Mark fights Land Sharks, talks to sheep and… searches poo?!
Yep, you read that right… searches poo. To find gold, in fact. It’s an oddity which perhaps best sums up the strange sense of humour to be found in Blue Dragon, the first Xbox 360 exclusive RPG from famed Final Fantasy producer Hironobu Sakaguchi.
The Final Fantasy connection is very much evident from Blue Dragon’s beginnings, which stars a spiky-haired hothead teenage main character and an ever-growing gaggle of young companions, on a sprawling quest to defeat the evil, machine-manipulating Nene, who is wreaking havoc across their world.
In the shadows
Spread over three Xbox 360 discs and a massive 50+ hour adventure, Blue Dragon’s unique hook lies in its use of Phantom Shadow creatures, which replace the weapons often typical to traditional Japanese RPG turn-based battle systems. Sprouting from behind your characters, these Shadows – a black magic casting phoenix for Kluke, a bull with healing powers for Jiro, and the hard-hitting eponymous Blue Dragon for leader Shu – possess a range of normal, special and magical abilities that will grow and develop throughout the game.
Of course, that means that, somewhat innovatively, its Blue Dragon’s Phantom Shadows, and not the characters themselves, which learn new skills. Intriguingly, you can also alter their role within the team and level up individual roles by using them in battle – so, for instance, Shu’s Blue Dragon, which begins as a physical warrior, can learn to wield white, black or support magic, amongst others, with the same being true for the other character’s Shadows too.
Ultimately, it means an impressive degree of adaptability for battling different types of foes in Blue Dragon, allowing you to, say, put two healing Shadows in your party against the bigger, more powerful bosses, or maybe simply when you find yourself low on health items – likewise putting the most aggressive, powerful roles for Shadows together when you want to plough speedily through enemy-infested areas.
A surprisingly accessible Japanese RPG with its own distinctive feel, charm and quirks.
And in our first few hours with Blue Dragon, there were plenty of these – with notably very little story elements to speak of. Blue Dragon sets the scene in a way more akin to Dragon Quest: Journey of the Cursed King than your typical Final Fantasy, keeping exposition low and action high – and putting the emphasis on Blue Dragon’s impressive way of handling the dreaded ‘random battle’.
Battles in Blue Dragon aren’t random at all, but rather an advanced version of the method used in Dreamcast and PS2 RPG Grandia II. Enemies appear on screen, and will run towards you if you are detected, or you can sneak up on them and gain an advantage when the screen breaks down into Blue Dragon’s turn-based fighting.
In an added twist, however, pressing the R trigger in Blue Dragon brings up an area circle and a small menu which allows you to fight any enemies within that area – meaning you can take on multiple foes at one time. The benefit being that mixing different enemy combos will sometimes see them fighting amongst themselves, helping you out considerably. Moreover, if they don’t fight each other, different monster types will usually follow in consecutive battles, rather than being lumped together in one epic fight – with a rollover lottery giving your team a boost to things like health, accuracy or power.
Up hill and down dale
Having played the dialogue-heavy Final Fantasy XII earlier this year, it feels a little odd that around five hours into Blue Dragon, we can talk about its action elements more than its plot. After starting in Shu’s village and battling an enormous enemy, we’ve been down into caves, up in the sky, down into water, back up in the sky, returned to earth with a bump, visited a village of walking talking sheep, ventured underground in a giant drill and now find ourselves exploring an ancient hospital of some sort.
Blue Dragon feels all very mysterious and a little narrative-lite at this stage. However, we’re assured this will come – and in the meantime, Blue Dragon is still a surprisingly accessible Japanese RPG with its own distinctive feel, charm and quirks which we could see plenty of adventure-loving owners of the RPG-starved Xbox 360 spending a great deal of time with.
Preview by: Mark Scott
Preview Published: 02.08.07