Grandia [10] – Lower Laine Village

Last weekend, I only played Grandia for about 40 minutes, so there isn’t much to talk about. I only did one major thing – I got through the chaotic and twisted lower Laine village. It consisted of three or four areas, each a slightly different type of maze.

Grandia - Lower Laine Victim

Gaia really did a number on Lower Laine

Lower Laine Village

I didn’t dodge any battles, sine my team started getting a nice amount of experience again, so Justin leveled by a lot in those 40 minutes, primarily because all of his skills now only cast half the SP, and his Dragon King Slice can kill most groups of enemies in the dungeon with one hit. As I said before, I’m not bothered with Justin getting ahead of the others in levels, because in the worst case scenario, the others will be able to catch up that much faster later on in the game.

The Boss

The boss of the dungeon was another Gaia creature of the same type I fought at the Tower of Doom, though I think this one was stronger. I spread my party around and mostly used spells and skills, so I didn’t even have to heal. Before I knew it, it was over.

Grandia - Gaia

Looking back at the screenshots, it looks like I did heal at least once. My memory sucks.

The Loot

As for the loot, I didn’t get much in the area of equipment, but I did get the last mana egg I’ll ever need. I got back to Laine and immediately used it to teach Rapp his final element – Earth. I gave the horn back to the wise man and he told me where I needed to go next – back to Zil Padon.

Grandia - Laine Store

I got a mana stone, so gimme my magic!

The Story

Apparently, there’s a shrine in Zin Padon that’s connected to the Alent shrine, and the three races of Zil Padon somehow play a part in gaining access to the shrine. Before I could leave, though, it was time for another goodbye – Milda won’t follow me anymore.

Grandia - Dorlin or Derlin?

The Medal of Knowledge? Original!

I was actually looking forward to this moment. Milda is strong and cool and all, but her four moves get really boring really fast and I was looking forward to transferring her skills to Justin. Well, that turned out to be a bust! Apparently, either her skills sucked, or I didn’t understand the transfer mechanics correctly, because I barely got a single level in all three skills combined. Suffice to say, that was underwhelming. I even gave one of Milda’s manuals to Rapp, hoping he would get more out of it, but no dice.

Grandia - Milda Leaving

She left me almost nothing…

Oh well, see you in Zil Padon…

On a Side Note…

The people of Laine grow up in an extremely weird way. Before I went to the lower village dungeon, there was a group of kids in town, talking about how one of them will soon grow up, so they want to play together as much as they can before it was over.

Grandia - Wise Man of Laine

A cute kid turns into that almost instantly…

I didn’t think anything off it, but when I got back, one of the kids was a full-fledged, all grown, talking cow. Apparently, the people of Laine just “sprout” instantaneously, instead of growing up gradually.

Grandia is a weird game. Weirdly awesome!