I can see G2 > G3. I don't agree largely because I'm not terriby impressed by G2's plot... but then, I did play it after the Lunars and such, so even as a character-focus game it doesn't stand out (the fact that it really drops the ball on the character stuff as the game goes on doesn't help). I will say that I liked the "My god is dead, so I'll just have to worship the other one!" plot twist (even if Zera himself could have had better execution) but it was, sadly, a good idea wasted by a bad overall storyline, much like SH3's big plot twist.
G1 > G3 strikes me as outright odd taste, since it doesn't even win writing... you just have to really dig its "adventure!" theme to the point where you can overlook all its deficiencies. Obviously some people (Djinn, Super) do, but I don't fully grasp it myself. After this replay I honestly prefer G3 over G1 for pure story concerns (because it's funnier) but that says rather little, since they're both stuck in the "at least they're not XS3" tier, and the gameplay separation is staggering to me, as are the graphics and music.
Anyway, update!
Grandia 3: This update is officially OK-approved.
So yeah, my plane crashed.
DAHNA IS ALL ALONE. Fortunately the enemies here are terrible.
White Bunny - They are OHKO bait to decent magic, and mainly use physicals. I guess Cold might be dangerous but the only time I see them use it is on Yuki/Ulf while I am killing them off.
There's another enemy, but you only fight one here so I will save it for later.
Anyway, Raflid. This town, fortunately, has everything except a casino, so I restock everything except MP restoration, fuse literally all my remaining eggs to get high level spells (a Galactic Bang, two Absolute Zeroes, an Astraea Zap, a Crystal Wall) and doubles of some stuff I already have. Fire Mastery and Earth Mastery are finally storebought, huzzah!
SKY CAPTAIN SCHMIDT IS EMO. Yuki flies a plane, and crashes it. Again. Fortunately he crashes on the spot to find THE ITEM WHICH CURES SCHMIDT OF HIS EMO. Take
that, plausibility!
Oh yeah, and OH DEAR GOD SOLO YUKI HAS TO MAKE HIS WAY THROUGH A DUNGEON. Fortunately it is one screen long and all the enmies are bunnies who run away from him. Still, frightening, given that said bunnies could easily overkill him with regular physicals. Having less than 200 HP is bad.
Anyway, Schmidt is cured of his emo and tells me that there is still one plane in the world that works because it runs off some principles of aerodynamics instead of an unexplained mystical flight unit. Unfortunately that plane is hidden in the mountains featuring some of the strongest enemies in the world. Okay.
A Hect draws near! Well, sure, why not, I could use a second PC, and her MT cancel Crimson Shock and Armageddon, along with her game-high magical stats, ensures she has use. After some experimentation, Hect ends up with Mind/Body instead of Mind/Tech, because giving her Revenge (~40% counterattack to any string of damage with a cancel special move) is very valuable as it can randomly cancel all enemies instead of annoying the enemy who just attacked. Sweet! Body also lets her get full value from Life Up, which she needs pretty badly, and block IP damage. Both PCs get Sharp Eyes, Guru's Way, and Fire Mastery, Dahna gets Perception, and some other filler skills are also present.
Raflid Alps time...
Bigfoot - Their HP scores are pretty impressive, but bad defences and a fire weakness means they drop in three Boomors to my party of magical might. They like to cluster up, too! They're pretty dangerous, with their most common move being a fast, high 3HKO cancel tech. They also have a weaker, slower GT physical in which they cosplay Roan and throw a giant snowball at me.
Gilled Caveman - What are the fish people doing in the mountains? Oh well. This particular version is annoying because their big physical tech, though not overly damaging, inflicts Confuse 100% of the time. Blocking status with Anne's Necklace and the Golden Ring becomes a good idea.
Caveman Archer - The final time bomb-obsessed foe in the game. This one mainly plants Ultra Time Bombs, which, like the others, go off after a round or so and trigger any nearby bombs in the process. Fortunately the damage they do is laughable. Unfortunately, Archers have a second time bomb, the Flash Time Bomb, and THIS one does about 1600 damage, which is extremely painful. Finally, they have an immediate spell, Bomb, and a GT physical tech, Catapult, because they don't have enough moves already. Not too bad by themselves, but they make excellent annoyers when paired with the above enemy and...
Caveman Warrior (3 resets) - Deceptively deadly. 7000 HP is just enough to take a hit from anything and live, and they're very fast. They'll use Wow to buff their own offence as well as their buddies', as well as Earth Shaker, which does either 3HKO or 2HKO MT damage depending on Wow. This is very problematic. Fortunately there's never more than one at a time, although each fight does increase the number of grunts he comes with (from one to four). They're not so objectively tough that they deserve 3 resets, but I make a few mistakes against them. Once I have them down, though, I often kill them off as quickly as possible with Galactic Bang + something else from Hect, which usually involves them getting one attack off (often a Wow), and then cleaning up from there. These fights also merit Hect's Armageddon, when possible, which kills off all the scrubs immediately and inflicts all stats down on the Warrior. Awesome tech.
