I've been enjoying the retail copy so far. They really hurt this game by releasing that demo.
That is what BlimBlim told me. He said the game was MUCH better than the demo, and that the progression in the retail game is excellent. Standard JRPG fair, but a really good traditional JRPG in his opinion. He had the same experience as scoob:
Ya, this is a great old school game....
I was thirsting for a JRPG on my x360.
I personally hate turn based RPGs. That said, from reading reviews this seems like a very good traditional RPG with a light hearted story. It seems to get knocked for not doing anything really new.
Would anyone expect a sequal to, say, Halo 2, that didn't change the gameplay at all (same battle sizes, gun balance, etc) or add any new features -- just some new, pretty graphics -- to get a score much above a low 8?
I think I would call that the, "Doom 3 Effect". A solid game -- great for nastolgics and fans of the style of game. But no new features, nor gameplay design concepts. Just a classic shooter with pretty graphics.
Blue Dragon looks like the Doom 3 of JRPGs. Nice graphics, and it hits all the JRPG checkboxes in terms of story length, combat system depth, etc. It just doesn't do anything new -- so it doesn't appeal to non-JRPG fans, and fans looking for a JRPG to start their fires it doesn't bring anything new to the table to do so.
But those dieing to get their hands on a good JRPG, just not great or outstanding (or something to suck them into a genre they tend to shy away from) Blue Dragon doesn't do anything here. Which to me, lines up with what the texts of the reviews say plus the 7 & 8 reviews.
Not good
Wrong!
Good.
7.9 on IGN's scale means:
Good.
Check it out. And here is how a
7.0-7.9 nd 8.0-8.9 mean from IGN:
IGN said:
8.0 to 8.9
An excellent gaming experience that misses the boat in just a few key areas. Games that score in this range still come highly recommended by IGN.
7.0 to 7.9
A good game that has some obvious flaws. Games scoring in the high end of this range might have some first-rate elements, whereas the lower 7s have some serious shortcomings that keep them from ever achieving classic status.
Good game... obvious flaws... might have some first-rate elements.
Sounds like Blue Dragon to me.
Store Manager to lady trading in games: "Do you want to reserve Halo 3?"
Lady: "We have a PS2"
SM: "It's coming for the PS2"
Lady (hesitation in voice): "Really?"
Other Female Employee: "I think it might only be xbox"
SM (in disbelief with blank stare): "..."
Other Male Employee: "I think that's right, cuz when you ring it up, it only comes up Xbox."
SM: "Ok."
Me (purses lips and strains to say absolutely nothing!): *in my head* "This is exactly why I don't come to this ghetto-ass store"
Heh, I see the same stuff here. Always going for a quick sale
I know they don't make much, but you would think they would be familiar with the general market they work in. The concept of "exclusive" isn't hard to master! One of my favorite experiences was I had one guy get mad, really mad and then went on a whiny rant, when we were talking about Assassin's Creed and I mentioned it was officially confirmed to be multiplatform. I remember a former poster here, who absolutely hated Sony and worked at a game store, so I guess all things are even