The man behind the proverbial mask is Hironobu Sakaguchi, who actually created the Final Fantasy series. Also working on the team is Akira Toriyama, a trusted figure of anime and video game design. You may remember a somewhat popular anime series fronted by Toriyama called Dragonball Z, as well as a superb RPG experience of 2006 going by the name of Dragon Quest VIII. To round off the audio experience Nobuo Uematsu, one of the most influential and appreciated video game composers ever, is taking care of the soundtrack. Uematsu also hails from the legendary Final Fantasy series, a veteran of many famous installments. So an extremely experienced team of leaders is behind the original creation Blue Dragon, and one can’t ask for a better foothold than that.
Looks to be a ladder-based combat system, a la FFX.
Blue Dragon is gearing up to tell the story of Shu, a young, spiky-haired kid from a sleepy little village. Joining him are his friend Jiro and Kluke, a pair of equally tiny freedom fighters. Those three characters won’t be the only party members – we’ve also seen the wild Marumaro and the swashbuckling pirate chick Zola fighting alongside the original trio. Check out the screens – Jiro looks uncannily similar to the Great Saiyaman. The main crux of the story (at least to begin with) concerns some large, black, and probably evil storm clouds that deal damage and wreak havoc on anything and everything. Also featured in some screens and trailers is a wild old man with neon purple skin, complete with bright orange-rimmed glasses. Even facing off with Shu at one point, he appears to be the game’s main antagonist – but as we all know, it’s wise to save your conclusions about who is the real main man until the final boss battle.
These pint-sized heroes are definitely worthy adversaries, each possessing an ability to summon a massive blue animal from their individual shadows. If initial videos and icons (all in Japanese thus far) are anything to go by, the different dragons will provide several unique traits, therefore giving the player a chance to build a powerhouse party of varying abilities and classes. In actual fact, other characters won’t necessarily be supported by dragons – we’ll see giant blue versions of a hawk, tiger, bull and bat. Shu looks to be the serious damage-dealer, while other members appear to brandish black magic or air attack capabilities.
Bringing out the big guns.
At this point there doesn’t seem to be a completely original combat system. It’s a very classic formula we’ve seen so far; turn-based trickery triggered by approaching overworld enemies. This is not a new concept at all; it’s been around since the Grandia (a quality RPG - get it) days. Still, it’s a viable option for using a turn-based system, and shouldn’t be feeling old any time soon. Given that enemies are always seen before fought, it gives the player an opportunity to perform an initiative attack to begin the battle, dealing extra damage or allowing a slight advantage in the first round of turns.
Nothing describes the graphical style better than cleanliness. A double-edged adjective to be sure, but rather than going with a detailed, explosive environment and character style, everything seems completely clear and clean. This is a direct anime style, and seems to suit the characters and design extremely well. We’ll wait until we have some hot HD gameplay experiences to fully appreciate the technical competence, but for now Blue Dragon is sporting a clean, cartoonish look unlike anything else yet seen on the Xbox 360.
We’re reluctant to dish too many specific details at this point, given that everything is in Japanese and many specifics could get lost in translation. We’re also hoping for some bonus content for the English (or even better, PAL) version of the game, hopefully set for release this year. The adventure also spans a whopping three discs, a trend that’s been missing from more of the RPG world since the four-disc marathon Final Fantasy games on the PlayStation. This isn’t a bad thing at all – disc breaks allow climaxes to be built and progress checkpoints to be ascertained for the player’s personal benefit. In any case, we’ll spill some more details once translation nears completion, and when we get our paws on a playable copy.
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