Blue Dragon Review

By Rob Fahey Published 24 August, 2007

It drags on and on.

Version tested: Xbox 360

We understand the rationale, we really do. The Xbox 360 is going down in Japan in a manner which makes lead balloons look like a sound investment, and Something Needs To Be Done. What does Japan like? It likes Final Fantasy, and it likes Dragon Quest. A lot.

Solution, then; hire the bloke who invented Final Fantasy, the bloke who did the music for Final Fantasy, and the chap who draws the characters in Dragon Quest, and get them to make a game.

Blue Dragon is the result - and perhaps, if you're Japanese and deeply attached to the creations of the three men involved with it, it might tick all the boxes for you. It's graphically stunning (tick), absolutely enormous (tick), and dripping with nostalgia for an earlier age of RPGs (tick - well, maybe).

Blue in the Face

The game starts out in a dusty yet idyllic village somewhere out in a desert, and the intro sequence alone is enough to prove that it's a looker. Environments are lovingly constructed and textured, with a careful balance struck between realistic visual effects and a cartoonish art style. Water sparkles, metal glistens, dust rolls off sand and light gleams off polished surfaces, but it's all handled in an understated fashion which doesn't overwhelm the bright, colourful artwork.

'Blue Dragon' Screenshot 1

As you'd expect, it has a blue dragon in it. We're not sure if this is a rare colour for dragons, since we don't really know that many dragons in real life. Except, maybe, Puff.

Characters, meanwhile, are rendered in broad, stylised strokes - faithfully interpreting Akira Toriyama's designs, and giving them the appearance of plastic models rather than cel-shading them. It's an effect which works remarkably well; the removal of the heavy black borders seen in cel-shading serves up quite a different effect to that which we're used to with cartoon characters in games, and gives characters a strangely realistic edge.

Less realistic, though, is the unusual lack of facial animation on any of the characters. Their lips move as they speak, but for the most part the rest of their faces are entirely static - which pretty much limits the range of their emotions to those which can be expressed by waving arms and jumping up and down.

It rapidly transpires, however, that that's not a problem. Blue Dragon doesn't make any demands from its characters in terms of emotional range, at least not any that can't be expressed by jumping up and down. The game hinges on a storyline which would be embarrassingly simple in a children's cartoon show - three kids live in a fairly primitive village which is attacked every year by the powerful Land Shark. They decide to take on the shark, and end up being dragged off by it.

Eventually they discover that the "shark" is actually mechanical, and is being controlled by a nasty old bloke called Nene who lives in a flying fortress surrounded by purple clouds. Purple is evil, see? Nene is tormenting the villages on the planet below him, apparently because he's Eeeeeevil, and has an Eeeeeevil plan which seemingly involves pissing everyone off until they go and hunt down powerful artefacts from the lost civilisation whose ruins are buried under the surface.

'Blue Dragon' Screenshot 2

This is the evil villain you'll battle for hours on end. You may be thinking 'that's just a rubbish bald old man in a really ugly dress!' - which, I'm afraid, is entirely true.

That's about it. You cover this plot within about an hour of starting off the game, and what remains is a quest all over the planet's surface to visit every clichéd village archetype in the RPG bible and sort out whatever nastiness Nene has been causing there. Each of your characters (your initial three are joined by a fat yellow squeaking idiot who gave us murderous thoughts within a matter of seconds, and later by a young pirate woman who is about the only genuinely likeable character in the whole game) has a paper-thin backstory of their own, but they're every bit as predictable as you might imagine.

Singing the Blues

This is, in other words, a throwback - an archaeological relic of a storyline, excavated from the caves of an ancient civilisation which thrived in Japan in the 1980s and most definitely wasn't more advanced than our own. There is no emotion, no subtlety - no double cross you can't see about twenty miles off, no character with hidden and intriguing motives, no extraordinary backstory to uncover, no political machination or moral uncertainty.

The entire storyline, in effect, is a weak excuse to drag you through the game's locations fighting various monsters and leveling up your characters - and here, at least, Blue Dragon scores some brownie points for itself.

'Blue Dragon' Screenshot 3

Zola perks things up a bit when she arrives - she's fairly worldly and likeable. Maromaro, on the other hand, is shrill and annoying. You'll want to stab him with a stick.

The combat system in the game is nothing if not traditional, being strictly turn-based and heavily focused on the sort of magic and physical attacks which defined early RPG efforts in Japan. The central conceit is that your characters don't actually fight, apart from in the first half hour or so of the game; instead, giant magical shadow-beasts which appear behind them in play do the fighting.

In practice, this is a nice visual effect but has remarkably little impact on how the combat system actually works. You can't control your characters independently of their Shadow beasts, so in essence you just issue turn-based commands as normal, and the Shadows carry them out. You can fiddle with the class of your Shadows, changing and improving their abilities, as you progress - but this, again, is no different in practice to fiddling with character classes in RPGs dating back to the SNES era.

What does work well, however, is the turn ordering implemented by the game. Many attacks can have their power boosted by stopping a progress bar at a specific point; leave it to fill up, and it'll take longer before the attack is carried out, but it'll be more powerful when it does happen. The position of enemy and friendly turns are indicated on this bar, so timing an attack perfectly in between the actions of others becomes quite an art.

Blue Dragon's other main combat system quirk is the ability to capture multiple enemies from the area around you into a single battle. To do this, you extend a circle around your character rather than walking into a single enemy - this adds every enemy group within range of the circle to the battle, which has the effect of creating "waves" of enemies for you to defeat.

This is a clever system, and a good way of clearing out large areas - but it's not quite the high-risk strategy you might imagine, because the game gives you significant power-up boosts between waves. Several waves into a battle, you'll be so powerful that you'll be sweeping enemies aside, not clinging on at the edge of your hitpoints and wondering if you bit off more than you can chew. Enemies in group battles like this will also often attack each other, making matters even easier - although this can be a clever strategy in itself, especially if you're in an area with two tough types of enemies which hate each other.

Deep Blue C

'Blue Dragon' Screenshot 4

A typical battle scene sees you battling against a hermit crab which has taken up residence in a pink turd. The game has more turd references per square inch than a stand-up comedy night in an IBS sufferers club.

So, the combat system is entertaining enough, albeit not terribly challenging. It'll probably be a turn-off for anyone used to a little more strategy and action in their combat, as it's all terribly slow and ponderous by modern RPG standards, but that's the point to some extent, right? This is, after all, a heavily traditional RPG, designed as an homage to the past.

The problem with that approach is that Blue Dragon is trying to inspire nostalgia for something which we European gamers never experienced. Sakaguchi is trying to recapture the feeling of the early Final Fantasy games, and to a lesser extent, the early Dragon Quest games - which is probably exactly what you want for a rose-tinted retro trip if you're a thirty-something Japanese guy.

On the other hand, if you're a European gamer, you probably didn't play those games as a child - at most, you probably dived into Final Fantasy late in the day with US import copies of the SNES versions. You don't have childhood experiences of hours spent playing early JRPGs - and stripped of its nostalgic value, Blue Dragon just seems primitive, backwards and annoying.

'Blue Dragon' Screenshot 5

Our brave band of heroes, demonstrating the only facial expressions they've got. The one in the middle is Shu, the type of child who gets sedated with prescription drugs and then excluded from three schools in a row in modern Britain.

Even Uematsu's music harks back to early Final Fantasy themes, rather than having any of the complexity of his later compositions; sadly, compared to the wonderful soundtracks regularly gracing games today, the music simply sounds dull.

Blue Dragon is more primitive, in many ways, than even FFV, and certainly doesn't have any of the complexity of FFVI. It's as if the last 15 years of progress in the genre never happened, and anyone who has experienced more recent iterations in series like Final Fantasy, Shin Megami Tensei, Shadow Hearts, the Tales franchise and their ilk will simply find Blue Dragon to be a very pretty but terribly outdated curiosity.

Of course, it's certainly one of the best JRPGs the Xbox has ever played host to. No doubt about that. Unfortunately, that's a completely meaningless phrase, a bit like saying that my dinner is the best dinner on my table, Gordon Brown is the best prime minister in Downing Street, and red is the best colour on Mars.

The sad fact is that if Blue Dragon had been released on the PS2, it would have sunk beneath the waves without a trace - written off as a strangely traditional game that had no appeal outside Japan. It's weak and primitive compared even to Akira Toriyama's last RPG outing, Dragon Quest VIII, which was already too primitive for European tastes and was a commercial flop in this territory; we can simply see no reason why anyone who wasn't enamoured with Dragon Quest would even want to consider playing Blue Dragon.

'Blue Dragon' Screenshot 6

This is an elementary crafting system, which you can access later in the game. (Bleeding Stone is a stone that looks like it's bleeding, astonishingly.)

