Development
A new installment in the Grandia series developed by Game Arts was officially announced on June 1, 2001 with the tentative name of Grandia X. The game, later retitled Grandia Xtreme, was to be published by Enix as they had just invested capital in Game Arts for a total of ¥99.2 million, or 15% of the company. The game was the first title Game Arts developed exclusively for the PlayStation 2. While previous installments in the series were traditional role-playing video games, the developers took the new title in a different direction and designed it more as an action role-playing game or dungeon crawler to make it more accessible to casual gamers. They nevertheless kept and enhanced mainstays such as the combat and magic systems, as well as the "enchantment" aspect of the story. To design the characters of the game, Enix and Game Arts selected Kamui Fujiwara, the character designer of Terranigma. Development for the game spanned roughly 18 months.
An "aggressive" marketing campaign was planned to push the game and the series as a "brand for the future, not a one shot deal". Grandia Xtreme was showcased with a trailer at the Tokyo Game Show in August 2001 and in playable form at the World Hobby Fair of Tokyo in January 2002. A video of the game was also featured in an issue of Famitsu Game Wave DVD. The game was released in Japan on January 31, 2002 in either regular or limited edition, the latter including as bonuses a Grandia Xtreme pocket watch and a small "Geo Gate" diorama depicting the protagonist Evann. Customers who pre-ordered the game also received a Grandia miniature tote bag.
The voice acting for the English-language version was directed by WorldLink Technologies in Seattle, Washington, with large involvement from Enix America. Mark Hamill voiced the antagonist Colonel Kroitz, while Dean Cain did Evann and Lisa Loeb did Lutina. The North American version was showcased at the E3 in Los Angeles, California in May 2002, and was released on September 30, 2002. Enix America partnered with Versus Books to publish a strategy guide of the game and "expan awareness of the franchise". The company also partnered with gaming website RPGFan for a quiz contest to win free copies of the game and strategy guide.
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