Blue Dragon
The origin of Blue Dragon is what prompted the massive amount of hype from the RPG community in the first place. With the brains behind the original Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi at the helm the project took on a life all its own. Character designs were provided by famed Dragon Ball Z creator and Dragon Quest artist Akira Toriyama and the music was supplied by Nobuo Uematsu. With those three names it's safe to say that this game had success written all over it. I suppose if Blue Dragon does deflate any hope for gamers, it's the hope that this would be the greatest RPG ever. Admittedly it's not quite that good, but it's a damned fine experience throughout and one that deserves a place in any 360 owner's collection.
It's kind of funny how a little bit of bad press can deflate anticipation of a release. I personally tend to not listen to what other people have to say and I'd rather bite the bullet and go with my gut. In the case of Blue Dragon, my gut was right. This game is the traditional Japanese RPG that I was hoping it would be and though it's not quite as epic as an entry into the Final Fantasy franchise it stands on its own two legs as a testament to the genre.
The story follows the exploits of a young man named Shu and his friends Jiro and Kluke. They live in a place known as Talta Village and when the game begins we see the annual attack by a monstrosity known as the Land Shark. This thing has decimated the village and has taken the lives of many residents. This year will be different, this year the terror will end. At least that's what Shu and his friends have planned. In an attempt to stop the beast they are instead carried far away to some ancient ruins and transported to a floating fortress amidst violet clouds in the sky. Once there they meet Nene, the elderly yet sinister mastermind behind the Land Shark and many other catastrophes around the world.
As they are cast out of the fortress to their deaths a gust of wind catapults them back to the top and they are instructed to swallow spheres of light. Almost immediately their shadows grow and take on bizarre shapes. Shu's shadow turns into a dragon, Jiro's becomes a minotaur, and Kluke's resembles a phoenix. With these shadows they now have the ability to use magic and with this power they hope to defeat Nene once and for all.
During this three disc journey you'll meet two other main characters, Marumaro and Lady Zola who also have a vendetta to settle with Nene and a magical shadow to call their own. The world remains lush with detail and a people sick of Nene's meddling and strife. As Shu and company become the heroes of the land their destiny seems to be set in stone and upon multiple encounters with Nene you'll see just how truly evil he is. If the game's story does anything really well, it's crafting a villain that you simply will love to hate. You'll want to see Nene dead and it's this emotion that drives the plot.
Unfortunately the game falters somewhat in other areas of the story. Developments just aren't surprising and there is a certain lack of "pop" that you'll find in other high profile RPGs. Despite this fact, Blue Dragon offers a rich world to explore, fun characters to get to know, and a traditional story that you'll fall in love with. Fortunately the gameplay, graphics, and sound all follow suit.
Gameplay
Aside from the story, I have always felt that any role-playing game lives and dies by its gameplay. In that regard Blue Dragon is a well-oiled machine. This is the stuff that RPGs are made of and it takes the culminated experience gained by the rest of the genre to level its presentation up a notch.
There are many areas in Blue Dragon that are worth discussing though the most primary of which is arguably the battle system. Rather than take the random encounters so promoted by other role-playing games, this one allows you to see enemies before you fight. You're able to avoid them all together if you prefer or you can try to get the jump on them from behind. Either way there ability to know when you're about to get into a fight affords you the time to prepare should your party be suffering from any ailments. This is true in both dungeon crawling and in the overworld map.
The combat system here is turn-based and depending on your character's agility it will determine when they get the opportunity to strike in battle. It also means that you can set the controller down during a fray and go make a sandwich without having to worry about real-time attacks and such. This is one of the ways that Blue Dragon harkens back the glory days of RPGs and it lends itself to the traditional Japanese level grinding machine that it is.
Fighting is broken up into a myriad of commands that are prompted to you when it becomes your turn. You have the mainstays like Attack, Item, Defend, Spell, and Flee though some Shadow Classes allow you to unlock other abilities such as Steal. Again, it's all pretty standard stuff and if you have been playing RPGs since the 80's or 90's you'll feel right at home. The addition of hit points, magic points, skill points, and experience points all feel like familiar cogs in the big RPG wheel as well.
As far as the Shadows are concerned they are your source of magical ability and as such you can level them up. Each shadow can possess one job class at a time though you can carry over the skills that you learn to another. Fortunately the list of powers is available in the instruction manual so if you're curious about what you learn as a higher level Sword Master you can see if it's worth the trouble. For the most part though each job class gives you its master skill around the level 30 range; the exception being Barrier Magic which presents Field Barrier 3 at level 50. Learning your skills and utilizing is key to succeeding in Blue Dragon because it's these special abilities that will keep you alive in battle.
