Bringing old school back
The story isn't really huge or complex, but a traditional old-school story that will take you back to the SNES era. You play as Shu, Jiro, and Kluke, three friends that plan to take down the Land Shark, which always ruin their village every 10 years. The plan goes unsuccessful, and find out the Land Shark is metal. After a few events, they meet Nene, the villan of the game who harms people just to see them suffer(think of an old version of Kefka, but less sadistic and psycho). The story goes from there. They find blue orbs which contain the blue beasts(the dragon for Shu, the minotaur for Jiro, and the phoenix for Kluke). They then vow to defeat Nene and end his reign of terror with their new powers. The story's concept isn't new, especially if you played any SNES JRPG, but it isn't even close to being bad though. Shu isn't a dumb kid with an incredible power and doesn't know how to use it, nor is he a silent hero battling himself mentally. He's just a person bent on trying to save the world from suffering. This doesn't mean he doesn't have flaws. He constantly says that he will "never give up", which gets very tiring after the 28th time you hear it. Jiro is the big brain in the team, who acts like it exactly, and Kluke is the tag-along, who wants in on the action. You eventually meet Maro, an annoying Devee who you want to strangle because of his voice. He actually creeps me out when he does his Devee Dance. Then the last one is Zola, the cool one in the group. She's cool-headed, mature, and ruthless, yet caring too. You'll like her instantly.
The main reason why Blue Dragon was 3 discs was of the graphics. let me tell you, they are amazing. The cutscenes look great and they transition very well. You can tell that Mistwalker put a lot of effort into it. While you're playing the area looks good. There aren't any jags, and the characters(and monsters) are detailed nicely too. Toriyama's designs transition well to 3D. The only thing I have against it is when you are further away from an item, for example, it looks blurry, but when you get close to it, it's detailed.
The score is great. Whoever said that Uematsu lost his touch is obviously crazy. The theme for Nene is really good. I also like the song to the Devee Village. I can't forget the boss battle song Eternity! That is a good, action song for boss battles, although it loses its touch after the first 9 times you hear it. The song, The Seal is Broken was composed very good. I don't think Uematsu was trying to re-create One Winged Angel, nor is the song a copy of it. It stands on its own, as an epic song.
The gameplay is turn-based, but it does bring a few new things. One of them are Corperals, Blue Dragon's version of limit breaks. Another new feature is the charge meter. When you do a magic attack or attack because it's mandatory(Monk class), a charge meter comes up, and you must hold A to charge. When you want the charge up to a certain point, you release A, and watch the attack/magic be used. There are lines that have an ally/monster's face in it, which means if you charge it before their line, you will perform the move before them, and if it's after their line, the move is after their turn. If you charge lands in the red spot, the MP cost and time is cut in half, but it's hard to get into the red spot. There are also classes, which are not as detailed as FF5, but they are pretty good. The new ones like Sword Masters are the tanks in the classes. Monks always use charges for their attacks and special abilities. There are more, but I'll let you discover them yourself.
If you change a character's class(like if you change Shu from a Swords Master to Monk), they will retain all the abilities they learned from the previous class. The only thing I have against that is that you can have overpowered characters close to the end of the game, if you put some time into leveling the class.
Overall, this game is a good start for JRPGs on the 360. It shows that Microsoft isn't just tailoring to Western gamers anymore, they are opening up their view, which is good. The characters are good(except Maro), the score is amazing, and the classes was a good spin to the game, which will keep you playing just to max out the classes to get that achievement. This game made me feel like I was in the SNES era. It also shows that traditional RPGs are still welcomed in the next-gen era.