The creators of Dragon Ball and Final Fantasy come together to create a unique game on Xbox 360.
It’s Sunday, and that means it’s time for another Sunday to look back on after a season of rest. This week we bring you a game much loved by all Xbox and JRPG fans. Of course, we’re referring to Mistwalker’s Xbox 360 Blue Dragon title.
Blue Dragon was one of the original projects intended to transform the Xbox 360 in an attractive console for the Japanese market. Announced even before the name of Xbox 360 was final, the game would be published by Microsoft as the first Mistwalker game. For this, the dream team formed by the original director of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchithe character designer of Dragon BallAkira Toriyamaand even the composer of Final Fantasy, Nobuo Ueamatsu. The game would also be co-developed by Artoon, which at the time was best known for Blinx games. The game was slated for release in 2006, and despite rumors of a delay, it arrived in Japan at the end of this year on three discs (the first Xbox 360 game on multiple discs). He will arrive in Europe in August of the following year.
Despite many big names, such as Sakaguchithe game was made primarily by Takuya Matsumoto from Artoon. after leading Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space, this Blue Dragon would be his next adventure. The biggest challenge for the Artoon team was adapting to a new genre. Their previous games were mostly action titles, so diving into a turn-based RPG was new territory for them. With the help of monitoring of a teacher like Sakaguchiwere able to develop a coherent project.
The plot of Blue Dragon revolves around the idea that people can get an ally in the form of magic shadows. By obtaining Orbs of Light, these people can become Shadowbringers, gaining new powers and otherworldly strength. That’s where they come in Shu and his friends, Jiro and Kluke. After falling into the hands of the villainous Nene, the three heroes discover three orbs of light as a mysterious voice tells them to swallow them. The three end up swallowing the orbs and gaining these new magic shadows. Shu gets the Blue Dragon, Kluke the Phoenix, and Jiro the Minotaur.. With this new power, they will have everything they need to defeat Nene and her army of machines.
Blue Dragon plays like a traditional JRPG alternately throughout life. Enemies roam the map and chase the player, and interacting with them triggers a battle. Magic shadows grant magic and special abilities, giving characters the ability to fight. Along the journey, they will encounter other allies, such as Marumaro and Zola, who also wield magical shadows. The five of them continue their adventure until they finally manage to fight Nene, who tries to absorb their shadows into himself.
With a story that spans three albums, of course, there are many events to unfold. Interestingly, the game does not use cel-shading, opting instead for a more traditional rendering with the fantastical designs of a master like Toriyama. Additionally, Blue Dragon has more than good english dubbing, something that would now be almost impossible to see in a game of these conditions. The game It was received fairly positively by critics., and it even sold quite well in Japan. Considering Xbox 360’s low popularity in the region, this was a big win. Despite this, the franchise would continue on a different platform. The one that was more popular in Japan.
The Blue Dragon series would go to Nintendo DS. Blue Dragon Plus would become a real-time strategy game with a story that would take place a year after the events of the first game. of notoriety. In 2007, Pierrot would produce an anime for the franchise which managed to reach 102 episodes. For an anime from a video game, this is something quite notable. He also had a manga that followed a totally different story and told with the creator of the popular Death Note.
Although it’s been around 15 years since the original game, it’s still playable on the current generation of Xbox. With backwards compatibility, current players can play blue dragon in Xbox One, Xbox Series S and Series X. Although it is a title published by Microsoftit seems like Mistwalker is the owner of the rights to the series. Giving Blue Dragon a second chance might be what Mistwalker needs to be back to being the promising studio it seemed.
