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Granstream Saga review

Game: Granstream Saga
Platform: PlayStation
Genre: RPG
Developer: Sony Imagesoft

Reader review by icelake

Date unavailable

What could quite possibly be the sorriest excuse for a Role Playing Game ever comes from THQ, the game many of us know as Granstream Saga. This game starts off great, but it suddenly fails in all aspects of a game (not just an RPG).

The graphics reflect the game programmers' lack of artistic sense. The graphics are polygonal and, for their time, lack in quality and detail. The characters for the most part lack eyeballs and other characteristics that would make them seem life-like. Throughout most of this game, I found myself wanting to go back in time and play a game written for the 8-bit Nintendo (certainly would have been more fun). The graphics lack detail and are jagged and polygonal--in other words, they lack any sense of personality.

At first I thought the game had great music--at least the first two parts of the game do. After a while, however, the music grows tiresome because of its repetitive nature. Obviously THQ didn't hire talented musicians to create this game's score. The first part of the game's music was great, though; it reminded me of some older RPG's that I liked. I don't know what happened to that streak of creativity. It's like they used the best music at the very beginning of the game to get you interested in it, and then they threw in everything else in the end. I've found myself wondering, simply, what were they thinking? My suggestion: pop in your favorite music CD and turn the television's volume down while you play this game.

How about the story... does it have a story? Well, technically yes, but I don't know if I would call it a story. It's a bunch of tacked-together mini-quests that serve no purpose to a larger goal. Maybe this game was just poorly translated. The game is so linear, I don't think you really have a choice as to what you want to do (reminds me of the first 11-13 hours of Final Fantasy 7, where you're in that power plant). I literally want to scream while playing this game. The story is practically non-existent.

The game is easy overall. You only fight one enemy at a time. The battles are very repetitive, and you're extremely limited on the amount of attacks you can do. There are many bad guys that are hard to hit, and will avoid almost every single attack you throw at them, which really aggrevates me. Overall, the game is more nagging than challenging.

Still, the first hour or so of the game is fun. It suddenly loses its fun once you get into what you think is a storyline. The game is simply too linear, poorly designed, and uninspiring. One of the main points in designing a good game is to intrigue the players and make them want more. This game fails in that aspect.

This game wasn't a disappointment because I didn't expect anything from it to begin with. However, from the first hour or so of the game, I must admit, I did expect more from it. That's when I became disappointed. The game is simply uninspiring and boring. It leaves much to be desired.

Rating: 3.5/10

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