Players created a character from one of three races: the adventurous and adaptable Humans, the childlike, bushy-tailed Coltas, or the imposing, war-like Ralgas, as they travel the world to unlock the mystery of a strange occurrence which petrified their home village.

[3] After logging in, players created a character from one of three available races, whose appearances can be customized in a number of ways, including face, hair, eyes, gender, and initial statistics, which determined their specific strengths and weaknesses.

The game's user interface contained a text box for chatting with other players, as well as a mini-map for navigation that shows the location of objects and building in the vicinity of the character.

[6] All actions are performed by using a combination of keyboard shortcuts along with the mouse, and players could customize macro commands for single-click movement, communication, or combat abilities through the game's configuration menu, which could be placed on interface's hotbar for later use.

The icons moved across the gauge to its end, which allowed the player to accumulate combo points that can be saved to unleash powerful combination attacks along with other party members.

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.

Other inhabitants of the world included the diminutive rabbit-like Mogays, who acted as merchants and guides, and numerous species of monsters and animals that serve as the game's primary enemies.

[16] An open beta test period was originally planned for the first quarter of 2006, with the game's final release following later that year, which was pushed back to the following September, and then an undetermined date due to development issues.

[20] The game utilized the BigWorld Technology Suite, which was previously used in GungHo's Hokuto no Ken Online, and "promise[d] a development solution specifically for scalable next-gen MMOs and virtual worlds.

"[21] The company had planned to release the game commercially by the end of Q2 2009,[22] with a public beta test instead pushed back to July and the launch version arriving in August.

[24] Grandia Online's official theme song, "Earth Trip" by Minami Kuribayashi, was released as a single in July 2009, alongside a limited edition version that contains a code which could be redeemed for special in-game items.