Like most role-playing games, Blue Dragon also allows you to customize your character with different spells and items. The game also features a class system that has been lifted wholesale from Final Fantasy V. When you change your class you will be able to use different spells and special attacks, but at the same time you're going to have to level up that class before you can do anything cool. This is a nice option for that want to try out different abilities, but you can go through the entire game without touching the character classes and not have a single problem.
My biggest complaint against Blue Dragon has nothing to do with the weak story or generic gameplay; instead I find myself disliking the characters more than anything. Blue Dragon's characters have been created by none other than Akira Toriyama, best known for his work with Dragon Ball Z. Given his track record it's not hard to understand why the characters have a very anime-inspired look to them, but I never found the characters to be all that interesting looking. The main three characters really annoy me, and as far as I'm concerned the only character I enjoyed looking at was the busty Zola.
But it's not just about the looks; I also found that these characters were very boring. There's really no reason to be interested in any of these characters, and their conversations are beyond dull. And if that wasn't enough, most of the characters have these over-the-top anime voices that just grate on my nerves. I found myself actively hating some of these characters as I played the game, which is not a good sign when you're spending 50 hours of your life playing with them.
When I first saw pictures of Blue Dragon I worried that the graphics would be underwhelming; after all, the game has a very simple look with very little in the way of detail. Thankfully the game looks a lot better in action. Yes the graphics are very simple, but he look of the game is clean and crisp. The art style won't blow you away or anything, but the game's presentation is nice. The game looks especially good when you're battling some of the larger monsters; I love the different camera angles you get to see the action from, that's a nice touch that makes this game look more like a next generation game. Then again, there's really nothing about the game's look that couldn't have been done on one of the older consoles, but the overall graphics shouldn't take away from your enjoyment of Blue Dragon.
Old school role-playing fans who have only owned Xbox products recently will no doubt get a kick out of Blue Dragon. This is a worthwhile game if only because it's the only game of its kind currently available for the Xbox 360. As more and more Japanese RPGs start flooding the store shelves this game will no doubt lose some of its significance, but if you're looking for a role-playing game to sink your teeth into at this very moment then you could do a lot worse than Blue Dragon. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, because it's about time some of the Japanese companies started offering traditional RPGs to Microsoft's next generation console.
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With its generic characters, story and gameplay one could argue that this is just an imitation of better role-playing games on the market. But when you're the only Japanese RPG on the console then you're a little less choosey. Blue Dragon isn't a bad game, it's just not worth the two year wait it took to hit the Xbox 360.
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