With Heritage Of War being my entry point into the Growlanser series, I was eager to try its sequal but since it never released outside of Japan, it never got released in English. Thankfully though someone who goes by the name of Risae released a translation for the game allowing English speaking individuals such as myself to experience the game’s narrative and understand all of the menus. The translation is as you would expect from a fan translation, it’s pretty rough in spots with some noticable errors but it doesn’t detract from the overall experience as it’s still easy to understand what is being said.
Now the thing about Growlanser Precarious World is that despite being titled “Growlanser VI” it feels more like an expansion pack for Growlanser Heritage Of War, the fifth game in the series. For this reason, I highly encourage checking out my review of Growlanser Heritage Of War and if you haven’t finished playing Growlanser Heritage Of War or want to play it at some point, you may want to do so before continuing on with this review. Much like Pokemon XD Gale Of Darkness, Growlanser Precarious World is a sequel that re-uses almost all of the assets from its predecessor, so you can expect to see a lot of familiar locations and listen to music from the previous game, including the final boss theme of all things which feels really awkward given the fact that it plays so often in this game. There are some new locations of course as there’s a new continent to explore but most of the soundtrack is reused from the previous entry, with even some of the new towns reusing tracks from Heritage Of War. That’s not to say that there aren’t any new tracks as there are a few that were added to the game and the new tracks are enjoyable ones. I particularly like the new dungeon theme they added (titled Left Behind according to the translation), which addressed one of my criticisms with the previous game’s soundtrack having bland dungeon music.
The field music, while not as catchy as the one in the previous entry is also a good one and is quite relaxing to listen to while roaming around, those who prefered the catchier theme of the previous game (titled Daydreaming) will be happy to know that it returns in Precarious World when roaming through the original game’s continent. Visually speaking though, there is absolutely no difference besides the new assets that have been added. So it still looks like a late Playstation 1 game released in 2007, which may explain why this was the final installment in the Growlanser series but Satoshi Urushihara’s artwork is as good as ever.
Speaking of which, the combat system of Precarious World is exactly the same as the combat system of Heritage Of War. Absolutely nothing was changed about this system so all the fun and frustrations you experienced in Heritage Of War will return here. Just like in Heritage Of War, some of the missions are downright cruel while others are an absolute cakewalk. I found the missions that occur during the game’s half way mark to be the most difficult personally as you find yourself doing back to back missions with ridiculous defeat conditions that will certainly test your patience. There are also a few stealth missions thrown in as well which I personally wasn’t a fan of but thankfully the game does give you some leeway by giving you a warning if you are dangerously close to being seen but the signt range is rather ambiguous which makes it difficult when you consider how tight the patrol routes can be. The section where you have to sneak past a bodyguard to investigate some crates was rather annoying for me in particular as even if the bodyguard isn’t facing you, he can still detect you if you are within a certain range of him and like I said before, the range is ambiguous so it lead to some needless trial and error to get through.
While the plate system remains moreorless the same as it does in Heritage Of War, the ability to manually change the plate’s flow has been removed. Instead the flow is dictated by your character’s equipment, which means there are two flows now instead of just the one. This means that you have to be a little more careful when changing your equipment, though you can purchase switcher charms to change the position of the plates to put them into the flow should you wish to and they are reletively cheap. While it may seem like a minor inconvenience, it doesn’t affect the game all that much and having two flows allows you to level up more of your plates at once as well as giving you more bonuses, which is a good trade off.
What I am mixed on however is the new gem synthesis system. While the ability to combine multiple accessories into one is cool and all, I do think that they could have come up with a better way of doing it. It’s tedious having to constantly remove your equipped gems just to add more gems to strengthen them, then reequip them again until you get a new gem, then you have to repeat the same process over and over again, which is tedious as hell. Given the fact that the plate system alone requires a lot of management, keeping up with the gem synthesis on top of that is a huge undertaking that even I found myself unwilling to put myself through. So I spent most of the game with low level gems since I didn’t want to have to go through the tedious process of re-equipping them constantly to synthesize, not to mention that without impact potions, you have to enter battles to create impacts, so you can’t just synthesize immediately without impact potions. On top of this, the game likes to throw gems at you like candy, as well as letting you make gems with materials, which wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t for the goddamn inventory limit. So get ready to have to constantly filter out all of your gems upon acquiring new ones.
