there is something evil within the tower and she is the primary person to lock away this evil once more. Well, the ceremony ends in failure and when they return to the village and Elena rests (the songstress) a strange girl named Millenia appears and proceeds to cause more chaos. Well, the very sarcastic Ryudo is then asked to escort Elena to a holy city where she may get some help for the failed ceremony and along the way they meet a boy named Roan and a beast like man named Mareg. Strange revelations are made and another girl, Tio will also join them on their quest as the ancient dark god Valmer seems to be getting ready to revive from its slumber once again and cause the world to be plunged into darkness. The fighting system is basically the same as the previous game where you take turns and you can cancel out an enemy's turn or have your turn canceled.

You do level up a bit differently in this one as you get points which you disperse to your many skills and magic rather than having to do certain moves or perform magic over and over. It is good and bad. Good in that you do not have to use say a spell that doesn't give all that many points over and over before getting something better, bad in that you can only level up so much before you are maxed out. In the first game your powers could continue to get stronger. So this one is a bit better, but I still give the first game a slight edge. Well, for a game that was on a later console, the graphics are not really all that better. I actually think the first game's graphics were a bit better in areas like the character sprites on the screen.

Grandia 2 Anniversary Edition Walkthrough

In the game itself there were just a lot more exotic locations and interesting situations that arose in the first game too. Like riding the steamer ship and encountering the ghost vessel, reaching the end of the world, the world beyond the end of the world, the mermaid sea and so many more. This Grandia though is a lot faster paced and can be won under 40 hours which I liked as too many games these days take way to long to complete. The characters I like about the same as it is nice how in that game you started as a complete novice and here you get more of a professional to start out the game. I also like how the characters grew and changed in both games. The reason for my initial disappointment stems from the fact that this game was not a direct sequel to the first game. When I was playing it the first time I kept expecting them to mention Justin or Gaia to tie it to each other as the game is named Grandia and I figured that is the name of the world.

However, it is more like Final Fantasy as there are odes to the first game. Granted the map has similarities in areas and the picture at the end almost resembles something found in the first game so if anything it could be a prequel, but not enough things to tie it to the first as there are no mentions of Icarians, spirit stones or Gaia. After this one would come a Grandia simply called Grandia extreme I have not played as I hear it is basically one dungeon after another and then Grandia III would be released much later by Square Enix rather than Ubisoft as the first two games were and Extreme. That one I have only played once, but one can tell it is not made by the same company and it was a bit of a tease as it seemed like it would be the best, but fell off as it progressed.

I have only played it once though so I intend to play it again. And who knows, perhaps it too will grow on me just as this game did.

Grandia 2 Switch

Grandia II: Mana magic Site Navigation • • Shrine Navigation • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Magic & Mana Eggs Before plunging into the main subject of this section (magic, of course), Mana Eggs need to be described. Only after that will it be possible to understand the true nature of spells.

Mana Eggs When equipped, these eggs give the wearer the ability to use elemental magic. Each of them is related to a certain number of elements (among Blizzard, Earth, Explosion, Fire, Forest, Lightning, Water and Wind).