Blue Dragon (Xbox 360, 2007)

I decided to buy this game because it was cheap, and my wife being new to video gaming, thought she might appreciate the simplicity of a kid's game to introduce her to the console RPG genre.

Of course, I had to play through it first. It offers a robust 40-60 hours of gameplay (more if you like to just run around and defeat absolutely everything and upgrade all your characters to max). I completed it in about 50.

The graphics and cinematics were incredible. I loved the cut scenes and the battles had nice mixes of camera angles for each action. The storyline had totally random and nonsensical twists at times, but what can you expect from a Japanese RPG? It's even got a female character with big mammories complete with special attention paid to their physics (the wobbly wobbly) which is a trademark of games from the land of the rising sun.

The characters have unique customization options available - though they start out primarily as a particular archetype (melee, magic, etc.) you have the option of completely changing their fighting style. It's different from other RPGs, where a player can buy weapons and armor. In this game, you fight exclusively with a blue shadow and upgrade each character and their shadow separately.

The magic is pretty basic (black magic has the four elements, plus light and darkness, white magic heals or disspells, while support and barrier magics brings buffs and debuffs). Nothing fancy like Knights of the Round or some craziness that takes two minutes to watch the animation sequence to, with one exception toward the end.

I enjoyed the expansive accessories, which were kind of like armor, but more like buffing items. You can put one on your head, and wrist, and neck, and finger, and a bunch of "extra" accessory slots (to obtain by experience) which you can use anything from scarfs to belly button rings to shoes. Unfortunately, the accessories don't show on the characters, which I think would have been hilarious seeing a male character in a corset, a belly button ring, and a giant hat but I guess they tried to keep it simple for smooth video processing purposes. Another peculiarity with the extras is that a character can wear multiple shoes, or hats, etc.

By the time I beat the game, the last bosses were a joke to beat, but the two extraordinarly difficult optional bosses could hand my derriere to me on a silver platter in the first round. There's a crazy gap for the genre enthusiasts to tack on dozens of extra hours to prepare for those optional bosses, but I'm not a kid anymore and I have better things to do, but the option is there for those with time they could better donate to community service.

All-in-all the game was not a disappointment, it had its funny moments and its puzzling moments, but I think it stayed within the kid-safe category of its Teen rating. Not for toddlers because the stats and upgrade systems are fairly complex, and much reading and a bit of strategy and good problem-solving skills are required to get full benefit from the game.

By the way, my wife still has not played it...

Blue Dragon... how long I waited for this. Let's start at the beginning.

When I first started up the game, I could not wait to see what was going to happen. I've been waiting ever since I first heard word of these legendary creators coming together to craft perhaps one of the first actual RPGs for the Xbox 360.

The opening sequence was amazing. First off, the graphics for this game are completely animation and nothing towards real life but they are wonderful. At times it actually feels like you are controlling your own tv cartoon show. At times, between cutscenes you will see which they switch video files but that's alright. It' noting too extreme. I do like how the graphics aren't hindered in battle. Many other rpgs I've played is they focus all the great graphics on the cut scenes and they lack everywhere else. The good graphics transfer everywhere almost evenly. Yes, they appear better in cutscenes but other stuff like battles, don't look like a big pile of ****. Even when you open a treasure chest, he actually reaches in for something. If I were given the choice of grading scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, I'd give the graphics a good 9.

Next on the grading. The music/audio is this game is wonderful. They linked voices almost perfectly with the character models. The main character, Shu, has kind of a punky style voice which goes along well with his image. The same with all the other characters. The girl however from the beginning does have a somewhat annoying voice but you soon forget her. I also didn't like this one voice that basically told you everthing you do like when the party rejoins or that a door is locked. It reminded me of Navi off Zelda. The music is wonderful. How could it not be with the legendary musical artist from Final Fantasy and other great rpgs? Audio would be graded a 8 out of ten.

Gameplay... It's pretty good. Battles are back to the original turn base which I love more than this new action rpg style. I like this system because it allows me to plan ahead instead of having to pause and think about my stragey. Items are organized into Attack, Heal, and Support so you don't have to search through long lists. Each dragon gets classes and you get to decide what you want instead of being stuck with what the game gives you. Most of this game is a little too linear though. Most the time you basically get three paths.. Go onwards, go after a chest, or go the way you came... nothing too exciting. It is very user-friendly though. Nothing to complicated to try and take 20 minutes to figure out. Easy going. 8 out of ten for gameplay.