This feels like a lost opportunity. The talent of the three creators who collaborated on this title is unquestionable, and in some areas - the perfectly tuned, if rather shallow, difficulty curve, the absolutely delightful graphics and the occasional piece of inspired dungeon design - you can see the bones of a wonderful game showing through.

However, instead of making that game, these three past masters of the RPG genre clearly chose to go on a self-indulgent nostalgia trip to the games of their youth. In the process, they have made a game which serves as a very poor introduction to the genre for Xbox owners. It's by no means terrible; but without borrowing Sakaguchi's rose-tinted glasses, it's not much fun either.

5 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Rob.

About Rob Fahey

Read more articles from Rob by visiting the Rob Fahey archive page.

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Comments (216) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • HiddenAway #1 5 years ago

    OUCH! That's painful :p

  • itamae #2 5 years ago

    Let the manslaughter commence!

  • Aretak #3 5 years ago

    Fire in the disco!

  • patchbox360 #4 5 years ago

    yeah that game sucks

  • Blerk #5 5 years ago

    I was expecting a 6! I lose!

  • andromeda #6 5 years ago

    that's gotta smart

  • rashes #7 5 years ago

    Oh dear. Didn't this get good reviews in Japan?

  • thedaveeyres #8 5 years ago

    Hmmm, well I quite like it :p

  • Agent_Llama #9 5 years ago

    Bugger...

  • Hughes. #10 5 years ago

    I've got some Blue Dragon coconut milk. Very nice in a curry.

  • krudster #11 5 years ago

    6 implies that it's still enjoyable in some small sense. Raw Danger is a 6. Classic example.

    Even Rob's monumental tolerance of JRPG quirks was tested by this, which tells you everything you need to know.

  • menage #12 5 years ago

    If I compare the demo's: Sonata kicks BD ass.

  • jack_klugman #13 5 years ago

    Do Blue Dragon do miso?

  • indian23 #14 5 years ago

    THIS GAMES SHIT TBH
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 15:37

  • Hunam #15 5 years ago

    So...

    Don't buy it?

  • lambtron #16 5 years ago

    oooft

  • jack_klugman #17 5 years ago

    Win Blue Dragon and a black wireless pad!

  • Blerk #18 5 years ago

    6 implies that it's still enjoyable in some small sense. Raw Danger is a 6. Classic example.

    Even Rob's monumental tolerance of JRPG quirks was tested by this, which tells you everything you need to know.

    Hmm. So games that score 5 aren't enjoyable? That sounds kinda wrong somehow.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 14:26

  • mingster #19 5 years ago

    hurry up with the space giraffe review please

  • kiroquai #20 5 years ago

    Personally would give this a 6 (still might) - about 20 hours in and finding it pretty enjoyable, but nothing like as addictive/life-consuming as my favourites from the genre.

    Had better point out that I've had it for a week :-) - not racked up twenty hours in a few days!

  • RedPanda #21 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Psychotext #22 5 years ago

    This will be the first time I completely ignore an EG review. I still really like the look of it and as I can basically get it free with an Elite... Win!

  • Nikanoru #23 5 years ago

    Hmm, a 5 from EG.... means I'll have to try it, it might be awesome. ;D

  • Steroyd #24 5 years ago

    As good as... Folklore. \o/

  • Lonestar #25 5 years ago

    Better than Mafia then...

  • FabricatedLunatic #26 5 years ago

    Worse than Suikoden IV :-O

    I'll stick with the awesome Persona 3, ta.

  • Monkey_Puncher #27 5 years ago

    I quite liked the look of this up until I saw actual game play videos and played the demo. Really tedious cookie cutter RPG crap to be honest, not my cup of tea.

    The Eternal Sonata demo on the other hand turned a 'meh' game into a definite purchase, oh and Lost Odyessy is shaping up really nicely as well.

  • agparrot #28 5 years ago

    No wonder you can barely avoid getting it in the Elite deals...

    Sure I'll manage to.

  • krudster #29 5 years ago

    Space Giraffe review was done yesterday, but there's this little thing called the Leipzig Games Convention, and that has taken priority. You'll probably have to wait until Tuesday for the review, thanks to the bank holiday...

  • Kilters #30 5 years ago

    Going by the demo, this review is spot on.
    You're waiting for something new or innovative to happen and it never does.
    A massively missed opportunity.

  • krudster #31 5 years ago

    I'm not saying you can't possibly enjoy a 5, but you'd generally have to be the most forgiving of fans of a specific sub-genre to overlook some of the flaws.

  • RedPanda #32 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • mossychops001 #33 5 years ago

    Poor Microsoft, this is the game that they hoped would be a big hit in Japan for them.
    They may aswell pack up and go home now.

    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 14:56

  • GamesConnoisseur #34 5 years ago

    EG need to balance out the 10 score from BioShock, and the Blue Dragon one would do it nicely!

    Tough score, I agree its not a great title and deserve to be marked lower but 5 out of 10 is lower than even Edge reputed-tough-to-please which gave it 6 out of 10. Metacritic at present have it at 80 out of 100 but expect to go down to 70ish.

    EG review clearly show frustraton at missed opportunity and where great masters have just been slapdash with supposedly opus of JRPG. I agree with that but would say it can be fun, for those keen on this kind of game.

    I was looking forward to Lost Odyssey more myself so hoping will get better deal there!

  • SniperWolf #35 5 years ago

    I never expected Westerners to welcome Blue dragon, it's aimed at a different audience. Play has it in 20th place in the 360 charts, showing that Japan can keep games like this. 360 gamers know why they bought this system, FPS, racers, action. That's it.

    I couldn't care less about Blue Dragons score, 10/10, 1/10 all the same to me. The characters put me off when I first layed eyes on it.

  • Shanucore #36 5 years ago

    Boo, that's a big slice of bum. I was looking forward to some decent 360+JRPG entertainment. Enchanted Arms has no strategy when you can't see the icons on an SD telly, and the "characters" make me want to sob blood.

  • crazyhorse174 #37 5 years ago

    Poor Microsoft, this is the game that they hoped would be a big hit in Japan for them.
    They may aswell back up and go home now.

    Err...why? Its been out in Japan for ages, so why does an EG review for a European release not bode well for Japan?

    The Japanese quite liked it, but 360 is still doing shite in Japan. Probably because of the lack of games like this released there and partly because of the way the Japanese are so fond of homegrown companies like Sony and Nintendo.

  • krudster #38 5 years ago

    I think it's a myth that we're any easier to please than Edge - and when you consider that about six of our freelancers also write reviews for them, it's a bit of a silly discussion, really.

  • BillyBrush #39 5 years ago

    Tis very, very similar to DQ, which got a 9 here...in fact i've never tried something so damn close to DQ, the enemies even jiggle and dance about the same way between moves....Tench review was similar, it whupps wrath of heavan's ass which got 8 and earned itself a big fat 2 (Seriously - Tench woz robbed blind)

    can you give RPG reviews to the same people or something otherwise it's really really inconsistent....one review is by someone who loves X genre, the next by someone who feels the same genre is outdated/hates em

    Frickin heck, 2k make another barely interactive rollercoaster ride quick, teh review community loves em...darkness 2, six hours..bringiton

  • ParanoidZombie #40 5 years ago

    I have to disagree with this review. The story and characters are uninteresting indeed (like in most JRPGs except Vagrant Story and Shadow hearts 2 IMO), but the combat system is enjoyable and reasonably deep, definitely better than the last shin megami I played (digital devil saga). JRPGs live or die by their combat and leveling systems IMO, and Blue Dragon doesn't fail in that regard.

    I don't give a fuck about Microsoft's ambitions for this title, and I don't care about the track record of the guys who made this game either. Take the game for what it is: a good JRPG that doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. It's a 7, maybe even a 8 if you're in a very good mood. By giving it a 5, you make it look like the game is broken or suffers from some unforgivable flaw, but it clearly doesn't.

    ... Sorry for the pretentious, long winded rant, but i'm kinda pissed. I bought this game before reading the reviews, and I hate it when a game I like gets destroyed like this.

  • miiiguel #41 5 years ago

    "Oh dear. Didn't this get good reviews in Japan?"

    Yes it did, but so did "My Housekeeping Diary" and "Cooking Mama", I don't jump on the "ooooh Japaneses are so da cool" train any more.
    Anyway I bought the game, just because.

  • captain-future #42 5 years ago

    @ squarejawhero
    THE DEMO is NOT representative of the actual game.

    Here we go again... why don't they simply release a demo that actually DEMOs what the game is really about *LOL*

  • bloodflowers #43 5 years ago

    I like JRPGs, but I just couldn't care about Blue Dragon. Now Eternal Sonata? If that's region free it's getting imported immediately.

  • Les #44 5 years ago

    Review scores are useless, as this discussion proves again. Go with the text.

