Grandia stands in such stark contrast to many of the big, bombastic RPGs of its era. Opening on the quiet port town of Parm, protagonist Justin and his surrogate little sister Sue are swept up in an adventure to find a set of legendary armor pieces, which consist of pots and pans. Your first full day of adventure in Grandia ends the way most do: dinner with your friends, talking about all the fun you had and what the next day might bring. There's no bombing run here, no sense of immediacy, no clearly identifiable threat beyond the military - largely composed of pretty boys and goofballs - digging around in some nearby ruins. Grandia's first call to action takes place after several hours of being a kid, and the true breadth of the world-ending threat the party inevitably has to face down isn't revealed until nearly two-thirds into the game.

This is a game that rides on charm for so much of its playtime, and damnit, it works. Grandia's wide-eyed optimism and "one world, one people" themes steep it in an earnest hopefulness that I can't get enough of, and unlike many other RPGs, the plot is driven less by reaction and more by proactive characters driven to go to new places and experience new things.

That's not to say the adventure isn't without hardships or moments of self-doubt, but the way they manifest feels emotionally impactful and earned because Grandia does such a good job at investing you. Sue's dependency on Justin, for example, culminates in a scene that not only reminds you she's just a kid, but punches you squarely in the gut for good measure. It is then followed by Justin's fatherly stand-in, Gadwin, imparting his most cherished skill and bidding the party farewell, bookending a bittersweet moment with something uplifting as he expresses the upmost confidence and pride in Justin's abilities and heartfelt appreciation of his heroic deeds. It's a very Freddy Got Fingered "proud" scene. He gifts Justin and Feena a LeBaron so they can cross the sea of mermaids. Great stuff.

Sadly, combat is where I start to slide off Grandia and lose my way from all this sugary sweetness. It has a real bell curve quality, starting off very one-dimensional and restrictive, with basic attacks and the occasional special being your bread and butter for hours until spells unlock. The middle portion of the game is where combat is at its best, as you start to unlock combination spells based on how much you use particular elements. There's also a sort of "active time" battle system that involves cancelling opponent's moves and interrupting attack animations with counters, so metering out what moves you use becomes an important and engaging element of managing enemies and maximizing damage.

Unfortunately, by the later parts of the game this system starts to feel tired, and much of the end game enemies and bosses boast significant resistances to magic and weaknesses to physical attacks, resulting in a slide back to mashing out basic strikes as the most efficient means of piling on damage.

Magic and special attack animations are also lengthy, almost ridiculously so, and as they amp up deeper into the game, it starts to feel like too much of any single encounter is just spent waiting. The final boss of the game put my party to sleep and spent three whole uninterrupted minutes issuing debuffs. Once I was released, I just mashed attack and melted his HP. A profoundly anti-climatic end. The late game also has you retreading several areas with enhanced versions of familiar enemies being the only differentiating factor between trips, and it just starts to drag. While I appreciate the slow pace of Grandia's story, I wish other elements were snappier, or at least better about keeping their momentum.

There's also a ton of slowdown, which is a consequence of relying upon fairly complex 3D geometry for the game's environments. The trade-off is that Grandia looks great and oozes character, so I can't complain too much, but rounding corners and dodging elaborate 3D hazards makes the game grind and you can feel it. I assume the HD version plays much more smoothly, but wouldn't you know it, in my haste to buy up Sega Saturn repros I totally forgot that existed. Whoops!

None of my complaints are enough to completely offset Grandia's positives, and though I've griped at length about the shortcomings of its combat, it did remain enjoyable through most of the 50ish hours I put in. What I really adore is the story, the worldbuilding, and the small touches like eating dinner that help connect you to your party members. This is an easy 4/5 for me, with the one caveat that the game gives you a muscle mom that can drop kick enemies and do the JoJo's "ora ora" flurry attack and it TAKES HER AWAY after mere hours. Look, I have THOUGHTS and OPINIONS on rotating RPG parties, but this is unforgivable. Minus .5 stars. As a true Milda enjoyer, I am being lenient.