While not the Genre changing masterpiece many hoped, a worthwhile addition to any RPG fans collection nonetheless.
This is a VERY classic turn based RPG at its heart with a few additions, but nothing revolutionary or innovative as aforementioned game which will not be mentioned again after this. If you like traditional turn based RPGs, then you will most likely enjoy this game enough to play it through. While I say anyone should play this, I will not lie, some game types are not for everyone and if you don't like Japanese Style RPGs in their purest form, then stop now. Last warning.
For those with an open mind or even fans of the JRPG let's begin.
You start off as a seemingly lazy Gohan lookalike named Shu. Your village of Talta is under attack from this huge monstrosity named the "Land Shark", and your friends Jiro (who also looks almost exactly like Saiyaman Gohan) and Kluke (random Akira Toriyama female model). The three of them try to stop this thing from destroying the town, only to get swept up in a whirlwind adventure that is all over the place in terms of emotions, themes and people you meet. In the end, you get two other characters in your party, some minature... um... cream puffy type thing with arms and yellow fur named Marumaro (who happens to be on the Guiness Book of World Records most annoying voices ever list, I think he's at #2 behind Fran Drescher) and the cool and collected Lady Zola who is a mercenary in the employ of a King. Without trying to say too much more and ruin any of the story, there is a bad guy by the name of Nene who looks like a cross between a raisin and a vampire. He likes hurting people (although it is much more complicated than that, but saying anything beyond that will spoil things). Lets just say you guys want to stop him.
Sparing any plot details, the game is not as epic as Chrono Trigger (arg I said it again), as detailed or pretentious as Xenosaga, or even like Final Fantasy. It just is. Is it good? Sure, is it the best story ever, na, not really, but it doesn't make the game worse.
So, you might be asking where does this "Blue Dragon" come in? Well, you gain magical powers early on in the game and they manifest themselves in the form of a giant shadow monster, in particular, a Dragon, Minotaur, Phoenix, Saber Tooth Tiger and Killer Bat, all of which are blue. Get it now?
They are the cause of all of your attacks (while oddly enough the characters themselves are the targets of the attacks).
The game has 8 classes of Shadows (AKA job classes). They are Sword Master (basic heavy hitter melee damage dealer), Guardian (Paladin type from Final Fantasy, can block attacks for others), Assassin (another tricky damage dealer who can steal and stun and control enemies), White and Black Magic users (c'mon now...), Support Magic (enhances allies and detracts from enemies), Barrier Magic (also enhances allies with shield and magic shields and has another interesting effect that I will mention later), and Generalist (the weak class but has a ton of slots for putting various skills in which if played well is the most powerful class in the game).
That being said, you have to earn Exp to level your main character and then SP (shadow points) to level your Shadow. Your equipped shadow dictates your HP/MP/Str/ etc. and your skills you can use. Most classes get their main skills (which you can use ANYTHING providing you own it, namely the spells for magic users or for magic sword users). You get 3 secondary skill slots which you can insert other skills like +50% extra MP, or "Black Magic".
When inserting an entire shadow skill class you must be aware of what level it is, if you don't have high enough level, you can't cast that spell in a job that you aren't high enough in. So once you reach say level... 32 for white magic, you unlock level 6 white magic skill, and that is your highest you can get. So, in theory, say you are a white magic user, but you have maxed out all of the skills (you don't have to get to shadow level 99 to get all the skills by the way), you can use ALL magic of Black, White, Support and Barrier magic. Or you could merely have White Magic (automatic) + 50% extra MP, Regenerate MP and HP instead. The combinations are monumental, and only enhanced by the Generalist class (Although I'd only recommend using that once you get a spread of skills).
That being said, there isn't anything more fancy about job classes besides leveling them, and using appropriate skills in the right time and situation. Period.
The game itself is a turn based attack with enemies and characters going in order depending on their agility. You have a turn bar on top to see when who goes (think FFX, although there is no hot swapping since all 5 members can be in the game at once). The last team standing wins, period. You can utilize magic elemental weakness like any other JRPG, you get poisoned, confused, etc (although the names change due to copyright and legal issues , they are there). To be honest, that's pretty much it in terms of core gameplay. There are a number of little additions to the game though that make it more than a pretty looking version of the original Final Fantasy or just Dragon Warrior (Quest nowadays).
1.) NO random encounters. I know a lot of people hate those. This time you can either avoid altogether (for the most part) battles or pick and choose however you want to fight.
2.) Continuing the no random encounters line, you have an onscreen targeting system which is titled the encounter circle. Int his circle you can fight ANY and ALL combinations of any monster within the radius of your circle. This can be handy for tactics later against monsters that are more powerful or just any reason you chose.
3.) Yet more on this encounter circle. Two things can happen. One, if the names turn yellow on the encounter circle, you can fight both (or more) of those enemies at the same time, with a bonus. Enemies in this game are sometimes enemies to each other in a predatory way. Fighting two or more enemies in yellow names will engage in a Monster Fight, where you get all the experience, but the enemies will duke it out for a good amount of the fight. If not outright killing, sometimes the weaker enemy weakens the strong enemy with impenetrable armor so you can finish them. Sometimes this is handy if you use it right against big "miniboss" enemies guarding chests and such.
4.) Final thing is if you fight many enemies at once, you get bonuses to HP/Attack/Etc and a bigger cut of XP and gold at the end. Fighting 10 groups of enemies at once (hard to do) gives you an achievement FYI.
5.) Another neat thing relates to job classes and skills called "Field Skills". You can assign these to the left and right shoulder buttons. They can attract enemies, repel them or in the case of the awesome Barrier Magic user, destroy them outright. However this only yields about half the SP and no exp and gold. Still, quite easy to blow through a dungeon and get some good shadow levels up. Mind you, enemies you haven't fought before or some who are very tough break your barrier and you fight them.
