Can't stop playing, CAN'T STOP!!!
That's what this is , it's the job system from FF5 with more options thrown in . It's the art style of Dragon Quest (or Ball). It's the music from every Final Fantasy you ever played. In short Hironobu Sakaguchi did what Hironobu Sakaguchi does best , he made another JRPG. So you will either love it for bringing back fond memories of JRPGs past or you will hate it for entirely the same reason.
The story? Same as every fantasy tale you ever read watched or played, kingdom's in trouble and you're the only kids in town with the power to save it. This time your power is in your shadows which take the form of animals that will stand behind you and provide you with all your stat increases, abilities and spells you might need.
The Gameplay? Ever played Final Fantasy V? then that's pretty much what you get here. The differences? No weapons, your shadow is your weapon. So this time you don't get summons (Don't worry ,get to disc 3 and you CAN summon you shadow). Also abilties are more customisable earlier on which frees you up enjoyably.
The Music? I love it it , I can't think of a Nobuo Uematsu soundtrack I don't love . The guy can do rock and pop, he can do classical he even does metal. And this time he has included vocals by Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame (sorry kids you won't know this guy).The man composes a mean soundtrack it's exciting, it's sad, it's atmospheric, it's even silly when it needs to be.
The Graphics? Okay so yeah, we are playing a 360 here and YES the 360 can do some amazing graphics but no Blue Dragon doesn't achieve this. But it's not trying to , what it is trying to do is look like a Saturday morning cartoon, it's trying to look like Dragon Ball (No, not Z the first one). It achieves this and still has some lovely flashy spell and attack animations that you probably would'nt see on said Saturday morning cartoon.
Blue Dragon can be highly addictive if you're into this sort of thing. You won't have to grind levels like you would in a Dragon Quest game and it has all the trappings of a classic Final Fantasy. Add to that a beautifully composed score and charectors that look like they stepped straight out of Dragon Ball and you have one fantastic package. I can't praise this game enough and I CAN'T STOP PLAYING!!!