See if this sounds familiar: You're from an outcast mercenary class that  upstanding folk don't want around until there's trouble. You're sent on a  mission with an innocent, idealistic woman with whom you don't immediately get  along. Forces of darkness, safely contained until recently, have escaped and are  threatening a world-ending clash with the forces of light, unless you  successfully intercede. This is one of the safest templates for console  role-playing games, as well as the story inGrandia II.Thankfully, however, everything else in the game is fresh and provides hours  upon hours of fun. The backdrops and character designs are colorful without  being flashy, the game has a great pace (for an RPG), and players never have to  stand around too long for the next thing to do. Even the writing, within its  cookie-cutter plot, is smart, well translated, and occasionally funny.The game's strongest element, though, is its battle system. Taking the best of  turn-based and real-time battle engines,Grandia IIforces you to choose  your moves carefully with respect to timing and position. The battles are very  simple in the beginning, but grow increasingly complex as you fight larger  numbers of monsters with a growing party of allies. How you meet your  encounters--whether you initiate the fight, are ambushed, or meet head  on--affects both the timing of the blows and the positions of the contestants.  Battles emphasize counterattacks and combination blows, but you'll soon find  that movement and defense keep you alive against the tougher enemies. Elemental  magic, items, and skill books are just icing on the cake. Even if the battles do  grow old, the random fights are fairly easy to avoid, and a versatile AI option  lets you cruise-control through the rest.Grandia IImay just be the traditional role-playing game that Dreamcast  owners have been waiting for. The question of whether or not it is too  traditional doesn't matter, since it offers a better experience than most that  have come before.--Porter B. HallPros:Battle system creates interesting, complex fightsSolid, traditional role-playing game for a system with few others in the  genreCons:Predictable plot and characters