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koalabear's ブルードラゴン Blue Dragon (360)
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| [January 15, 2008 03:00:56 AM]
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GAMEPLAY
As I played Blue Dragon the second time around, I found myself still enjoying it, maybe even more than the first time. The story didn't go much further than what it had the first time around, but I got into my first boss battle and it was quite exciting. During this time, i was at a higher level than before with more skills, so it made the battle pretty interesting. I was fighting this dinosaur thing with armor on its back. It was pretty cool because I was able to steal a Silver Bracelet from it and I had to figure out its weakness. Ok, I didn't have to figure out its weakness, it told me where it was half way during the battle, but i did have to figure out how to hit it, since normal attacks couldn't reach its head. But yeah, after that battle, what started to excite me was the leveling. As I reached higher levels, new skills were learned and new classes were opened.
Being able to find new items on the map still was quite fun, but it did become a bit tiresome following the outline of the map to make sure that I looked everywhere. It was cool when I found xp boosts though, that made it worth the work. And finding poo (not just any poo, golden poo) after a battle still put a smile on my face. I ended up in an area where a puzzle was in need of solving. I was stuck for a bit, but it's nothing that a little exploring couldn't handle. The puzzle was hard enough to stall me a bit, but it was nothing harsh. So yeah, I was still into the game quite a bit, and still fun.
DESIGN
What I really enjoyed about Blue Dragon was the leveling up system. As you battle enemies, you gain experience and SP. Experience is for your character and effects your HP, MP, and other attributes. SP is experience given to the shadow guardian and effects some of the attributes of the character but also the new skills and classes gained. So instead of buying a new skill from merchants or already have a fixed number of skills, you gained them as you grow. Also, when you change classes, say from a black mage to a sword master, you can still keep the skills learn as a black mage. This isn't the first time I've seen this though, but I do enjoy this structure.
The battles feel pretty smooth and don't get that boring. Every action goes into this animation that feels pretty cinematic. It follows system where the players take turns depending on their speed (I guess) or how long it takes to do certain attacks, depending on how long you charge it. And again, the poo presents never fail to make the victory that much more sweeter.
The art style for the game isn't anything new, but is fun so see. The creatures look unique and each present a different mood when entering battles. I often laugh when i fight against the Poo Snakes (don't what's the obsession with poo) and when I run into the Fat Rat, I mean business. The way each of the areas looked weren't that great, and the some of the maps where pretty big, which made it a bit boring trying to find stuff. However, overall, the presentation of the game was unique and different from most titles offered on the Xbox 360 and was refreshing to see.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 15th, 2008 at 03:02:05.
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| [January 13, 2008 05:52:14 PM]
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Blue Dragon is a RPG that begins in the village of Talta, where three kids named Shu, Jiro, and Kluke try to defeat a creature that had been terrorizing their village for some time. Their attempt leads them to discover the real evil that is not only facing their village, but the world. Later on, they meet up with other characters and try to stop a madman who threatens the planet. Blue Dragon take the turn based battle system and combines a system that allows you to customize each of the characters way you want them.
Blue Dragon started off pretty slow for me, as it tried to build a story. I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it much since the plot wasn't that capturing. It kind of followed that boy saving the world story line, however in this case, it's three kids, some bat thingy, and a pirate using their shadow guardians to save world. Also, as the characters presented their persona, they seemed a bit artificial. It made it hard for me to connect to the smart kid, Jiro, since he sticks with his calculations or to the leader, Shu, since he seems overly determined to do the next action. Kluke on the other hand seems to be the normal 16 kid in the game. I don't know, she's pretty cool, with her black magic powers. However, the humor and gameplay of the game is what got me into the game.
I love the gameplay in this game. It combines your typical RPG elements and mixes them with other games elements to create a pretty refreshing gaming experience. It allows free roaming around the world map, something i haven't seen in a while. Maybe I just been playing the wrong games. It also take away the random enemy encounter thingy by replacing it with visible enemies on the screen. However, it keeps it interesting by allowing random creatures to appear on the map, so you can't just defeat everything on the map. And when an enemy drops an item, instead of leaving a treasure chest, it leaves poo. I found it hilarious that when you examine it, it goes *squish squish*. Good times. They also allow the player to find items on the map that are not bound to the treasure chest by examining little details on the map like looking under a pile of rocks or into a dead tree. That made me want to explore every little thing in every new area I came to. Thought that made the game a bit more fun. What i also liked about Blue Dragon was the way the characters develop was they level up. As your character gets stronger, new skills and classes open up. You can switch between them and even keep other skills as you change classes. This meant that I can play the game in multiple ways and it's all cool. I really like that idea. Overall, i enjoyed playing my first hour of Blue Dragon and I can't wait to continue so... I'll get back to playing.
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koalabear's ブルードラゴン Blue Dragon (360)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 13 January, 2008
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