The only reason you could hate Mass Effect is if you somehow intentionally don't want gameplay with your RPG. I'd strongly recommend checking it out no matter your reservations.

That said, from what I've seen, Blue Dragon is very similar to Dragon Quest (except without the random encounters), so if you like the second, you'll probably like the first.

It's a great JRPG. Is it as good as LO? Probably not (haven't played LO yet, sadly), but it's very good.

If your a fan of how old-school JRPGs from the mid-90s handle gameplay, this is the one for you. The music is very 16bit-ish, almost like Uematsu made the soundtrack with an midi-enabled keyboard, then exported it to an orchestra.

If you don't mind MaruMaru's annoying voice, and the childishness of Shu, it's a fantastic, well-build JRPG. Outside of the VA, and a few story points, the actual game construction is flawless. The job class system is one of the best ever for a non SRPG. Battles are good, and you have the DLC that makes it quite hard.

And the fact that it's around $40 USD new due to it underpreforming in the US/PAL, it's definately worth a buy.

The demo sucks, by the way. It only really shows you a weak side of the combat, and none of the awesome towns, and NPC interaction.

Overall, it's a great JRPG. Entirely by the book, but a great JRPG.

i played at a mates house is great love the artstyle...

i played at a mates house its great love the artstyle...

no dont get it! it sucks so badly.

it was pretty popular in japan though.

Hmm it is not bad bur surely not a game that I will remember if I think about this gen.

You'll think about BD very fondly if you liked SNES RPGs, as the art style (atleast to me) was very reminicent of older RPGs.

To me, it was almost a 9/10 game and one of my favorite RPGs from this gen.

I'm own Blue Dragon and hate it.

However, I love Lost Odyssey.

Different strokes for different folks. I guess Blue Dragon was just to childish for me in every way...from its art direction, story, characters, difficulty (yes, I know you can download greater difficulty, but it was too late for me when I played it at launch)

Another thing I hated was the way you find items. Sometimes I felt like I was running along walls just mashing buttons to try to find "1" pc of gold instead of actually being able to enjoy the environments and immerse myself in the game. I honestly think that was one of the peeves that made the game unvbearable to me personally. I have to find EVERYTHING. I didn't like having items that you couldn't see and having to mash the "A" button along all the walls because I was scared I'd miss something.

Anyhow, I know others that feel completely different.

I would definitely recommend Lost Odyssey though! I love it! WONDERFUL adult oriented JRPG.

Blue Dragon was a chore just to play. I gave up in the middle of the third disc. Everything about the game is boring. Eternal Sonata and Mass Effect are much better choices.

To each his own, Tayne. By the ending of Eternal Sonata, my girlfriend and I were dubbing the ending of ES because the storyline at the end is one of the worst joke's Ive ever seen.