Grandia Xtreme

Grandia Xtreme
Original title	グ ラ ン デ ィ ア エ ク ス ト リ ー ム
transcription	Gurandeia Ekusutorīmu
Studio	Game Arts
Publisher	Enix
Erstveröffent- lichung	PlayStation 2: January 31, 2002 September 30, 2002 PlayStation Network: December 17, 2014
platform	PlayStation 2
genre	role playing game
Subject	Fantasy
Game mode	Single player
medium	1 DVD-ROM (PS2) Digital Distribution (PSN)
language	Japanese , English

Grandia Xtreme ( グ ラ ン デ ィ ア エ ク ス ト リ ー ム ; Gurandeia Ekusutorīmu ) is a computer role-playing game for the PlayStation 2 that was produced by Game Arts and published by Enix in 2002 . The game is an offshoot of the Grandia series.

action

The fictional world of Grandia Xtreme is made up of three races: the military and resourceful people; the pointed-eared Arcadians, characterized by their magic; and the tribe of the Hazmans, who are animal-like beings. To the beginning of the game, these three races have an alliance for several years closed, but a natural disaster, the Elemental Disorder (too German : elementary disorder), threatened this alliance. In response, people are focusing their Nortis army on researching the cause of this disorder. An attempt is made to call on representatives of the other races for help, but they become suspicious because they think this catastrophe has been artificially created.

The player takes on the role of Evann, a young ranger who wants to activate the technology of certain ruins of his world. Evann trained himself and has been able to use the sword since his father's death, but has not developed a proper work ethic. He goes through a series of events as a result of which he seeks to investigate the cause of the elemental disturbance, uncover the real intentions of the military, and uncover the hidden secrets of the ruins.

Seven playable characters join Evann's group during the game.

• Carmyne, a Nortis Army sergeant who fights with a saber.
• Brandol, a brave and polite soldier who fights with a long sword.
• Myam, a young and impulsive archer from Hazma.
• Lutina, a cold-blooded officer from Arcadia who fights with a dagger.
• Jerk, an old Hazman who fights for the Nortis Army with his ax.
• Titto, a young and shy boy from Arcadia who fights with a knife.
• Jaid, an arrogant knight from Arcadia.

All eight characters join their forces to face the problems of their world.

Gameplay

Grandia Xtreme is very similar when compared to the series' predecessors as it is a traditional role-playing game. There are random battles that take place in different dungeons . The battles take place in a three-dimensional battlefield where the characters can move and fight enemies as soon as they get closer. In addition, the combat system is identical to Grandia II , with the exception that the combat display was previously designed as a horizontal line and is now a circle in which the character images rotate clockwise. Each of these images represents a playable character or enemy in combat and when one of these images reaches the top half of the circle, the character whose image is displayed there will be used to attack, defend, use an item, or flee combat , asked.

The player is able to progress the game through various dungeons and the completion of puzzle-like problems. The game status can be saved using recurring rainbow-colored memory points. In some places there are also the so-called Geo Gates , which teleport the player back into the city. These geo gates can be created by rangers if the geo stream (or geo stream) is strong. Some of these Geo Gates can only be used back into town, but not back into town. After using these Geo Gates , the player must start the dungeon again.

Unlike RPGs , which have a heavy story focus, Grandia Xtreme is more focused on training skills, collecting new equipment, and learning new skills, much like some titles from the Final Fantasy series. There are only seven main dungeons and three side dungeons (one of which cannot be reached until the final boss has been defeated). In the first round it will be necessary to repeat a few dungeons to be strong enough to survive heavy battles.

development

New work on the Grandia series was officially announced by Game Arts on June 1, 2001. At that time, the preliminary title was still called Grandia X and was later renamed Grandia Xtreme when Enix had invested ¥ 99.2 million (or 15% of the company) in capital in Game Arts. The game was the first Game Arts game to be developed exclusively for the PlayStation 2. While previous title Grandia series were traditional role playing, they took a new title to the game of the regular Grandia series delineate because they had gone a different direction and the game as action-RPG or dungeon crawler (Dungeon Crawlers ) to appeal to casual gamers. For the design, Enix and Game Arts chose Kamui Fujiwara , who had previously designed Terranigma . The entire development of the game spanned 18 months.

An "aggressive" marketing campaign was planned to market the game and the Grandia series as a brand of the future, not a flash in the pan. Grandia Xtreme was presented with a trailer at the Tokyo Game Show in August 2001 and in playable form at the World Happy Fair of Tokyo in January 2002. A video for the game was also available on an edition of the Famitsu Game Wave DVD. Eventually the game was released on January 31, 2002 in Japan. There was a limited version that included a Grandia Xtreme pocket watch and a small Geo Gate diorama that depicts the protagonist Evann. Buyers who pre-ordered the game also received a Grandia miniature shopping bag.

