The dream team behind Chrono Trigger reunite for a role-playing tour de force on the X360.

It’s a sad fact that Microsoft had to face–that their newest console was going the way of the dinosaur in Japan. This changed recently with the release of Blue Dragon, a game developed by renowned Final Fantasy (FF) and Squaresoft alumnus Hironobu Sakaguchi. Thanks to his track-record, Blue Dragon went on to become the highest selling XBOX 360 title in the territory thus far (Microsoft has already sold more than the 200,000 copies that were readied on day one of the Japanese launch). After leaving his original home in the RPG giant, Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker Studios (which by the way, is also developing Lost Odyssey, that gorgeous gem also coming to the 360) who, in conjunction with Artoon Studios (Blinx the Time Sweeper) has developed this new 3D, turn-based RPG. Of course, renowned character artiste, Akira Toriyama (Dragonball), and legendary game music composer Nobuo Uematsu are also onboard and this is the first time the trio have worked together since developing Chrono Trigger more than a decade ago.

Blue Dragon seems to have its proverbial gameplay roots firmly planted in RPG conventions, both in terms of design and gameplay, with a few neat innovations that help to make it more than a simple FF-clone. This is the story of the feisty Shu and his friends, Kluke, a young girl who’s very kind to Shu (no, she won’t die halfway into the game) and Jiro, the strong and silent thinker of the group, as they go on an epic adventure to save their village, Devi, and eventually the entire world from an army of invading spherical robots and their master, an evil purple whatchamacallit named Nene, who has his own giant mech to do his bidding. Backing the group up is the presence of Phantom Shadows, bluish beast and animals, which inhabit the shadow of a party member, and do all the work for them. Needless to say, their origins remain a mystery that somehow ties in with the planet’s future. With Shu is the Dragon Shadow (which the main villain also has with him…mysterious/typical!); Kluke has the Phoenix shadow; and Jiro controls the Minotaur shadow.

While you could practically make a laundry list of the number of clichés inherent in the above paragraph, Blue Dragon remains blatantly unapologetic in its attempt to present simple, classic RPG action. All the battles are turn-based and you can see the turn order of your enemies and party members in advance, which you’ll need to plan out strategies and attacks. In battle, the character’s shadows will attack the enemies present and perform any other tasks you assign to them. An interesting addition to the typical console RPG mechanics is how you encounter enemies. None of the battles are random as you’ll see each and every one of your foes on the given field, which helps when you want to avoid senseless fighting. You can sneak up on foes and use a tackle/attack command where you’ll be able to knock them out for a few seconds; this is useful for getting past some places, but it’s main use seems to be in the battles, since you’ll then get the chance to meet your foes in a ‘strike-first’ battle, where you’ll have the advantage of thrashing them for one whole turn without any consequences. The converse is also true as enemies can get a leg up on you when you least expect it. Also, when in any of the game’s lush 3D environments, you’ll be able to activate a certain field that detects all enemies within range of it; you’ll then get a detailed list of the enemies present in that range. You can then select enemies within that range to fight. This surprisingly simple feature eliminates the need of individually running up to enemies to fight, as well as helps you to know what you’re dealing with (now if only we had this feature in Final Fantasy XI…the agony!). The obvious disadvantage is that all battles will proceed normally, so you won’t be getting any cheap-shots in like knocking out your enemies would do. Other than that, battles seem pretty bland at this stage, as there seems to be no hook or gimmick like the Materia or Junction systems as seen in FF, but you can still specialise your characters’ abilities. By choosing from three different styles of play (Sword, Power Magic and Assassin) and levelling them up, you’ll be able to gain new skills and attacks, along with having a certain class assigned to your character. Two classes, the monk and mage, have already been confirmed till date. Also, you can change styles freely and any abilities you gain from one style will stay with your character if you change to another. Though great it would be to have different sub-classes and abilities unlock from levelling up each style accordingly, such a feature has of yet been unconfirmed.

The world of Blue Dragon appears lean more towards an epic and cartoonish style. Devi Village, with its huts interconnected by an intricate system of walkways and conspicuous amount of pottery, represents one such attempt to break the mould while staying within it. Real time day-and-night effects and realistic water effects are also present and accounted for and they both animate naturally. Shu and his friends look like typical, somewhat oversimplified, anime characters, an obvious setback when you consider some of the other works of Toriyama, but their motions and facial expressions aren’t dead. When engaged in a conversation, you won’t see a static portrait of the characters—they’ll be talking in real-time and expressing themselves in relation to their environment and those around them with realistic emotions. When walking, a subtle motion-blur will be inherent, indicating a sense of actual running, while the character will move his or her body in accordance with sudden reflexes and such. The music is typical Uematsu (though the opening title song is very irritating)—epic beats and light-hearted tones alike abound. Finally, two more characters—Muromaro, a strange horned creature (who utilises a Sabre-tooth Tiger shadow) along with a silver-haired female mercenary, Zola (whose shadow is that of a Killer Bat)—will join up with Shu and his friends to save the world.

While seemingly too kiddie or simple, Blue Dragon represents one of the most solid opportunities that Microsoft could have by way of a Japanese RPG on their next-gen home console. The bright graphics are also a bit of a turn-off but given that this is the same game being brought to us by the team who created one of the best console RPGs of all time, it would be worth it to look past appearances and see if this dragon has enough fang and tooth to stand with the XBOX 360’s greatest when it releases to English-speaking audiences around the world.

Powered by Gregarious (42)

TRANSLATE

Translate this post into your favorite language. Click on any of the flags below to view the translated version. NOTE: Translations use the AltaVista Babel Fish Translation Service and may not be 100% accurate.

By N2H

You may be the one to comment first. Please leave your message below.