Grandia 3, a small review, and help needed.

The Core Video Games Forum
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So far, I am really enjoying the game. The graphics are beautiful (something I’ve wanted in Grandia 1&2), and it really takes advantage of the PS2 capabilities. The story is neat and interesting, even though it’s pretty simple.

Going around the overworld in a plane is really fucking awesome. Going up in the clouds was really cool. The music at that point, and throughout the game, are breathtaking. Although they are not as good as Grandia 1 or 2, they are still incredibly amazing.

The battles are where it shines, though. You have the basic Critical, Combo, Defend, Item, and Flee, but they added a seperate menu for both Special and Magic. Another new thing is that Defend allows you to move to another spot to avoid attack. Specials are acquired by performing regular attacks a certain number of times. So the more you Combo or Critical, the more Specials you can acquire. Specials inthemselves also become more powerful as you use them.

Magic/Passive abilities are junctioned to a person similar to materia, but you gain more slots as you level up/gain experience/it’s random (:P). It’s much better than the “magic are excluded to each mana egg” jazz they had in the second Grandia. However, they still have the mana eggs. Thing is, they aren’t as important. They boost up magic considerably, but are not a necessity. You can fuse mana eggs together to combine effects.

Back to the battle system, they put in an “aerial combo” thing, where if you do magic/specials/critical hits, sometimes the enemy is flung into the air, and if another party member hits them with a critical or combo in that time, it does a special move that is pretty powerful. I really enjoyed this aspect of battles 'cause it added a little risk/luck business.

They also have summons. I know, I know, they aren’t actual summons, just an orb containing a guardians powers; which can be summoned at your pleasing every once in a while. I haven’t fully gotten how to reuse it, as I used it once, and like 10 battles later I still can’t use it. :confused:

I am really enjoying this game, much more than the first or second. I’ll buy Radiata Stories this upcoming weekend to compare. I have some questions below;

  1. Whatever happened to Rotts? He goes to the mainland supposedly, but I haven’t caught up with him even after 10 hours of gaming. :stuck_out_tongue:

  2. Do I get Miranda and Alonso back? I thought they were both kickass, especially Miranda.

  3. Who are the party members? This game is kind of like FF4, where each party member is chosen for you, so you can’t switch or anything. So far I have [STRIKE]Fayt[/STRIKE] Yuki, Alfina, Ulf, and Dahna.

  4. How long is the game? I’ve clocked 12 hours, and just at the battle where Yoat is.

About question 4, I’m having difficulties with the battle where Yoat is. :stuck_out_tongue: It’s against some girl with a scythe and that blue-armored dude. I’m level 16 for Yuki, 16 for Alfina, 16 for Ulf, and 17 for Dahna, and I can’t seem to beat them. I find it stupid that they’re weapons have like 6000hp. >: (

Really good game, I reccomend it.

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  1. You’ll see.

  2. Sadly, no. They were awesome, and for the most reasons why the first part of the game was so good.

  3. That’s your basic party. You’ll loose Alfina for a while and get that pink-haired child as a replacement, but the last fight is exactly what you have there.

  4. 30 or 40 hours? I don’t recall, exactly. You seem to be tearing through it at a good pace, though.

Can’t with the help, sorry, it’s been so long since I played that I don’t remember it much. Level up a bit? Or just go in with your orb fully charged, that usually helps a lot. Kill the weapons first, it’s what I did.

Oh, and if you haven’t yet, take the plain back to the casino and win a bunch of stuff - check gamefaqs for how to make a few high-level spells with what you can win. Dahna should be able to rip out multi-thousand damage spells if you throw the right eggs together.

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Multi-thousand…? At most each person so far can do like 200 max.

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By fusing Mana eggs you can get some really nice spells like Astrae Zap, Absolute Zero, and Galatic Bang.

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lets get some ff going here.
shadowshanes version of ff consists of
ff7- all completed all bosses all summons got, final attack got, omnislash got, w summon w item got all materia got. anyone beaten this? also i have got a golden chocobo in my airship and i also have knights of the round. best this!

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I agree fusing mana eggs is a crucial part of the game. Especaily For Dahna because she is the party’s magic user. Give some attack spells to Alfina but later she gets a special that is the equal to Feena’s “end of the world” spell and Elena’s “White Apocalypse” special (if you have played the first 2 games you know what I’m talking about), but give your best spells to Dahna. Then I usually just give Yuki and Ulf support and healing spells because their strength lies in their special attacks. BUT MAKE SURE to give everyone healing spells that work on the whole party those are really important.

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What the fuck?

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I concur, what the hell Is this guy talking about. Dude if you want to start talking about FF start a FF thread. You can’t go and just change the topic of a thread when were already discussing something thats totally different thats just stupid.

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First time I tried the boss, I didn’t have the Orb meter full. I tried again with it full, and I got pretty far. I’m still levelling up.

How do I gain SP? Is it just gradual over time?

