thibje on 15 August 2007
Blue Dragon
“I won’t…give up!” lead character Shu vehemently cries, as the opening scene is set for this monumental journey known as Blue Dragon.
Shu’s standing tall in the face of adversity is perhaps a metaphor for Japanese developers forging ahead in the turn-based, role-playing game market when the rest of the world has free-roam fighting on the brain.Blue Dragon is Hironobu Sakaguchi’s brainchild. after all (under the Mistwalker guise), and the turn-based genre has been more than kind to this visionary in such games as…well, pretty much every Final Fantasy title to his credit. Even Mistwalker’s Lost Odyssey, which is due out at a later date, is turn based. Go figure.
Yes, Blue Dragon is turn based. Some of you will surely leave now—though we encourage you to stick around.
Still here? You won’t regret it.
With an “If it ain’t broke, don’t even think about fixing it until it’s your turn” philosophy firmly set in the cerebellum of Sakaguchi, Mistwalker’s RP maven set out to assemble the finest league of game-development talent to work on his pet dragon project. And don’t think for a second that the fame of the development talent doesn’t matter. In this day and age, kids that know games go ga-ga over such surnames as Kojima, Schafer and Sakaguchi, and they’ll surely become as giddy as a schoolgirl to learn what other weapons Artoon had in its cache for the creation of Blue Dragon.
Does the name Akira Toriyama ring a bell? It should if you’re familiar with the Dragon Ball Z franchise. You can see Toriyama’s style in each character of Blue Dragon, which means that never will you mistake this fantasy for a reality. Like playable anime, Shu, Jiro, Kluke and the rest of the gang personify the cartoon-y style that is huge in Japan, while at the same time never letting Blue Dragon take itself too seriously (the adorable Shifa and her curiously-held puppy and all things Marumaro drive this home fairly early). Even the character’s shadows—their monster-like alter-egos—are hardy menacing in Blue Dragon, and the foes, no matter how highly experienced, strike more comedy than they do fear (there’s nothing like a good ol’ Poo Snake). The whimsical style of Blue Dragon may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it does appear that Toriyama and Artoon have consistently carried out Sakaguchi’s vision for the characters inhabitingBlue Dragon.
Nobuo Uematsu may not be a household name in the U.S., but he’s a veritable Gershwin or Williams in Japanese video-game sects. As the man behind the music of a dozen Final Fantasy games, it’s not surprising that Uematsu-san has a longstanding relationship with Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi grabbed Uematsu for the score of Blue Dragon (not to mention Lost Odyssey) for the obvious reason of camaraderie, but the man knows how to make a video game come alive as well. Uematsu’s familiarity with the ivory comes through loud and clear in Blue Dragon, with piano riffs accompanying darn near every arrangement. There’s a strong electronic undertone to Blue Dragon’s soundtrack as well, not to mention a bevy of horned instruments—often played off-key—to create endearing whimsy. Cleverly matched to the ebb and flow of the gameplay, Uematsu’s experience in the JRPG realm clearly pays off here. And while we’re aurally at it, the English dialogue work is excellent (Deathroy is divine), as is the entire catalog of sound effects.
Shu’s standing tall in the face of adversity is perhaps a metaphor for Japanese developers forging ahead in the turn-based, role-playing game market when the rest of the world has free-roam fighting on the brain.Blue Dragon is Hironobu Sakaguchi’s brainchild. after all (under the Mistwalker guise), and the turn-based genre has been more than kind to this visionary in such games as…well, pretty much every Final Fantasy title to his credit. Even Mistwalker’s Lost Odyssey, which is due out at a later date, is turn based. Go figure.
Yes, Blue Dragon is turn based. Some of you will surely leave now—though we encourage you to stick around.
Still here? You won’t regret it.
With an “If it ain’t broke, don’t even think about fixing it until it’s your turn” philosophy firmly set in the cerebellum of Sakaguchi, Mistwalker’s RP maven set out to assemble the finest league of game-development talent to work on his pet dragon project. And don’t think for a second that the fame of the development talent doesn’t matter. In this day and age, kids that know games go ga-ga over such surnames as Kojima, Schafer and Sakaguchi, and they’ll surely become as giddy as a schoolgirl to learn what other weapons Artoon had in its cache for the creation of Blue Dragon.
