Blue dragon tells why japan isn't so stoked about the 360

User Rating: 6.5 | Blue Dragon X360
Blue dragon was suppose to be the answer for microsoft in the japan department. Its purpose was to begin bringing rpg's for everyone. Well, if this is the best microsoft has to offer in the terms of rpg's then im afraid we are missing out.

Blue dragon places you in a village that is tormented by the land shark. Shu, Kluke, and Jiro decide to fight instead of hide like the rest of the village does. This even will lead you to a long journey to stop the evil nene and is sinister ways. The story sets you up with a potentially good story, but the way this story presents itself is not something you would want to remember for any good reason.

Gameplay wise, it stays true to old-school turn base format. you will be able to charge attacks with some characters and this will allow you to add some strategy to the turns. All characters have the potential to have every class in the game so the characters lose a lot of their personality, but i decided to keep them with their original ones for story sake. The classes are divided by monk, sword master, white magic, black magic, defender, support magic, generalist, and barrier magic. I feel the breaking down of these skills is dumb considering you only get 5 party members and it takes from other skills to learn some that have actually been placed together in other rpg's

The music in the game is good. If its the only thing you remember in this game i wouldnt blame you. The world music gives that sense of adventure and you know when a boss battle happens and dungeons have that level specific music as well. My only beef is that there wasn't more of it.

Sounds of the game are somewhat generic, but they fit where they are suppose to.

Visually the game is not that appealing as that generic feel continues. The spells and moves of your shadows are really the most appealing and when you activate your corpreal attack the framerate slows

For hardcore rpg fans this game is worth the price. It clocks in a little over 30 hrs for the main story and will help feed the appetite of those people without a good rpg for the 360, but for those that are looking for something truly epic this is not it.