  • miiiguel #45 5 years ago

    mossychops001: have you been under a rock or something, this game debuted in Japan 3 months ago and made 360 sales rise 150%, it managed to sell 30K in one month (just that month though, but it did". Blue Dragon is very old news in Japan.

    Famitsu scored the game 37/40, so they did like it.

    edit: ok, ok I read some older posts of yours, understood now ;)
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 15:16

  • DrDamn #46 5 years ago

    @ParanoidZombie

    You probably have god reason to live up to that name - I read this ...

    "I bought this game before reading the reviews, and I hate it when a game I like gets destroyed like this."

    As ...

    "I bought this game before reading the reviews, and I'm now trying to justify my impatience ..."

    :). There are some nice review of this out there. I hated the demo though the battles were too long for simple fights.

  • Oldern #47 5 years ago

    "They may aswell pack up and go home now."

    Or they could hire Takeshi Obata (character design, art of Hikaru no Go, Death Note, Blue Dragon Ral Grad manga) and get Sakaguchi to make a game which lives up to the new japanese standards - just remember, they liked the way Final Fantasy XII wanted to bring new standards to the JRPG genre.

    Blue Dragon does not even try to do so. It just wants to be another FFV (and it does pretty well to be like that.. : )
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 15:20

  • miiiguel #48 5 years ago

    Oldern: m8, they did like Blue Dragon, it even entered the top 10, 3 months ago.
    Again: 37/40 @ Famitsu. On the other hand they might just have liked it because it's Japanese, like the Europeans, they think everything from Japan is cool, although in their case it makes more sense, since they are... well... Japanese.

  • dsmx #49 5 years ago

    Wasn't this game hyped to save the xbox in Japan at one point?

  • miiiguel #50 5 years ago

    For the record:
    "The latest Media Create Japanese chart puts the Mistwalker RPG at number four in the top selling titles in Japan for December 4 through 10, which has managed to shift a respectable 80,000 copies in the country giving it the number two all-time 360 sales record behind Dead or Alive 4. Blue Dragon has received a considerable level of hype in Japan, largely thanks to the fanbase surrounding Dragon Ball Z artist Akira Toriyama who designed the characters in the game, and a special edition Japanese Blue Dragon 360 bundle which some Japanese retailers reported to have sold out of within minutes of opening pre-order."
    this was in December/2006.

  • Les #51 5 years ago

    "like the Europeans, they think everything from Japan is cool"

    ?!

  • toy_brain #52 5 years ago

    "It's weak and primitive compared even to Akira Toriyama's last RPG outing, Dragon Quest VIII, which was already too primitive for European tastes and was a commercial flop in this territory;"

    I thought DQ VIII shifted around half a million units in Europe?
    Not a huge sucess, but probably on-par with what SE would have expected for a fairly niche-market game.

    Wish I had a link to the figures.
    Or maybe my memory is just playing tricks on me..........

  • monkie_king #53 5 years ago

    well, compared to the japanese numbers, and the percieved hugeness of the franchise, it really wasn't a hit

  • souljacker2000 #54 5 years ago

    Jesus i so wanted this game.. after playin Enchanted arms, i wante d something good, fucking hated that. i couldnt wait for another JRPG.

    N this was looking good, think i mite still buy it anyway!? Yea ok i will, now i need some money, any1 willing to give me a loan

  • kiroquai #55 5 years ago

    Talking of everything from Japan being cool, who can remember the name of that game where you played a Japanese secret agent who'd accidentally become stuck in an over-sized pink baby grow and had to go on an adventure to rescue his robot dog so it could reach the zip at the back for him? I'd love to find some merchandise for it.

    In terms of the review, I appreciate the points made but have my own thoughts on the game. An opinion is simply an opinion no matter how well it is written. I personally enjoy the combat and the colourful locations enough to make Blue Dragon a pretty good title for me.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 15:41

  • menage #56 5 years ago

    "360 gamers know why they bought this system, FPS, racers, action. That's it. "

    What a load of bull. I loved Viva Pinata, Dead Rising, Kameo, Oblivion, etc.

    Obluivion is a RPG adventure and it topped the 360 charts for months.

    Sure I like the Darkness and Bioshock, but they're probably the last shooters I'll buy this year. Give me Eternal Sonata, Lost Odyssee and Mass effect now.

  • miiiguel #57 5 years ago

    I also leave the pretensious bullshit for the ladies. I like shooters, I like any game as long as they're good. No problem with shooters, keep them coming this way.

    Edit: kinda liked to know what an "action game", like the character is able to perform "actions" or something? wide concept isn't it?
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 15:51

  • alimokrane #58 5 years ago

    I have just ONE QUESTION PLEASE eurogamer!!!

    The game got a 9/10 when you reviewed the Japanease verison yet now, it's a 5/10 for the PAL version and the JP review disappeared from your website .... hmmmmm

    I dare you to answer my request right now because if not then you guys have definately lost it!!
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 15:51

  • miiiguel #59 5 years ago

    alimokrane: Lost With Translation.

  • SBfistfun #60 5 years ago

    pwnd

  • alimokrane #61 5 years ago

    @ miiiguel

    and why is that ? i dont get what the expression refers to. not a native speaker, help me out here ??

  • Martin #62 5 years ago

    Sad to hear - the 360 needs some nice JRPGs.

    I'm playing Enchanted Arms right now - liking it enough so far - and I'm looking forward to Eternal Sonata.

  • miiiguel #63 5 years ago

    alimokrane: nevermind, lame reference to well known movie.

  • drumbaby #64 5 years ago

    Half as good as Bioshock then? Or twice as bad?

  • speedtrax #65 5 years ago

    "I have just ONE QUESTION PLEASE eurogamer!!!

    The game got a 9/10 when you reviewed the Japanease verison yet now, it's a 5/10 for the PAL version and the JP review disappeared from your website .... hmmmmm "

    Different reviewers. Different opinions.

  • Dr.Gash #66 5 years ago

    Kinda saw that one coming after playing the demo.

  • alimokrane #67 5 years ago

    @speedtrax

    Fine, yes but WHY did the review disappear ? I cant find it anywhere ????

  • cheeseweasel #68 5 years ago

    You sure you're not thinking of the 9/10 import review in Games TM, or some other? I can't remember ever seeing an import review on EG...

  • miiiguel #69 5 years ago

    "Different reviewers. Different opinions."

    A bit too different though..., and this can open a precedent, I mean any game can be a 10 or a 6, a 8 or a 4, a 6 or a 2...

    they did it, not only for Blue Dragon but for Dead Risisng as well.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 16:11

  • Martin #70 5 years ago

    Well, I might as well chime in with why I bought the 360. I won't lie - I bought it the same day as Forza 2 was released in Europe and the second game I bought was Gears of Wars but the game I've played the most is Enchanted Arms.

    I'm looking forward to both Bioshock, Eternal Sonata and Mass Effect and would love to get my hands on Viva Piñata (short on cash right now though). I love racing games but I would hate for the 360 to not get some good RPGs as well.

    Speaking of Enchanted Arms (seeing that it hasn't gotten a good rep in this thread so far) I'd like to point out that calling the combat system daft because you can't see the icons isn't really fair. It's a flaw alright but not one of the combat system - which I like quite a lot btw.

    The characters are so far (about 15 hours into the game) quite cliché and I'm still hoping for some development here. The plot is so far no worse than other games (save the world from powerful badguy).

    Yes, the over the top gay guy is too much and I can't understand why they couldn't portray him in a less stereotypical manner. As it is now it's provocative for all the wrong reasons.

    Collecting golems is also a bit of a hit and miss so far. There are those that are very useful and complement the rest of the party a lot and then there are those that seems to be included just to up the number of cellactable golems there are.

    So to summarize my mini-preview of sorts; not the greatest game in the genre but well worth a try if you A) like JRPGs and B) own a big screen TV/projector (apparently).

    Edit: Provocing?
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 16:16

  • Fernando #71 5 years ago

    just started playing the game now, and its pretty damn good, nice pacing imo...

  • Martin #72 5 years ago

    @cheeseweasel: They review Jap/USA imports from time to time.

    Half the commenters then remind the rest of us that this is EUROgamer!!!11oneoneeleven

    Or perhaps you were being sarcastic? That, on the other hand, was lost in translation.

  • cheeseweasel #73 5 years ago

    Oops, yeah meant that I can't remember seeing an import review of Blue Dragon, rather than any import review.

    Still the fact that I can't remember seeing the review doesn't say a lot - I find it difficult remembering my name a lot of the time...

  • morriss #74 5 years ago

    That's a real shame. It does strike me as strange however, that our resident ilmæstro who's arguably played all things 'J-' gave this a nine out of ten in his review.

    Who to believe?

  • LeD #75 5 years ago

    morriss, the reviewer's name and the format tell you all you need to know.

