As much as we love our white box of joy over here in the US, the Xbox 360 has not gone down too well in the land of the rising sun. When I say “not too well”, what I really mean is that it’s pretty much crashed and burned. Already well outsold by the recently released PS3 and Wii, few 360 titles make much of an impact there. That was until a Japanese RPG called Blue Dragon came out. A lack of traditional RPGs on the Xbox 360 has always been a hindrance to its sales. It’s certainly something the PS2 has in abundance, and with the Japanese loving their turn-based RPG, they’ve never really taken Xbox into their hearts. Blue Dragon has come along to change things though, to scratch the turn-based RPG itch of 360 owners worldwide, and it’s certainly made a good start recording an impressive 4th place debut in the Japanese software charts, outgunning the likes of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Developers Mistwalker have created an old fashioned, clichéd, turn-based battling RPG and make no apologies for it. This is for the hardcore RPG gamer, somebody who gets a thrill from selecting an attack that achieves a critical hit. Somebody who fails a boss battle and so trains for hours to make sure it doesn’t happen again. RPGs can be gruelling tasks, and you’ll probably either love them or hate them. If you’re the sort who gets up and does a little dance when your character levels up, read on as Blue Dragon may just be what you’re looking for (Note – you don’t actually have to dance, you may just have a burning desire to do so).
Firstly, Akira Toriyama is behind the game’s artwork. Who, you say? Akira is the artistic genius behind Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger, legendary RPGs, not to mention the popular franchise DragonBall. If that doesn’t get your pulse racing with anticipation, the Final Fantasy creator’s studio is developing this game! So far, so good.
Players take control of a little guy called Shu as a clichéd story unravels. I won’t spoil any of it for you, though you’ve probably lived through it already via another game. However, if you’re really into your RPGs I doubt that would put you off, with many of the best RPGs adopting the same predictable storylines. What’s sure to impress though is the very size of the game. Mistwalker laugh at games only spanning one disc. They cackle at their pathetic loneliness. So Blue Dragon is two discs right? Wrong. Disproving the old saying “three’s a crowd” and bound to bring a tear to the eye of any Final Fantasy 7 veteran, Blue Dragon spans a mighty 3 discs. This game is guaranteed to have you occupied for months, curing any of those completed-Oblivion blues.