Does the name Akira Toriyama ring a bell? It should if you’re familiar with the Dragon Ball Z franchise. You can see Toriyama’s style in each character of Blue Dragon, which means that never will you mistake this fantasy for a reality. Like playable anime, Shu, Jiro, Kluke and the rest of the gang personify the cartoon-y style that is huge in Japan, while at the same time never letting Blue Dragon take itself too seriously (the adorable Shifa and her curiously-held puppy and all things Marumaro drive this home fairly early). Even the character’s shadows—their monster-like alter-egos—are hardy menacing in Blue Dragon, and the foes, no matter how highly experienced, strike more comedy than they do fear (there’s nothing like a good ol’ Poo Snake). The whimsical style of Blue Dragon may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it does appear that Toriyama and Artoon have consistently carried out Sakaguchi’s vision for the characters inhabitingBlue Dragon.
Nobuo Uematsu may not be a household name in the U.S., but he’s a veritable Gershwin or Williams in Japanese video-game sects. As the man behind the music of a dozen Final Fantasy games, it’s not surprising that Uematsu-san has a longstanding relationship with Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi grabbed Uematsu for the score of Blue Dragon (not to mention Lost Odyssey) for the obvious reason of camaraderie, but the man knows how to make a video game come alive as well. Uematsu’s familiarity with the ivory comes through loud and clear in Blue Dragon, with piano riffs accompanying darn near every arrangement. There’s a strong electronic undertone to Blue Dragon’s soundtrack as well, not to mention a bevy of horned instruments—often played off-key—to create endearing whimsy. Cleverly matched to the ebb and flow of the gameplay, Uematsu’s experience in the JRPG realm clearly pays off here. And while we’re aurally at it, the English dialogue work is excellent (Deathroy is divine), as is the entire catalog of sound effects.
So what about Artoon’s contribution? Artoon’s job was to take the creations of Mistwalker and Co.’s all-star cast of gaming talent and forge it into an efficient Xbox title. It’s the underdog here, for sure, having just come off of a bland and buggyVampire Rain project, and little but Blinx to their credit before soggy Dracula hit store shelves. Frankly, Artoon’s development of Blue Dragon is overshadowed by the production team behind it, which does detract from the overall grandeur of the title. Artoon really delivers a lukewarm performance on Blue Dragon, with anomalies such as slowdown, frame rate jitters and pop-in occurring with regularity. Less of an issue, but still a bummer to the overall flow to the game, are long, abrupt pauses between cuts. There was some effort put out to blend the scenes with the playable sections and additional cinematics, but it does come off a bit chunky for a game that is ”here, sit and watch this”-heavy.
To Artoon’s credit, however, is a simply massive world that works as it should most of the time, with more pickups than Eddie Van Halen’s guitar collection, characters that move and react as Toriyama devised and a fleshed-out battle system that Sakaguchi surely applauds (as we do). We must also pull back some of our haste for the bumps in these Taltan roads, simply due to the sheer size of the data that Artoon had to arrange forBlue Dragon. When was the last time you played a single game that stretched across three DVDs? Although a lot of the disk space is reserved for high-res cutscene material, fifty hours of gameplay in Blue Dragon isn’t a stretch. The visionaries weren’t the ones that crunched this inordinate amount of code, so we give Artoon our propers for compiling the biggest Xbox 360 title (in terms of data) to date, with no hidden—read: seriously glitchy—surprises to boot.
To Artoon’s credit, however, is a simply massive world that works as it should most of the time, with more pickups than Eddie Van Halen’s guitar collection, characters that move and react as Toriyama devised and a fleshed-out battle system that Sakaguchi surely applauds (as we do). We must also pull back some of our haste for the bumps in these Taltan roads, simply due to the sheer size of the data that Artoon had to arrange forBlue Dragon. When was the last time you played a single game that stretched across three DVDs? Although a lot of the disk space is reserved for high-res cutscene material, fifty hours of gameplay in Blue Dragon isn’t a stretch. The visionaries weren’t the ones that crunched this inordinate amount of code, so we give Artoon our propers for compiling the biggest Xbox 360 title (in terms of data) to date, with no hidden—read: seriously glitchy—surprises to boot.
