Among the many lesser-known, but much-beloved new RPG franchises to be pioneered during the big Japanese RPG boom of the late 90’s and early 2000’s was Grandia. One of the best-received RPG brands to spawn from Game Arts, who also developed another fan-favourite RPG brand, Lunar, the Grandia series rights have since landed in the laps of Game Arts’ now-parent company, Gungho Online Entertainment, a Japanese publisher best known for Japanese mobile gaming sensation, Puzzle & Dragons (which recently saw a crossover with Nintendo’s Mario franchise here in the West), as well as hosting the servers for Korean MMORPG favourite, Ragnarok Online, among numerous other online-driven games. Through this acquisition, there has been some revived interest in the Grandia games of late, particularly after Grandia II: Anniversary Edition, a PC port of the series’ second entry, released to positive reception in 2015.
Well, after a few more years, it seems that Gungho is once again ready to dust off the Grandia franchise! Making an announcement today, Gungho confirmed that not only will the original Grandia be remastered for PC, but both HD remasters of Grandia and Grandia II will also be ported to Nintendo Switch! These Nintendo Switch remasters will mark the first time that any Grandia game has been released on a Nintendo platform.
There doesn’t appear to be an exact release date for either the PC remaster of Grandia, nor the Nintendo Switch ports of both games, but the Nintendo Switch version of Grandia II: Anniversary Edition will apparently be playable at PAX West soon, and both remasters are allegedly targeting a release towards the end of this year. There is also a third game in the series, Grandia III, currently the most recent proper sequel in the franchise, though at this point, there don’t appear to be any remaster plans for Grandia III, on Nintendo Switch or PC.
The original Grandia debuted on Sega Saturn in Japan during late 1997, and wouldn’t make it to the West until a PlayStation port was made a couple of years later, in 1999. The game, a conventional turn-based fantasy-themed console RPG with light steampunk elements, was received very well by critics and players, and is considered by some to be one of the best RPG’s available on both the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, despite sales for the game being rather soft in Western markets. Grandia II was released about a year later in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast, and was later ported to PlayStation 2 in 2002, though sales were once again quite modest in Western markets, despite the Dreamcast version of the game in particular continuing to be received well by critics and fans.
Keep journeying to Eggplante for major news and updates on Grandia.