this is a great collection of 2 games one is lacking in the adventure department you basically have a map and move from dot to dot but both have fantastic stories and battle systems. sense of justice has many differant and unique endings where the other is essentialy the same ending only involving differant characters. there are 3 uniquely differant endings to it that i know of still both have lots of replay value. my favorite thing in sense of justice is that if you are a great player and respond correctly to in certain situations you can actualy play the story as the bad guys. the down side to that is it cuts off alot of game time compared to the normal story but it is considerably more diificult. all in all its a great choice for any rpg fan you will in awe over the revolutionary battle system never seen anything quite like it. its more of a turn based rts in battle youll have to see it

A compilation including Growlanser II and III, Growlanser Generations is basically a repackaging of these old games. These games were not formerly available in the US, and now are due to the PS2 adaptation.

Growlanser II takes place in the kingdom of Burnstein, following Wein Cruz. Enlisting in the officer's academy, Wein hopes to become an Imperial Knight, of which there are only four in the kingdom. However, not long after he joins, a great war with the kingdom of Rolandia breaks out (this war is seen from the other side in Growlanser I). Many of Wein's fellow knights are killed. After passing the initial knight exams - a makeshift defense of a besieged city - Wein becomes a full knight and leads a squad through various missions.

Growlanser III, in contrast, takes place after a different nation has been ripped apart by civil war and the sun's power is weakened by a major catastrophe. This leads to a major famine and a squabble over food in its neighbor countries. The player is a soldier wracked with amnesia who is rescued by the daughter of one of those countries, Xironia, which is constantly raided by the neighbor nation of Aggressival. The soldier, Slayn Wilder, must rediscover his past and avert a tragedy before it can happen.

The gameplay in Growlanser is a little difficult to follow. The game is "real time", in a manner of speaking, but it's more accurate to say that even though everyone moves at the same time, the game still has a system of timing and turns. The player can have as many as 8 soldiers on the field at a time in Growlanser II, and only 4 in Growlanser III (due to player complaints). Every time there is a combat sequence or spell cast, the play stops and waits for the thing to be done. Orders are given when these combat sequences aren't playing. These range from abilities to attacks to move orders. It is often difficult to adapt to new conditions because of the frequent interruptions. One of the new features in the Growlanser Generations repackage is the option of "auto-battling" - helpful for characters you can't afford to spend time on.

In Growlanser II, the "world map" is traveled from city to city like points on a map (think Final Fantasy Tactics), and while in towns the player can buy and sell items or look up rumors. Growlanser III works more like a normal RPG, with manual traveling over an overworld map and into towns. However, for the most part, gameplay is similar between the two.

The graphics in both games are sprites in the standard RPG style, though the pixelation improves from 2 to 3 (2 is very grainy and flaky, while 3 is a little more smooth). The portraits are done in an anime style very similar to old anime series like Record of Lodoss War - lots of big shoulders and shiny hairdos. The music is barely noticable, but the voice acting has been improved with Generations. However, the quality varies wildly from character to character.

As a whole, I might recommend this game if one was a fan of the later, translated games. But by itself, the gameplay system is a little too complex and irritating to like.

Review: 7/10.

Reviewed for Big Boss Games by: TRC

Growlanser Generations is split into two games, Growlanser 2 and 3.

This review is of Growlanser 2.

After a long delay of this game, Working Designs has released Growlanser
Generations and it is well worth the wait. If you love strategy RPGs this
game is a must have. Because of it?s griping story and great game-play. You
start out as Wein Cruz, a young boy with a dream of becoming an Imperial
Knight.

The music in the game is perfect. Although the voice acting was laughable, it
was still funny at times. Good-bye battle grid, you have free roam over the
battlefield. Your game uses navigation points to move from town to dungeon
and back again. The strategy aspect of this game goes from easy to pulling
out your hair hard after a few battles. The Graphics for this game seem like
the best of playstation 1 graphics.

Overall for Growlanser 2

I give this game a:
9.5 ? Game Play
9 - Sound
6 - Graphics
9 - Overall

Growlanser Generations is the American conversion and compilation of Growlanser II and III. It comes with 2 discs, the first is the complete game of Growlanser II, and the second is the complete game of Growlanser III. Both are great games. These games are in classic turn-based RPG style which plays phenomenally. Good customization options when you level up add to the enjoyment I got from playing the games. Growlanser II has more focus on gameplay and less on exploration, where Growlanser III has more exploration and the story moves slower. However, the music, graphics, and voice acting are better in Growlanser III. As you can see both have advantages and disadvantages, but in the final analysis, both are outstanding games in their own right, both play similarly, especially in combat, and both are worth the investment of purchasing.

sony made an oops when they made the ps2.

it doesn't read the blue disks or the ruby disks as well as the original ps did. i am not sure about the psone because i never owned one.

the game is great but i am sad i cannot play it anymore. it worked but now it is tempermental even after i resurfaced the disks just to make sure they were super clean.

xbox can have the drive replaced to a better one. but thats off topic. sony just made a mistake.