I just put two hours into it, so here's my initial impressions: I just put two hours into this so here we go!!! The graphics are gorgeous. Truly beautiful. 'Tis a shame ole' Artoon aren't better at programming though because this fact is often dampered by the amount of slowdown in the game. Why the fuck does a turn-based RPG have slowdown? This shit should run at a constant 60fps. But no... there's slowdown. There was slowdown in the opening movie. There's slowdown in the main world. There's slowdown in combat (oh God is there ever slow down in the combat). But that aside, the game really is gorgeous. Also, the character's running animation is really shitty for some odd reason. Eventually you quit noticing it, but eh... it bothered me a lot at first. Story! I'm only 2 hours in and I've only just now gotten to the first Sheep Tribe village. So... uh... nothing to really say about the story so far. Music. Oh my God Uematsu out did himself here. The music is fucking PHENOMENAL!!!! I love it!!!!!! I'd buy a soundtrack if such a thing existed. The music so far is truly superb. 10/10!!!! Haven't seen much of the world, but it seems like it'll be very interesting. Gameplay: I love it. I just wasted 2 hours running around in the first wilderness area just fighting. Oh my God its so awesome. The whole "battle circle" idea is sheer genius, and pitting enemies against each other/stacking battles is just so much fun. The job system is VERY reminiscent of Final Fantasy III, so I'm happy with that (since I preferred III's to V's). Actually, this game in its entirety reminds me of FFIII. So far I'm really liking it. I just wish Artoon hadn't fucked up and left so much slowdown in it. Thats a bit unforgivable IMO. But everything else is about as high quality as I was expecting it to be. Bravo!
I'm about an hour past where you are now and enjoying it a lot . Reminds me of Grandia with a little Dark Cloud thrown in. I must also stress though, the music is truly amazing!
I didn't really care for the demo Plus I have a PS2 now and lots of RPGs are on that puppy for me to enjoy.....
I got a copy of it thrown in for free when I bought a load of games from a shop. I heard bad things about it so it's still just sitting on the warehouse shelf. I guess I'll pop it in and give it a try.
One of my favourite RPG of this year. Enough said. I do share your thoughts JP. Oh and the music just gets better and better. (end boss music - genius) Almost got a full complete, just could not defeat one of the hidden bosses (crystal)
Old fashioned IMO. RPGs have moved on, or are starting to at least. It's a fine RPG, but it's not worth the hype it was given. As so often is the case these days. I am a little jaded as an RPG'er though, so perhaps I am an old man in this debate.
Same here Barc0de theres nothing new to this game that hasn't been in any other RPGs before hand and to be honest I found it confusing at times...and GodofHardcore has a good point theres a lot better rpgs on the ps2
I was expecting some of the ingenuity found in Chrono Trigger - that was a game that made me turn and play the odd RPG every now and then although I m not known for my turn-based patience.
Sadly, Blue Dragon pretty much fell to "Too many damn games coming out" for me to care. Just finished Bioshock and Super Metroid, Working on Metroid Prime 3, and Halo 3 is coming out in late September. Even then, I was not very impressed by the demo and would rather pick up Persona 3 when compared to Blue Dragon.
Yeah, I kind of felt like that too, but it sounds like I just didn't get into it. It's gotta be the first premeire Xbox RPG series, isn't it? I mean ACTUAL rpg?
Enchanted Arms was the first, although it got a PS3 port long after it was released. Wasn't too bad, but had a bunch of little things that made the game annoying to play.
I couldn't finish that one. =/ Then again I didn't play it when it came out. I beat Enchanted Arms. It was alright, the fighting system could be fun, but the game was really glitchy and the PS3 port was supposed to run at like 5fps at times.
I never played the demo for Blue Dragon. As I understand it the demo was not a very good representation of the game though. At any rate, this game is what it was supposed to be: A fresh start by Sakaguchi making a traditional style RPG somewhat aimed at people who weren't very familiar with RPGs. I haven't played a really good next-gen classic style RPG in a looooooong time (played up to the secrer dungeon in Enchanted Arms... then lost interest), so I'm really enjoying it. Good graphics. Good music. Interesting world. I guess the plot gets interesting (intro movie made it seem that way). And the gameplay is really really good for what it is. I dig it. :thumbsup:
Sold like hot cakes in Japan though, probably a game that people bought an xbox 360 for.. although the Xbox 360 is still (said in a highland scots accent) dooooooooomed in Japan.
I dunno, Lost Odyssey might help push it a little further. And maybe Eternal Sonata. God only knows in so far as Cry On goes... </fantasy world>
Did I hot link something in my original post? I don't remember having any pictures in it... I just posted text... Edit: Took out whatever the hell that giant picture was. 0_o