Inventory management sucks
It should also be noted that there is a lot and I mean a lot of missable content in this game. Now while the same could be said for Heritage Of War, it’s even more of an issue in this game as even the game’s bonus dungeon can be completely missed if you didn’t finish its side quest prior to certain events occuring and that’s before we even get to the character side quests which also have a crap ton of easily missable stuff in them. If you’re looking to get everything in this game then a guide is an absolute must. Even with a guide, I still failed a lot of side quests and some of the character’s ultimate weapons since I picked the wrong dialogue choices in conversations, which should give you a good idea what it’s like doing them without a guide. Conversely in Heritage Of War, I managed to get absolutely everything on my first playthrough. I cannot stress how much I was kicking myself when I figured out I locked myself out of getting a character’s ultimate weapon, it’s a good thing I’m not a completionist, because if I was, I’d be livid.
Now the story of Growlanser Precarious World is a lot less grounded than its predecessor and this comes at the cost of it adding needlessly generic and crazy concepts to a narrative that didn’t need them to begin with. I wouldn’t say that the game tarnished the narrative of its predecessor but it was a bit of a shame to see the story take such a radical, yet unoriginal turn, especially considering the fact that Heritage Of War’s story was particularly well crafted. It’s definitely not a terrible story by any stretch, just not one that lives up to the lofty expectations set by its predecessor. I think the pacing of the story is definitely on point though as it maintains your attention throuhgout, just like it did in Heritage Of War. I think a lot of that is owed to the missions and how their objectives tie in with the narrative as they add a personal stake to your character’s success in their struggle. While it can be annoying to watch that stupid NPC get killed, causing you to fail the mission, knowing that it’s a possibility makes the game feel tense as you are always monitoring the situations closely to prevent casualties or other disasters from occuring and this makes you feel more involved in the overall experience than your average JRPG as it challenges you to do the right thing as opposed to just focusing on beating the enemy while leaving your comrades for dead. The same applies to Heritage Of War also.
You can still be a dick though
The characters are likable enough but I didn’t find them to be as interesting as Heritage Of War’s cast. The good news is that the previous game’s cast will occasionally make appearances in the game and some of them may even join the party temporarily as guests which is nice. There’s also a nice surprise that fans of the previous game will no doubt be happy about but I won’t spoil what it is, let’s just say that there’s no shortage of fanservice in this game. Growlanser Precarious World’s story is rather plot focused and there’s quite a lot of exposition to explain things as the game’s narrative likes to make things extra complicated in order for the plot to make sense, not to mention the fact that the story likes to throw a lot of deus ex machinas at you which kind of cheapens the experience a bit, especially given how grounded its predecessor was. With all that said however, I don’t want to paint a negative picture of Precarious World’s story because it is still an enjoyable story that will at the very least keep your interest from beginning to end. If this was an anime or manga, my criticisms would certainly carry more weight to them but this is a videogame and therefore, the story is sufficient enough to deliver what is expected from a JRPG. Just don’t get your hopes up and expect the story to be on the same level as Heritage Of War’s, because it just isn’t and that’s perfectly fine.
Despite having a few gripes with Growlanser Precarious World, I still enjoyed my time with the game for the simple fact that I enjoyed Growlanser Heritage Of War and Precarious World is basically more of that. I think for that reason alone, I can easily recommend this game to most people who enjoyed Growlanser Heritage Of War. Just don’t go into it expecting it to be as good as Heritage Of War because if you do, you will be disappointed. Just keep your expectations in check and you should enjoy this game. If you didn’t enjoy Growlanser Heritage Of War, I can say for certain that you won’t enjoy Growlanser Precarious World either as it really is just more of the same for better or for worse. At least it’s not a train wreck like some direct sequals, I’m looking at you Tales Of Symphonia Dawn Of The New World. While it may be sad that the Growlanser series ended here, I can at least say that it ended on a good note with Precarious World.
Nice to know the fan translation is in REAL English, not that fake English the Americans use.
Plot/Story: Good
Visuals: Satisfactory
Music: Satisfactory
Gameplay: Great
Lifespan: Decent Length
Difficulty: Easy – Medium (depends on the mission)
Would You Replay? Maybe
Overall: Great
Video Review:
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