Everybody has a dream. All Yuki, our young hero, wants to do is escape the confines of his island village and soar the skies in his own plane, even building one with his best friend. But following a dream is never that simple, is it? Yuki’s protective mom stows away on the rickety plane’s maiden flight, disaster ensues and the adventure against a great evil begins.
“Grandia III,” the latest in the cult-hit series, doesn’t break any ground. But the game play and characters are bright spots in this traditional role-playing game.
In “Grandia” tradition, combat outshines the majority of RPGs. Game play is about as fast-paced and dynamic as you could hope for from a turn-based RPG.
When your party meets a group of enemies, each combatant is assigned an icon on the Command Wheel. As the icons rotate on the wheel, a character can attack or defend when its turn pops up. If the timing is right, an attack can cancel an opponent’s attack, or you can unleash a deadly combo. It’s a fun, fast-paced and fluid experience. The graphics, especially during the large number of cut scenes, are beautiful.
If you’re looking for an epic RPG, forget it. The game is linear, not lending itself to exploration. The maps’ paths are laid out for you, so you don’t have to fire up a brain cell to navigate.
While “Grandia III” isn’t as endearing as Square’s recent masterpiece, “Dragon Quest VIII,” it’s a nice appetizer in anticipation of “Kingdom Hearts II.”
© 2006, Detroit Free Press.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.