SESSION #1

And the adventure begins.. with a beautiful cinematic intro:

I'm playing the Sega Saturn version so the cutscenes, contrasting the actual gameplay, were very CRUSTY. I sorta enjoyed it in a nostalgic 'watching-my-first-anime-in-youtube-in-six-parts' kinda way. I did go look up the PSX version afterwards and WOW, this intro is gorgeous. It really helps to set up the feel of adventure and a big world full of varied locales before we are introduced to the OBVIOUS ANTAGONIST. Some sort of evil empire is planning some devious shit. Is just after that second scene that the camera goes to our starting town. I think this whole sequence is awesome, it really makes you feel like this area you start in is just a tiny speck in a massive world.

We are quickly introduced to our protagonist Justin and her friend Sue as well as their dynamic. The whole introduction segment is based around the scenario of rival kids, Justin and Gantz (No relation to the famous Seinen Manga), who are betting their honor and Sue's loyalty in the results of a mighty duel. Gantz hid a legendary adventurer's armor set in town and if we want to win we have to find it. I love how quickly this introduces us to this delightfully childish world. Is not only as the intro cinematic showed us that our town is tiny, we are tiny too. There are many kids in this humble town and they all seem to know each other and take their games seriously, however all the adults seem to dismiss Justin as an energetic troublemaker with an hyperactive imagination. RELATABLE.

What does it say about me that I find that childish sense of smallness relatable? I don't know. I know that Grandia is great at portraying it, in how adults treat kids' dreams and fantasies, in how they dismiss or engage with them. An old man in a house tells us these simple fairy tales which fill Justin and Sue with wonder, the lady who lives with the old man wonders if she also heard those stories as a child with stars in her eyes. I don't know but that tiny dialogue resonated with me, how certain conditions make people get so far away from their childhood they forget if the whimsy was even there.

The game is also great at presenting these petty rivalries among kids, it's very fun how everyone just thinks Gantz and Justin are friends. It's fun how Sue still hypes up Justin despite being overall more mature than him. The characters are great and you instantly feel immersed in their world. It's a tiny town with some sort of clear social divide where people are working hard for scraps and kids play around all day. There is a detail I was particularly interested in and that is the bar. The fact that some kids are playing just meters and a fence away from this shady alley where clearly lewd magazines and alcohol bottles are thrown around was so relatable to my experience as a kid growing up in impoverished zones. I'm not saying it's good that that happens, it just made me feel seen in a small way. It's a tiny portralay of the ways in which as a kid you don't realize how some stuff is messed up because you have no point of reference. I like when portraits of childhood aren't 100% idyllic.

At the same time this section serves to introduce a player to the basics of the JRPG. Talk to everyone, interact with everything. You are rewarded for this, some of the pieces of the legendary set of armor are hidden by camera angles that you have to change by rotating the camera to find. I love the integration of the 2D-3D mix in this game, it's just amazing. Everything in the graphics department is amazing and OMG THE CHARACTER DESIGNS! Justin is just the perfect shonen protagonist, and Sue is so cute alongside her pet: Puffy! The environments are very interactable too, even if the interaction doesn't lead to much it still makes the world feel more real, from making glasses fall to rustling the leaves of a plant, little details like that add up. At the same time we are also rewarded by learning about the town, its inhabitants and the world surrounding it. We hear tales of a new continent, new technologies and army dealings in some ancient ruins. Things are going on in the world of Grandia, it's a time of change and discovery that seems so far away to our small protagonists. Of course as the player we are aware that this is something that is introduced because we'll deal with it directly soon, therefore increasing the sense of upcoming adventure.

The day ends by us finding the legendary armor and going to where Gantz is only to find he is being scolded for obstructing the bridge for their duel. Justin tries to play dumb but is caught and he and Sue make a run for Justin's house. We met Justin's mom who runs a restaurant and also, and I'm sorry, is totally HOT. The designs on this game are great. Justin's mom is not only hot but also really fun, she is a strong lady with a lot of lived experience, she even reveals to us her past as a pirate when talking about how she met Justin's father at dinner.

This game has A DINNER SCENE MECHANIC. The day ends with Justin, his mom and Sue sharing a lovely dinner together where you can choose who to talk to and if you want seconds or you are full... this is just lovely, Grandia clearly recognizes the value of food as a way of bringing people together. Here we learn how Justin's dad was the one to discover the ruins that the army is digging around in and how his whole family is a legendary line of adventurers he wants to live up to. We also learn about Justin having inherited a stone from his father which is obviously foreshadowing that something is going to happen soon. We end the day by learning that the museum curator wants to talk to us and as a player, we are fully enraptured by an hour and change that really captured the feeling of one evening out making trouble as a child. In the morning the restaurant is full of colorful characters and Justin is ready for another day of mischief.

This is where I left the game at. I always play games this way, my first session is a short one followed by longer ones in the future. Anyways, you can clearly tell Grandia won me over fast, it's so damn charming. I can't wait to dig into this game more. You may have noticed I left some details of character and story vague, that's because I don't want this journal to become a summary, it's mostly about my thoughts and feelings while playing. My thoughts and feelings so far, without even smelling a bit of combat yet, are: This game rules, Sue is so fun and Justin Mom's is HOT.

Date of session: Between the night of 13/12 and 14/12 of 2024.