Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: When was Grandia developed?
"Grandia" was developed by Game Arts over a period of more than two years beginning after the release of the company's previous role-playing video game title, "" for the Sega Mega-CD. The project, headed by producer Yoichi Miyaji and directors Takeshi Miyaji and Toshiaki Hontani, was also originally intended for the Mega-CD system, but was shifted to the Saturn early in development due to Sega's abandoning the platform. According to a spokesman for Game Arts, "Grandia" was created as part of the company's on-going effort to "provide consumers with good games rather than try to follow market trends", opting instead to create a product that would tell a compelling story catering primarily to their existing fanbase. The Saturn version was released in December 1997 exclusively in Japan, along with a special Limited Edition for those who pre-ordered the game between October 25 and November 30, 1997, which included a fold-out cloth map of the "Grandia" world, as well as a mini radio drama disc featuring voiced scenes from the game. In November 1998, "Grandia" was re-released in Japan as the "Grandia Memorial Package", which featured new instruction booklet artwork and a lower sales price. Sega of America had commented that they had no plans to bring an English version of the game to North American audiences on their system, which prompted an online petition originating on the role-playing game fansite LunarNET designed to alert the company of consumer interest. Despite gathering several hundred signatures in only a few days, as well as promotion from gaming website GameSpot, the Saturn version was never released internationally.
Grand Theft Auto is an action-adventure video game developed by DMA Design and published by BMG Interactive. It was first released in Europe and North America in October 1997 for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. It was later re-released on 12 December 1997 in Europe and 30 June 1998 in North America for the PlayStation. It is the first instalment of the "Grand Theft Auto" series, to be followed by 1999's "Grand Theft Auto 2". The series, which has led to five main entries and several special edition games over 16 years, has sold more than 150 million units as of September 2013. The story follows a group of criminals in three fictionalised versions of US cities as they perform bank robberies, assassinations, and other illegal activities for their respective crime syndicates.
Grand Theft Auto III is an action-adventure video game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It was released in October 2001 for the PlayStation 2, in May 2002 for Microsoft Windows, and in October 2003 for the Xbox. An enhanced version of the game was released on mobile platforms in 2011, for the game's tenth anniversary. It is the fifth title in the "Grand Theft Auto" series, and the first main entry since 1999's "Grand Theft Auto 2". Set within the fictional Liberty City, based on New York City, the game follows Claude after he is left for dead and quickly becomes entangled in a world of gangs, crime and corruption.
Group C
In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the player can explore and approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear gameplay. While games have used open-world designs since the 1980s, the implementation in "Grand Theft Auto III" (2001) set a standard that has been used since.
An expansion pack titled Grand Ages: Rome - The Reign of Augustus (known as "Imperivm Online" in Spain and Italy) was released on November 26, 2009 in Spain, December 1, 2009 in Italy and in January 2010 worldwide. It is sold worldwide online and sold in retail stores only in Italy and Spain.
With the arrival of the seventh generation of video game consoles, the first "next-gen" "Grand Theft Auto" clones were released in 2006, beginning with "Saints Row" from 2006 and "Crackdown" from 2007 both introduced online multiplayer to the genre, a feature that had been requested by many fans. "Crackdown" attracted attention for being created by David Jones, the developer of the original "Grand Theft Auto", and featured the ability to develop the player character's superpowers in a semi-futuristic setting. Meanwhile, "" and "" entered the market in 2006, and attempted to apply the "Grand Theft Auto" formula to popular movie franchises. Still, reviewers continued to measure these games against the standard set by the "Grand Theft Auto" series. "Grand Theft Auto IV" was released in April 2008 and featured a large, detailed environment, redefining gameplay and even adopted the GPS navigation system seen in "Saints Row". The game broke numerous sales records, including the record for the fastest selling game in its first 24 hours. Since its inception, this genre has evolved to include larger settings, more missions, and a wider range of vehicles. In 2010, Rockstar Games published "Red Dead Redemption", an open world Western themed game. On the day of "Grand Theft Auto V" 's release on September 17, 2013, Volition released a free downloadable content pack for "Saints Row IV" titled "GATV", purposely playing the similarity in the abbreviated titles to promote their game due to the confusion raised on various social networks.
Grand Theft Auto 2 is an action-adventure video game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 22 October 1999 for Microsoft Windows and the PlayStation, followed by Dreamcast and Game Boy Color releases in 2000. It is the sequel to 1997's "Grand Theft Auto", part of the "Grand Theft Auto" series. The open world design lets players freely roam Anywhere City, the setting of the game.
Group D
"Grand Theft Auto", the first game in the series, was released for Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS in October 1997, ported to the PlayStation in 1998 and the Game Boy Color in 1999. "Grand Theft Auto 2" was released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows, later receiving ports on the PlayStation, Dreamcast and Game Boy Color.
Originally slated for a 2003 release, "GT4" was delayed for over a year and a half by Polyphony Digital, and had its online mode removed (later added in "Gran Turismo" online test version).
