Developer: Microsoft
Publisher: Mistwalker
Genre: RPG
Rating:  RP (Rating Pending)
Number of Players: 1
Expected Release: Date Pending

Blue Dragon: Gallery

The two other important people that will be working on Blue Dragon are also top RPG specialists. Akira Toriyama, famous for his work in the Dragon Quest series of games and most notably as being the mastermind behind the immensely popular Dragon Ball Z manga and anime series, will be lending his artistic talents to the game as he’ll be designing the game’s main characters as well as its enemies. Lastly, you have Japan’s most famous videogame music composer Nobou Uematsu, renowned for his work for the Final Fantasy series, is also contributing heavily to Blue Dragon.

The last time this trio worked together they produced the legendary Chrono Trigger. There are, of course, critics that believe that this popular cast does not guarantee that Blue Dragon will be an incredible game. There is never a guarantee of how a game will turn out, despite who is making it. However, there is a 99.9% chance that Blue Dragon ends up being one of the best ever made.

Blue Dragon is not only Microsoft biggest chance at success in Japan, but also the biggest 360 game to date. Literally. The adventure is reportedly said to be 40-50 hours in length, spanning 3 DVDs, which would’ve been greater than 30GB had it not been for compression. The game follows the adventures of a 16-year-old boy named Shu and four of his friends. The party is on a quest to stop Nene, an ancient being whose goal is to revive magical powers that have long been forgotten in order to bring chaos to the world. The party consists of: Jiro, an intelligent boy who likes to plan everything out before acting; a girl named Kluke that has lost both her parents; Marumaro, a creature from the Devi tribe who would be the equivalent of 14 years old in human years; and Zora, the oldest of the bunch, a 20 year old female mercenary that finds it hard to trust anyone.

Prepare for liftoff!

In Blue Dragon, all five characters have special Phantom Shadows, which are representative of each character’s heart that gives them access to amazing magical abilities. The characters don’t start out with these Phantom Shadows, but the reasoning behind how and why the five characters were chosen is important to the game’s plot. The main character Shu is the only one that has an actual Blue Dragon Shadow. Jiro has a Minotaur Shadow, Kluke has a Phoenix Shadow, Marumaro has a Tiger Shadow and Zora has a Bat Shadow. All five shadows are blue. In battle, the Shadows mimic the movements of each character. So just like a real shadow, these phantom shadows are extensions of each character.

The game’s combat system will be a traditional turn based system with some additions. An interesting feature that makes the battle system unique is the ability to charge moves. When you select certain attacks, a bar appears with where each of the characters in battle (both ally and enemy) will move. By holding down the button, you can charge the attack up, increasing its damage. However, pushing the point of attack will cause the attack to activate beyond other characters turns, so the attack comes out later but is more powerful.

The new cast of loveable characters!

There are also real-time elements as you’ll be able to see each enemy before you engage them in combat. You will also have access to a number of out of battle abilities such as tossing bombs to paralyze enemies so that you have a first strike advantage when you enter battle. There is also a barrier that surrounds the main character and instantly kills any enemies that are of a certain number of levels below yourself, as well as being able to disappear so you can be undetected by enemies.

Sakaguchi stated that with each character shadow, you’ll be able to choose what type of attacks they specialize in and this will have an affect on the appearance of the shadow. Similar to Final Fantasy’s job system, as you level up you’ll gain new abilities associated with your character’s current job. There are nine categories of Shadows, which can be changed freely at any time. The Shadows and characters have different levels and thus need different types of experience to level up. This also allows for some nice customization as well as mixing and matching different shadow abilities. Also equipped skills give you a great deal of variety; you can get a maximum of 11 skill slots and with many skills combined together, you can create a magical sword attack that both steals and absorbs HP and MP or maybe even an attack that kills in one hit. Sakaguchi also gave an example that explained how the appearances of shadows may differ from job to job. Picture a shadow that specializes in melee combat, this shadow may appear to have many muscles, whereas one that specializes in magic may look thinner.

Another cool element to the game is that there is this option called Fight All while running around and exploring. Fight All is a circle that expands out from around your character allowing you to fight all of the monsters within it at the same time. The trick with Fight All is that some monsters don't like other monsters. If you can get two groups that don't like each other in the same battle, they may start fighting each other. This feature would make it possible to fight 10 or more groups at once. Enemies could end up doing weird things like fighting each other or healing your party.