[E3] Ubi Soft Gets Grandia II

One of the most aniticipated Dreamcast RPGs this year is undoubtedly Grandia II. While previous reports pointed to Eidos as the U.S. publisher, it has now been confirmed that Ubi Soft will localize the game. This is no surprise since, in the past, Ubi Soft has expressed their strong interest for the upcoming Game Arts title.
Ubi Soft was also responsible for the European versions of Grandia.

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Ubi Soft is showing the Tokyo Game Show video, which you can find in our movies section. However, perhaps of more interest is the playable battle system demo. This demo, where the characters and monsters have unlimited HP and MP, allowed show-goers to execute splendid attacks. Editor ZP excitiedly stated, "It looks like several magic attacks use FMV, mixed in with the 3D in-game graphics (via an alpha-channel), so it all looks lovely, with no slowdown evident at all. Other than the graphical overhaul though, the battle system is very close to that of Grandia. This is just an initial inspection, but it I think only just the icons and menus are different in appearance. 'Combo' and 'Critical' are still there for example, and a lot of spells have identical names to spells in Grandia. Like the first Grandia, a lot of work has gone into a rich level of detail and every settlement looks completely different from the others, so there'll be little visual repetition."

Apparently, Game Arts has announced that Grandia II will be released in Japan on the 3rd of August, and Ubi Soft is aiming for a November release of the game. Also, the running time of the game is expected to be longer than Grandia and will typically take about 80 hours to clear. No online gameplay is expected.

Thanks to ZP and Rudo for this piece of news!

Date Updated:
May 13th, 2000

Time Updated:
12:25 PM

Feena

Related Links:
  •   Grandia II Screen Shots
  •   Grandia II Artwork