Monday, September 10, 2007 Blue Dragon:An Xbox Spectacle By Carlo Carrasco Contributor
SO MUCH has changed for the Xbox brand since Feb. 24, 2005.
That was the day when the world first learned that Japanese gaming legend Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy and formerly one of Square Enix’s most successful producers, would be making two next generation games for Microsoft. Currently these are role-playing games (RPGs) meant for the Xbox 360, and one of them has finally been released.
That game is Blue Dragon and this version I’m reviewing is the 2nd Asian region release, now packed with full English text/subtitles as well as Japanese and Korean voiceovers. As it turned out, Blue Dragon is a heavyweight joint collaboration between Microsoft (publisher), Mistwalker (Sakaguchi’s studio), Artoon (game development and coding), Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball Z creator and character designer) and Nobuo Uematsu (musician responsible for Final Fantasy soundtracks). Let’s not forget that Sakaguchi and Toriyama worked together in the classic Chrono Trigger.
The story begins when a purple cloud hounds a peaceful village, followed by destruction caused by what the villagers called a Land Shark. A brave teenager named Shu daringly challenges the shark with the aid of his neighbor Jiro. As they trap the monster, another teenager named Kluke joins in. After discovering what the land shark really is, the three learn that a greater force of evil exists and not only is their village in danger, but so is their world. Shu, Jiro and Kluke are compelled to take the quest, and what follows next is a rich chain of characters, cultures, and many tales.
Written by Sakaguchi, Blue Dragon’s plot is told in a simplistic, yet fulfilling fashion. The story does not revolve around a love plot (can you say Final Fantasy VIII?) nor does it relate to some abusive business company seeking to squeeze natural life to feed its greed (Final Fantasy VII). Instead, the story revolves around a group of friends who seek to protect the world they live in. The antagonist is named Nene, who resembles Star Wars’ Yoda. Not only does he seek power, he also wants to revive magic, open some ancient secrets and reshape the world at the expense of lives.
Fast engine
Gameplay-wise, this turn-based RPG is filled with the usual commands like attacking, magic, formation and item use. If you think that the turn-based nature of the game would make it sluggish, you are wrong. In fact, the engine is pretty fast and selecting actions, magic spells and items can be easily done. You can fight many battles in less time compared to other RPGs. Each character also has his or her own magical shadow, which helps them fight enemies along the way. Early on, Shu, Jiro and Kluke themselves do the fighting but once they get the shadows, they don’t need to run up close to the enemy to attack as the shadow does it for them.
Remember those LimitBreaks in Final Fantasy VII (once your character receives a certain amount of damage, he/she/it would be able to execute a spectacular attack)? That feature is present in Blue Dragon, and it’s called the Corporeal. Once it is executed, you will witness a spectacular display of animation and special effects that really pushes the Xbox 360’s processing power. The sequences look like pre-rendered movies but in reality they are executed in real time.
Exploring the world is almost hassle-free. There are no random battles here, which is a great relief. Instead, you will see images of individual monsters roaming around the map or area, and you have the freedom to choose whether to fight or avoid them. Though they look individual, they normally represent groups. If you engage them from behind, the battle will begin with a first-strike advantage for your party. And if you want to level up your party, you can engage multiple groups of enemies by using the Ring Tool on the map. Since the battle engine is fast, the battles never drag.
Building your party
In this game you get to build your party up to as many as five members. This adds great variety to the action, yet at the same time it never gets confusing. Final Fantasy VII, in comparison, allows only up to three party members for exploration and battle.
Aside from the constant battles, Mistwalker added some nice gameplay segments that will give gamers a much needed break. For instance, there are first-person shooting sequences where you’ll be controlling the turret of your airship, shooting at your flying enemies. There are also a few quick-time events that will remind you of Resident Evil 4.
As with other RPGs, Blue Dragon also has side quests that will handsomely reward you with very useful items. There will be many bosses (unrelated to the main quest) that you will find quite challenging to beat.
Customizing your characters here is similar to what we’ve seen in Final Fantasy. In this game, there is this Accessory system where you can choose what type of bracelet, necklace, earring and shoes your character could wear, each with specific effects on the attributes. Customizing magic spells and skills is also evident. You can train your character to be proficient with black magic, another character with swordmaster, another with white magic, another with generalist magic and so on. There are also level-ups for magic use and the higher you go, the more powerful spells you gain.
If you love graphics, Blue Dragon will impress you big time. Using anime-like 3-D characters, thanks to the work of Akira Toriyama, the game’s graphics easily rival what we have seen in movies such as Toy Story and Shrek. Blue Dragon takes great advantage of the 360’s processing power when it comes to textures, lighting effects, animation and more. With its unique design, the whole world in the game looks very detailed right from the start, and it only gets more detailed later.
Don’t expect to see Gears of War-style textures or Oblivion-like environments though. Blue Dragon features a different art style, one that appeals to people who like anime or those CGI Hollywood blockbusters. Blue Dragon’s world has a cute appeal to it. Let me add that the water effects here are astounding to watch.
For the storytelling, the game uses both in-game and pre-rendered cut scenes. And you know what? The difference in quality between real-time and pre-rendered isn’t much and the transition between them is seamless.
Flaws of the game? I must admit that this release lacked difficulty for the most part. If your party members have a character level average of 80 and above, you’ll have less problems finishing the game. This particular flaw is not in any way fatal but it will surprise gamers seeking big challenges. Even though it was fairly easy, it still took me almost fifty hours to finish it. Other flaws? Screen tearing is present. One last thing, certain locations tend to have very repetitive environments to explore.
With the excellent gameplay and presentation, I highly recommend Blue Dragon to gamers reading this.
