There doesn't seem to be as much hype for Blue Dragon as there was last year. Maybe it's because Xbox 360 has got a lot of other, arguably bigger games in the West, that are much more anticipated and being released around the same time as BD in America. Bioshock, or The Darkness for example. But for once, Japan got a highly anticipated game first. That doesn't happen often here, especially in the pitifully small Japanese 360 market. Which is nice (^_^).
I've always thought Blue Dragon is a weird fit for the 360 market, especially here in Japan. Apart from the Chrono Trigger nostalgics (some of the key people on BD worked on Chrono), it's pretty obvious this game is aimed at kids, what with it's simplistic anime style and ease of difficulty. Which is strange because Xbox 360 is still pretty expensive and it's marketing is aimed more at the hardcore and fans of Apple iPods and iMacs, i.e. adults with disposable income. Not many kids can afford a 360, especially when here they've already got a Wii and/or a DS! It's not that kids don't want BD. I've spoken to plenty of kids (I'm an English teaching assistant) at school who want to play BD, who have BD shitajiki, watch the show and read the Shonen Jump manga. They just plain can't afford it! Doh!(>_<)
So what is Blue Dragon? It's an RPG, groomed to be Microsoft's Great White Hope in Japan. With the Chrono Trigger "dream team" of Hironobu Sakaguchi producing, Akira Toriyama on character designs and Nobuo Uematsu on the er, wheels of steel, Blue Dragon stars Shu, a teenage boy who hates to lose and his friends in their fight to prevent a psychopathic California Raisin called Nene from destroying the world. Because he's a dick.
Blue Dragon is chock full of JRPG cliches, such as a hero with no parents, teenagers with courage who gain powers to defeat a world-threatening evil, mini games, side quests, etc. It even has a mascot enemy like the Final Fantasy and Dragonquest series in the shape of the "Unchi-kun" which you might call Poop-kun or Poopy Snakes in English. They're cute, fun and kids laugh whenever poo is mentioned (^_^)
Enemies even drop Gold and Silver poo sometimes, which you can rummage around in for extra cash. The whole schtick of using shadows that fight rather than the actual characters is also unoriginal, having already been done in Okage: Shadow King on the PS2 several years ago.
But it doesn't matter. It's really fun, because it's not too taxing. It's so easy that you don't have to think about things too much. So much so that at the beginning it's a bit boring, but it picks up as you get to know the characters and become involved in the storyline.You can grind in BD while doing something else really easily. Normally that would be to a game's detriment, but here it's fun and it's good for people with limited time, like me. You can probably make it through the game just by running through playing only the battles you have to, but it's easy to max out BD's characters' levels if you try. Even before then, you gain so many skills that you can combine a la Final Fantasy V that you can own whole enemy parties with one charged up attack once you beef up the right
Battles are usually fast, with quick cinematic cuts of your shadows taking out enemy parties. Things slow down when you have eight enemies on screen and they all cast exactly the same spell or technique in a row, though. Nice attention to detail for the shadow animations, as they attack in unique ways depending on the shadow and their current class, which is nice. When you lash out with a particularly meaty attack, you really feel it, too.
Many RPGs have mini games and times when normal battle conditions are changed for a special story event and BD is no different. They're quite enjoyable, and I wish there were a few more of the shooting sections because they're quite fun. In fact, there's a lot of under-utilisation. There are all kinds of items and spells to cure status effects, but enemies barely ever do anything except maybe cast sleep or dizzy, so what's the point of them? There's about ten upgrades for the airship shooting sections. But they're unnecessary, even to get some of the achievements. And the idea of pitting enemy parties against each other is great, but doesn't happen very much because opposing enemy parties are rarely near each other.
The presentation is a bit erratic. The graphics are SEGA-style blue skies and happiness, which makes for one cheerful game.
I especially felt really happy watching the ending. But while in some places there's plenty of detail, other areas are sparsely populated with people and objects. Even the main characters look a little too simple. I think in 1080i, which I played this in, if you zoom right in you can make out a lot detail on the shading and textures, but from a distance (which is how you'll play for most of the time) you can't really do that. Sound is equally erratic. Some tunes are kinda rubbish, but stick in your head (like the main battle theme). I absolutely loooove the boss theme, though. It's mega-cheese Japanese-sounding heavy metal (think the Sonic Adventure games), but with the awesome vocals of ex-Deep Purple and Black Sabbath lead singer Ian Gillan! I'm guessing many people will bitch about the game saying "Playable", "Defeated", etc. in a Stephen Hawkins-esque voice. I thought it was stupid at first, too, but I quite like it now. Even my wife keeps saying those voices!
So overall, a fun game. Fun enough for me to clock up over 100 hours on it and max everything out, which I don't do on most games. But I can see a lot of people not liking the childishness and apparent simplicity. Those disenfranchised with JRPG cliches should probably stay away. But I loved it. This is the kind of game that made me want to come to Japan in the first place! Check it out, and roll on Lost Odyssey!
For further details, check out 1up.com's coverage here.
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