  • Martin #76 5 years ago

    @cheeseweasel: Well, it was equally much my fault for interpreting what you wrote the "wrong" way as it could as well mean what you intended.

    Hopefully we'll all still be able to sleep well tonight - despited this debacle. :)

  • morriss #77 5 years ago

    Nah, I don't buy that, LeD. Shinji loves JRPG's as does ilmæstro, bit strange they're poles apart on this one.

    Also a Danish site which is very FPS heavy in content import reviewed this a few months ago and gave it full marks saying it's the best game on the 360 to date (as of May/June).

    Strange.

  • Walshicus #78 5 years ago

    It's an 8/10 game, not a 5/10 one. This reviewer is entitled to his opinion, but that doesn't stop it being wrong... ;)

  • mossychops001 #79 5 years ago

    4.5/10

  • miiiguel #80 5 years ago

    mossychops001: you played it for a while ?

  • Darren #81 5 years ago

    9/10 from OXM360 and 6/10 from Edge... I think it's a nice game that I'm enjoying so far but it's not as good as I was led to believe it was when it came out in Japan at the end of last year. Looks absolutely gorgeous though and it's very cute and appealing plus I love RPGs and this is a good one. These kinds of games are rarer than rocking horse shite on the 360 so I welcome it with open arms. Can't wait for Eternal Sonata either.

  • miiiguel #82 5 years ago

    Yet this game seems to be love it or not so, as the below show us:
    "If the market allows giant-budget RPGs in the "Final Fantasy VII" mold to continue to be made(and there is some doubt as to that), they're going to look and feel a lot like this game...and for that reason alone, Blue Dragon is an absolute must-play. "
    Play Magazine 9/10

    "A very poor introduction to the genre for Xbox owners. It's by no means terrible; but without borrowing Sakaguchi's rose-tinted glasses, it's not much fun either"
    Eurogamer 5/10

    So probably the alleged two reviews of EG may be justifiable.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 16:57

  • CitizenGeek #83 5 years ago

    Hah! Now, people should notice that Hironobu Sakaguchi may have created Final Fantasy, but he is NOT what made it great. Kitase, Uematsu, Nomura, Amano, Nojima - they are the people that made Final Fantasy good. No one will ever say that any Final Fantasy that pre-dates FFVI is their favorite and guess what? - FFVI is the first game in which Sakaguchi took a backseat.

    Sakaguchi is not such a great guy at all - he left Square after about 10 years of them paying him lots of money for doing pretty much nothing (a.k.a 'supervising') to start his own company making games for a console Square doesn't produce for. But, not before bankrupting the company by spending a ridiculous amount of money on a CGI movie that had nothing to do with FF.

    Sakaguchi FTL!

  • kiroquai #84 5 years ago

    Erm, my favourite Final Fantasy is probably V, but only just from VII.

    [/fly in the ointment]

  • BillyBrush #85 5 years ago

    Erm, yea...PS3 for you sir?

    Sakaguchi is Ok, the guys working on FF at Square produced a crop of shit from X thru 12 imo but i know people like them...but y'know at least this guy can build some level of coherence into a plot, instead of games that don't hang together beyond the party's hairstyles....the Mario RPG's are better than the recent FF's, even the GBA/DS ones (tho i suspect they're better than BD too).

    Looks a rather solid old skool RPG from where i'm sitting, as opposed to FF which is a bunch of nice CG, a good battle system If you like autopilot, great architecture, and the worst plotting in the business

  • miiiguel #86 5 years ago

    Honest question: Is there any good JRPG for the PS3 (or not so good)? I know there isn't here, but in Japan ?

  • BillyBrush #87 5 years ago

    On metacritic at the mo this averages 79

    [link url=http://www.metacritic.com/games/plat forms/xbox360/bluedragon?q=blue%20dragon
    ]http://ww w.metacritic.com/games/platform...[/link]

    with EG score the lowest atm...

    @PS3 Rpg's - Folklore is supposed to be pretty good...you'd imagine PS3 will have plenty of good JRPG's before too long..

  • miiiguel #88 5 years ago

    but as of today, like in later on when I get home ?

  • DutchDemons #89 5 years ago

    Better than mafia then?

  • Eighthours #90 5 years ago

    Based solely on the demo, this score seems about right. Then again, JRPGs really aren't my thing. I find them archaic, although to be fair I haven't played FFXII.

  • afghan_jones #91 5 years ago

    The demo was utter wank.

  • andromeda #92 5 years ago

    funny, i lose interest in games about this time on a friday.
    beer o'clock!

    will be easing my hangover with bioshock tommorow though XD

    oh blue dragon, um , er...
    whatever

  • Fatfish #93 5 years ago

    Let's hope Eternal Sonata comes good then. The demo of this was wank, but enjoyed the ES one quite a bit. Fingers crossed.

  • Walshicus #94 5 years ago

    I always thought that gamerankings would be of more value if they cut off, say two or three reviews fom the top and bottom of the scale. Shock review like this one, or blatantly silly reviews that look like they were written by the developer shouldn't be used in our [yes, highly unscientific] lists of games.

  • Tomo #95 5 years ago

    One less game to worry about then.

  • Dizzy #96 5 years ago

    So for Japanese market only?

  • Ihya #97 5 years ago

    Excellent review.

  • lockload #98 5 years ago

    Like the reader rating the aveage on metacritic is 8/10

  • miiiguel #99 5 years ago

    if only for historical reasons I must own this title.

  • Steroyd #100 5 years ago

    I find it hard to play JRPG's of old anymore unless I have Ai controlled or semi auto allies these days DQ8 was what made me feel like the really old JRPG's were dated like playing the original Doom amidst the many modern day FPS or something to that effect.

    And if the story is bland enough I'd have to force myself to finish it, like FFXII which I still haven't completed no matter how much I dig the battle system.

  • PotajiTo #101 5 years ago

    Didn't expected that. Lets hope ES rocks.

  • menage #102 5 years ago

    "No one will ever say that any Final Fantasy that pre-dates FFVI is their favorite and guess what? - FFVI is the first game in which Sakaguchi took a backseat.
    "

    Pretty dumb statement. Seeing as games history proves that FF1 to 5 had a growth behind them which was needed to even get to 6 and beyond. Super Mario World would never have existed if not for Mario 1. Who would call 1 their favorite Mario ever? Times change, designs change, technology change, budgets change, target audience change, etc.

    Oh, and Sakaguchi at least didn't come up with the drivel that was VIII and X. Teen angst crap. That huge beast is my father?????? Ugh.

  • Scimarad #103 5 years ago

    /picks up sharp object

    /starts searching for ilmaestro;-)

    Please don't tell me you think V is better than VIII? V was bloody awful!

    /runs from impending FF fan war
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 19:31

  • Kryon #104 5 years ago

    Oh for Gods sake! People, if you like JRPGs , trust me, the game is better than average, I'm not saying it's a masterpiece but it's not (imo) a 5/10. Do not take this review as gospel, read a few other reviews and make your mind up then, as someone who's played the game I can tell you it certainly floated my boat, in contrast FFXII (which I was almost pissing myself for 3 years in anticipation waiting for ) scored a 10/10 at EG, and I was sorely disappointed by it. So read around before you make your decision, as a previous poster said the general consensus is that BD is an 8+/10 title.

    On a lighter note:)

    Everybody who read Shinji's early PS3 coverage knows he's a fanboy, although he denies it and claims to be a Ninty fanboy (lol, like that's better!)

  • CitizenGeek #105 5 years ago

    "Pretty dumb statement. Seeing as games history proves that FF1 to 5 had a growth behind them which was needed to even get to 6 and beyond. Super Mario World would never have existed if not for Mario 1. Who would call 1 their favorite Mario ever? Times change, designs change, technology change, budgets change, target audience change, etc."

    I understand that, but the leap between FFV and FFVI, story and characterization-wise was massive, much bigger than the leap between FFIV and FFIII. That, at least, says something about Sakaguchi's role.

    "Oh, and Sakaguchi at least didn't come up with the drivel that was VIII and X. Teen angst crap. That huge beast is my father?????? Ugh."

    /sigh

    This "teen angst crap" argument is getting so tired.

    If you want every character in a story to be stereotypical Hollywood heroes that are so unbelieveably capable of dealing with everything that they are almost inhuman, then go to Hollywood and watch Die Hard or something. If one is in Squall's situation or in Tidus's situation, I'm pretty sure one would be entitled to feel a little down every now and again!

  • Darren #106 5 years ago

    I'm nearly five hours into the game and I think it's really good, certainly better than mediocre. I think I'd give it an 8 so far. I love the combat and how you can clear "dungeons" so you can explore them thoroughly, helped by the fact that you can examine pretty much everything for bonuses. Kind of gives a bit more substance to the game than most other J-RPGs where the world is empty apart from enemies and chests.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/07 @ 22:18

  • Cannibal #107 5 years ago

    "5/10"

    So the PS3 doesn't benefit then?