Some of the Shadow abilities also translate well into the playing field outside of combat. The aforementioned Field Barrier 3 for instance allows you to destroy enemies you have previously killed in battle. It eats up one magic point for each enemy killed in this manner but you get a percentage of skill points. This ability is paramount if you hope to quickly level up Shadow job classes. Some others come into play though the variety isn't quite as great as I would have hoped for. Stunning enemies and turning invisible is fun and all but I'm sure there could have been other skills to spruce this section up.
Aside from running around the overworld map, exploring dungeons for treasure, and fighting enemies Blue Dragon is a very straightforward RPG. You travel from town to town, find out what the local plight is, fix it, and move on to the next location. Along the way you'll be activating Warp markers for easy back-travel and on the third disc you'll finally receive an air ship.
There are some mini-games that break up the monotony of it all but these are few and far between. There are random dexterity challenges that force you to pound on a button repeatedly until something happens. In the Mechat (air ship) there are even first person shooter elements and in one section you'll be able to control a moon laser. These moments help add a nice twist to everything but they don't break up the fact that this game relies on RPG standards and doesn't really expand up on them.
Blue Dragon is a lot of fun and it's very accessible for gamers of all ages. RPG fans will feel right at home with some of the genre standards but at the same point you'll long for some innovation. The different levels of difficulty help broaden the experience and challenge that you'll receive from the game and the new game plus addition (recently made available via download) is a nice touch. Overall Blue Dragon is a fantastic role-playing experience that doesn't necessarily knock it out of the park like a rookie all-star. It feels more like a seasoned veteran who is content at doing what it does and doing it well. If you're a firm believer that the Xbox 360 simply doesn't have anything to offer as far as quality RPGs are concerned; its time to eat crow.
Achievements
Unlike many other games Blue Dragon does not award you achievements for simply defeating bosses, gaining skills, or beating the game. You really need to work towards getting these points and it's going to take some investment of time. For instance if you win at a dexterity challenge you'll get 5 points but if you want more you'll have to level all of your characters to 99, max out a job class, find the most powerful items in the game, and unlock 100% of monsters, items, barriers, and warp spots. I've read reports of people beating the game with as little as 35 achievement points and I have say that's not very surprising. This is a real test of your RPG mettle.
Graphics
The characters styled by Akira Toriyama add a ton of personality to this game. The rich world, the atmosphere, and the design all make Blue Dragon feel like a distant cousin of Dragon Quest. Fans will revel in the way that the game promotes Toriyama's sense of style and in many ways it feels like a living breathing piece of art. Technically speaking the game is impressive though there are a few flaws that prevent it from really blowing the mind.
During attack animations and moments when there are a lot of enemies on screen it's not uncommon to see a fair bit of slowdown. The framerate will drop and the action will chug along for a brief moment. Enemy models also tend to look the same after a while and the only variations you'll notice at differences in color. Otherwise the presentation all around is very slick and the level of detail is impressive. You'll get more out of the game if you have an HD set up because the SD set up allows some of the finer moments to slip through the cracks and the type is sometimes harder to read. It's not necessarily a "Final Fantasy Killer" with regards to presentation but it does just fine for itself.
Audio
I'm very torn about the music in Blue Dragon. I mean, I love Nobuo Uematsu's works and feel that his contributions to the soundtrack make for some of the game's best moments. There are many tunes here that will stay with you long after you shut your console off. Unfortunately the boss music is one of them. For some inexplicable reason the designers decided to plop some god-awful rock anthem atop every boss encounter. And when I say god-awful, I mean I found myself itching to turn the volume down every time a boss showed up to fight. Please, please, please, make a patch available to give us the ability to choose our music!
Once you get past the reeling atrocity that is the boss music the rest of the game sounds fantastic. The voice acting is top notch whether you're listening to the English or Japanese dubs. I'd equate the vocal product to that of a fine anime cast because the range of emotion and sense of urgency comes through in most cases. The sound effects are somewhat standard to the genre but their presentation is just fine enough.
Final Thoughts
Blue Dragon is a solid flagship role-playing game for the Xbox 360. It's easy to see why it stands as Microsoft's best selling game in Japan though to be quite honest I suppose that's not saying very much. If you're a fan of RPGs then you need to give this game a whirl. It's a new world, new story, and new characters, but it feels like an old friend. There are so many things that this game does right that I suppose the only it doesn't do well is break the expectation meter. There aren't any "epic" moments during the 30-40 hours that you'll be playing the game and though it remains impressive, the fact that it doesn't reach that height keeps it somewhat grounded. Still, this is a game that is rock solid from start to finish and it deserves a spot in your game collection.