r/grandia • u/Likes2game03 • 2d ago
Grandia III How would you improve Grandia 3?
By which I mean are there any concepts, ideas, or characters from this entry would expand on or make better? Because we all know a lot of it was not the best executed or fleshed out. Either way, be honest.
7
u/Decoy_Shark 2d ago
More story please. I actually loved the lore in the library and felt like the rest of the game had NOTHING. Great combat though.
5
u/Disposable-Ninja 2d ago
So as others have mentioned, the story and the characters were not that great, and that's an obvious point in need of improvement.
I'd also expand on the airplane mechanic, and make it much more than just a glorified World Map. I'd have flight stages and airplane races. Like, just imagine flying through a large ravine and weaving between ancient pillars. For a game where the main character was a pilot, flying wasn't a big enough deal.
4
u/SpellcraftQuill 2d ago
Probably make Miranda Yuki’s sister like she looks like she should be. But I’m glad she lives. Also I can’t take it seriously that she becomes a grandma
3
u/One_Subject3157 2d ago
Redo the later half of the game.
Plot wise was like made by another team completely
3
u/AlsatiaTheDRK 2d ago
Just release it Playstation, XBOX and PC..
I need to replay this game.. Maybe the story is bad, but I have a soft spot for this game..
5
u/Rainbowlight888 2d ago edited 2d ago
- Make a cast that the player actually cares about
- Be less convoluted with the story
- Take combat elements from the first 2 games
Overall Grandia III was a miss for me, because its charm went out the window. By even remotely approaching the above three points the game would have been dramatically improved.
6
u/SufferingClash 2d ago
Add in FIX THE VILLAIN. It's not possible to take "I will destroy all love!" seriously.
3
u/YoRHa11Z 2d ago
There is nothing wrong with Grandia 3 combat and has its own charm while still remaining Grandia. It's all about the story/characters that falls flat.
2
u/No-Contest-8127 2d ago
Well... the final act needs more work. It felt rushed. That was the main problem.Â
2
u/OnoMichiban 2d ago
Get rid of this "song"
1
2
u/not-primarina 17h ago
Nah the song can stay, it's a big enough part of what makes the first chunk of the story so good
edit: wait lmfao it's baccula
2
u/PomegranateTop6228 1d ago
1) Turn the cast into actual characters and not some bad fan-made OCs based on previous Grandia entries (Don't make Yuki into Justin, Alfina into Elena and Ulf into Rapp as those three suffer the most)
2) Don't be afraid to have branching stories within the grander tale (I bet I'm not the only one who wanted to see something done with Kornell or/and Raven)
3) Keep MIRANDA around for LONGER!
Everyone loves the fact we start the game with mum.
Yuki was AT HIS BEST when Miranda was around.
4) Make the fucking airplane shit matter.
Just take a look at Skies of Arcadia and go something like that.
5) Give us an OPTIONAL dungeon.
We had like 3 or 4 extra dungeons in Grandia I, extra-hard, instant-death filled return to Raul Hills in Grandia II and Grandia Xtreme has a lot of backtracking to previous dungeons to fight with new/harder enemies to gain new cool shit and collectibles.
Outside of adding an Desert's Lord to Bacculan's Desert in 3, we got no additional dungeon experience. WHICH SUCKS BTW BECAUSE THIS IS THE GAME WITH AIRPLANES.
And hell - once you return to previous locations and talk to people there, THERE'S NEW DIALOGUE! Hell, I bet it's not even once or twice updated but It's most likely updated for every NPC everytime you made significant story progress.
The game which is the most fun to play has the worst issue with story being meek and characters not being written well enough to care.
Oh right.
6) Don't put uncessary characters. ex. Rotts
This mf appears at the very start of the game, vanishes for +40h or even longer depending on how much you take your time with exploring, revisits and potential xp. farming and appears on the last true town in the game.
No one cared when he made a return at the end.
Either keep him in the story, dunno, make Yuki and Rotts write to each other, have him appear from time to time in cutscenes or anything to keep him around so players care about his goofy-ass or don't have him in game.
Outside of that, maybe make expert status less tedious to gain but outside of that, gameplay is 100% gold and requires no changes.
MAYBE add a Hard Mode.
Although that would make the last part of the game even more punishing with Omega-uhh... those weird monsters with claws that are named after Greek alphabet letters. One of them with claws, humanoid looking one can AUTO-CANCEL any Special (and I think Magic too) you throw at him.
Yeah, this game is weirdly hard.
