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Blue Dragon | 
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| From: Microsoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $18.98
You Save: $11.01 (37%)
New (34) Used (12) from $17.15
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 392
Platform: Xbox 360
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: A7J005
Model: A7J-00005
UPC: 882224465038
EAN: 0882224465038
ASIN: B000QW9D14
Release Date: August 28, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Innovative RPG gameplay features | | • | Massive scope and engrossing environments | | • | Stunning graphics | | • | Dazzling character design and effects | | • | Famed developer: Mistwalker is a creative company founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original developer of Final Fantasy |
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| Accessories:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Blue Dragon is an epic role-playing game that centers on a young boy named Shu and several of his friends. These unlikely heroes possess the power to control phantom shadows that mirror the actions of their masters, giving Shu and his comrades miraculous strength and magical powers. The warriors can create and develop their combat styles by utilizing different types of Shadow Change, including Sword, Assassin, and Power Magic. Shu and his friends must use the shadows as weapons and wield their skills to save their world from impending doom. Encountering various people on a planet where numerous ancient ruins remain, the characters and their shadows travel through a world full of mysteries and illusions, where the slightest touch can cause reactions of unparalleled magnitude.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
blue dragon = fun! March 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I decided to buy this even after all those average reviews on the web or in magazines.
Believing that if you liked jrpg you can't do much wrong.
And i'm glad to say i was right. This is a jrpg in the truest sense.
I really can't understand why this game got so much undiserved critism.
Sure it doesn't do anything new but it does the things it does right, and this is very important.
Don't get me wrong it isn't a perfect game, like all game it has its good and bad sides. But the good far outweighs the bad in my eyes.
The bad points so far i encountered ( i played about 18 hours)is that it doesn't have that epic feel games like FF and recently Lost Odyssey has.
And the story takes a long time to get going and only starts to get interesting after about 10-15 hours into the game.
And there are no mini games to complete or side quests to undertake(at least i have not encountered any so far). There is just the main story which will i guess last for about 40 to 50 hours depending on your addiction to level up your characters of course. Those are the bad points that really comes to mind.
As for the good points i can summon this up really easy, it is fun!
The battlesystem is traditional in every sense of old school jrpg.
Turn based and with all the usual elements included. Magic attacks physical attacks and items usage. Every character can choose from different classes from white and black magic users to warrior, assasin, monk and many more. And each has its strong and weak points. What is also worth noting is that every character can switch between all of the classes which they unlock througout the game.
I think i gave a good impression of what you can expect from this game.
Without revealing anything you can better discover for yourself.
I will sum this up easily.
People who can't get enough of turn based jrpg can't do much wrong with this game. Is it a classic? No not really but it a very enjoyable game that can stand it own in its genre.
People who are searching for something new won't find it here, and it won't change your view or turn you over to the jrpg genre if your not a fan of it.
I hope i have been helpful, and made your desicion a little bit easier.
 Great Game March 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love RPG's and this one is a good mix of old turn-based play and new graphics. I don't know how I feel about the Dragon Ball Z style characters yet, but they do show off the 3D rendering power of the X Box 360. I bought the game along with the 360. My wife and I spent an entire weekend playing and wanted to continue but when you're over 40 life still gets in the way of the important things. We definately expect more good things out of microsoft...a company that large should be able to afford good gaming engineers.
P.S. Buy from Amazon.com, you'll always know where and when your stuff is. They even e-mailed me of a shipping problem and they took care of it at no cost to me...good to know a company still cares about service.
All Star Lineup February 16, 2008
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
The first game by Mistwalker Studios, the new project of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Blue Dragon also features art by Dragonball/Dragon Quest artist Akira Toriyama and music by Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu. Does this all-star lineup lead for a quality game?
The story's main character is Shu, a young boy from a remote village. Every year, the village is attacked by a massive "land shark". One year, Shu and his friends decide to attack the land shark to avenge those it killed. Catching onto it as it tries to flee, they find a cavern full of ancient machines. The land shark turns out to be the fin of a great airship, which carries them up to a sky fortress. The story's villain, Nene, reveals himself and indicates that he had the land shark attack the village to amuse himself. The heroes are quickly defeated by him and removed from the ship, but an unknown benefactor carries them back up to the ship and grants them each a power hidden in their shadows. The friends work their way through the world, trying to gain strength and find allies to fight against Nene.