To quote Tommy (Chris Farley) from Tommy Boy:
Hell, I can take a crap in a box and put a guarantee on it for you…if that’s what you want. But then all you have is a guaranteed piece of s***.
Tommy’s box-o-crap philosophy makes sense in the video-game world when a title’s total gameplay time is known to be lengthy. A poor, boring game is still “crap in a box,” even if it is guaranteed to take up eighty hours of your time. Sakaguchi and poo shoveling aren’t fond of one another, which is why Blue Dragon contains a very entertaining and progressive gameplay system that stays fresh for the duration. Yes, this is turn-based combat in Blue Dragon, but it does contain enough twists and turns and is progressive enough to win over anti-JRPG evangelists.
Battles begin with encounters, which is basically a pre-battle scenario for your party. When an enemy feels a presence or visually spots Shu and crew, a “DETECTED” note appears above the tipped-off baddies. It’s possible to evade a battle by simply running out of sight (which prompts a “LOST” warning), but usually a fight is imminent if you’re detected. This encounter system is interesting since it takes into account the enemy’s agility and the timing of the player character’s strike (the X button) to determine attack precedence. Sneaking up on a foe is a valid technique that puts the player at an advantage, too, but the tables may be turned if the enemy creeps up on you. A “surprise attack” by the enemy is poignant, since a multirowed attack formation is flip-flopped.
A handy encounter-circle icon system can be brought up to either fight one enemy at a time or every enemy within the reticle’s bounds. Trapping antagonistic foes within this circle is entirely possible in Blue Dragon, which cues a monster vs. monster battle that is a treat to watch—plus it gives your characters a break from some fierce fighting. Battling multiple enemies rapid fire is the way to go in Blue Dragon, too, since ability power-ups are granted for such heroics.
Party formation can be set, and has the obvious effect on attack strength and damage absorption. If attack damage is needed to be kept to a minimum, a defend stance can be taken that will affect the next player to be accosted. Any special skills, magic spells and equipped items can be utilized from the simple battle menu, too. A mid-battle formation change is also a possibility, but it will cost you a turn, of course. And for the sissies out there, an escape command is available, but it doesn’t always guarantee that your doom is no longer impending (i.e. an executed escape command is not an instant out and may cost you a turn if it’s botched).
Things begin to get more interesting, strategic and demanding once the little groundhogs of Blue Dragon finally see their shadows. A shadow is basically a bad-boy bit of magic that all playables possess. Shu, for instance, rocks a Dragon Shadow, which unleashes special attacks allied to his Sword Master class. Other classes include Black and White Magic users, a Support caster, Assassin, Monk, Guardian and a Jack-of-all-Trades. Basic and upgraded skills, each with elemental attributes, such as fire, water, wind, earth, light and dark play major roles in how easily enemies are defeated. The three-person party is also upped to a five-person clan later on, which means that even more attack planning, item alchemy and formation logic is necessary. Party balance also comes into play with five fighters, with front- and back-row combinations of the eight available classes allowing for myriad attack stances possible of taking down any monster in Blue Dragon.
It will take a keen mind and thorough, chess-like preplanning to level up inBlue Dragon. Every increased rank means a new skill, which eventually turns into a level-up and the ability to change class. Then comes the chance to learn new skills in this new class. This constant search for both experience points and the denouement of Blue Dragon can easily go on for fifty hours (way longer if you want all 43 achievements), making it more “epic” than most games erroneously coined as such.
Challenging to play well and entertaining to just sit back and watch, Blue Dragon deserves a serious look whether you’re avid JRPG’er or not.
A solid battle system is flanked hour after hour by attention-grabbing cutscenes and cinematics. Fun to watch, fun to play.
The few graphical issues aside, Artoon brings Toriyama’s kiddies to life.
Uematsu scores and unflappable English dialogue work complement solid sound effects.
Three discs. ‘Nuff‘sed.
While it pushes the turn-based boundaries a bit, hardcore RPG fans have been on similar trips before.
Overall Score NOT an average
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