Grand Knights History

Grand Knights History[lower-alpha 1] is a 2011 role-playing video game developed by Vanillaware and published by Marvelous Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable. Following the adventures of a mercenary group in the employ of one of three warring nations, the player engages in turn-based combat while navigating maps. The game originally featured online competitive multiplayer where chosen teams of characters fight for their nation, but this ended when servers shut down in October 2013.

Grand Knights History
Developer(s)Vanillaware
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Tomohiko Deguchi
Producer(s)Yoshifumi Hashimoto
Programmer(s)Takashi Nishii
Artist(s)Kouichi Maenou
Composer(s)Mitsuhiro Kaneda
Yoshimi Kudo
Noriyuki Kamikura
Masaharu Iwata
Platform(s)PlayStation Portable
Release
  • JP: September 1, 2011
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Production began in 2009 following the release of Muramasa: The Demon Blade; Muramasa publisher Marvelous wanted to work with Vanillaware on a PSP title. The game was directed by Tomohiko Deguchi, and GrimGrimoire artist Kouichi Maenou designed the characters. The aim was to blend Vanillaware's artistic style with a turn-based battle system and online multiplayer, both firsts for the company. Music was handled by a team from Basiscape, a frequent collaborator with Vanillaware.

The game was released to strong sales, making a significant contributions to Marvelous's fiscal profits. It also met with positive reviews from critics. Due to Vanillaware focusing on developing Dragon's Crown, a planned localization from Xseed Games and Rising Star Games was cancelled. After leaving Vanillaware, Deguchi used his concepts from Grand Knights History to develop the 2014 video game Grand Kingdom.

Gameplay
A battle scene from Grand Knights History

Grand Knights History is a role-playing video game where players take on the role of a mercenary squad leader in service to one of three kingdoms of the continent of Rystia; players begin by selecting which nation to support, and are then introduced to the narrative.[1][2] The player takes control of a group of up to four customised characters from three separate character classes—knight, archer, or wizard—who must travel through various landscapes battlefields on missions either for their nation or related to the main narrative.[1][3] The story is advanced by taking part in quests which require the player to travel across the game world on a map with interconnected areas and towns. As players complete more quests, paths to new areas become available to explore.[4] During exploration, the player party is presented as a chess piece on a large board. Each mission has a limited number of moves, with different spaces housing events, items, or battles.[1][5]

Battle sequences take place on convex grid-based fighting area known as the "Battle Sphere Reel", which the game's camera pans across when party members or enemies take action. Combat uses a turn-based battle system. At the beginning of each turn, the player selects a character's actions; these include standard attacks, special skills, and healing spells or items. Each move or action uses a portion of the party's Action Point (AP) metre, which is replenished by a set amount each turn or when an enemy is defeated.[1][3] Using particular skills or weapons repeatedly unlocks new skills for a character.[2] By outfitting characters in new weapons, armor, and ornaments, a player may increase a characters statistics which allow them to become stronger, as well as further impact their appearance.[4] Completing battles rewards experience points which raise the party's attributes, and currency used to buy items or equipment in towns and at the group's base. If a unit of the player is killed, it will be removed from the rest of the battle, receiving half the EXP and returning with 1 HP after the battle. If the entire party is defeated, the game ends.[1]

Making use of the PlayStation Portable's PlayStation Network online function, players could battle each other in groups representing one of the game's three kingdoms.[2] As each group wins battles against opposing factions, they expand their territory within the online environment, granting them access to rewards and a standing on community-based leaderboards. Winning groups may vote on which territory to attack next, and individual players may opt to have their characters controlled by artificial intelligence rather than themselves manually.[2][6] The servers were shut down on October 31, 2013.[7]

Plot

Grand Knights History is a set in the fantasy world of Rystia, which is divided into three warring kingdoms: Logres, the Ancient Kingdom, ruled by King Fausel (voiced by Tomokazu Sugita); Union, the Kingdom of Knights, ruled by King Leon (voiced by Daisuke Kishio); and Avalon, the Kingdom of Magic, ruled by Queen Muse (voiced by Kikuko Inoue).[8] Players must align themselves to one of the three nations and advance the story by taking part in missions on behalf of their chosen country.

