Game:

The Granstream Saga (1997)

Duration: 2:51:30

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Originally recorded: February 27, 2022
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After spending most of 2022 thus far focusing on smaller games, I've finally reached something substantial to sink my teeth into. While The Granstream Saga may seem like a random choice, given its sheer obscurity, but in reality, it essentially represents the finale to a project I've been working on since 2019. It has been argued, in fact, to the fabled "fourth entry" in what is commonly referred to as the "Quintet trilogy": a pseudo-series consisting of SNES action-RPGs Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia and the "banned in America" cult classic, Terranigma.

I say its status as a fourth game is contested, because, well, there are a few caveats. For starters, the game was credited to "Shade", which was apparently a smaller development team within Quintet itself -- so the connection between the games isn't particularly clear at first glance. Secondly, The Granstream Saga wasn't published by Enix... anywhere, unlike the aforementioned SNES titles, which were published by them... *everywhere*. North America's version of Granstream was handled by THQ of all companies, Sony Computer Entertainment themselves published it in Japan and European publishing duties were handed off to an "Arc Entertainment" -- which I can't really find much additional info on.

The Granstream Saga starts off slow. Hell, it felt like more than half of this first stream was spent on exposition, both in terms of cutscenes and the "gameplay" segments. Alas, fifth gen is when slow starts in RPGs really came into vogue. But once this game gets going... it gets really good. I'm sure that I might eventually get irritated by it, but for now, I'm absolutely enamored with the game's combat system. You have the capacity to avoid foes to some degree and since all the fights are one-on-one, the combat mechanics are actually quite complex, but never really in an overwhelming way. Every single fight feels like an event.

I'm also kind of digging the in-game aesthetic, where none of the human characters seem to have faces. At first, I thought it was an emulation glitch, but after looking into it, it turns out that was intentional. It kind of reminds me of how the 2D Castlevanias always seemed to handle that sort of thing, focusing on other details. The cutscenes aren't so bad either. And frankly, I don't even mind the dubbing -- honestly, compared to most fifth-gen English dubs, this actually seems kind of good.

I'm definitely enjoying The Granstream Saga so far, to the extent where it already feels like I'll enjoy the entire game more than Illusion of Gaia or Terranigma.