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SP is weird because it kind of increases randomly. You know how your magic and special will sometimes level up after a battle, well everytime your special level increases you gain SP. I think its 10 SP a level. The max SP is 200, but not everyone reaches that high. I think only Ulf and probably Yuki’s gets that high. I can’t really remember, sorry. Hope that much helps though.

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If I remember what I read right, each of the things you can level up is triggered by repeated action. Your magic level goes up when you use magic often, your special moves level up when you use each move repeatedly. I believe you increase your Special level by using Combo attacks. I can’t remember what, if anything, triggers increasing your maximum SP, so I think Twilight’s probably right in that it goes up with your level.

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I ended up giving Dahna zap spells, Alfina ice, Uki fire, and Ulf earth and it worked pretty well. You really want to give Dahna some spells that hit everyone because she is fast enough to use them and she has those two special abilities that help her to conserve her mp. She can often defeat all the enemies in a battle with Astraea Zap, Crackle Fang, or Ba-Boom.

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I beat the battle, and this time it was fairly easy. I gave Yuki a Blast Egg (I think it was, 2 fire, 2 earth), and gave him Galactic Bang. Each time I used it, I had to refill MP to use it again, but it dealt 3000-4000 with each use. I also got Meteor Strike for Alfina (she has an egg with 2 water, 2 earth), and it always dealt like 2000 damage. I was level 19 for everyone when I won.

I’m now 14 hours in, and I’m really beginning to enjoy this game more.

How can I get Absolute Zero, and other high, high, high power spells?

edit; I am now on Disc 2.

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What I like to do is to save in a town that has mana egg fusion and then just play around with combinations, then re-load after so I dont waste eggs if I did’t like the results. After you start to get a feel for it figuring (sp?) out how to get certain eggs is pretty easy. I can give you some combinations for high level spells but I have to go back and double check that there right first. I’ll list them in my next post which should be fairly soon, either later tonight or tomorrow so just hold on till then.:cool:

15

I’m in the Melc Ruins. I can’t seem to defeat that red quadripedal boss in the entrance. Level 26 for all.

I got the following awesome spells. List any I missed:

Absolute Zero
Ba-Boom!
Astraea Zap
Galactic Bang
AlHealer

Any place to quickly level up? I’ve been going to the Desert Lord, and just refighting it for 4k EXP each time.

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For leveling up I pretty much did the same thing. You’re not missing any spells. As for the Melc ruins boss I only have one thing to say, that boss is a BITCH! that boss took a good several tries. I just kept at him, taking on the arms first. Keep someone on healing 24/7 and use support spells like diggin’. Also If Dahna’s magic is Level 10 give her an ether egg along with any abilites that restore MP or that reduce MP cost. The abilites ensure she has a healthy supply of MP and with the ether egg she will be casting all spells almost instanly. The ether egg is a level 10 egg and can be made by combing any 2 level 9 eggs (they might have to be 2 offensive eggs). The abilities are a must, you can reduce a spell with a 99MP cost to 50MP which is very helpful. I wont bother listing the fusion combinations because you already have the highest level spells, so I doubt you need them.

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I made an ether egg, but decided to extract magic from it. From the top of my head:

Yuki
Magic level 7
Skill level 8

Alfina
Magic level 8
Skill level 6

Ulf
Magic level 6
Skill level 8
Dahna
Magic level 8
Skill level 6

I only have a few abilities with PSPRP:

Yuki
Aerial Slash = PS
Whirlwind = PSPRP
Flash = P
Blade Storm
Invincible Aura

Alfina
Comet Spike = PSPRP
Stun Force
Ripple Shot = PSPRP
Holy Circle

Ulf
Rock Breaker = PSPRP
Flame Spike = P
Big Wheel = PSPRP
Force Wave = PSP
Shadow Warrior
Inferno Spike

Dahna
Homing Shot = PSPRP
Mana Capture
Dancing Cards

If I went back to Anfog forest and just killed stuff with specials, would that be an effective way to increase their rank?

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It might be I’m not to sure. Give it try. I remember reading something that said the more you use a special move the the greater the chance is of you leveling it up. It dosen’t work like there is a set amount of times you have to use the ability before it levels up. its all up to chance

The abilities I was talking about were the ones you buy and equip, not the special moves. I do recomend trying to increase Yuki’s blade storm and any of Ulf’s good single special moves. Getting the time it takes to execute the moves shortend helps alot.

Hey I just realized its past midnight that means its my birthday, Yay I’m officialy 18:hyperven: (I realize this is a random thing to add, but hey it’s my B-day.:cool: )

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I remember him too. It took me three or four tries. You really don’t want him to change forms. Neither is stronger than the other, but if he just hit all of your party with a Boomor spell his fast other form will kill you off before you can heal with faster weaker attacks. It works the same the other way too. The fast form will weaken you and the magic form will hit you before you can heal.

Edit: Level up Dahna’s Mana Capture. If leveled up and hitting the right enemies it can heal 80 mp and do a good amount of damage.

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So what level should I be?