The game plays like almost any other RPG, with the same hit points, magic points, and turn-based system found in so many other games. There's a couple things that set Blue Dragon apart, though. Firstly, there are no "random" battles - like a few other games, Blue Dragon has enemies that appear on the map and can be avoided or pre-emptively attacked (or you can get attacked, too). Blue Dragon's main innovation in this part is that you can corral your enemies together in a radius around you before you start a battle, or specifically choose only one enemy when you are surrounded by a multitude. The main purpose of this is that sometimes enemies will fight each other - usually the strong preying on the weak - which means that you can level the playing field by finding monsters that dislike each other and grouping them together so that they fight amongst themselves.
In the battles themselves, Blue Dragon's main feature is the charge system - certain spells and attacks have a bar that, if stopped when they're full or close to full, do more damage but take longer to cast (whereas if it is empty or close to empty it takes less time but does less damage). There is also a class system, but rather than the characters the classes are assigned to the characters' shadows - the giant creatures that fight for them. These classes are nothing special - the usual mix of fighters and mages. There are different spells that can be bought at stores throughout the game.
The graphics in the game are really nice - they're in a smooth, non-gritty style appropriate for Toriyama's artwork. Everything feels "right" - the effects, characters, and environments all seem appropriate, and none of them have the problem that some games have where they feel too artificial. The designs in the game are definitely Akira Toriyama's style, the characters and airships especially are reminiscent of his designs in the original Dragonball.
The sound is nice - as expected of Nobuo Uematsu - but not really exceptional in any way. There were no songs that made me really take notice of them. During some boss fights, there are rock-and-roll type songs with actual singers and lyrics, which was pretty neat. There is voice acting in English, French, and Japanese, which is a pretty wide choice for such an expansive game. Each seemed to be pretty decent in quality, though none of it really stood out as being particularly well-acted.
As a whole, this game is "more of the same" for RPGs. It's good, but it's not different. If you like traditional RPG gameplay, then that's great, but it doesn't bring enough to the table to really distinguish itself. By itself, though, it's a pretty solid package.
8/10.
 above average. February 8, 2008
I'm not an avid gamer anymore, but i do know a good game when i play one. This one in particular is above average, as far as fun factor goes.
Graphics are good,( there are some slowdown issues at times, and skipping in some scenes) sound ranges from ok to really good,( if your not under 16 you will find some of the voice work to be really annoying), gameplay is as easy and traditional as a japanese rpg can be. Story is nothing special, same ol good kids versus a terribly evil villain, there are some small twists here and there for good measure. For me the most enjoying part is character upgrades. everything else was above average.
A journey down the middle of the road January 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
[...]When Blue Dragon was released in Japan and I saw some actual game footage, I was a little taken aback. Rather than an ambitious next-gen RPG, it seemed like a typical Miyazaki-inspired bright-eyed youthful "We'll NEVER give up!" romp/quest that I've played seemingly hundreds of times over the last 15 years or so. Then the demo came out a few months ago, and after playing it a couple of times I had completely lost all interest in Blue Dragon. And that was that... or so I thought.
[...]For the most part, all of my fears were confirmed. The story and characters are as dull, banal and insipid as I thought they'd be. The characters are a half step away from being literally blank slates. The story is incredibly dull... even when it predictably picks up a bit of steam in the final act. The battle and abiliity systems aren't exactly old school or old fashioned, but they're certainly not cutting edge, unless you still consider ideas from 2001 to be cutting edge. I must admit, the battles are much more fun in the full game than they were in the demo. (Giving you access to pretty much every single ability in the game in the demo was a huge mistake.)
The two things I find myself truly enjoying are exploring the dungeons, and the graphics. The dungeons are very well designed and laid out, and the the whole affair is very easy on the eyes. We've finally reached the point where an in-game engine looks as nice and solid as FMV cutscenes... from 1997.
EDIT: I apologize for the bracketed sections in this review. I try to provide some background to give my opinions context, but Amazon's editorial dept. found them to be objectional in this case for some reason.
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