Blue Dragon: An Overlooked Remedy

J.C. Wigriff examines why when an excellent turn-based JRPG comes out, it receives a luke-warm reception and goes mostly ignored, regardless of widespread demand for a return to old JRPG formulas.

[belac09]

i love the blue dragon games! very underrated

[Fullmetalevolust]

just my opinion (of course), it came out on the wrong console. Ever since the PS1 , the playstation brand has been the home for JRPG's, and so to have it as an xbox exclusive was a bit of a miscalculation and a gamble.
It's now in the bargain bin for anyone to pick it up if they own an xbox.

[Wigriff]

I agree entirely. When Square made the jump from Nintendo to Playstation because of not wanting to support the N64's cartridge-based games, it solidified Playstation as the system of choice for JRPG lovers. After 2 generations of Playstation consoles, JRPG gamers have seemed to develop a bit of brand loyalty, and have stuck with Sony through the PS3. Mistwalker was funded by Microsoft, though, so without Microsoft, the company and the game wouldn't have existed in the first place. I suppose that, if you want to make games, sometimes you have to deal with the Devil. :)

[Wigriff]

narutoomenga:

Er... umm... I don't see your point, or how it is relevant to what I said.

Squaresoft left Nintendo because Nintendo decided to make the N64 a cartridge-based system. That is why Final Fantasy VII came out on the PSX. That is why I bought a Playstation. That is why countless people bought Playstation. We stuck with the Playstation through PSX and PS2 because that's where the JRPGs were, and they were great games. I bought a PS3 fully anticipating more great JRPGs.

Alas, that has nothing to do with what I said about Blue Dragon.

Mistwalker was founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi with the financial backing of Microsoft. Microsoft gave Sakaguchi the money to start the company, and because of that, they wanted the games they produced to be exclusive to the 360 platform. It didn't have anything to do with the sales of the 360, and everything to do with Mistwalker's existence being solely the result of Microsoft's investment.

[TheDivine]

Thats why it was on the 360 though, to get jrpg fans to buy a 360. In the past fans used to follow FF, RE, and genre's to whatever platform had them. Now they just take whats given to them and bash the rest. Jrpg fans should have supported Ms/Mistwalker because they wouldve turned both series into regular releases like Halo but the fans would rather have nothing than buy a 360. Sony did the same thing as MS but with western games. They made Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog, and Insomniac make realistic shooting games to bring western gamers in and compete with Ms. Both tried to capture the others market which is kind of funny to me.

Blue Dragon wasnt my cup of tea. I loved the graphics, liked the art design, the world, the lore, and the combat was turn based perfection. Where it lost me was the story and the characters. I guess it was made as a Dragon Quest throwback with minimal story but it begged for a better heartfelt story instead of "WE WONT GIVE UP" and Marumaru. Still its the second best turn based rpg on hd consoles behind Lost Odyssey (imho). If you can overlook the story its a really solid jrpg. Id love a sequel one day.

[ChunkyLover53]

I loved this game, one of the great early Xbox 360 titles.

[blue_cheese]

the problem with Blue Dragon and many other Microsoft published exclusives, are that Microsoft does a ridiculously poor job of advertising these games. if its not Halo, Gears, or Forza, Microsoft does a terrible job of advertising. Blue Dragon was a great game, and deserves a sequel. sadly Microsoft will probably ignore this game.

[CrimsonessCross]

Mistwalker is an amazing company :) and is backed up Hironobu Sakaguchi :)

I have played, beaten and own both Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon on my 360. Blue Dragon was a game I remember hearing about from someone at a counter and thought about renting it, but it wasn't really ever there.

Lost Odyssey caught me with the commercial and that song that they used for the commercial was fantastically amazing for it! (Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit).

Sucks that I don't remember any sort of commercial for Blue Dragon though. I'd say it's definitely overlooked for different reasons for different people though. Was a pretty good game with the blend of Dragon Ball Z characters and Final Fantasy-esque stuff put into it :)