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User Review : Blue Dragon

Ups

Story{Graphics

Downs

To many one hit kills with enemies{Button mashing parts

I will never give up!

Yes you will hear that line a lot. It seems to be the ideal Mistwalker is instilling upon us through out the game. A good moral in times of need for sure and seeing these kids are up to saving the lands then all the better to have a good head on yourself.

Blue Dragon is a Mistwalker title headed by Mr Final Fantasy himself. Mistwalker is already making themselves known to the Xbox and DS crowd thanks to their want to bring RPGs to those selected consoles. Unfortunately while they have a well known leader they do not have any well known franchises, although, they are a new name so only time will tell.

The main characters are kids with more determination then the adults around them. You start off with a trio trying to save the town from a Land Shark that has plagued them for years. No not the Chevy Chase Land Shark but one that's a massive creature that can swim in the sand. Your personas have a plan to take it down and naturally things don't go exactly as planned and the three of you go careening down a chasm. Fun.

While trying to find a way out of the cave you learn the ways of combat. While in the zoned areas you can see the enemies walking around so you can get a first attack, back attack, or even avoid the battle all together. Once you do initiate the attack you are brought into the fighting mode. Here is a turn based structure where you don't have a timing bar but you have placements on the top part of the screen much like the turn placements of FFX. Starting off you can only attack or defend so pretty cut and dry right off the bat.

Something else to think while traveling is anything you can see you'll probably find money, items, skill points, and sometimes nothing. I do mean anything like that pile of machines over there, or a rock jutting out, perhaps that screw or bolt in the wall, vents, trees, and they even have the always present treasure chest.

Soon down the road your brought upon the bigger picture in a sense and find the evil bad guy. While trying to make your escape a mysterious voice helps you along, and tells you to take these shinny white pills. Once ingested you get your shadows, blue in fact, and one is a dragon. I think we've found the title. That will allow you to finally use magic and abilities.

The abilities are your different jobs found in a RPG. Monk, Thief, Assassin, White Mage, Black Mage, Knight, and some more. Every character can level any job but it would be worthwhile to level different jobs for the different group members so you can have a balanced party. Sure you can have massive damage with all your party members Monks but what if you run into an enemy that only takes damage with magic or if you suddenly need to cure someone?

To start a fight you can pull the right trigger which will open a circle around you. Any enemies inside that circle you can take on and this is how you can take on multiple enemies. In fact if you have two enemies that hate each other they will fight each other before attacking you. Or you can run up to each individually and hit them to start a fight.

You get the see the world and help others who are being effected by this purple mist that is controlled by our bad guy Nene. Nene is bent of restoring his past glory and has a plan that unless you get involved will probably go thru without a hitch.

You will have a max of 5 members in your party and while it is 3 discs the story moves pretty fast. The bosses come out of no where and are nothing like the enemies you face day to day. Plus the music for the bosses seems a bit off from the rest of the game. Yet like I said a diverse group of jobs will help you take down your opposition.

Graphically this looks amazing with the art direction and is a finely polished game. If you are a fan of Dragon Ball then you'll feel right at home and the characters, while some are annoying, have a story and are fighting for all there own reasons but ban together.