I am playing Grandia 1 for the first time on the Switch and it hit me so hard when Justin moved away.
For reference, I moved to another country when I was 30 and I have not returned to my home country since. The plan was to come back at some point, but I have built a life here and have been married to a local. My parents came out to visit recently and I talk to them a few times week, so it's not like it is some super sad story, but it was a tough part of the game to work through.
I related to Justin so much and have been drawn in to this game so much due to the characters. I am still really early in this game. I just made it across the sea and look forward to becoming an adventurer.
One thing that I find interesting about this game is that the style of the game and menus are like a mix of PS1 and SNES graphics. I guess this was an early PS1 game.
I have - I've played all 3 Grandia games. The second is really good, and it refines the battle system in some nice ways, but it's a (slightly) smaller, more character driven story that loses a bit of the grand, somewhat naive, adventurous spirit that makes the first game so unique and satisfying.
There's a large number of people who prefer Grandia 2, and for good reason, but I prefer the characters and story of Grandia 1. If you haven't played either, I recommend playing both in order. Grandia 3 is a bit of a letdown in comparison, but I still really enjoyed it and think it gets a bit more hate than it deserves.