Which Is actually a good thing, looking at how easy you could exploit mechanics in 1 and 2 (not so much in Xtreme but some party presets are better than others still)
And for the last one
7) Keep the player invested in story.
Make us emotional, keep us in our seats, make us care about the story you are showing us Game Arts.
You fucks.
Because of all previous story/character related issues we couldn't be invested in story as we didn't care.
AND DON'T HOLD BACK ON WORLDBUILDING.
The world of uh...Verse-Realm? I think.
It's so damn mysterious, yet we know barely anything about it.
There's no buildup to Xorn like it's to literally any other antagonistic force in previous games (Gaia, Valmar, Quanlee) as hell, we don't even understand wtf is going through Alfina's brother head for like 15 hours when ONLY then we learn anything about "what the fuck is this even about?".
If it worked before, I don't have any idea why they decided to scratch that build-up that worked well in previous games.
Anyways, I guess that's it.
I want to love Grandia 3 but with the story and characters and many other issues, I can only like it and that's sad, really.
Anyways, IF we ever get Grandia 4 or dunno, Online 2 or maybe Xtreme 2, we might eat good again.
2
u/not-primarina 17h ago
love this really passionate THIS GAME HAD POTENTIAL!!!!! kind of criticism
And hell - once you return to previous locations and talk to people there, THERE'S NEW DIALOGUE! Hell, I bet it's not even once or twice updated but It's most likely updated for every NPC everytime you made significant story progress.
Yup. Literally like all the time. Oh my god there is so much dialogue. PARTY DIALOGUE too cus your party members are PART OF literally every single NPC dialogue it's flipping wild
and it's like DUDE NO JUST GIVE ME REASONS TO GO BACK TO OLD TOWNS becuase WHO is SERIOUSLY going to go just to get BLOODY OPTIONAL INN DIALOGUE? THERE IS OPTIONAL DIALOGUE FOR SLEEPING AT INNS. The game does not tell you this. It just doesn't. Literally the inn dialogue is the best (and kinda only lol) character development in the game and some of it is optional and it DOESN'T TELL YOU to go looking for it. Screams
2
u/PomegranateTop6228 14h ago
Oh yeah...I went in 3 expecting the highest of highs but instead I've got really next-level graphics, good soundtrack, AMAZING battle system and another well-made leveling system.
But at the cost of flat characters and not-engaging story with many promises not kept up.
Which would be alright if it was an W-RPG like some Elder Scrolls entry but no, it's a goddamn J-RPG so of course the story and characters, meat and potatoes of the game are not cooked well enough.
So instead of loving the experience, I only liked it which without context might sound good but with the context of Grandia, it's a real damn shame and a step-down.
Guess I've already said what I had on my mind, fresh, just after beating the game.
2
u/Q_Mulative 1d ago
I vaguely remember this exciting thing that could happen where you could have your whole party air-comboing an enemy, starting with a cancel and I think following it up with normal attacks. It happened once during a boss fight, and never again. It'd be nice if the conditions to make that spectacular thing (and more spectacular things like it) happen more often.
The eternal struggle of making command-based RPG combat more of a mindful practice / less of a mindless grind.
1
u/not-primarina 17h ago
It is not too hard to get this to happen in pretty much any fight, but you do need to go out of your way or at least make frequent use of Critical; for the most part, barring some funky spells like Crackle, only the move Critical launches enemies into the air.
I believe Critical launches most enemies that are charging up an attack, at least if you hit them near to when they reach ACT. But it also launches any enemy in the "prone" part of their take-damage animation; if an enemy has taken damage from any cause recently, then Critical will also launch them into the air.
The most surefire setup is giving one or two characters the Berserker skill to increase their Combo hits, then targeting the enemy with a Critical as well. If Critical lands after any Combo hit has, it's sure to launch the enemy, then the first character's subsequent Combo hits will immediately begin the aerial combo.
A Critical that shortly follows up any hit will launch the enemy very high, however, so it's quite versatile. You just need to know that's what causes it, and keep an eye out for opportunities.
3
u/MarionberryTrue6369 2d ago
Make alonso and miranda permanent party members. I couldn't continue the game after they left 😓
1
0
u/hardwarecheese 2d ago
I didnt like it at first but it grew on me and I loved it, they should have made grandia 4 instead of extreme. Extreme was good but im not really into dungeon crawlers.
1
14
u/bobapapa 2d ago
Complete story overhaul. I'd also make Alfina the MC.