Thank you GungHo Online Entertainment America, Inc. for providing us with a PlayStation copy of the Grandia HD Collection

Grandia was first released in 1997 in Japan and was translated to English two years later. It was first released on the Sega Saturn and made its way to the PlayStation. The HD Remastered version has been released on modern consoles like the Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, and the Xbox One and Series X|S. The remastered version tweaks the user interface, sprites, texture art, and cinematic videos. Widescreen support is also supported. Even with these upgrades, you can tell you’re playing a retro game, but the charm and characters are timeless.

Upon launching Grandia, you’ll see General Baal and his son Mullen discussing the excavation of the Sult Ruins. These ruins are not too far from a town called Parm where the main character, Justin, lives. Justin is not your typical hero: he’s a troublemaking adolescent who admires his father that was an adventurer. It’s not clear what happened to his dad, but Justin lives with his mom who runs a successful restaurant. Justin is often hanging out with his childhood friend, Sue.

You’ll begin the game looking for items on a scavenger hunt, and if Justin doesn’t find them all by sundown (you’re not really timed), Gantz will get to marry Sue. Gantz is a bully, and Sue does not have romantic feelings for him whatsoever. Your first official mission is to save Sue from an awful fate.

After Sue is freed from a potentially miserable marriage, Justin sets his focus on figuring out the origins of a spirit stone that his father left him. Luckily for him, there’s a museum in Pram and he’s friendly with the curator. To help Justin get answers about his spirit stone, the curator writes him and Sue a letter of introduction to get into the Sult Ruins which are being excavated by the Garlyle army.

On the way to the ruins, there will be opportunities to learn the turn-based RPG mechanics. As you use physical and magical attacks you’ll earn experience for each attack type individually. You’ll earn experience for each weapon you wield or spell type (fire, water, air, earth) that you cast. Prepare for a lot of grinding to make sure you’re strong enough to do damage to stronger enemies and bosses.

In battle, you have the option to attack, use an ability/power, use an item or magic, run away, or set up your party tactics. If you configure the party tactics you can have the battles handled automatically with many presets focused on powering up, playing fair, or going all wild with powerful attacks and magic use.

In the beginning, magic isn’t available. In order to use magic, mana eggs need to be located and traded at a magic store. Learn from my failure and teach Justin all the magic skills first as the party will change as the heartwarming story unfolds.

Justin will meet many new friends, and his infectious optimism will win many of them over right away. Other friends don’t start off that way and will only aid Justin on his journey if he can defeat them in battle. Your party size is maxed out at four, and the only one that’s there the whole time is Justin.

When it comes to exploring, there’s an over-world view where you can quick travel to previously-visited and newly-unlocked areas. Typically, a save point is accessible at the beginning of each area. In general, the number of save points are generous and evenly scattered throughout most areas. There are some bonus dungeons, and the one called the Tower of Temptations has thirteen levels with numerous boss battles in succession without save points in between them. This dungeon is the exception to that rule. The main game is way more forgiving.

The background music is nicely done with orchestral pieces, and the rock n’ roll boss battle music is catchy too. There is limited voice acting which adds a nice touch to the story telling. There are some awkward pauses at times, but overall the voice acting is well done.

Despite being remastered, I wasn’t impressed with the visuals. I was thankful for the widescreen support and have no doubts that this game was visually groundbreaking when it was first released. I’m not sure why, but Grandia is not compatible on the Steam Deck. I did enjoy playing this on a different portable system, and it ran great.

Grandia has some moral issues worth noting. There is RPG-style violence where you give a command and watch it carried out. You can physically attack your foes or launch magic/elemental attacks on them. I noticed one instance of swearing (b*st*rd). Some of the monsters you fight have human-like body shapes and are not wearing any clothes. It’s not incredibly detailed, but you can see their rear ends. The final boss is Gaia and you’ll see many references to a tree of life and mother Earth.

The Grandia HD Collection is normally priced $39.99 for the remakes of Grandia 1 and 2. The normal asking price is $39.99 for both games. I have seen this bundle on sale for 50% on both Steam and on the PlayStation store. If you haven’t played these classic RPGs and don’t mind the moral concerns, there's a lot of fun to be had here.