Grandia II PC Port to be Compatible with Dreamcast Memory

Grandia II, a JRPG classic which had the great misfortune of being released for the Dreamcast (The last console made by Sega and, surprisingly, rather ahead of its time, which ultimately led to its demise) is now enjoying a second life as an official Steam PC release. Now, given how beloved Grandia II is, that alone is pretty exciting news, but this PC version has launched with a rather unique feature… that is, if you have an original copy of the game and a still-functioning Dreamcast system.

As it turns out, the PC port of Grandia II can read the memory files from the original Dreamcast game, released fifteen years ago. So if you've never beaten the game when you were twelve and want to pick it up right where you left off… well, just find your Dreamcast system and voila!

But how is this possible? Thanks to the surprisingly modern features of the console, it’s not actually that difficult.
 

“The VMS file format is the same file format used by the original Dreamcast console. Because the Anniversary Edition is based off the original Dreamcast code, we also write and read to the VMS save file format within the data/save file directory. This allows the player to import their own VMS save files that can be downloaded from any Dreamcast community websites like Blue Swirl.”

“Also, since Dreamcast emulators also use VMS save files, they can also bring any of their personal save files over from their emulator and continue on within the Anniversary Edition. Any Grandia II VMS save file will work. This allows the Grandia community to share VMS save files easily between their friends & fanbase regardless of platform.”

That also means, more practically for most players, if you were playing the game on an emulator, you can bring the save to the official copy so you don’t have to start from the beginning. THAT might actually be useful, especially since everyone emulating the game will obviously want to buy the official version, since they don’t want to be branded as pirates and become outcasts among their friends and family.

Still, it’s a neat little coding trick, and certainly a fun nod to old fans of the series. Not very useful to newcomers like me, but heck… I might pick up an emulator copy just to try it myself. Just to say I did.