"Gran Turismo" has held the title of being the number one seller and highest production Polyphony Digital has ever seen. The game features 708 cars from 80 manufacturers, from as early as the 1886 Daimler Motor Carriage, and as far into the future as concepts for 2022. The game also features 51 tracks, many of which are new or modified versions of old "Gran Turismo" favorites, with some notable real-world additions.
"Grand Theft Auto IV" is the first title in the third generation of the best-selling "Grand Theft Auto" video game franchise developed by Rockstar North which was released on 29 April 2008. As the release date approached, Rockstar had been marketing the game heavily. Rockstar's marketing has come in many forms, including television ads, internet video, viral marketing, and a redesigned web site. There was even a mural of a prostitute named Lola painted on the side of a building in SoHo, New York.
The first game in the series is based on the video game "Age of Empires III", and was originally titled Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery before being renamed to Glenn Drover's Empires: The Age of Discovery in 2011 following the loss of the naming rights to the "Age of Empires" series. It was originally published in 2007 by Tropical Games, and is currently distributed by Drover's own publishing company, Eagle Games. The game may be played by up to five players, though pieces for a sixth player were available in limited supply, and are included in the "Builders Expansion", released in 2011 along with the renaming of the series.
There is no consensus on what the earliest open world game is, due to differing definitions of how large or open a world needs to be. Ars Technica traces the concept back to the free-roaming exploration of 1976 text adventure game "Colossal Cave Adventure", which inspired the free-roaming exploration of "Adventure" (1980), but notes that it wasn't until 1984 that what "we now know as open-world gaming" took on a "definite shape" with 1984 space simulator "Elite", considered a pioneer of the open world; Gamasutra argues that its open-ended sandbox style is rooted in flight simulators, such as SubLOGIC's "Flight Simulator" (1979/1980), noting most flight sims "offer a 'free flight' mode that allows players to simply pilot the aircraft and explore the virtual world". Others trace the concept back to 1981 CRPG "", which had a free-roaming overworld map inspired by tabletop RPG "Dungeons & Dragons". The overworld maps of the first five "Ultima" games, released up to 1988, lacked a single, unified scale, with towns and other places represented as icons; this style was adopted by the first three "Dragon Quest" games, released from 1986 to 1988 in Japan.
The Sega Genesis, known as the in regions outside of North America, is a 16-bit video game console that was developed and sold by Sega. First released in Japan in 1988, in North America in 1989 and in PAL regions in 1990, the Genesis is Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. The system supports a library of more than 700 games created both by Sega and a wide array of third-party publishers and delivered on ROM cartridges. It can also play the complete library of Master System games when the separately sold Power Base Converter is installed. The Sega Genesis also benefited from numerous peripherals, including the Sega CD and Sega 32X, several network services, and multiple first-party and third-party variations of the console that focused on extending its functionality. The console and its games continue to be popular among fans, collectors, video game music fans, and emulation enthusiasts. Licensed third party re-releases of the console are still being produced, and several indie game developers continue to produce games for it. Many games have also been re-released in compilations for newer consoles and offered for download on various digital distribution services, such as Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Steam.
"Quest for Glory" (1992) was produced by Sierra Entertainment, known for point-and-click adventure games, and combined CRPG and adventure-game mechanics into a unique, genre-bending mix. The series featured involved stories, complex puzzles, and arcade-like combat. The last of its five titles was released in 1998. It was originally conceived as a tetralogy built around the themes of the four cardinal directions, the four classical elements, the four seasons and the four mythologies. The designers felt that the series' storyline made "" too difficult, and so inserted a fifth game, "", into the canon and renumbered the series.
A fighting game sequel, "Persona 4 Arena", known in Japan as "Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena", was developed by Arc System Works, the company known for creating the "Guilty Gear" and "BlazBlue" series, and released in 2012 for arcades, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. As with the anime, the protagonist is named Yu Narukami. , Mitsuru, Elizabeth, and Akihiko from "Persona 3" are also featured in the game. Set two months following the True Ending of the original game, the members of the Investigation Team are pulled back into the television and forced into a fighting tournament called the "P-1 Grand Prix" hosted by Teddie.
"Age of Empires", released on October 26, 1997, was the first game in the series, as well as the first major release from Ensemble Studios. It was one of the first history-based real-time strategy games made, utilizing the Genie game engine. GameSpot described it as a mix of "Civilization" and "". The game gives players a choice of 12 civilizations to develop from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. The expansion pack, "The Rise of Rome", published by Microsoft on October 31, 1998, introduced new features and four new civilizations, including the Romans. Although the two games had contained many software bugs, patches resolved many of the problems.