  • Feagle #108 5 years ago

    Damn, i bought this as well!!!
    Should have read the review first.

  • Darren #109 5 years ago

    Why is everyone assuming they've made a mistake buying the game just because one EG reviewer has given Blue Dragon an average score? Edge gave the game a 6 and that is above average. Personally I think the EG review is overly harsh but then I bought the game and have made my own mind up about it, i.e. that it's actually pretty decent but doesn't excel in any way particularly except for the visuals. That said, it does stand out on the Xbox 360 because the platform doesn't normally get these kinds of games.

  • adman123 #110 5 years ago

    People need to make informed choices...reviews are the opinion of someone, and if you disagree so be it.

    If people like classic RPGs, or RPGs in general they could potentially fall in love with the game regardless of anything else...

    It looks awsome to me - an avid rpg fan and a review with a low score like this wont put my excitement for it down.

    Peace

  • yagisencho #111 5 years ago

    The demo turned me off of this completely. Thank goodness for demos!

  • DanMW #112 5 years ago

    I've played it for a couple of hours today, I quite enjoyed it. Harsh score in my opinion.

  • Nikanoru #113 5 years ago

    Who would call 1 their favorite Mario ever?


    Uhh... I think you'd be in for a surprise.

  • menage #114 5 years ago

    "If you want every character in a story to be stereotypical Hollywood heroes that are so unbelieveably capable of dealing with everything that they are almost inhuman, then go to Hollywood and watch Die Hard or something. If one is in Squall's situation or in Tidus's situation, I'm pretty sure one would be entitled to feel a little down every now and again! "

    True, maybe it was just the english voices in FFX that really put me off. Teen angst works way better in Japanese.

    It's not the feeling down bit I was irritated about. I loved FFVI and games like Colossus. It was the whole, let's have a big family picknick bit I was concerned about. :p. At least Sakaguchi keeps it fun and game, instead of a melodramatic opera. BD is the megaman of RPG's. Won't buy one, but still like it.

  • Monkey-Wizard-Ken #115 5 years ago

    not really my bag this one, but it looks nice
    Back to Bioshock then :)
    Edited by 1 at 25/08/07 @ 06:13

  • speedofthepuma #116 5 years ago

    Oh dear, EG is getting more reviews to its name I can't trust.

    Everything about this game screams DQ, which was itself lambasted for beeing too old-school and yet scored well (even here) and was lapped up by those of us with the JRPG love.

    Nothing in this review pointed out for me the reason it recieved such a bashing score. I hope its not just publicity grabbing, i'm still upset about RE4.

  • BigBadB #117 5 years ago

    Another travesty of a review. What the hell is going on with Eurogamer recently?

    They really think that Blue Dragon deserves the same rating as rubbish like Blazing Angels, Fantastic 4 and Harry Potter (all of which got 5/10)? Please tell me this is a joke, or some kind of mistake.

  • LeD #118 5 years ago

    It's just a Rob Fahey review. Don't encourage him by actually giving it some modicum of attention.

  • brainbird #119 5 years ago

    The Toriyama characters put me off even though I like(d) Dragon Ball.
    The Blue Dragon demo put me off even though I like JRPGs.

    I haven't played the whole game, but a 5/10 game is exactly what I was feeling it would turn out to be.

  • MAX99 #120 5 years ago

    reviewer said "....Blue Dragon is trying to inspire nostalgia for something which we European gamers never experienced. Sakaguchi is trying to recapture the feeling of the early Final Fantasy games, and to a lesser extent, the early Dragon Quest games - which is probably exactly what you want for a rose-tinted retro trip if you're a thirty-something Japanese guy."

    this was the paragraph where said reviewer dissapeared up his own ass. what a load of tosh. he sounds like one of those pretentious wafflers from the bbc's newsnight review show, making vacuous claims conjured from the empty void of his own head....just to sound good.

    the game is easily a 8/10 title. the visuals are absolutely drop dead gorgeous and give the world a consistency and belivability not seen in many rpgs. the combat system and character development (meat and bones of any rpg) are excellent. and the music score is simply wonderful.

  • Xerx3s #121 5 years ago

    Being lenient I would say. The demo bored me out of my skull and im considering suing for braindamage

  • LeD #122 5 years ago

    "this was the paragraph where said reviewer dissapeared up his own ass. what a load of tosh. he sounds like one of those pretentious wafflers from the bbc's newsnight review show, making vacuous claims conjured from the empty void of his own head....just to sound good."

    That's Rob Fahey in a nutshell. I don't see why he isn't beeing confined to GI.biz, where he can be infuriatingly incompetent without anybody bothering to read him.

  • Enigmatic_Oddity #123 5 years ago

    'The sad fact is that if Blue Dragon had been released on the PS2, it would have sunk beneath the waves without a trace - written off as a strangely traditional game that had no appeal outside Japan. It's weak and primitive compared even to Akira Toriyama's last RPG outing, Dragon Quest VIII, which was already too primitive for European tastes and was a commercial flop in this territory; we can simply see no reason why anyone who wasn't enamoured with Dragon Quest would even want to consider playing Blue Dragon.'

    So this game is like Dragon Quest VIII then, but a bit more traditional? I thought that DQVIII was the best JRPG on the PS2, personally. Much better than FFXII, which while decent had a lot of original ideas that weren't necessarily better than the ones preceding them.

  • Scimarad #124 5 years ago

    I only just started but so far I'm really enjoying it - You can turn off the irritating voice that says 'playable', BTW.

    Anyway, stop being so horrible to Rob - It's his opinion and he makes some very good points. Yes, yes, I know I ripped into Simon about WA4 but at least I apologized afterwards...er kind of...I certainly meant to at any rate!
    Edited by 1 at 25/08/07 @ 10:24

  • ilmaestro #125 5 years ago

    I don't really see eye-to-eye with Rob (and certainly not about this), but some of the comments in this thread about him are more than faintly ridiculous.

  • Xerx3s #126 5 years ago

    THE DEMO is NOT representative of the actual game. The controls for some reason are very clunky in the demo and unresponsive, the game doesn't have this issue. And although it does contain tearing and slowdown, it's no way near that of the demo.

    The problem is, those weren't the issues with the demo. The issues where that the gameplay sucked, the characters where annoying and the game itself seemed to suck away the lifeforce of the player.

  • Shinji #127 5 years ago

    Gosh, LeD is on full charming form in this thread.

    Now, I don't really want to get stuck in an argument over the unpleasant bile he's spewing, so I'd just like to draw everyone's attention to one thing. We've got a new system on Eurogamer for viewing people's Xbox Live info in their profiles.

    Which conveniently reveals that despite being prepared to viciously attack my professional reputation over this review, LeD has never actually played Blue Dragon.

    Ah, platform fanboys eh? :)
    Edited by 2 at 25/08/07 @ 11:16

  • Kryon #128 5 years ago

    "Ah, platform fanboys eh? :)"

    Takes one to know one! ...Please don't ban me :p

    /Runs

  • NthSimulachum #129 5 years ago

    I think it's quite good. Reminds me of Chrono Trigger...in spirit if not in terms of storyline. To be fair mind, I'm only a few hours in.

    Pffft, just realised how there are tons of ads for this 'sub-par' game over the site, and a competition. Slightly mixed messages perchance?
    Edited by 1 at 25/08/07 @ 12:25

  • Xerx3s #130 5 years ago

    Shinji: Good that you mention that: First note how your system is buggered. It Doesn't show his name. Second, while it is an idication, it is in no way a fullproof to see something. Most people, myself included, have multiple accounts and some of us play for convenience reasons (i.e. if i want to use my account on every machine i want to play on, it takes about 30 minutes to copy every time i switch) with multiple accounts.

    I have 3 accounts of which only one is a gold account and the other has games list I played elsewhere.

    Just saying...

    EDIT: The bug is most likely a space thing as xbl uses a + sign for spaces instead of %20. Quite odd.
    Edited by 1 at 25/08/07 @ 12:29

  • peeetah #131 5 years ago

    So it's a kids game then.

  • Shinji #132 5 years ago

    Xerx3s - I accept that. However, in light of the fact that LeD has spent this entire thread attacking me personally rather than actually making any solid points or criticisms about the review, I figured it was worth pointing out what the *reason* for that is. His invective has nothing to do with Blue Dragon, and everything to do with his personal dislike of me.

    Now, he's welcome to dislike me all he wants - I won't be losing any sleep over it - but his one-man crusade to prove how biased I am is getting a bit dull.