The English version was dubbed by WorldLink Technologies in Seattle , Washington with great commitment from Enix America. Mark Hamill dubbed the voice of the antagonist Colonel Kroitz , while Dean Cain dubbed the leading role Evann and Lisa Loeb dubbed the role Lutina. The North American version was unveiled at E3 in Los Angeles , California in May 2002 and released in North America on September 30th that year . For this Enix America entered into a partnership with Versus Books one to a game guide to publish the game to raise awareness of franchising to expand. The company also partnered with the RPGFan website to host a quiz competition to win the game and the walkthrough.

music

The music for the game was composed by Noriyuki Iwadare for over half a year. The focus of the music was on the battle and dungeon music and on a theme song about friendship. In particular, there were difficulties completing the opening melody, Theme of Xtreme , as the composer lacked inspiration for two months. After getting advice from a development worker and realizing that the game was a Grandia game, Iwadare managed to complete the opening melody. He tried this with a sense of camaraderie to create a song that would motivate anyone who hears it. The title Quan Li was composed with the motif of the same melody of the closing melody. Iwadare was especially proud of this production and based the closing melody on the love of humanity.

The soundtrack for the game was marketed in Japan through Two Five Records and released on March 1, 2002. The closing melody was replaced with a vocal version titled Rein-car-nation , which was sung by the Japanese Kaori Kawasumi . One of the combat tunes, Combat 2, was not on the album because Iwadare thought it wasn't one of his favorites and it wasn't perfect. He commented that if a second version of the album were to be released, he would vote for the title.

Track list

No.	title	Length (in minutes)
1.	Theme of Xtreme	2:56
2.	Rokka ( ロ ッ カ )	4:11
3.	Escarle ( エ ス カ ー レ )	4:10
4th	Upper Class ( 上流 階級 )	2:54
5.	Jolly Life!	1:18
6th	Good Meal !!	3:04
7th	Spirits Run Wild ( 精 霊 暴走 )	2:23
8th.	The Mole's Nest ( 土 竜 の 巣 )	4:28
9.	Eye of the Firestorm ( 炎 雲 の 目 )	2:47
10.	Combat 1	3:52
11.	Source of the Waves ( 波 頭 の 源 )	4:09
12.	Top of the Tailwind ( 逆風 の 頂 )	3:30
13.	Combat 3	4:08
14th	Illusory Grasslands ( 幻想 の 草原 )	2:42
15th	Dark Ruins ( 闇 遺跡 )	2:53
16.	Kroitz ( グ ロ イ ツ )	3:45
17th	Combat 4	3:52
18th	Crack in the Earth ( 大地 の 裂 け 目 )	4:26
19th	Quan Li ( ク ァ ン ・ リ ー )	3:26
20th	Combat 5: Last Battle	5:01
21st	Rein-car-nation (sung by Kaori Kawasumi )	4:43

• The total length of the soundtrack album is 74:38 minutes.
• The album was marketed under the name Grandia Xtreme Original Soundtracks and Grandia Xtreme OST .

more details

With 247,430 units sold, it was the 54th best-selling computer game in Japan in 2002.

As part of the Game Arts Game Archives Festival , the computer game was released on December 17, 2014 on the PlayStation 3 under the PS2 Classics category , but only in Japan.

Rating

Grandia Xtreme got mixed reviews, from GameRankings it got 71.12% and from Metacritic it got a rating of 68%. In the Famitsu the game scored 33/40 points and IGN awarded 7.5 out of 10 points.

The game was voted the seventh most challenging PlayStation 2 game by IGN. The reasons mentioned were the challenging combat system and the hordes of enemies.

Web links

• Grandia Xtreme at MobyGames (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Grandia Wiki Grandia Xtreme In Wikia , accessed on January 4, 2015
2. ↑ Grandia Wiki Geo Gate In Wikia , accessed on January 4, 2015
3. ↑ IGN STAFF Enix and Game Arts Team Up for Grandia X In IGN , accessed January 4, 2015
4. ↑ IGN STAFF Grandia Xtreme - Stuff You Can't Have In IGN , accessed on January 4, 2015
5. ↑ Eric Malenfant, Eve C. and Nicole Kirk Enix Interview With Justin Lucas In RPGFan , accessed January 4, 2015
6. ↑ Noriyuki Iwadare NEWS ( memento of the original from August 27, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In cocoebiz.com , accessed January 4, 2015 
7. ↑ VGChartz Japan Yearly Chart In vgchartz.com (English), accessed on January 18, 2015
8. ↑ 4gamer RPG 「GRANDIA XTREME」 の PS3 版 が ゲ ー ム ア ー カ イ ブ ス で 配 信 開始 In 4gamer.net (Japanese), accessed January 4, 2015
9. ↑ GameRankings Grandia Xtreme for PlayStation 2 In GameRankings , accessed on January 4, 2015
10. ↑ metacritic Grandia Xtreme for PlayStation 2 In Metacritic , accessed on January 4, 2015
11. ↑ Feena Famitsuu Rates Grandia Xtreme In RPGFan , accessed January 4, 2015
12. ↑ Jeremy Dunham (September 30, 2002) Grandia Xtreme: Enix reveals a mindless dungeon crawler that's aimed exclusively at series fans and rabid action nuts. In IGN Entertainment , accessed January 4, 2015
13. ↑ Alien Hominid (April 27, 2005) The Top 10 Most Challenging PS2 Games of All Time In IGN , accessed January 4, 2015