For some types of people, Blue Dragon was one of the most exciting releases of 2007. Mistrunner, the first game from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s new studio, marks his first collaboration with Akira Toriyama since 1995’s Chrono Trigger. Contains music by FF mainstay Nobuo Uematsu.
It also had the burden of being one of the first big JRPGs for the Xbox 360 (a console that had virtually no presence in Japan), showing just how wonderful things could be done in the genre with all this cutting-edge technology new things.
iGamesNews
The result was basically a six out of ten, and everyone was quick to start chasing the fancier things that were to come. The game ostensibly bills itself as a new, massive Dragon Quest, but it’s actually very traditional, even competing with the series’ first foray into a fully 3D open world, 2004’s Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King The same is true in comparison. It’s entirely a PS2 JRPG that just happens to run on a console with an HDMI port.
When news broke of Akira Toriyama’s death, the last thing I expected was Blue Dragon – a small footnote in the body of work that would become one of the most prolific pop culture artists of all time. That didn’t stop me from immediately installing all three discs on my Xbox and giving it the attention it deserved nearly two decades ago.
In hindsight, Blue Dragon was surprisingly forward-thinking in how it modernized some aspects of the traditional turn-based RPG while maintaining much of its appeal. Enemies don’t respawn in the dungeon until you leave, allowing you to peruse every nook and cranny for treasure while soaking up the levels and music. There are no random encounters in the game – monsters are slow enough to be avoided entirely, and dim enough to be introduced to opposing factions, making the fin al battle much easier as both groups will ignore you to duel.
You gain amazing MP regeneration very early on, allowing your party to more or less last indefinitely. You can unlock fast travel faster in this game than in any other JRPG, eliminating the stress of losing treasure or exploring too far from a safe town.
After a week, Final Fantasy 7 Reborn’s real-time combat has my ass back on a silver platter – having a big, correct enemy turn order plastered across the top of the screen in Blue Dragon is breathtaking fresh air. .
It’s also nice that, after years of big RPGs giving you fewer and fewer ways to develop your character, you can use what is essentially a carbon copy of Final Fantasy 5’s unparalleled job system – which lets you mix it up and matching skills from several typical JRPG categories. Temporarily turning your mages into assassins so you can give them skills that retain assassin agility (thus, letting them fire buffs or debuffs before the enemy has a chance to act) will work on you if that’s your brain incredible impact on the brain. You like the morbid, mechanical stuff.
Of course, the biggest draw for fans of the genre at the time was the monsters. There’s also a veritable platter of Toriyama’s creature designs here – a truly hottest list of Wee Guys. The first monster you encounter is actually called a “Poop Snake,” a pink turd wearing a Mickey Mouse glove and a spear—just one example of the various poop-based creatures in the ecosystem.
There are gorgeous ball-shaped robots with grasping little claw hands; creepy crawlers with cartoon faces and scary long tongues; bright red dinosaurs with teeth and claws. Big, fat angry rat. So, there are so many sentient poops. The main villain is the evil Yoda, who wears Vegeta’s armor and carries a cackling frog creature on his shoulders. Everything is very, very good.
Ignore the hostile creatures and your own party will be home to one of the historical Toriyama little guys – Marumaro, a chubby little demon boy wearing a demon cloak and a devil’s horn pot on his head. Visiting his hometown, where the little ones are always dancing with pots and pans on their heads, is a real highlight, thanks in large part to the game’s other highlight: the design of its towns and villages. As well as perfectly complimenting Toriyama’s design, they feature rich detail and the opportunity to interact with all of these wonderful little guys – from goat-men to little old men.
Similar to how Toriyama’s main interest in Chrono Trigger was the opportunity to draw something other than fantasy, there’s a range of mechanical fun on display in Blue Dragon . If you’re a fan of Toriyama’s cars, you should take a look at these full 3D renderings of these exaggerated underground tanks and egg-shaped spaceships. This is a proper implementation of some of his best vehicle concept work.
blue dragon Not allowed is home to Toriyama’s best work (and it possible To be honest, this is home to some of Uematsu’s weakest), but it proves that, if necessary, his B-grade material would be the highlight of any other artist’s career. The designs of these creatures are deceptively simple, but seeing them in motion is so enjoyable that they easily justify going back to play the damn thing alone.
Blue Dragon is available to download from the Store on any modern Xbox Now – It’s a real testament to how seriously Microsoft is taking their few attempts at a big, exclusive JRPG.
While “Blue Dragon” isn’t quite as nostalgic as “Mistwalker”‘s more serious sequel, “The Lost Odyssey,” it has a Saturday morning cartoon charm that makes it an extremely light-hearted, approachable addition to the genre. works that may be intimidating to viewers. Enter.
One of the turds also wore a crown, and I can’t think of a better way to honor Toriyama than to watch one of his adorable little turds doing his silly little dance in all his kingly glory, Also smile to yourself. This is exactly what men want.
