Awesome game! Although so far it feels like it follows strictly with JRPG rules (Linear and an excuse to reading a book) I love the battle system !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandia_Online

Anyone got news on that though?

Yeah, Grandia II is made of awesome and win. The battle system is great, although if you're not constantly paying attention to the turn order and timing, even lesser monsters can make short work out of your party members. The story is kickass too.

As far as Grandia Online goes, I'm not holding my breath for this, first because it's again an online attempt in a well-established game series (sort of like "we should just try our hand at this" type), and second, no concrete info about the status of the game has surfaces in recent years.