Battle of the Ports HD #33 (Grandia) Part One

[NezumiTheMouse]

If there was an American or Pal releases of the one on Saturn but as is the Saturn one looks better but the ps1 has text I can read Saturn also has better voice acting

[JohanOlsson]

well I think playstation is always smoother, but saturn has more details it this game =) its like Grandia 2, which is better looking on Dreamcast than on ps1 or pc :P

[xgame511]

these graphics were probably mind blowing at the time

[Vendettare1]

ps1 win because it in english, lazy sega make no port.

[therealbluedragon]

@Vendettare1 There are so many things wrong with what you just said, I don't think I can fit them all into the 500 character limit. :\

[Vendettare1]

@therealbluedragon How come? They could of done a North American port, or pal port on saturn. Just like they could of with Shining force 3 s2,3, and many other rpg's that might of saved the saturn. Needed more games like panzer dragoon saga just that was to little to late.

[NotHomelessAnymore]

Noticed some missing shadows in the PS1 version. Also, how on Earth did the Saturn version manage to render transparent smoke? I thought the system was incapable of that. And they don't look like pseudo transparencies like in Radiant Silvergun either.

[therealbluedragon]

@NotHomelessAnymore That's a popular misconception, there are plenty of Saturn games with transparencies in them; It was just far more difficult to achieve. The Saturn hardware didn't natively support it like the PS1 did, so it had to be done via clever software coding. The problem with using the software method is that it was a massive resource hog & could severely impact the performance of the game so most of the time it wasn't used.

[VGMGarden]

water looked better in ps1.

thats all i can see.

[TheDanster4]

The Japanese voices are really good.

[drunkensailor112]

I so wish for an english patch for the saturn game. the script is there :(

[cakestalker]

one thing i didn't like about the ps1 port of grandia (apart from the worse framerate) was that all the battle fields were just a bitmap\image, while on saturn it's actually a rendered battlefield with rendered objects.

[Dreamewalker]

The Saturn version has a better framerate and shadows. Same issues with the Dreamcast to PS2 port of Grandia II. The difference is even greater in that port. Also...the ground textures between psx and saturn are completely different!!! wtf

[masterofspanish]

In sega saturn mch definition, but in psx + frame rate.

[michigan1777]

Ps1 had more detail. Look at the pavement and shadow of the figure on the ps1. Its not a circle but an actual shadow

[nym56789]

@michigan1777 Lolwut? Did you notice the only thing on the PS1 with a shadow was the figure? Not one building or anything else casted a shadow.

[nym56789]

@michigan1777 Lolwut? Did you notice the only thing on the PS1 with a shadow was the figure? Not one building or anything else casted a shadow. Also in the next town even a hole in the ground had more depth to it on the Saturn. Sadly on certain zoom ins you could see less jaggies on the PS1 compared to the Saturn.

[Relugus]

The sprite characters and polygon scenery are seamless; incredibly smooth. If developers had mastered mixing sprites and 3D, then some really interesting things could have been achieved on the Saturn.

[OriginalName90]

I'm STILL depressed about this not getting a US release on the Saturn. I wish someone would just translate the text of the Saturn version into English -- if only re-writing code were as easy as that.

[SamuraiSam]

The battle backgrounds look noticeably better in the Saturn version, it seems.

[cakestalker]

@SamuraiSam

yeah, it's because on saturn it's actually a rendered battlefield with stuff on it, while on ps1 it's just a bitmap\background image of the battlefield that the characters and enemies are floating on sadly.

[tehkevxor1983]

You know on the bridge out on the port of this town? I never understood when I got the PlayStation version why it would do this dramatic span and show you all this vast flatness...

When I got the Saturn version a couple years later (it was all of two dollars, how could I pass that up?), well... I figured out why.

[lightdark28]

overall the Saturn version is the better one, it looks and runs better.

but then again the PS1 version is a port, so one can expect that.

[MetallicMushroom]

Saturn all the way, much more detail and better definition on the geometry.

Also the Psx sprites seem a bit stretched (amiwrong???)

[Sepultallica86]

can you get english text, or subtitles on the saturn version.

[therealbluedragon]

@Sepultallica86 Unfortunately no... It gives the Saturn game a somewhat high barrier for entry outside of Japan. I can only do it because I'm using the PS1 version as a guide, however i don't recommend playing two versions of the Same RPG at the same time as it gets tireing!

[brunolindo5]

n vi muita diferença só o chao da versao do saturno q é + detalhada

[bizarroeddie1]

The floor textures of the village seems more coerent on the Saturn. PSX's seems like they just applied it without logic.

Even the places outside the village have the same texture on the PSX, while on the Saturn there is some kind of grass texture.

Also, there's some texture warping on the PSX that doesnt happen on Saturn, and the battle screens have better resolution on Saturn too, but PSX loads it faster.

[therealbluedragon]

Grandia is one of those few games that was designed for the Saturn first then ported to the PlayStation. Both versions are great though they have numerous little differences that might surprise some of you. First things first, the frame rate! Both games have good frame rates though the Saturn version can chug a bit in some of the more "geometry intense" areas.

[therealbluedragon]

@therealbluedragon If you notice during the town flyby at the start the ground textures are hugely different! The Saturn seems to have some logic to it, paths are cobbled & buildings sit on metal plates; but the PS1 versions looks totally random with no obvious order to it. Also all the buildings have shadows only in the Saturn game. Also voice acting... GOD DAMN... the western release of Grandia sounds like the Voice actors were trying to sound as Corney as humanly possible!

[LeoDarkSide]

@therealbluedragon Also, I noticed that transparency on the chimney smoke was better on the PS1 version than the Saturn. Water and Transparency effects were always an issue for the Saturn!

[fareedbakhit]

@therealbluedragon it's not random on the ps1 the developers just put more details on the grounds which mean different type of grounds but still i think this game was first developed on the saturn then it ported on to the ps1.

[therealbluedragon]

@fareedbakhit I think you're joking, It's clearly random. There is an obvious logic to the texture placement in the Saturn version (the roads are cobbled & all the buildings are sitting on metal plates).

There is zero logic or consistency to the ground textures on the PS1 port.

[fareedbakhit]

@therealbluedragon yes i was joking man :) well that's what you get if you port a game from console to another with a lazy job on porting because ps1 version is still miss a lot's of building shadows and clouds on the sky and kinda dark but it's still shows better smokes coming from the chimnies of the houses and kinda better effect's before entering a battle and better charecters shadows.