Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice is the second game of the Growlanser series of video games developed by Career Soft. It is the first game of the series to be a tactical role-playing game, but maintains several features from the first game, such as branching storylines and multiple endings. The series is often likened to the dating sim genre, as the player character will often be paired with a single NPC. As a direct sequel to the first Growlanser, nearly all of the characters seen in the first game make a returning appearance as both playable and non-playable characters.
Growlanser II, along with Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness, were released under a single title in North America, titled Growlanser Generations in December 2004. Growlanser II and III were originally planned for separate American releases by publisher Working Designs, but due to opposition from Sony, Working Designs was forced to release both games together. Working Designs opted to add an Auto-Battle feature to both games, as well as enhanced voice acting options, such as the ability to switch voice acting on or off for specific characters. Each game also had a newly added gallery of artwork, vocal outtakes (a staple of Working Designs titles), and music available upon completion.
Story summary Taking place at the same time as the first Growlanser game, Growlanser II focuses on the war between the kingdoms of Rolandia and Burnstein. While the story in the first game concentrated on the kingdom of Rolandia, Growlanser II focuses on Wein Cruz, an aspiring knight of Burnstein. After Wein and his new comrade-in-arms, Maximillian Schneider, pass their knight entrance exams, the game skips forward one year to the end of the war. Wein and Max, now good friends, discuss their plans for the future. Wein intends to become an Imperial Knight - the highest-ranking knight directly under King Elliote's command. However, Max has developed a distaste for battles and intends to try to attain a position of influence so that he can prevent wars from ever occurring. Both friends recognize the merit behind the other's choice and part amicably.
Wein, about to begin his career as a commander, reports to his superior to receive the first recruits under his command. The two turn out to be Hans Bearnt, an enthusiastic boy Wein rescued during his practical exams; and Charlone Claudius, a serious girl whose aristocratic father disapproves of her choice to join the military. Wein silently bemoans this turn of events, but decides to make the most of it. The first mission for the trio comes from a corrupt commander who dislikes them, sending the three on a mission that was intended for at least ten soldiers.
Along the way, they are framed for breaking a dam that led to the destruction of a village, and are hunted as criminals. They escape to Rolandia where they meet up with Xenos Langley and his sister Karene. Since Wein and company helped Xenos rescue Karene from bandits, Xenos agrees to use his influence to clear their name. Xenos was a companion of Carmaine Fallsmyer (the main character from the previous game), and helped to save the world from the malevolent being Gevas during the last war.
Before they can return to Burnstein, however, they meet up with a figure from Wein's past. When Wein was a young boy, he made friends with an older girl named Arieta, who taught him to play music. Wein, who had developed something of a crush on her, had to say good-bye to her under unusual circumstances. When he meets her again, she stills appears the same age she did as before, and is attacking a village mercilessly with her formidable magic powers. The companions save the village with the help of a local mage named Riviera Marius, but Arieta escapes. Confused, Wein and the party continue on to clear their name. After the King pardons them, he assigns them a new mission and appoints Carmaine, the Savior of Light, to aid them.
It is at this point that the most significant branching storyline point occurs. The party meets up with the mercenary Wolfgang, whose goal is to create a small neutral country so that mercenaries will have a place to be accepted. Wein can choose to either fight against him, or aid his cause. In the more likely case of Wein standing against Wolfgang, the events leading up to war between the nations are found out to be the fault of Wolfgang's plotting.
Meanwhile, darker forces are at work, when the party finds out that Wein's old friend Arieta has actually been possessed by Gevas, the dark being who was one of the original inhabitants of the world. Depending on the party's actions, they can either save her or kill her to defeat Gevas. With the party distracted by this, Wolfgang's plans have nearly come to fruition, and war is at hand. Wein's party, along with aid from Max and the soldiers of Burnstein, take down the mercenaries and reclaim the powerful artifact Wolfgang was using to hold his new country in captivity.
One final twist occurs when Max, tired of how easily humans jump into wars, decides to use the artifact's power to control the minds of all people, and make them live a peaceful existence. Wein can choose to either go along with Max's plan or to stand against him. In the case of the former, Max succeeds in turning the world into a group of mindless puppets, but a new sequence develops in which Wein reconsiders his support of Max and decides to join the resistance led by his former party members. If Wein stands against Max, the world is allowed to quietly continue on rebuilding after the war, and Wein's future is determined by which character he has the highest relationship with. There are eight possible character-endings. Charlone, Riviera, and Arieta's endings must be obtained before the other endings (Hans, Xenos, Carmaine, Ernest, Brett) become available.
Characters Wein Cruz (ウェイン・クルーズ) Age: 17 Height: 172 cm Ring Weapon: Scythe A young knight-in-training of Burnstein. His mother dies before the start of the game. He lives alone, occasionally receiving letters from his archaeologist father. Wein has a great interest in ruins thanks to his father. However, his dream is to become an Imperial Knight, the most prestigious and highest-ranking knight in Burnstein, who report directly to the King and act as his bodyguards. Wein meets Max while in training and the two become good friends.
