Blue Dragon Reviews

I thought I'd start a new thread for this since the last BD one got locked,

Famitsu Japan reviewed it and it got 10/9/9/9

Summary stolen from gaf:
Storytelling is very effective and nicely done, Battle system is easy to handle and well balanced,
Having mass appeal for newbies as well.
Gamers will be satisfied with depth in battle,and tons of hidden things around objects.
We can say BD is very traditional but very evolved RPG.
-- Score 9 --

It feels like traditional epic RPG revived with high-end technologies.
Softly and heart warming visuals.very customizable grow-up system with depth.
Effects and cutscenes are not so flashy, but techniques of storytelling are really skills.
-- Score 9 --

Well balanced RPG with authority. Battle is very deep, Kudos to Shadow system with lot of categories and skills,
And some nifty systems like making enemies fought each others.
The story is very compelling, each events have moving dramas.
One thing that depressed me a little was there is a feature to check enemy's poo.
-- Score 9 --

Battles and UIs include command directions are totally stress-free.
You can play for hours w/o stress, This is relatively uncommon for typical RPGs.
We could find joy of Toriyama's artworks, even in movies and battles.
And I really love the music on boss battle, performed by Ian Gillan.
-- Score 10 --

--- This weeks "summary" must buy! --
Reviewer1:You gamers must play BlueDragon and better to try spreading this for non-gamers.
Reviewer2:RPG gamers won't have any regret for buying BlueDragon.
Reviewer3:I can recommend BlueDragon for everyone. Cutting edge but Retro feeling. I'd rather say those kids will love it.
Reviewer4:BlueDragon is very solid, Ian Gillan's boss music made dug up old CD and listen in "Speed King"

Lots more info here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130965&page=1
 
Is that Famitsu Xbox or the normal Famitsu?

Famitsu Xbox has a tendency to rate 360 games higher than normal Famitsu (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). A 10/9/9/9 from Famitsu would mean a lot more than from Famitsu Xbox.

Good review regardless though. I wish there was a date set for the states...
 
Kind of surprising, but in a good way. We knew it was a traditional RPG, but hearing that they executed gameplay and story at a very high level is surprising to a degree. I like the art, but I have to ask: In the gameplay shots there is some sort of grid dithering like some Wii shots show.
 
Just a friendly reminder:
Leave the multiple DVD discussion out of here or it gonna rain fire...
 
Kind of surprising, but in a good way.
Tell me about it. MS's efforts in Japan have been marred for so long. It's nice to see them bank on something that turns out. Remember Sneakers? Kakuto Chojin? TFLO? I'm merely hitting the highlights; there's lots more where those came from.
 
I like the art, but I have to ask: In the gameplay shots there is some sort of grid dithering like some Wii shots show.

I thought I was seeing some kind of grid pattern until I realized I'm watching images auto-resized-to-fit by IE7; when I clicked on them, they expand and the grid disappears.

Which image do you have in mind specifically?
 
Tell me about it. MS's efforts in Japan have been marred for so long. It's nice to see them bank on something that turns out. Remember Sneakers? Kakuto Chojin? TFLO? I'm merely hitting the highlights; there's lots more where those came from.

Are you referring to "Project Sabotage 360", AKA "Killer Frame City" ? :LOL:

On topic, I'm very eager to see Blue Dragon arrive here.
 
Tell me about it. MS's efforts in Japan have been marred for so long. It's nice to see them bank on something that turns out. Remember Sneakers? Kakuto Chojin? TFLO? I'm merely hitting the highlights; there's lots more where those came from.

This is what happens when a designer has a point to prove unlike the other ones who just needed MS money to get them started(N3, Everyparty*). Thank goodness Microsoft that got Mistwalker to make games for them.
Kudos to both Mistwalker and Artoon.

It is kind of disappointing that it didn't get perfect 10's but now Microsoft won't be left with a big "what if" in Japan. This being the last season before they face stiff competition gamewise from Sony and Nintendo, Blue Dragon is probably their best chance to increase the install base. Even if LO is better than Blue Dragon it probably won't get a chance to have as much of an impact as Blue Dragon could. If this doesn't help nothing short of getting the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series to become Microsoft exclusive will help them.

*has a chance to redeem himself.
 
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Seems like blue dragon is classic JRPG, with features that I like. I still find Lost odyssey a bit more interesting however, but perhaps its the art style? In anycase, if this doesn't increase the Xbox360 sales, nothing will in Japan.
 
Very encouraging scores. If I had an XB360 I'd be checking this out.

One thing still bothers me though. Can someone please explain the discrepencies between the images? All through BD's development I've been looking at pics like these

http://bluedragon.tv/images/img4.jpg
http://bluedragon.tv/images/img5.jpg

and yet there's some pics that look like this

http://bluedragon.tv/images/img1.jpg

Is image 1 gameplay and the other CG? I'm still unsure whether to trust the images as what's actually being produced. If they are getting pics like 4 and 5 in realtime, why's the shading in 1 so poor? And if 1's realtime, why's there so few realtime ingame screenshots out there?
 
Let me edit this. I'm not sure if they use any real time cut scenes in this game but I do know they tried to make the CG look as close to what you see during gameplay as possible. So I can't say that I know for sure if it is a real time cut scene or CG the last one is gameplay for sure.
 
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I don't see much of a difference between those two shots, other than some jaggies. Shading looks the same, just with a much brighter light source.
 
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