Blue Dragon

[Super Buu]

Started playing this seriously today, using the downloadable hard mode (this allegedly makes the game a lot better, which I can understand. A hard mode would have vastly improved Twilight Princess for me) since normal is apparently way too easy. It's definitely a game that you either love or hate. I wasn't previously a big fan of JRPGs, but when you've got a lot of time to kill, they can really suck you in. Dragon Quest 8 was the first that really did that to me (I played non-stop over that holiday. Oh, the memories).

Anyway, back to Blue Dragon. I was surprised to find - once I got past the first hour that had successfully deterred me before - that the system is pretty fun, and challenging. I'm only just about to get my fourth party member (you start with 3) but already I'm having a blast customising my characters.

I just hope that the characters start to grow on me more. I haven't taken to them nearly as much as the DQ8 crew - they did at least add humour. Blue Dragon's story is the same in terms of simplicity, except it actually takes itself seriously.

The boss fight music is hilarious. I think that must have been deliberately overblown. Think of every over-enthusiastic japanese singer from every anime opening theme tune ever, and splice them with Ozzy Osbourne.

Ne'er mind that though. Anyone else have this game? How did you find it?

[Saz]

I've played Blue Dragon, I got it purely because it was a rpg, and with hindsight I really wished I didn't. >.>

Don't get me wrong it's not a terrible game, but I won't be playing through it a second time, it really wasn't anything special. And dear God, that boss music, I had to mute the game everytime a boss battle came around.

[Kaden]

I just hope that the characters start to grow on me more.

That's exactly what happened to me. Progress in the story is based on you caring what happens to your characters. I didn't. At the end of one of the dungeons, one of your characters gets kidnapped. I literally just put down my controller and said "I don't even care" and turned off the game.

It killed me, too, since that was after putting something like 30 hours into the game. I just had no desire to continue playing, though. I think the game would have benefited greatly from a DQ8-esque level of seriousness. Everything about the game is very cartoony, except for how serious everyone is. It just never meshed for me.

There were a couple of really great scenes for the characters (the ring-making scene between Jiro and Shu comes to mind), but they were way too few and way too far between. They either needed to add more reasons to care about the character ("because you're playing the game" seems to be what they were banking on) or the game should have been shorter.

Still a solid RPG. Just not anything nearly as spectacular as what people were expecting from them. I was also a little disappointed that the demo gave each character completely maxed classes for all of the classes and all of the characters. I was kind of hoping that they would have left out a few. It was useful for loading up the demo and figuring out how well certain configurations worked.

[Aero]

I got the game. I find myself loving and hating the game sporadically. Some days I immediately pop it into the ole 360, while on other days I just neglect it. To me it's just an average RPG. Nothing great; nothing horrible. It's just one of those RPGs that you play to feed your appetite until something better comes around.

[Kaden]

To me it's just an average RPG. Nothing great; nothing horrible. It's just one of those RPGs that you play to feed your appetite until something better comes around.

That's an incredibly apt description of Blue Dragon.

ns.