  • Razorus #133 5 years ago

    HAHAHA shaaaame. The demo was just plain horrendous; this score shouldn't come as a surprise. Let's hope Lost Odysee doesn't suck as much.

  • Xerx3s #134 5 years ago

    Shinji: Yep, I know. Was just pointing that out as I made the same mistake already (pointing that out and then finding out that the guy has more than one account). ;)

    Now, he's welcome to dislike me all he wants - I won't be losing any sleep over it - but his one-man crusade to prove how biased I am is getting a bit dull.

    And so you shouldn't. Seriously it's your opinion, if you feel that the critique on your opinion is without base, just ignore that (yay at my shitty grammar). It will be the fastest way for it to go away. There is always the ignore button (not saying that dil is a bad guy or anything but it can help sometimes to settle down).

    Led: Why not just post that you think the reviewer is wrong and leave it at that? It's the most civilised thing to do. Yes, they make mistakes. Yes, they can't cater for everybody's opinions. Just find another reviewer that has more similar tastes. Or better yet, just write your own reader review.
    There is a word for hammering a person in discussions. It's just not nice.

    Bad reviews don't mean the end of the world. In fact, they don't mean anything. If the game is as good as you claim it to be, it won't really matter.
    There are plenty of reviews that I disagree with (shadowrun to mention one), sure I mentioned my displeasure about it but it will just take down my trust in the reviewer's tastes down a notch.

  • Chrono-Kun #135 5 years ago

    Didn't Blue Dragon get like Mixed reviews in the UK.

    Gamemaster Mag gave this a 85%. Meh, I ain't gonna pay attention to EG's reviews. My past games on their score have been a disagreement for me.

  • ArtOfLife #136 5 years ago

    I always assumed that Blue Dragon would be an attempt to return to an older, more Dragon Quest/early Final Fantasy style of RPG anyway so although taking steps backwards in a genre is technically a bad move I don't really mind too much.

    And after all, it's only a review; one guy's opinion, and for every person who hates it there'll be another who loves it.

    I don't actually own a 360, but this was one of the main games I wanted for it if I ever got one. And I still do want it.

  • IronGiant #137 5 years ago

    5 is about right, yet another overhyped let down.

  • DanMW #138 5 years ago

    Don't let some of these average scores put you off the game, the demo doesn't do the game justice. Give it a try, rent it/borrow it if it doesn't convince you, you might like it.

  • Edward_Gamer #139 5 years ago

    There have been FOUR games that have been getting RIPPED on lately: Blue Dragon, Lair, Warhawk, and Heavenly Sword.

    All four of those games have been receiving reviews that are MUCH LOWER than originally expected.

    Warhawk ended up being a disappointment in the reviews.

    Warhawk was rated only a 6.5 out of 10 by PSM magazine. Warhawk is called, "A third person shooter that never gets off the ground."

    This is NOT a surprise, because Warhawk REQUIRES at least two people to play, and there is NO MODE where Bots can be used in the place of people!!! THAT SUCKS!!!

    In Warhawk, the final version of the game ended up where machine guns from people on the ground can actually shoot down the Warhawk... That SUCKS!!! And men on the ground with rocket launchers can shoot the Warhawk out of the sky in one shot... That SUCKS!!! That is why Warhawk is rated so poorly.

    That's still better than Lair. Lair only got a rating of 5 out of 10 from PSM, and only 5.5 out of 10 from EGM.

    Heavenly Sword is another game that is receiving very "Mixed Reviews."

    Heavenly Sword received a rating of only 6 out of 10 from Edge.

    Heavenly Sword received a rating of 7 out of 10 IGN, and other 7 out of 10 from IGN UK.

    The 6 out of 10 from Edge is a REALLY BIG DISAPPOINTMENT for Heavenly Sword.

  • Yossarian #140 5 years ago

    anyone who bought this over Bioshock, I laugh at you

  • Yossarian #141 5 years ago

    also somebody ban Edward Gamer he's a viral Xbox dude.

  • Scyrenn #142 5 years ago

    ...

    What?


    Played BD for a few hours yesterday, rather liked it, 5 seems a little very harsh...



    whatever

  • LeD #143 5 years ago

    If you go by Rob's reviews, Enchanted Arms is a better game - or more enjoyable - than Blue Dragon. Now I've played through Enchanted Arms, enjoyed it for what it was, but it's nowhere near as charming and entertaining as Blue Dragon.
    I'll let Rob entertain you with the idea that I've never played Blue Dragon. The assumption is quite amusing, and yet another hint at how clueless the bloke is.

    Another thing, the guy has precedent, giving 6/10 to DOA4, which has been critically acclaimed by a number of reviews.
    It's easy to say that I could just agree to disagree with the reviewer, and I actually do that with most EG reviewers, just pointing out that I have a different opinion of the game.
    But Rob's attitude towards MS published games, and his pathetic defense of Sony's strategy in his ridiculours GI.biz reviews, his past involvement with the ThreeSpeech blog, just show him for what he is.

  • Curion #144 5 years ago

    Blue Dragon is nothing more than a time waster for sad people. This game has as much character and charm as one of my turds.

  • indian23 #145 5 years ago

    anyone who bought this over Bioshock, I laugh at you

  • Kryon #146 5 years ago

    I must admit, with all the good will in the world, I really can't see how anyone could give Enchanted Arms a 7 and BD a 5 unless there is some kind of bias of sorts going on or maybe Shinji was just infatuated with Makoto but there's definitely something not right here imo...

  • Xerx3s #147 5 years ago

    LED: All that may be true (or not) but why not just ignore his reviews in the future? Clearly you will disagree with him on most things. The world won't be a worse place. Write a reader review about the game and sum up exactly WHY the game deserves higher than that.

    TBF, I've stopped reading 99% of all reviews and just skip to the conclusion part. I will never base my purchase on the basis of a review again. Nowadays I only buy games that are highly recommended by other gamers (reader reviews). No hard feelings towards the reviewers but word of mouth is just the best way to know. There have been clear examples of this in the past years.

  • dloob #148 5 years ago

    Odd I enjoyed the BD demo and playing the Eternal Sonata demo after it I thought Eternal Sonata was a bit crap, which was a shame I was looking forward to it.
    Maybe I missed something in the Eternal Sonata demo I must give it another shot I found its battle system fiddly.

  • shido #149 5 years ago

    Hmmm really glad i didn't read this review before i bought this and let it put me off. I've only played a few hours so far and i'm really enjoying it. Graphically its really wonderful....the combat is good so far i think.

    The demo did worry me and was a bit confusing and ...well a bit rubbish but.... starting at the beginning and learning about everything from there makes everything clear like you'd expect.

    5 is harsh no doubt about it....Again i think its a case of EG trying to show off to the gaming world they can give out low scores to high profile games just for the sake of it.

    I'm sure we can look forward to some 6's / 7's when some more of the microsoft big guns come out in the coming months.

  • caligari #150 5 years ago

    Soooo...Bioshock gets 10, but still the hardcore MS zealots are complaining about EG Sony bias?

    I pity the Halo 3 reviewer. :s

  • DjFlex52 #151 5 years ago

    Soooo...Bioshock gets 10, but still the hardcore MS zealots are complaining about EG Sony bias?

    @caligari

    Inciting others, aren't you? For shame!
    I didn't see anyone mentioned an EG Sony bias at all in this thread until YOU.
    I've read that a few people didn't like one reviewer's bias...there's more?

  • Kryon #152 5 years ago

    "Soooo...Bioshock gets 10, but still the hardcore MS zealots are complaining about EG Sony bias? "

    We are accusing Shinji of having some odd sort of bias, not EG. If Krudster or anyone else had reviewed BD I'd guess the review may have not been quite so critical.
    Anyway, it's the view of one person so it matters little, Metacritic is a much better way to judge and they give it 7.9 (based on 20 reviews) so it's all good:)

  • speedofthepuma #153 5 years ago

    @caligari: don't listen to those voices in your head man.

    @Shinji: can you explain how this loses 4 points on DQ, I didn't get the wealth of differences explaning this from the body of the text.

  • Vic #154 5 years ago

    have you been under a rock or something, this game debuted in Japan 3 months ago and made 360 sales rise 150%, it managed to sell 30K in one month (just that month though, but it did". Blue Dragon is very old news in Japan.

    Famitsu scored the game 37/40, so they did like it.

    Miguel's damage control alert!!

    360 sales rose by that much? So thats 5,000 360's sold in the week Blue Dragon was released.

    Doesnt look like it has an ounce of origimality. Hopefully Square will finally do something new with FF XIII.

  • jlaakso #155 5 years ago

    Taking it with the expectation of a very old-school approach to JRPG, I'm liking it. The world seems kinda empty and some of the characters are off, but I do like the straight to business approach and the no-nonsense combat and character development. And it's pretty as anything.

