The battle system of Grandia II looks almost exactly like the one in Grandia I, but there are still some changes.

It looks better of course and the game freezes are gone. Just like Grandia I the game uses a IP (Initiative Point) meter.

When a character reach the COM position you have to enter a command. When the character reach the ACT position, the chosen command will be executed. Some actions take a long time, but you can power up abilities to take action faster. More explanation about powering up later.

Every character has a couple of special moves. To power up the moves you need to have Special Coins (SC). You receive those in battle by defeating enemies. The amount of SC you receives depends on the strength of the enemy.

In Grandia I you received Mana Eggs on the field, that's a little different in Grandia II. Now you mostly receive a Mana Egg at a certain boss. You can level them up this time. You can equip a Mana Egg on a character by using the equip option. Leveling them up requires Magic Coins (MC). Just like Special Coins you receive these by defeating enemies.
You can see the amount of MC needed for leveling up a spell, or learning a new spell by going to Power Up and select Learning Magic. Skills and Magic can be leveled up to 5 stars. Thus the more stats, thus the stronger the magic is and thus the faster the move/magic will be executed.

You also receive Skill Books in the game. There are different types of skills (mostly stats increasements) a book have. The leveling up is the same as with the Mana Eggs. You can equip the skills on a character.