Growlanser: Heritage of War review

Like the now-defunct Working Designs, Growlanser’s localization is spot-on, with some pleasant voice acting. The narrative actually turns out to be a strong point, too. The beginning isn’t so typical, since you have different roles of players in different times to the overall plot. This works out quite well, as the history lessons in the games make things interesting and not as predictable. Once you finally step into the role of the true protagonist, the characters become likable. True, the characters are about ascliché as they get, but the story is told so interestingly that you become to know the characters and their world more than you think.

It’s too bad that this game is ugly. Really ugly. Trapped in a PS1 world, Growlanser should have stuck with its 2D set-up; character models are edgy, rough, hard to recognize, and the backgrounds are still, dull, and have nothing interactive about them. Growlanser doesn’t have much harmony, either. It’s MIDI-reliant score is ordinary, with only a handful of tracks that are quite sound (no pun intended).