Collection essentials #305: Grandia Digital Museum (Saturn)

First, I want to note that this is the first game I’m showing off that includes the original “spine card”, the piece of paper shown to the left of the disc in the photo. Japanese games for most consoles with jewel cases came with them, and they were on the outside of the box when the games were new and sealed. They usually look better on the shelf than the actual sides of the jewel cases do, which is why I suppose they made them. They’re kind of neat to have, but I don’t typically feel like I really need to own them.


Back to our regularly-scheduled programming: what we have here is interesting because it is a bonus disc with a bunch of bonus content for big Grandia fans, such as artwork and minigames, but it’s not merely a menu full of options to choose and view whatever you want. No, there is actually a game tied to all of this. You play as three of the characters from Grandia, and you traverse dungeons with the goal of unlocking the bonus material. So it’s not just a bunch of cool extras for fans, but you actually get new gameplay too! I haven’t made a serious attempt to beat everything in Digital Museum yet but I hear the gameplay can get super challenging, a lot more than in the original game.


While Grandia has been ported to a few different platforms since its original Saturn release, Digital Museum remains a Saturn exclusive. I said in my previous post that there is still reason why the original Saturn Grandia is relevant, and that’s because one type of bonus feature you can unlock in this game is special save files for regular Grandia, which of course are only compatible with the Saturn version.


Unfortunately, while Saturn Grandia has an English translation patch available, Digital Museum still does not. Although I am hopeful that someday the fans will make one. I’ve spent some time with Digital Museum, but I am holding off on playing more until if and when that happens. 


As a big Grandia fan, this is a title I have to have. It’s a neat little spinoff game essential for Saturn-owning fans like me.

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