Wein met the mysterious Growsian maiden Arieta Lyuis when he was a young boy, and developed a small crush on her. Because of their meeting, Wein knows how to play one song on the ocarina she gave him.
Maximillian Schneider (マクシミリアン・シュナイダー/マックス) Age: 18 Height: 183 cm Ring Weapon: Sword Wein's Friend from the academy. He strongly dislikes war, most likely caused by his father's death and subsequent loss of his mother. After he and Wein graduated into knighthood, he left to become a diplomat and get into politics. He strongly believes that it is possible to eliminate war completely. Max is one of the good characters except when in his final bid for peace, he tries to turn the world into mindless puppets.
Hans Bearnt (ハンス・バート) Ring Weapon: Throwing Knives An orphan with a cheerful, happy-go-lucky attitude who was inspired by Wein and Max to become a powerful fighter. He enrolled in the knight academy and coincidentally became assigned with Wein. He lived in the Starkberg orphanage, but visited Clain Village often and looked up to the chief as a grandfather. He loves to help children and dreams of someday having a loving family of his own. There is a running joke of Hans fighting with Charlone for the silliest reasons.
Charlone Claudius (シャルローネ・クラウディオス) Ring Weapon: Bow & Arrow She is a young daughter of noble standing. Her father, Maxwell Claudius, disapproves of her travelling with Wein as a soldier. She has a strong will, with ambitions of becoming an Imperial Knight, and idolizes Julia Douglas for being the only female Imperial Knight. She has a younger brother Pietro who is ill, but refuses to have an operation unless Charlone becomes an Imperial Knight. She seems to have a tense friendship with Hans, taking an initial disliking to his nicknaming her "CC", yet accepting him calling her "Charlo" (シャロ). During the course of the game she may fall in love with Wein depending on how the player treats her.
Xenos Langley (ゼノス・ラングレー) Ring Weapon: Sword A strong swordsman and former mercenary. When the party looks for Karene, his sister, the party ends up assisting him to find her. After rescuing her, he joins the party to testify to the king of Burnstein that Wein & company were innocent about the destruction of the dam. His hometown is Grandshill, and he was a champion at the arena.
Riviera Marius (リビエラ・マリウス) Ring Weapon: Magic Staff She is a magic user and Shadow Knight of Burnstein, a type of spy. She is secretive and tries to keep distance from people in order to protect herself emotionally, due to an event in her past. She was on a mission with a man named Karl and they had to split up to evade pursuit. Karl promised to meet up again but he died before he could. Riviera was depressed over this while her sister Olivia, who was Karl's lover, was able to accept his death calmly. Riviera could not deal with this kind of pain again and wonders how Olivia can endure it.
Carmaine Fallsmyer (カーマイン・フォルスマイヤー) Ring Weapon: Sword A mysterious swordsman and the main Character in the first Growlanser game. He is ordered by King Eliotte to accompany the player in an important mission. When he was a baby, he was found and taken to the Rolandia court where the Palace Magicians examined him. They saw that he was either a light to save the world or a darkness to destroy it. He was adopted by Sandra, a Palace Magician, who created a homunculus named Tippi to watch over him.
Brett Varner (ウォーマー・ブルース) A guard in the Space & Time Control Tower. He is a simple and humble man. Even though he would have been allowed to become a knight and have higher status, he chose to stay a guard in the tower because he believes in this role he is helping out people enough. The player can only acquire Brett if they do not recruit Ernest.
Sereb (セレブ) A magical wolf and the last of his kind (later revealed to be called the Silverfox Tribe). Long ago he was captured by humans for research but was saved by Arieta, becoming her loyal companion and protector. He carries a sword in his mouth.
Ernest Lyell (アーネスト・ライエル) A former Imperial Knight exiled from Burnstein for supporting an impostor, Richard, to become King. Four years ago Richard recruited Lyell to become an Imperial Knight. Lyell was talented but unguided and Richard believed becoming a Knight would be the best path for him to follow. Since his exile, Lyell has become very cold and quiet and has no interest in the world any more. He is reluctant to join Wein until Wein appeals to him in the same way that Richard once did.
Arieta Lyuis (アリエータ・リュイス) Age: 17 Height: 155 cm Ring Weapon: Magic Spheres The mysterious Growsian girl Wein met in his childhood. Little is known of her past, but saving her is one of Wein's main goals throughout the game. She, like Venzern, is a Growsian born during a full solar eclipse.
Wolfgang (Leonard Cruz) (ウォルフガング) Leader of the Grandzenschtraum mercenary band and accomplished warrior. The player can discover during the main quest that Wolfgang is in fact Wein's older half-brother Leonard Cruz, and is also the man who murdered Wein's father.
Karene Langley (カレン・ラングレー) The younger sister of Xenos. She works in the hospital in Grandshill and is an expert on medical herbs. She often goes outside to collect herbs for medicines and writes a book about them. She is also kidnapped several times throughout the game.