...wish I knew/remember how to edit a post, if it's still possible, so I'm not constantly making these one after the other.
Played through Grandia II(Dreamcast, emulated) a little while back. Then after being reminded of a late game story element of, I began to realize how much inspiration the Grandia series must have taken from, Phantasy Star IV. Sega and Game Arts seem to have always had a good relationship, Alisia Dragoon being on the Genesis Mini proves that they still must.
*Storyline spoilers, apologies to anyone that hasn't played Phantasy Star IV & Grandia II, should you read this first*:
So, in the "offline" Phantasy Star series, the big entities of good and evil have a battle, evil is imprisoned, bits of it occasionally escape(in this case once every 1,000 years), good is never heard from again. Very similar to the story in Grandia II.
*End of spoilers*
[I forget how to do a lot of things at this board...]
The characters have individual portraits so you know who's talking, talk back to some of the NPC's, and can even talk among themselves(OK, this is less like the dinner/camping scenes in the Grandia series, and more like what the "Tales of..." games would use, to remind the player of where they left off[with that same exact purpose in mind], but still). Also, Phantasy Star II and IV have unique equipment that can be used to cast spells for free in battle, like a lot of Elena's staves, and some of the other weapons in GII.
If I still liked the genre, I'd wish there were more full blown sci-fi types(with almost no trace of fantasy) .
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