The first two "Disgaea" installments were released for the PlayStation 2. The series debuted in Japan with "" in 2003 on the PlayStation 2 and has since been re-released on the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS with new content. It was known for many uncommon elements previously unseen in the strategy RPG genre, such as complex gameplay, extremely high maximum stats and a maximum level of 9999, and humorous dialogue. "", released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006 in Japan, has been re-released on the PlayStation Portable under the title "" with new content. Both of these games were later ported to the PC as "" in 2016, and "Disgaea 2 PC" in 2017 respectively. Both are based on the PlayStation Portable versions, with additional content and redone graphics. The series then moved on to the PlayStation 3 for "", released in Japan in 2008, and was re-released on the PlayStation Vita as "" in 2012. "" was released in Japan in 2011 and re-released on the PlayStation Vita as "" in 2014. A direct sequel to the first game, "" was released for the PlayStation 3 in 2013. The latest entry in the series, "" was released in 2015, moving the series to the PlayStation 4, and was ported to the Nintendo Switch as "Disgaea 5 Complete" in 2017.
Released in 1988, the Genesis (known as the Mega Drive in Europe, Japan and Australia) was Sega's entry into the fourth generation of video game consoles. In mid-1990, Sega CEO Hayao Nakayama hired Tom Kalinske as president and CEO of Sega of America. Kalinske developed a four-point plan for sales of the Genesis: lower the price of the console, create a U.S.-based team to develop games targeted at the American market, continue aggressive advertising campaigns, and sell "Sonic the Hedgehog" with the console. The Japanese board of directors initially disapproved of the plan, but all four points were approved by Nakayama, who told Kalinske, "I hired you to make the decisions for Europe and the Americas, so go ahead and do it." Magazines praised "Sonic" as one of the greatest games ever made, and Sega's console finally took off as customers who had been waiting for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) decided to purchase a Genesis instead. However, the release of a CD-based add-on for the Genesis, the Sega CD (known as Mega-CD outside of North America), was commercially disappointing.
"Grand Theft Auto III" is an open world action adventure video game, released on 21 October 2001 for PlayStation 2. It is part of the "Grand Theft Auto" video game franchise, developed by Rockstar Games and is the first installment in the third generation of the series. As with future installments, "Grand Theft Auto III" features several major, supporting and minor characters.
"Grandia Online" is set in a fantasy world that occupies the same universe as the original "Grandia" video game, and is set many years beforehand during the fabled "Age of Genesis". All players begin their journey as an escapee from a village that has been mysteriously overcome by a dark force, becoming petrified and unlivable. Meeting with a powerful sorceress named Liete, the player learns that similar events are happening across the world, and an investigation as to its source is taking place. Venturing into the game's world, players travel across the land interacting with playable and non-playable characters to expand the game's story, leading them to numerous locations including the Pulse of Gaia, a blighted land believed to be the source of the corruption, and the homeland of the ancient Icarians, a race known for their prowess with magic. GungHo games plans to introduce new plot points that expand the story of Gaia and the Icarians through regular updates.
is an extension of "Grandia", developed by Game Arts and published by ESP Software for the Sega Saturn. Released exclusively in Japan in May 1998, the game features character graphics, textures, and music lifted directly from its predecessor. Players can also swap save data between the core "Grandia" disc and the "Digital Museum" on the Saturn memory card.
"Grandia: Parallel Trippers" was announced in July 2000 by its publisher Hudson Soft, who revealed that they, along with Game Arts, would be bringing the game to the Game Boy Color as the series' first handheld title. Game Arts president Hirokazu Miyazki explained that the game was created to make a "Grandia" that users could "play anywhere", and was designed under the philosophy that both new and veteran fans of the series could enjoy the title equally. Hudson Soft was personally chosen by Game Arts as the game's publisher due to their experience with handheld titles and enthusiasm in marketing the game to Japanese audiences. The game was first showcased at the 2000 Nintendo Space World expo the following August, and again at the 2000 Tokyo Game Show in September, where the game received its final release date. Following the game's release, Huson Soft launched its "Grandia Nippo" (lit. "Grandia Daily") website that featured fan art, interviews, and special downloads related to "Parallel Trippers" in order to increase enthusiasm for the game. The music for "Parallel Trippers" consists of downsampled versions of tracks from the original "Grandia", originally composed by Noriyuki Iwadare.
The characters of "Grandia III" were designed by You Yoshinari and feature an assortment of playable and non-playable individuals. The game centers on Yuki, a 16-year-old boy who dreams of becoming an ace pilot like his idol, the legendary Sky Captain Schmidt. Together with his friend Rotts, he builds his own magic-powered aircraft in an attempt to fly over the ocean, but becomes sidetracked due to the intervention of his mother, Miranda. When Yuki and Miranda meet Alfina, a beautiful young girl with the ability to communicate with Sacred Beasts, the god-like guardians of the planet, they become involved in an adventure that takes them around the world. During their journey, the party meets four other characters who become playable at certain points in the story, which include Alonso, a gambler who dreams of completing his map of the world; Ulf, a simple man who owns a pet dragon named Shiba; Dahna, a cynical cartomancer with a hidden soft side; and Hect, a sullen musician from a troubled village.