Accessories

What the?
Heard good stuff about the Growlanser franchise in terms of it's strategy kinda of RPG nature. So I think I'll give it a try as good RPGs are scarce to come by these days.

The story is very standard RPG but the thing is you don't get to use the lead character on the cover art till quite some time into the game. So that is "new". Standard story means people try to keep peace on a rotten land while everyone is waiting for a chance to be the ruler of the world. On top of that was monster invasion and blah blah blah.

Characters were all displayed in beautiful hand drawn art on top of the 3D models in the game. But one thing I can't understand is that how did all their clothes get so shiny and polished all the time? And why does everyone look so serious? And the predominant display of sad faces just really killed off the character's personality and players' concern for their well beings a lot. Also who decided to have a character that runs around like a turkey should really be sent to a rehabilitation camp to study human behaviours again.

The battle system was theoretically good but badly executed. It is good with a RTS battle system but then the flow of the battle was so interrupted by pop up menus and magic cutscenes that you just lost the plot of what you are doing. During major battle missions, you will just keep on asking "What the?!!!!" For example, when you try to enter a command to heal your character only to find out it was interrupted by pop up screens and magic scenes. And the more annoying part was they kept on asking you "Do you have a plan?" "What next?" "Give me your orders" but when you try to key in a order, the interruptions from the battle mechanism just kept on confusing you whether your command was successfully put in. And before you know, your party could be slaughtered into oblivion. And why is it that after you input a magic command and the target for action, they have to ask you another 5 million times where do you want to cast the magic before they perform the action? And every time after they killed a target they ask you again instead of like other RTS, they just move on to the next closest target. The funny thing is that they would do so if you don't even enter any command at the beginning of the battle. So it is a choice of letting them to do everything themselves (and having a high chance of getting themselves killed) or input command for every single action be it is cooking, drinking or going to the toilet on the battle field.

Growlanser could have so much more potential but the execution was so bad that even with all the goodies they included in the package, it couldn't save the game at the end of the day. The 2 stars is for a good gaming concept but that's all the game could offer.

The Bomb!!!!!!
Great game. I never had so much fun in my life. Everybody in my family loves it.

Worst RPG ever
I can't believe I wasted 50 bucks on this piece of crap. The plot, what little there is, is laughable at best. Switching main characters all the time and then having characters you worked on die is just plain annoying. The story is linear, and the knacks and skill plates add nothing special to the game. The voice acting is horrible, and the graphics are average. I have been playing RPGs since my Super NES days and I would rather play Chrono Trigger or Breath of Fire than spend more than 5 minutes playing this game. I expect more from Atlus and the Growlanser franchise than this shoddy game. Even the limited edition extras weren't all that great. Does anyone collect lenticular cards anymore? The keychain I received was scratched. Overall, I would recommend something from the Disgaea series or the Shin Megami Tensei series. I kept playing this game trying to get my 50 dollars worth but gave up shortly after reaching the "main" story when I realized that it would never happen.

One of the only true animé games out there
If you love japanese animé, this is the game for you. It is RARE to have games like these nowadays. Everything on the market is either cel-shaded or 3D graphics. But all of the portraits and cutscenes in Growlanser: Heritage of War are in solid and glorious 2D! And it has a great story. War is HORRIBLE and it is time that a video game truly addressed this.

Not to mention, this game is complex! You literally play as 4 different characters through the extended prologue before the actual first chapter starts. This is a LONG game, with many side quests and auxiliary activities. But you have a choice if you want real-time battle or not. If you do not want the frenzy of RTS, you can take your party members off of Auto and you will have to give them each of their actions, thus making battle turn-based. And these battles will make you think! With knacks, items, movement waypoints, variable charge times for spells, Plate Flows that can be changed at any time (you have loads of abilities that you can level up but you can only use a certain amount of them at a time. Choose carefully), using provoke (decoy) in order to draw angry mobs off of defenseless NPCs......this game has got it all!

It is extremely old-school and therein lies its charm. It would be great to play games from 1990 that I used to love but they are way too primitive in this day and age. Growlanser: Heritage of War is a game from 1990 with graphics and battle mechanics from 2007. Thank you, Atlus.

Nothing special
Atlus' Growlanser series gets another installment on our shores for the PS2 with Growlanser: Heritage of War. The first thing you'll notice with Heritage of War is the super-limited edition packaging that features a book of the game's art and a CD of the game's music as well. Behind all the extras though, not much has changed since the last time we saw a Growlanser game. If you're a veteran of the series, you'll feel right at home, but for newcomers, prepare to feel out of the loop. Heritage of War features an overaching story that transpires over the game's massively lengthy quest (along with some side quests to boot), but getting through all of it without getting turned off by the game's shortcomings is by far the greatest challenge Heritage of War has to offer. There are graphical glitches and clipping issues aplenty, with some poorly animated character models and collision detection problems as well. The game's story also isn't half as epic (or good) as it thinks it is, and features just about every cliche RPG story element you can think of. While there is a lot against Heritage of War, it's not without it's plusses either. Despite the horrible dialogue, there is some solid voice acting to be heard, not to mention some excellent music as well. The game's real time battle system is also a blast to play once you get the hang of it, and many of the backgrounds and areas are nicely designed. However, once you get past the massive length of Heritage of War, you'll have no reason to go back again. There's nothing really all that compelling that you'll find here, but you could certainly do worse RPG wise. All in all, Growlanser: Heritage of War is worth a look for fans of the series and RPG nuts alike, but let it be known to proceed with caution.