The other three things to mention about the game are:
You can search things.... A LOT of things. And I mean an *expletive deleted* load of things. Sometimes it's just 10 gold, sometimes it's XP, sometimes it's an attack item or something. Search around, you can get lucky sometimes.
Minigames. While this game has some pretty good minigames (I like the laser moon shooting one), they are easy enough to beat, but very hard to do well enough to get the achievements tied to them. Too bad you can't go back and play them whenever you want though.
Corporeal Attacks, like limit breaks, these are insanely powerful, but kind of hard to get pulled off. You gotta take a beating, but if you finish a fight, your meter goes to zero again. Basically I feel this was added as an afterthought or not properly introduced earlier in the story, although only later in the game does this actually become a necessity.
Sadly, this game is incredibly, and by incredibly, I mean stupidly easy to a fault. I don't think I had to revive one character until the end of disc 1, and until I fought one of the super bosses near the end, did I ever have two people down at once. If I had to say one thing that is a major bummer it would be the difficulty. Mostly easy smooth sailing with a very small squall here and there, but not enough until the end game I think. As of writing this, there is a hard mode DLC on Xbox Live. I suggest RPG vets check it out.
In the visual and audio aspects, this game is amazing. Let me try something new.
Start this game at a 7 in terms of graphics. Do you like Akira Toriyama's Art Style? Add 2 points
Do you hate his art style? Subtract 2 points
Do you like vibrant colors and large environments? Add 1 point
Do you like visual styles that can't be easily summed up or lumped into one genre (if I defined this game as a 3D CGI High Resolution Claymation, that might give you an idea)? Add 1 point
So basically, it's a good looking game. I kind of biased it towards the only negative aspect of this game being Akira Toriyama's steadfast adherence to his only art style. But I will say this again, the game is amazing looking, the characters look like high resolution CGI models from Dragon Ball Z. This three dimensional quality distracts you from the fact that his work is so derivative. However aside from the main characters, the game has gorgeous vibrant colors (a nice change from all the earth tones in contemporary games, not just RPGs). One of the most simple yet impressive graphical designs in this game is a place called "Mural Town" where living murals of all colors in a watercolor wall painting come to life and talk to you. It looks like some weird cross between Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso plus Geometry, but all done in vibrant pastels and neons. In stark contrast to that, you have antiseptic robotic factories, which in contrast to that you have organic rural villages and huge underground caverns... and yes, the obligatory Ice World section.
In all, the graphics in this game are amazing, simply phenomenal and the only bad point I can say is the derivative Toriyama art style. If you can get over that or even like it, you are in for a visual treat.
Sonically, this game isn't one of Uematsu's most memorable, but it has some of its standout tracks. My favorite would be the boss battle (which can get a little grating after hearing it a few dozen times). Other good tracks include the very haunting melody that is played in old abandoned factories or the Sea Cube for those who know what I mean. The score has a very Final Fantasy feeling to it, particularly in town (good), but it is not anything very memorable or impactful (not so good). In terms of Uematsu's contribution to the total score of the sound in this game, I'd give him 5 out of the 10 points.
Music isn't the only thing in sound, voices and effects are part of it too. The voice work is amazing. You usually think Shu is annoying and "I won't give up" is as commonly said as "The" by him, but he can be very serious and have deep conversations that make you think twice about him as a character and the voice actor(ess I think)'s talent. Kluke and Jiro are good, no qualms there, Marumaro is extremely annoying for 90% of his dialogue. Imagine an alarm clock going off while being dragged through a cheese grater. That sounds better than his voice. However he does fit the role of the annoying little kid quite well. Zola is silky smooth in her actions and her voice character, often understated and softspoken. The other many supporting characters and villians do their roles nicely (although I do want to smash that little frog thing on Nene's shoulder with a sledge hammer).
A 3 out of 10 comes from the voice work.
An additional bonus point comes from the customization. At first, everything you search or open or do anything has some little voice instructing you. Like "Locked" is audibly voiced. Or if you search something, or if it becomes "playable" (I like how the game tells newbies the scene is over and you can play again). So instead of making veterans and people who are self aware listen to this over and over again, the options in the sound disable this voice, which is very satisfying.
So in terms of value of this game, it's an RPG. You want to get all of the incredibly time consuming (and sometimes difficult) achievements in this game? You're gonna spend some time. You want the barebones experience? You're looking at at least 40 hours. I can see myself possibly playing this game again in the far future, but only after I relive the classics of RPG past. So in other words, like a good RPG, it has longevity, but it doesn't have super high replayablility So while an excellent effort and a game of high quality production values and one that gives a noble effort to include newbies in the RPG genre, it doesn't break any new ground or have a tremendous lasting impact like other games the Dream Team members were involved in, but then again, the creators themselves said this was an old school game from the start.
Recap
Gameplay : 7 out of 10
Graphics : 10 out of 10
Sound : 9 out of 10
Value : 8 out of 10
Tilt : 7 out of 10
Overall: 7.5 out of 10
Pros:
+ Incredible graphics and presentation with a great score and voice acting cast.
+ Friendly to RPG newbies with hints and low difficulty curve at the start.
+ A classic RPG style that doesn't do anything wrong and tosses in some new things...
Cons:
- ... some of those new things aren't as revolutionary or inspired as people would hope. Perhaps TOO traditional to be considered real next gen?
- The game is too damn easy for most RPG vets or even mere novices who have some experience
- You might be really sick of the Akira Toriyama art style.