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Great Mechanics with Horrid Story

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

One of the first things you'll notice as you begin to play Blue Dragon is that the game's story revolves around a simple good versus evil dichotomy with little variation in character outlook from that. The good characters are sickly good and the evil characters are deviously evil --- there are no characters with real depth. It's for this reason I find it hard to see in any of the characters human characteristics or relate to any of them.

The models as well are childish in nature and make the characters (which the manual states are in their late teens) look like they're all under the age of 10.

The plot from the very beginning is also easy to read and lacks any sort of depth or any form of twist to keep the player engaged. It's like reading a story after reading a summary of the plot --- you just don't find yourself surprised when something happens because you knew it was going to happen. If an RPG doesn't shake your worldview in the slightest I consider it a complete failure.

As for the great mechanics I mentioned in my title --- I found the game design to be wonderful despite it's flaws with an actual story. The usage of the charge bar keeps the user engaged and I found the enemies to level up progressively at a reasonable pace similar to your own growth so it kept things somewhat enjoyable. The idea behind making random encounters random but allowing the user to attack them was also very cool (Secret of Mana style meets Final Fantasy < 12 JRPG battle system sort of thing).

The real problem with the mechanics, however wonderful, is that it's very very very easy to get higher levels simply because the enemies tend to be plentiful but easy to kill in one or two rounds from the start on once you've gained any sort of advantage. Your fighters will have mow down techniques which hit the whole first row for nearly the life of the enemy which could easily allow you to rack up experience points if that was your intention.

Quickly want to mention the shadow system. It allows users to attach a different class to their shadow to gain skills which can be set to other shadow classes they use. To put it simply I level up my black magic class and get the ability to use black magic level 1 spells on my fighter class by assigning it the skill I learned. The classes all have their own stats so it does have variations in terms of attack power in or out of the class but as others have mentioned can also allow you to create 5 distinct clones of each character with little trouble. I didn't, however, and found the system to be fun so it's really whether or not you take advantage of the system which will affect you in that regards. It could have been made better though, I agree, and more class selections would have given a more unique feel to the process as well.

Music was wonderful though and the graphics were pretty despite its cartoon feel. In general it's a good game and had the story been even somewhat decent would have been an unforgettable JRPG.

J-RPG at last

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It's about time that a good RPG comes to the xbox360.
The graphics are great.
The storyline is tangled with drama.
The gameplay is traditional.
If you love Japanese style RPG and Dragon Ball, you love this.
All RPG fans should check it out at this new lower price.

Lots of fun, but don't expect to be challenged to much

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Blue Dragon is well worth the price of admission, if not just for the artwork. Its a lot of fun, although it can get repetitive fighting monsters in the Wild. I love the character developement Shu- the hard headed and determined one. Jiro- intelligent and caring. Klute-Voice of Reason and balances the team out. MaruMaru - an innocent child-like creature caught up in this mess. Zola- Mercenary , possibly with her own agenda....and Nene- The evil nemesis that takes enjoyment in others suffering.

Great Job...just remember that Shu is NOT a young Goku!

The blue dragon

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this for my 12 yr old daughter. the first couple of hours she said it was a hard game, 3 days later she had defeated the whole game. She said it was a lot of fun though and she really liked it.

Fun for what it is -- just don't expect mind blowing innovation.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Blue Dragon represents a strong foray into the world of Japanese style RPGs for the XBox 360, and on that front, it was a complete success. It's straightforward in virtually every aspect, offering little new, but doing most everything well.

The graphics are great throughout, and stunning at times. It's a lush and varied world, and the style, although criticized as childish by some, is well executed. Vivid colors and a variety of settings make travel throughout the world a pleasure.

Music is also a highpoint. The score is catchy, fitting, and engaging. My only criticism there is I would like to have seen a few more songs for battles. There are basically two battle themes -- regular and boss -- that are repeated throughout.

The storyline is a cliche one -- stop the overpowered ancient seeking to destroy the world -- but if you go in expecting that, it's well done again. The negative, of course, is that any fan has probably heard this story one or two (or twenty) times.

Gameplay tries to LOOK innovative, but in reality is quite straightforward and follows the path set forth by many games before. The "shadow" system is really just a tried-and-true class system. But there are no glaring flaws, and it remains pretty fun to play throughout.

The real negatives in my mind... The game is a bit on the easy side. None of the (non optional) bosses leave you scratching your head to defeat them. The regular fight, heal, magic formula works on everyone. And the battle sequences get a little repetitive over time as a result. Animations are always the same as you engage in the same strategy battle after battle after battle.

All in all, I would still recommend this game. It's a well executed classic JRPG, with graphics and music that elevate it well. You'll get a solid 80ish hours to do everything in the game, so length is not a problem. The game doesn't reinvent the genre, but makes no real attempts to pretend it is either, so if you know what to expect as you go in, you'll enjoy yourself.

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