Introduction
July 28 of this year a remastered version of a fairly little-known RTS game from Vanillaware – GrimGrimoire OnceMore Collector’s Edition was released, in which we play a character stuck in a time loop – Lillet. I had never been exposed to this title, and Vanillaware makes very unique games, so I decided to buy the collector’s version. The game was released exclusively in Japanese. You can check out the gameplay itself here, where the demo version is played.
One more organizational matter. I decided to separate the game reviews from the presentation of the collector’s editions. This will enable me to add more entries and introduce a bit more order. Of course – next to a review of a given title I will always link an entry with unboxing of limited editions.
GrimGrimoire OnceMore Collector’s Edition
To my surprise, the whole thing was packed in a cardboard box signed with the logo of Japanese Amazon. No surprise here, after all, the order was placed there. After opening it, the entire contents appeared to my eyes. The producer did not prepare a separate box for the collector’s version, which frankly – disappointed me a bit. Nevertheless, the abundance of extras made me forget about it rather quickly. Below is a picture of the entire set, which includes:
- Nintendo Switch console game
- Two audio discs with the full soundtrack
- Four images printed on glossy film (perfect for hanging in an antiframe in A3 format)
- Linen bag
- Character cards in the form of magnets
- Key ring
- Mug
- Illuminated crystal in the shape of a cuboid with 3D engraving depicting the main character
- Poster printed on fabric (in English tapestry, in Polish it is said to be called tapestry).
Game box
Now it remains to present all the elements separately in detailed shots. I’ll start with the game box, which for all intents and purposes is a standard box for games released for the Nintendo Switch console.
Soundtrack
I’m glad to see that the full soundtrack is finally included, and not just selected tracks (as usual). In addition to the discs, we will also find a booklet inside, placed in the form of a cover. Due to the fact that the soundtrack doesn’t contain vocal tracks – inside you’ll find a few words from the creators. Additionally a full tracklist and illustrations depicting nice art with the game’s characters. Just such a forgotten bonus these days, often present in physical releases of music CDs.
Another thing is high quality images printed on transparent glossy film, which gives the illustrations high contrast and beautiful colors. They are perfect for hanging in a A3 format antique frame.
Linen bag
I assume that the bag was included to pack all the contents in it. In any case, it looks great and, above all, you can feel that it was made decently and will be able to withstand a lot.
Magnetic cards
A pleasant addition is ten cards with magnets depicting the main characters of the game.
Keychain
Of course, it would not be a collector’s edition without a keychain.
Mug
The set also included a place for a mug with the game’s logo.
Poster printed on fabric
Finally, I left two things that impressed me the most.
One is the high quality of a rather sizable poster on the material.
Szklany podświetlany prostopadłościan z grawerem 3D
The second thing is a glass cuboid with a 3D engraving depicting the main character, which sits on a high-quality plastic pad with an LED backlight that requires two standard AA-type batteries (it’s too bad it’s not powered by some sort of rechargeable battery, but good thing too, they used the cheapest batteries to power it). I tried to take pictures with different apertures and exposure times to show how good the whole thing looks. I even recorded a video of several seconds (which I will also post below), but nothing captures the effect observed with naked eyes in a dark room.
GrimGrimoire OnceMore Collector’s Edition – Summary
The basic question – was it worth spending about $130 for the collector’s edition? Not often can I make such a clear statement – yes, it was worth it. The amount of extras is impressive. Moreover, for the price at which I was able to buy the whole thing including shipping, we often get only the artbook, the game itself, the steelbook and possibly some stickers. I definitely recommend it to all fans of Vanillaware and not only.
