I remember being able to predict major twists in Grandia 2, like what was going to happen when the party completed their trek halfway across the world to get to the holy city where the person who is supposed to be able to cure the heroine's curse lives. Naturally the religious order headquartered in said city is fraudulent and corrupt and secretly worships an evil god. What else would it be? And let me guess, the good god is dead? Okay, that figures.
I enjoyed the game, the gameplay was fun and I didn't feel like it let me down in the storytelling department, but sometimes the similarities boggled my mind. Like when the phrase "power of humanity" turned up in the dialog...
Now, for ToD2, the borrowed elements may be more subtle. The main character is an idealistic young man (well, to be honest, a boy) with aspirations to greatness. That describes a great number of RPG heroes, no big deal. So this boy explores some ancient ruins near his home and finds a giant crystal (or lens, to use the game's terminology). A girl emerges from this object - clothes materialize on her soon afterward, might I add.
She is the game's heroine and she has come from some unknown place in search of a hero. At this point she has little interest in the main character for anything, but he, on other hand, is bound and determined to help her accomplish her mission.Better yet, the heroine also has a very important pendant. Sounds familiar, I hope? And I haven't even gotten to the topic of infamous traitors who've been brought back from the dead...