Development

Production on Grand Knights History began in 2009 and lasted around two years.[9][10] Following the release by Marvelous Entertainment of Muramasa: The Demon Blade in 2009, producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto contacted Vanillaware about working on a new title together, after hearing Vanillaware's Tomohiko Deguchi wanted to develop for the PSP.[9] The game was Vanillaware's first turn-based RPG, with Deguchi aiming for a war-based RPG that would "connect everyone".[11] Deguchi, acting as the game's director, created the concept for Grand Knights History from his wish to do something new. This concept allowed him to express his wish to use the PSP's wireless communication functions for something unusual.[9] The game's staff at both Vanillaware and Marvellous were fairly young.[12]

The game's art director was Kouichi Maenou, who had worked as character designer for GrimGrimoire.[9][13] The game was Maenou's first time working as art director. After trial and error, he decided to emulate classic Western fantasy art similar to previous Vanillaware titles, using a style of defined lines and soft colours for characters and backgrounds. He also incorporated blank areas around the edges of displays, as if players were looking at a book illustration.[9] As with other Vanillaware titles, Grand Knights Kingdom made use of 2D graphics, but while this style was preserved it was adapted to turn-based role-playing, departing greatly from the company's previous action-based titles.[9] The character animation used the same techniques as earlier Vanillaware titles.[14]

When choosing the PSP for the platform, the team wanted to distinguish the game from other titles on the platform, many of which had multiplayer elements.[9] Hashimoto described the multiplayer elements as a cross between online game structure and email communication. As people could not be online all the time, the team designed a system that would keep player parties synchronised on the server.[12] During production, Hashimoto consulted with Sony about the PSP's online elements, referring to them as "understanding" of the development process.[11]

The music for Grand Knights History was composed by a team from Basiscape, a music company founded by Hitoshi Sakimoto who collaborated with Vanillaware since Odin Sphere.[15][16] The team consisted of Mitsuhiro Kaneda, Yoshimi Kudo, Noriyuki Kamikura and Masaharu Iwata.[15] When he was given the job of lead composer, the game was described by Kaneda as an odd RPG given to the company to work on. A rock music style was requested for the battle themes, something he was not good at, so the final soundtrack ended up mixing rock and orchestral elements together.[17] A soundtrack album was released in 2011.[15] It was positively received by music critics.[18][19]

Grand Knights History was revealed in late March 2009. At the time of its announcement, the game was 70% complete.[10] It released in Japan on September 1, 2011.[20] It was promoted with a commercial featuring the single "Navigation", performed by J-pop artist fumika.[21] The game was originally planned for a Western release through Xseed Games (North America) and Rising Star Games (Europe). Due to their work on Dragon's Crown, Vanillaware was unable to dedicate any resources to help Xseed Games with the localization, eventually forcing them to cancel it despite the translation being almost complete. Due to Xseed's decision, Rising Star Games also cancelled the European version.[22][23][24] An English fan translation was released in 2014.[25] Deguchi would eventually leave Vanillaware and founded Monochrome Corporation. There he developed Grand Kingdom, which drew inspiration from both Grand Knights History and other Vanillaware titles.[26][27][28]

Reception
Reception
Review score
PublicationScore
Famitsu36 / 40[29]

During its week of release, Grand Knights History reached the top of gaming charts as recorded by Media Create, with debut sales of over 64,600 units.[30] It sold through over 90% of its stock.[31] By the end of September, it had sold over 110,000 units.[32] In their fiscal year report, Marvelous Entertainment cited Grand Knights History as a factor in strong financial gains during 2011.[33]

