Coming to PSN this Week: Grandia PSOne Classic

Finally! Grandia will be available for download on the North American PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 and PSP this Thursday for $9.99!

Since the title launched on the Japanese PlayStation Network in April of 2009, we have received many inquiries about the North American launch. And it wasn’t so easy to keep our lips zipped under such circumstances, but the day has finally come!

*Character design and illustration by Takuhito Kusanagi

Well, let me tell you a bit about the game.

Grandia is an unforgettable journey with over 80 hours of gameplay, and it was released over 10 years ago for the PSOne and became one of the most critically acclaimed RPG games. The player assumes the role of Justin, a young boy obsessed with becoming a great adventurer, who inherits a magic stone that leads him on an epic journey to uncover the mystery of a long lost civilization. And, he meets other adventurers who join him on his quest and as he unravels the threads of the ancient legend, he draws the attention of the Garlyle Forces who devise diabolical schemes to stop him.

The fight for the truth takes place across the world, with over 200 weapons, enemies, and items to collect plus over 80 magic spells and techniques to master. The title was released with two ROMs a decade ago due to the volume of the game, but you can download the same game from PSN on your PS3 and PSP only for $9.99!

I believe Grandia is ideal for RPG fans who missed the original version and those gamers who want to recapture the magic of their gaming past, and it can be appreciated by players young and old, men and women, casual and hardcore because this is a timeless game.

*Illustration by Toshiaki Hontani

This is one of the first game development projects I was involved in after entering the company, and I was in charge of sound direction for the PSOne Grandia. Mr. Nobuyuki Iwadare has composed the soundtrack throughout the Grandia series, and the kind of work I carried out back then was explaining the atmosphere of the game to Mr. Iwadare. Then, he could compose the music suitable for the game and synchronizing the sound effects and his music with the game or the movie parts.

The performance of videogame hardware in those days wasn’t as good as it is today, and there were limitations to the methods of musical or sound representation back then; however, we continued to be particular about musical/ sound representation in laborious details and developed our first Grandia by trial and error.

So, I have a certain fondness for this title, and I was very thrilled when I learned that the PlayStation Network was willing to add our classic game to the lineup. And, all the staff including myself who were involved in the development of Grandia are very happy that the game can be played by both a new generation of gamers and those who played the game when it was first released. Thank you, Sony Computer Entertainment of America! :)

*Illustration by Toshiaki Hontani

Are you ready to enter (or re-enter) the world of Grandia, brave adventurer? Your quest awaits! Check it out this Thursday when it launches on PlayStation Store for only $9.99!