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Blue Dragon by Mistwalker, Artoon
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Comments
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Views
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Date of last review
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1
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9021
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22-Jan-08
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Recommended By
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Average Rating
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No recommendations
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5.0
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Description:
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Three titans of the Japanese RPG: Hironobu Sakaguchi, legendary designer of the Final Fantasy Franchise, Akira Toriyama, famed character designer of Dragonball and Chrono Trigger, and Nobuo Uematsu, brilliant composer of the Final Fantasy games, all come together to create this star studded bucket of fail.
Plot
Every year, a purple cloud descends over the land and terrible destruction is left in its wake. For this village, it comes in the form of a land shark. Of course, this year, plucky young protagonist, Shu, has decided that he's going to stop it!
He doesn’t.
One thing leads to another, and he leads a party of miscreants on a quest of good natured vengeance.
Sights and Sounds
Being so used to playing RPGs on the PS2, it's hard then to remember that games can look as good as they do on the Xbox360. Still, having said that, I always feel like I'm being cheated when I see a game that relies on cell shading. There is just so much potential working behind the system. Technical griping aside, the game does look pretty good.
One of the biggest things that bugged me about the game, other than the cast, which will I will address in a moment, is the voice that constantly feels like it has to narrate the dumbest details: every time your characters part for even the most brief span of time, when they come together again, a subtle female voice will mechanically whisper, "join". Whenever you end a cut-scene, she will say "playable". When you check something, and there is nothing, she will say, you guessed it, "nothing". Of course, if there is an item there, there will be a text prompt. Nonsense.
My next biggest complaint, or perhaps my valid complaint, are the characters. In fact, I venture to say that there is nothing about the characters I like. The main characters all look decidedly generic, wearing mostly earthen tones. Most of their clothes look like they come from another one of Toriyama's works. I don’t have the room here to illustrate comparisons, but look at Nene’s design and tell me that he doesn’t look like a geriatric cross between Freiyza and Piccolo. Tell me, I dare you.
Anyway, looks are only skin deep, right? Well, that may be so, but annoying cuts straight to the core. Shu is one orange jacket away from being quite possibly one of the most frustrating main characters in the history of shonen. Hyper and an attitude greater than the entirety of the Bronx, he pulls his cocky Saturday morning cartoon show lines off without even the skill or ability to back them up.
Don’t. Even. Get. Me. Started. On. Marumaro.
Final Thoughts
It was supposed to sell the Xbox360 in Japan. It was supposed to be a return to old school RPGs. It’s largely forgettable except for the most die-hard fans.
The scenery looks nice, the music is ok, and if you can get beyond the simplest plot ever, the combat system is actually pretty cool without being overly complicated, but that’s about all I can say for it.
Final Verdict: 6.8/10
Official Website: http://bluedragonmanga.com
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Keywords:
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RPG
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Sound & Graphics:
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Very Good
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Entertainment Value:
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Average
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Approx. Retail Price:
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$59.99
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Genre (e.g. Action, Adventure):
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RPG
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Anime Online
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