Grandia HD Collection

The Grandia HD Collection lacks any bells and whistles worth gushing over. Rather, it is a perfect excuse to uncover a legacy JRPG series that many would argue has been lost to time. Players may long for higher quality remakes to allow for the most optimal, modern experience available but sometimes, a polished time capsule is all we need to enjoy a game in its purest form.

The Grandia HD Collection was and still is a fine collection of two landmark RPGs. While, as a collection, it’s a bit sparse on any extras for the asking price, you could do a lot worse. While it’s still beyond strange that this didn’t release, specifically on last-gen consoles, a lot sooner, it’s good that fans can finally experience this on a non-Nintendo console. Better late than never, I suppose.

The GRANDIA HD Collection is the only way to experience these two great titles on modern platforms. Both Grandia and Grandia 2 stand the test of time with great writing and characters and a unique combat and skill upgrade system. It's just a shame that not enough was done to provide quality-of-life upgrades. The only real updates these games have received are game visuals and widescreen support.

Grandia HD Collection needs to be seen from two perspectives. As a game, it features two excellent and charismatic adventures with one of the best turn-based combat systems in JRPGs, highly recommended for anyone who enjoys the style. However, as a collection to relaunch old games, only the bare minimum was done, without extras or quality of life improvements. Even with the important step of bringing the games to more current platforms, these versions have technical flaws and are far from being definitive.