Though I want to review the games separately, I'll start with a word about this new HD remaster collection itself. The HD collection is kind of a mixed bag, while the upgraded fidelity and other enhancements make for a pleasing experience on modern screens, the performance can be confoundingly poor in some segments, and some strange audio bugs can detract from the experience. So while I can recommend this collection, it doesn't quite feel like the definitive updated version the series deserves, though it may very well be the one we'll have to live with for the time being.

Grandia
I never played this game back in the day, though I'm sure I would have loved it. It's a surprising title and not really what I expected, it's very goofy and lighthearted, seeming to emulate saturday morning anime in terms of its tone and story. The villagers in the first town could almost be Earthbound NPCs with their humorous and almost nonsensical dialogue.

The gameplay loop is alright at first, with a sea voyage early on adding variation and even a silly minigame. Over time though, this 50-hour experience plays the standard loop to exhaustion. The cycle is something like, enter a town, solve whatever odd malady has befallen the townsfoln by way of a nearby dungeon and battles, return to the town, then continue on your journey by way of a dungeon-like path.

Looking at each of these elements on their own, the bad definitely outweighs the good after a while. Within a town there are NPCs to talk to and houses to enter, not to mention your standard inn and equipment shop. The townsfolk and houses not connected to the story exist solely as flavor, though the lightly interactive environments are a nice touch.

A strange part of the gameplay loop are conversations had at meal times with your team, where you choose who to hear dialogue from. It's clearly meant to add some interactivity to what can be long stretches of dialogue, but it's simply clunky and unnecessary as you have to get all the same info out by the time you can end it anyway.

The dungeons start out pretty ok, but as the game progresses the design gets worse and worse, to the point where some dungeons are just miserable experiences to traverse, or just boring and poorly executed. Couple this with the fact that the powerful items you use to upgrade are often found by meticulous exploration of these spaces, this was an area they really needed to nail down in order to succeed and they simply did not. There is a very wide variation in the environments though, which is a plus.

The combat is a big draw in this series. Using a turn-based system with a visual indication of when each character will make their move, the typical strategy of jrpg battles takes on a fun timing-based twist, allowing you to interrupt enemy attacks if you land an attack at just the right moment, or letting you get off a sweet area of effect attack if you catch multiple enemies crowding together at the right time. You also level up your skills by using them in combat, which is an interesting take on a mechanic. The equipment and systems to acquire skills are less excellent, but work alright.

The game is mostly fun and often genuinely hilarious, with a ton of heart and charm, especially in its beautiful animated sequences. A lot of effort was put into making this game something a fan could genuinely love, but taken as a whole it's too long and imperfect to sustain its initial appeal. I ended up calling it quits more than halfway through, but I'm glad I played it anyway.

Grandia II
If there's something that fans of the original would be happy about, it's how faithfully Grandia II kept pretty much every single aspect of the previous title intact while improving on it drastically. Ambitious and impressive 3D animation sequences emphasize the grand scope of the adventure, and if nothing else scratch a very specific nostalgia itch for jrpgs of this era. While the dungeon design isn't as adventurous as the first game, it's greatly improved overall and much less of a slog. The combat is even more fun and further refined compared to the original, with awesome and visually impressive animations for spells and special attacks which are a delight to anyone with a pulse and a love for jrpgs. The townfolk interactions are often a lot more boring due to the more serious nature of this game, though there are moments of humor throughout. If Grandia lives on as an important game, then Grandia II lives on as a game which proved the concept could do great things with the right approach. I loved this game when I played the PS2 port as a kid, and it's bound to live on as an all-time great jrpg.

Some unfortunate qualities of this collection though are namely the sound and performance. The game in some larger towns becomes almost a slideshow, with framerates making for a really rough time. The sound was often bugged as well, sometimes having battle sounds or music play well above the decibel level of all other sound, prompting me to scramble for my tv remote to turn it down. As I said earlier, it's easy to recommend this collection just the same.

A tad flawed but solid collection of 2 JRPG classics whose critical bugs have been thankfully ironed out.

GRANDIA:
If you can get past the ugly sprite filter of the collection you'll find an awesome and adventurous game, with a battle system that stands the test of time. The game has its fair share of odd design decisions and a somewhat flat plot, but the sheer charm and heart make it something you have to try out at least once.

GRANDIA II:
While foregoing the lighter tone of the first game, GRANDIA II is a marked improvement over its predecessor in pretty much every way, especially the plot; additionally the battle system has been translated pretty much identically but improved thanks to a few additions and the higher-fidelity graphics, and a few archaic mechanics have been axed for much smoother ones, resulting in a game I will gladly revisit when in the mood.