Grandia offers so much more than a tremendous battle system

When people talk about Grandia - a series that sparked into life on the Saturn and original PlayStation - they talk about its battle system. It's often cited as the best ever in a role-playing game, and it's easy to see why - it combined situational awareness with the comforts of turn-based decision making, allowing you to take your time to line up attacks that can strike multiple foes, or escape harm yourself with the right positioning of your party, all while managing the gauge that allowed you to delay the enemy's advances while making your own.

Sampling Grandia's combat again on the HD Collection on Switch - the first chance to revisit the original since its debut - proves that yes, the combat is tremendous, and has arguably been never bettered. Even with a no-frills port that buffers sharp 2D character sprites in a 3D world to a glossy sheen, Grandia's combat continues to stand up against the many fumbled attempts since to evolve turn-based battles into something more involving.

But there is more to the series than its combat. When I think of Grandia, I think of adventure - of mysterious ruins, crossing vast oceans and trudging through stickily humid jungles. This is in part due to how the story plays out; our hero Justin, a budding explorer who inherited a mysterious stone from his missing adventurer father, is given a message from a lost civilization to return it to where it belongs - several continents away - acting as an excuse to set off, see the world and make a few friends along the way.

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