    It's just not setting me on fire like FF VII or FF XII, but an enjoyable stroll to candy-flavored stat-land it is.

  • Shinji #156 5 years ago

    We are accusing Shinji of having some odd sort of bias, not EG. If Krudster or anyone else had reviewed BD I'd guess the review may have not been quite so critical.

    Heh :) Actually, I'd pondered scoring this a point higher and it was only with Kristan's input that it was decided to go for a 5. I think the game is terribly disappointing and average - Kristan seems to dislike it a hell of a lot more intensely than that :)

    @Shinji: can you explain how this loses 4 points on DQ, I didn't get the wealth of differences explaning this from the body of the text.

    I'm at a loss there, because I didn't review DQ8 for Eurogamer. Had I done so, I would have marked it far, far lower than the 9/10 it actually received - a review is just one person's opinion, and I guess Simon and I differ very widely on that game. I think they both suffer from being terribly, terribly outdated and from aiming for nostalgia rather than entertainment.

  • Kryon #157 5 years ago

    "Doesnt look like it has an ounce of origimality"

    A game does not have to be particularly original or (the new 'buzz' word, innovative) to be a good game. No one can deny that 'sequels' tend to be the most anticipated titles, often very good and are the main system sellers to boot i.e. MGS4, Zelda, Bio Hazard, Halo, etc. If RE5 plays just like RE4 with a new story, I'll be the happyest chap in town. Tbh though Vin, I doubt you've got Bluedragon as you're a bit of a Sony Fanboy so your opinion doesn't really count for much...
    Edited by 1 at 26/08/07 @ 00:04

  • Kryon #158 5 years ago

    Shinj, you know I luvz-ya with your cute fanboy ways but c-mon, you gave Enchanted Arms a 7? I mean I've got both games dude, and I just don't see the logic in your scores. I don't think you deserve personal insults to the degree Led has been spouting them but I honestly don't get how anyone could think EA is better than BD:(

    And you're alot bigger than Krudster so you probably just bullied him into agreeing with you!

  • Shinji #159 5 years ago

    Oi, saying I'm fat is taking it a bit far! :p

    I genuinely, honestly enjoyed Enchanted Arms more than this game. What can I say? It's the truth - I thought the battle system was vastly more interesting, and the storytelling held my attention to a degree Blue Dragon simply didn't manage. More than that; Enchanted Arms was largely speaking a tight game that shuffled you from place to place and made stuff happen, whereas Blue Dragon is, by comparison, an exercise in roaming through seemingly endless dungeons not really getting anywhere.

    I also don't quite understand how I can on the one hand biased against the Xbox for giving Blue Dragon a low score, and on the other hand, definitely wrong because I gave a higher score than it deserved to, er, another Xbox game... The mind boggles! (I know it's not you making this accusation, Kryon, but you'll forgive me for having a little fun at the expense of the local crazy street-preacher :) )

  • Kryon #160 5 years ago

    Well, I can't argue with what you've said, it's your opinion and I guess it's really how you feel about the game so I'll pretend to believe you're not a fanboy in the name of good will but please untie Kristan, let him out of your basement and let him review future 360 games as your views do not help to encourage world piece:p

  • Shinji #161 5 years ago

    Oh man, if you think THIS is war, you'd have loved the thread that would have resulted had Kristan reviewed this :)

  • Kryon #162 5 years ago

    Krudster - " uh! Mmmm! ehhh..ungh!" (painties duct taped into his mouth)

    Shinji - " Muahahaha, I'll port the blame onto you my pretty and tell them that this review was all your fault! Now shut up and get back in the basement!"

    Krudster - (Shenmue style) "NOOOoooooooo!!!"

    :)

    Edited by 1 at 26/08/07 @ 00:47

  • The-Bodybuilder #163 5 years ago

    I really don't want to get into this whole LeD/Shinji thingy, but i have to be honest and say that I stopped listening to Shinji a LOOOOOOOOONG time ago in regards to anything 360/ps3 related (don't mind the wii opninons).

    But I've seen to much to make me come to my conclusion (no offence).
    Edit: Either way, I could care less about this game. It's a j-rpg afterall.
    Edited by 1 at 26/08/07 @ 01:07

  • Vic #164 5 years ago

    Kryon, you sound like a bitter dickhead, acting like the voice of reason (pfft). Blue Dragon looks like it was developed by a Nintendo employee during his/her lunchbreak. Nothing in it impressed me.

  • DjFlex52 #165 5 years ago

    Kryon, you sound like a bitter dickhead, acting like the voice of reason (pfft). Blue Dragon looks like it was developed by a Nintendo employee during his/her lunchbreak. Nothing in it impressed me.

    @Vic

    Well, that puts your EG xbox360 reviews audition on ice :)

    ....and try to, at least, be funny next time.

  • DUFFMAN5 #166 5 years ago

    Can't play ANY 360 games as mine "broke" last week, red rings and all that. My bro-in-law's broke yesterday!
    How did MS manage to kill our machines around the release date of the Elite!
    Back to my trusty creaking,moaning ps2 (5 years and counting). G.O.W 2,Forbidden Siren 2,Bully and DMC 3 oh yes and Tomb Raider A.
    I am looking forward to getting my 360 back, shame about this game looked good-ish on demo

  • DUFFMAN5 #167 5 years ago

    biker_bob, sorry to hear of your loss! you must be mega pissed off

    It's such a shame as I have been playing video games since the 80's (vic 20 anyone ?) and I trully think the 360 is the best and the most fun I have had playing games, but like you I think it is a disgrace that the machine seems to break down so often. I will stick with MS in the hope they get it right, that and the fact no greta games as yet for the PS3. Glad I kept my PS2 as that is getting lots of use.

  • Kryon #168 5 years ago

    @Vic

    "Kryon, you sound like a bitter dickhead"

    Vic, I find that 'bitter dickheads' often spout bile about games they don't have because it's not available on their precious console of choice and then resort to personal insults if challenged by anyone.

    "Blue Dragon looks like it was developed by a Nintendo employee during his/her lunchbreak"

    Funny, everyone else seems to think BD 'looks' amazing, it's the lack of orignality that seems to be most peoples problem, oh but you've never played it so you wouldn't know. How about you get back to playing Resistance lol (or one of the many other great PS3 titles you own) and stop bothering the adults, yeah?

    /Pats Vic on the head

  • MAX99 #169 5 years ago

    c'mon...the game deserves at 10/10 for the boss music alone :) .....what an incredible cheese fest of a rock track that is...had me noshing through every major battle. think i heard the lead singer from deep purple supplies the screaming vocals for that one.

  • Dizzy #170 5 years ago

    "Doesnt look like it has an ounce of originality"

    JRPGs never have.

  • Martin #171 5 years ago

    @Dizzy: Untrue.

  • Xerx3s #172 5 years ago

    Oh man, if you think THIS is war, you'd have loved the thread that would have resulted had Kristan reviewed this :)

    Wait till you see the comments when the h3 review is released. Whatever will be written and whatever the score will be, it will be a massacre and dwarf the GoW section with ease. ;)

    /puts helmet on
    /digs manhole
    /checks rifle
    /awaits fate with grim look on his face

  • Yossarian #173 5 years ago

    only a few weeks now until that unholy war :)

  • Hughes. #174 5 years ago

    Upcoming reviews...

    Halol 3 - 7/10
    Heavenly Sword 5/10

    Fun times ahead.

  • ilmaestro #175 5 years ago

    Shinji: clearly you overscored eM because you knew it was coming out on PS3 as well. ;)

  • peeetah #176 5 years ago

    The main problem with this for me is the characters. I could never buy i because I know for a fact I couldn't give two shits about the people I'm playing as and that important in a game like this. I mean come on who the hell wants to play as 3 loathsome children (all game children are loathsome, FACT) and what appears to be a Japanese sports mascot suffering from dwarfism.

  • Kryon #177 5 years ago

    ^

    I dunno, I'd rather play as a cute character than a teen ladyboy but each to his own ;)

  • indian23 #178 5 years ago

    200

  • jimmyjimbob #179 5 years ago

    Just ordered this, gamestation have an offer on where if you buy any other game it's £20 off. So got bioshock and blue dragon for £60. Not so bad for two brand new games :)

    I'm a big old skool rpg fan anyway, so I don't think that will bother be

  • Gardiac #180 5 years ago

    "Blue Dragon" is "Final Fantasy 5" like "Chrono Trigger".

  • indian23 #181 5 years ago

    Blue Dragolol the retarded version of FF tbh
    Edited by 1 at 26/08/07 @ 21:50

  • alimokrane #182 5 years ago

    Ok, I've put in 15Hours into the game so far and I must say, it's the best jrpg I have played in a very very long time. up there with Dragon quest minus the voice acting which could have been better. Other than that, very creative visuals, swift flowing soundtrack minus the boss battles track, and very fun traditonal combat with nice little bits and pieces thrown all over the place making it a very enjoyable experience. I dont care how you spin it, this game isnt worthy of such a medicore review. Get your act together eurogamer, you lost it!