The storyline.. is... AMAZING. Suddenly twists and turns make this games story go along good and doesn't real make it feel slow like most movies. I'm not going to go into full detail about the storyline as I don't want to risk spoiling any of it for some reason. 10/10

Overral... I decided to buy this game because its creators were some of the original greats in rpg creations. I loved many of their games in the past and this one ranks amongst the top they have done I think.

Overall grading... I'd give it a 8/5/10. Thanks for reading.

While this game was originally released in Japan, it has made it's way to the states as well.

This engrossing game is fit for adults and kids alike, and has a nice smooth learning curve for those that are new to the RPG genre. The play style will be familiar to anyone used to turn based game play, with some nice skill features added in as you progress though the game.

The graphics are beautiful and the cut scenes are rendered the same way the gameplay is, helping keep you immersed in the story. The sound is a bit repetitive, but thankfully with the 360 you can add your own music to listen to as you play. The sound and action effects still come through great.

This game was one of the reasons that got me excited about owning an Xbox 360. When the game finally came out and all the reviews made this game out to be the worst thing ever so, I decided not to rush to the store on and get it. I later decided I would buy it because the user reviews were much better than the so call high and mighty critic views. I am pleased to say that Blue Dragon is much better than what the critics have said. Blue Dragon has the look and feel of Dragon Quest and the skill system is in more depth than that of Dragon Quest VIII. The story is about a bunch of kids who's village is attacked by a thing they call the Land Shark. Like most RPG's there is an evil character that is behind everything and the goal is to kill him and save the world. Yes, this is nothing new but how many RPG's before this really went outside the box and tried another method? If you don't like to save the world from evil RPG style then play another style game that yet involves the same concept but with guns! This game was harshly rated more on what people expected the new generation RPG's to be and not paying attention to the fact that this was not to be anything more than a standard RPG on a new generation console! Ok back on topic... The biggest difference this game has from other RPG's is the fact that you fight your battles with Blue shadows in the form of a Dragon, Phoenix, Bat, and more! The thing is since they do all the fighting for you there is no need for weapons and therefore no weapons were put ingame. I thought this would ruin the game for me because I like switching weapons but, the job classes for your dragons more than makes up for that and can make your battles much easier. The job classes are similar to that of Final Fantasy V so, if you liked that game and Dragon Quest VIII you will love this game! There still are 4 slots for accessories that you can find and buy throughout the game to boost stats!

In conclusion this game is like most RPG's with a nice battle system that will keep you interested in battles more than most standard RPG'S. The story is the same save the world happy ending stuff but, hey someone has to keep saving the world or else evil will take over right?


Gameplay: 4
Graphics: 5
Sound: 4
Replay: 4

Overall Score: 4

Go buy this game or rent and then buy if you are still not sure!!!

Blue Dragon is a cute story. The graphics are done quite nice, a bit on the overkill side when it comes to the blur, but aside from that it looks nice. I found the characters very obvious and shallow, they are what they are and the game doesn't do much to expand on it. The fact that it was the shadows doing the fighting and not the actual characters was unique. I thoroughly enjoyed the leveling system and the class system. Found myself very concerned about when to change classes and so on. Very engaging system that can suck you in and spit you out hours later. The soundtrack is very well done, especially the boss track which gets your heart pumping every time you hear it. One problem is repetitiveness, different guys different goals but same button mashing for some of the mini games and at the end of Disk2 beginning of Disk3 you run into two different villages both somehow trapped in their village. Makes you wonder if they ran out of material. The story does a very good job of developing Nene's character, and it makes you really want him dead since early in the game. This would have been a great kids game due to the graphics and easy to follow story line except the developer felt the need to sprinkle it with language not usually deemed appropriate for children and for no apparent reason. Still, this is a pretty good game that I would strongly recommend playing to just about anyone except my four year old son who would see all the poo monsters and decide to poop on the kitchen floor again.

Graphics 8/10
Audio 8.5/10
Gameplay 8/10
Story 7/10
Longevity 9/10
Innovation 8/10
Overall 8/10