A great throw back to old school rpgs, that may be a bit too old school for new fans.
Blue Dragon is the combined work of three legends in the JRPG world. The first of which is Hironobu Sakaguchi, the producer and writer of the game, who has also directed or produced every Final Fantasy game (in the numeric series.) The second is character designer Akira Toriyama who has also designed characters for games like Dragon Quest, Chrono Cross, and is the creator of the Dragon Ball anime series. The last but not least legend is Nabuo Uematsu, the musical composer for all the Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger. With three industry legends creating this game, it is easy to see how fans of the genre can get very excited for this game, but for those who aren’t fans, these three names don’t do anything for them.
Like previously stated, Blue Dragon it’s a classic JRPG style game, and I mean classic. It has old school turn based mechanics, where you stand in a formation and take turns attacking your enemies. It is very old school and doesn’t take any chances with changing the formula in the least bit. This is a joy for some, but for others game play can get tiring after a while playing, and with three discs to cover, it may be hard for some to finish the game. One gripe I have with this system is that there is no set order, sometimes enemies who go get moved into the middle of the order attacking twice, sometimes three times before a character has time to retaliate, and usually they attack one of your spell casters who has a weak defense and by the time you can play, your health is down a significant amount and you’re forced to heal. This is all due to speed, but if you're fighting a speedy opponent it really gets annoying. One plus to the fighting mechanic is the ability to start a monster fight. Since there are no random encounters, you see all your foes on screen before attacking them, and if two creatures are near enough to you, you can bring up a circle around you which pauses the game giving you the ability to select which monster you want to fight, or if you want to bring both monsters in at the same time. If you chose the latter, there’s a good chance that the monsters will start to fight each other instead of you, giving you the chance to charge attacks or attack them both. Even though it’s a small feature, it does breathe life into the old school game play mechanics. Technically the game looks great. The cartoony visuals are definitely Toriyama’s style and fit the game well. All the characters and environments are very detailed and well polished as well. Though the graphics are great, there are a few annoyances, like when you’re in a battle, most of the background behind you or monsters is blurred out which doesn’t seem necessary. Then during special moves (sort of like limit break) it’s a mix of fast animations with slow, which is slightly puzzling. It’s not frame rate slow down, it’s just animated slowly which once again is sort of weird to watch. The audio on the other hand is top notch. Uematsu has produced another amazing score for the game which consist of epic ballads and fast paced (almost clichéd) guitar riffs during battles. Some of the English voices are a little sketchy, but thankfully they left the Japanese dub in for fans who prefer to play their games like this. In the end, Blue Dragon is a great first for Mistwalker. Had it taken a few more chances with mixing up the formula of the game here we would have an AAA title on our hands. But the classic game play does get a little tired after a while, so that’s the only thing holding me back from giving it an AAA score. But make no mistake, Blue Dragon is a great game and is worth it to anyone looking for a great JRPG for their Xbox 360.