Throughout the dungeon I make a point of levelling Hect's Crimson Shock and Armageddon, since they both rule. I feed her SP boosters when I have free time at the end of battles. Once CS reaches Level 3 it's a really mean counterattack, and Armageddon is always a great trump card.
Plane get! Yuki and his bff doubt Schmidt's plane, but Schmidt bitchslaps them into line. He takes my party up by towing them in a glider while flying his plane. LEGENDARY PILOT! Then his plane explodes randomly. Yuki has to choose between saving Schmidt and Alfina/THE WORLD. Fortunately he makes the right choice. Wait a second, saving Alfina AND the Grandia 3 world? Do we want to do either? Make that the wrong choice.
As if punishment, I get a boss right after a full restore and no save point.
Omega BreedHe comes with two Pico Omegas and one Zeptol Omega, and can summon both them and Aton Omegas. More on the individuals later. Omega Breed has good speed, as you might expect, and Omega Ball, his summoning move, is pretty fast. He also has Crackle Fang, which does about 800 to all, not too bad. He might have more stuff, but he doesn't show it off.
Omega Breed 1 is, frankly, a terrible boss. With 15000 HP and a fire weakness he isn't lasting long, even with good defences. He's 3HKOed by Galactic Bang/Heaven's Gate, and killing him kills all his flunkies. Armageddon is powerful enough to OHKO said flunkies and ruin him. You can see where this is going.
The ONLY thing which makes this battle at all tense is defending while waiting for Yuki/Ulf to die, since the enemies seem intent on hurting the girls instead. It means when I finally get to start attacking, there are eight enemies around and I'm injured. Fortunately, Revege gives me the opening I need to start kicking ass. Given that most of the challenge comes from the silliness of the challenge and not the fight itself, I have nothing more to say about this fight. It's a practice run, anyway, as you'll see.
Time for the Xorn Shell. A similar setup to the previous dungeon works, here. I give Dahna Verse Hunter but it doesn't really feel worth it. Everything is weak to fire, Boomor/Ba-Boom/Burnblaze domination ensues, with Hellburner and Burn to take care of singletarget beats. Have I mentioned fire is the best element in this game?
All the enemies here are updates of enemies from the first half of Surmania and they largely function similarly:
Aton Omega - Still the dangerous one. Their fast ST cancel tech, Skewer, is now reaching ridiculous damage levels... 1200 from an enemy who can swarm? What the fuck? They also cast Craze, proving that confusion is the chosen status of lategame. Still blocking that nonsense. Burnblaze -> Boomor/Crimson Shock them to death.
Pico Omega - Their Vulcan Cannon does some low physical damage (300) that also cancels, and they can cast Howlslash. They make fairly effective annoyers but they're very fragile and you have too much good GT/MT fire magic damage.
Zeptol Omega - The magically tanky snaky is back. Unfortunately, they are 2HKOed by most fire magic (Boomor on up) despite the tankishness. Their own turns aren't very good... they still have nothing but a weak cancel tech.
So aside from letting Atons get out of control there's really not much to fear here. After a bit, it's time for another boss. Or... wait... didn't I just fight you?
Omega Breed v2Somewhere in a sequel I'd rather forget, this Omega Breed must have beaten up some losers in Yggdrasil who drop Green Fire, because he and everyone else in this fight have doubled HP. He starts with two Zeptols and an Aton (now with 6000 or so HP), a more dangerous setup than the first.
Stat-wise, aside from HP, he is pretty similar. He has gained one new summon, in addition to the usual Aton/Pico/Zeptol: Gigas Omega. I have little to say about this enemy having not fought them as randoms yet, but it has 13000 HP here (I never bother killing one, with that durability) and a borderline 4HKO cancelling regular physical. Ouch!
He's also gained a new spell, or maybe I just killed the previous incarnation too quickly: Meteor Strike. It does solidly 2HKOing magic damage, easily the most powerful ST magic attack used by any enemy so far. This catches me totally off guard and certainly creates trouble.
Hect's Armageddon is the crucial trump card here. It no longer OHKOs much of anything (comes very close on Picos, though), but it allows me far, far greater control of the battle. So valuable is this All Stats Down that, if Hect is healthy and Dahna is dead, I use this rather than reviving immediately. I probably use it three times over the course of the fight. Occasionally if enemies are weak I take a few out with Ba-Boom or Boomor, but for the most part, knowing that all I need to do to win is beat the boss, I focus on him. Galactic Bang/Heaven's Gate take out just under/over 20% of his fire-weak HP respectively, so it's again, not a terribly long fight. It is, however, a moderately tense one.
I will say that I didn't expect him to be weaker than the Mother Breed back in the Eternal Corridor, but Hect makes too big a difference. Revenge->Crimson Shock is a beautiful way to transition from "oh crap I'm being owned by 8 enemies at once" to "Yesss, opening to actually attack/heal" and Armageddon is immensely sexy. Damn you OK for being right!
Afterwards, Yuki pushes the Big Red Button with his sword, and Xorn's influence on the world is suddenly gone! Yay! This means I can go back and restock on MP restoration, and grab the Expert's Book, and generally prepare for the final assault before Xorn can get his power back.
Next time, the part of the final dungeon with better randoms!