Grand Knights History received a 36 out of 40 possible score from Japanese Famitsu Weekly magazine based on individual reviews of 10, 9, 9, and 8, earning it the publication's Platinum Award. The magazine praised the title's "traditionally-Vanillaware graphics" and character animations as well as its online mode, stating that "The easy entry into online play is just as great, and raising characters to send to the battlefield is both innovative and very smooth in action. This game gets top marks in fun."[29] It also garnered an 82.5 out of 100 average from Dengeki PlayStation magazine based on four reviews of 90, 80, 80, and 80.[34] In a list of Japanese-exclusive PSP titles, Game Informer noted the general excitement for the game following its announcement.[35]

Notes
  1. Guran Naitsu Hisutorī (Japanese: グランナイツヒストリー)
gollark: I'm just doing this while I procrastinate on some school CS work.
gollark: I personally do 4 spaces mostly but use tabs when writing in bad TUI editors which cannot autoconvert stuff.
gollark: This is also very nice, yes.
gollark: Ugh, Python won't let me use ☭ as an identifier.
gollark: Python supports unicode identifiers. This is unlikely to be an issue.

References
  1. グランナイツヒストリー 取扱説明書 [Grand Knights History Instruction Booklet]. Marvelous Entertainment. 2011-09-01.
  2. Leo, Jon (2011-06-21). "Grand Knights History Impressions Preview". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2020-01-29. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  3. グランナイツヒストリー - バトル. Grand Knights History website (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  4. グランナイツヒストリー - システム. Grand Knights History website (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2014-12-23. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  5. PSP「グランナイツヒストリー」，公式サイトでネットワークプレイの詳細を公開。バトルそのものはオフラインでプレイ可能. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). 2011-06-17. Archived from the original on 2011-06-20. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  6. グランナイツヒストリー - ネットワーク. Grand Knights History website (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  7. Sato, Ike (2013-09-27). "Grand Knights History's Online Service Shutting Down Next Month". Siliconera. Archived from the original on 2020-01-27. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  8. Gantayat, Anoop (2011-03-30). "A Few Grand Knights History Details". Andriasang. Archived from the original on 2011-08-12. Retrieved 2011-08-20.
  9. グランナイツヒストリー – '11年05月. Grand Knights History official blog (in Japanese). 2011. Archived from the original on 2017-04-27. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
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  11. 『グランナイツヒストリー』ヴァニラウェア開発の完全新作RPG. Famitsu (in Japanese). 2011-03-31. Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  12. “新生”マーベラスエンターテイメントのキーパーソン，現CCOのはしもとよしふみ氏に，今後の戦略と開発体制について聞く. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). 2011-06-30. Archived from the original on 2011-07-04. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
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  17. Greening, Chris (2014-03-19). "Mitsuhiro Kaneda, Yoshimi Kudo & Azusa Chiba Interview: Expanding Horizons". Video Game Music Online. Archived from the original on 2019-11-07. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  18. "Sakimoto's Grand Absence: Grand Knights History (Review)". Original Sound Version. 2016-05-27. Archived from the original on May 27, 2016. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  19. "Grand Knights History Original Soundtrack". VGMO -Video Game Music Online-. 2012-08-01. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  20. Hindman, Heath (2011-04-28). "First Video, New Screens, Release Date for Grand Knights History". PlayStationLifeStyle. Retrieved 2011-07-18.
  21. Gantayat, Anoop (2011-06-23). "Grand Knights History CM Song Sung By Fumika". Andriasang.com. Archived from the original on 2012-12-25. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
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  23. "Rising Star Games". Twitter. 2012-05-09. Archived from the original on 2017-04-27. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
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  32. "集え！誇り高き戦士たちよ。 - PSP『グランナイツヒストリー』公式ブログ". Marvelous Entertainment. December 1, 2011. Archived from the original on December 1, 2011. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  33. "Marvelous Raises Earnings Expectations Due to Senran Kagura and Vanillaware". Andriasang.com. 2011-10-27. Archived from the original on 2011-10-29. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
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  35. Wallace, Kimberley (2012-10-25). "Unfortunate Timing: RPGs Released Late In The PSP's Life Cycle". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 2013-09-11. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
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