  • GamesConnoisseur #183 5 years ago

    Biker_Bob

    Forgive me if you already commented elsewhere, but do you have more than one Xbox console? As Elite a damaged good and getting refunded (sorry to hear about that, its damn shocking) and whilst using EG new live intergration cant help but notice you are still playing on xbox, the latest being today? Or is the console limping along? What was the problem if I can ask?

    By the way below thread is for the very few unlucky Xbox owner with severe freezing problems (to do with HDD and moi included) whilst playing BioShock and the solution is found in the thread.

    http://ww w.eurogamer.net/forum_thread_po...
    Edited by 1 at 27/08/07 @ 02:16

  • jonnyreb #184 5 years ago

    Hmmmm

    I never usually disagree with Eurogamer - I find they are pretty much 'spot-on' in their ratings.

    BUT

    My son really wanted this game, and after buying it for him I find I have been playing it more than he does :p

    I really love JRPG's - put 100's of hours into Dragon Quest, FF and Star Ocean and I can honestly say that I would put Blue Dragon up there with them.

    I would never stoop low enough to flame someone for their opinion (ie review) of a game, but I recommend that if you like 'old skool' JRPG's give this a try.

    Oh, and in case you were wondering, the demo is not representative of the full game in any way.
    Edited by 1 at 27/08/07 @ 09:43

  • Steroyd #185 5 years ago

    Edward_Gamer said: Warhawk ended up being a disappointment in the reviews.

    Warhawk was rated only a 6.5 out of 10 by PSM magazine. Warhawk is called, "A third person shooter that never gets off the ground."

    This is NOT a surprise, because Warhawk REQUIRES at least two people to play, and there is NO MODE where Bots can be used in the place of people!!! THAT SUCKS!!!

    In Warhawk, the final version of the game ended up where machine guns from people on the ground can actually shoot down the Warhawk... That SUCKS!!! And men on the ground with rocket launchers can shoot the Warhawk out of the sky in one shot... That SUCKS!!! That is why Warhawk is rated so poorly.

    The 6 out of 10 from Edge is a REALLY BIG DISAPPOINTMENT for Heavenly Sword.

    Selective sources it seems, you say Warhawk got a 6.5 in PSM saying how disapointing it is, then saying that Heavenly sword got a 6 from Edge which also gave Warhawk an 8 the same score as Bioshock.

    If your going to leap frog from of sources to sources like that at least be consistent with all of them.

  • miiiguel #186 5 years ago

    Vic: you're one of the guys that think everything from Japan is cool, right ? Anyways read same video-game charts from Japan, you'll probably feel good, is all those cooking stuff's and spike-haired dudes, fluffy monsters on Wii's..., and if you look real hard you can see a PS3 title debuting at a respectable #543 place, and the crazyness, madness, hyper-cool - no western bull shit.

  • onyxbox #187 5 years ago

    I've been playing Blue Dragon along with Bioshock and I think EG are way off with this review.

    It's an enjoyable game IMO and makes a nice contrast to Bioshock.

  • GamesConnoisseur #188 5 years ago

    Biker_Bob All the very best and hope your run of luck has changed.

    Aye like most of you I got both BioShock and Blue Dragon, and enjoying both quite well. Although obviously of different classes but scores of 10 and 5 respectively doesn't really give a real picture for the mauled and tattered Blue Dragon.

    I agree that Blue Dragon could have been a bit more, but to give impression that Enchanted Arm is better than this? Blue Dragon should not have get less than a 6 at worse!

  • Kryon #189 5 years ago

    "but to give impression that Enchanted Arm is better than this? "

    Don't worry guys! I've totally worked it out! OK, it's like this, eM is rather well known for it's openly gay (and extremely annoying) character Makoto. There are no homosexual lady-boys in BD.

    Now so far this may all seem pretty inconsequential BUT after investigating further I stumbled across a secret area in the underbelly of EG! A secret group of what can only be described as 'willy enthusiasts'. This unscrupulous EG group calls itself <a href=h ttp://gamers.eurogamer.net/groups.php?group_id=421>Ga y Gamers</a>! And guess what? Shinji is a member and frequents their forum chat regularly!

    DO YOU SEE NOW? AHAHAHAAA! DO YOU SEE, GOD DAMN IT!!! XD

  • LeD #190 5 years ago

    Shinji's gay regardless of his sexual preferences I'm afraid.

  • menage #191 5 years ago

    "Edge which also gave Warhawk an 8 the same score as Bioshock."

    WTF. Edge gave Bioshock an fucking 8 ?????????
    What the fuck is wrong with that game that bthey need to deduct 2 full points and rate it the same as fucking Just Cause???

    Pretentious pricks. seems like I don't have any reliable source anymore now. And they give FFXII, the most boring game in existence a 9.
    I'm guessing these guys are getting a bit to addicted to overly complicated stat based niche games. If a superious product like Bioshock can't even get a 9, what the hell do they need.
    Edited by 2 at 27/08/07 @ 15:36

  • jonnyreb #192 5 years ago

    The Edge has lost it in my opinion.

    They have always been tough reviewers - favouring originality and gameplay over graphics and hype.

    BUT - recently they seem to be slating heavily hyped games regardless of the quality simply to 'be different' and stir up controversy.

    I've just bought the latest issue actually (the one with Halo 3 on the front) but haven't got round to reading it yet - I'm assuming nothing has changed :)

  • menage #193 5 years ago

    "They have always been tough reviewers - favouring originality and gameplay over graphics and hype. "

    I'm okay withy that. But giving this a 8 indeed smells of a plain attitude of superiority. Ah forget it. Reviewers and critics are depressed sourfaced whiners. If you don't like a genre (like traditional RPG's) don't review it, it's like me reviewing a sportsgame. Everyone would get a 3. And all reviews should have 3 people working on it. Oneman reviews suck more and more ass. Power to the people.
    Edited by 1 at 27/08/07 @ 16:45

  • Kryon #194 5 years ago

    Bob, my post was tongue in cheek (lol, sorry) and was seriously not meant to cause offense, so my apologies if it did:)

    As for a persons sexuality affecting how much they like/dislike a piece of media, I say it absolutely does. Do you think Tomb Raider would have sold as much without Laras T&A to look at? How about DoA Volleyball, you honestly think guys bought that to play volleyball?

    Hence, if you like lady-boys, you may enjoy that aspect of eM.

  • Les #195 5 years ago

    Reviews should have no score. They only serve to generate long and boring comments threads... :(

  • bonker #196 5 years ago

    Guys, sorry but I've just borrowed this from a friend to check it out and it's awful, despite my high-hopes :)

    I'm sure there are people out there who will get something out of it but to me it was devoid of anything worthwhile.

    I can only think that the profile of the game and the people who contributed to it have led to the, apparently, inflated review scores.

    I'm all up for old-skool action being an old SNES-head & RPG lover myself but this is the very definition of turgid ...

  • JYM60 #197 5 years ago

    Whoa, thats diabolical. Not even as good as a japanese version of folklore. :)

  • Kryon #198 5 years ago

    But frod, your most antiscipated title is Heavenly Sword right? BWAHAHAHAAaaaa.....

  • lennon #199 5 years ago

    I havent read the review yet apart from the score but I have to say I am seriously enjoying Blue Dragon. Nothing orginal but it is just so much more interesting than most of the other JRPG games I have played recently. I liked Enchanted Arms to a point but this is way better. I am even enjoying it more that FF12 which I have found extremley difficult to get into and actually have no idea what is going on as the cut scenes bored me.

    That said I note the sub heading of it going on and on but to be honest that strikes me as a comment of someone who had to play it through to get a review out (not a criticism) rather than someone like me that will probably play this on and off over the course of the next 6 months.

    I had been led to believe that the first 15 hours were a drag but unless after 6 hours it suddenly starts to drag then I cant see it being a problem for me.

  • Shinji #200 5 years ago

    Kryon - how charmingly mature of you to raise that :) 'Course, if you actually read my Enchanted Arms review, you'd notice that I absolutely hated the Makoto character and found him outright offensive in places. Hmm :)

  • EmiliasHorse #201 5 years ago

    Poor review. I won't often say this but I disagree with the reviewer, especially considering he awarded the vastly inferior Enchanted Arm a 7.

    /growl

  • Kryon #202 5 years ago

    Sorry Shinj, but it was bank holiday and I was bored. I promise not to do it again ;)

  • NthSimulachum #203 5 years ago

    Augh! 12 hours in, Shu and Jiro are really starting to grate(that cringeworthy bit with the rings is atrocious in english). And Zola's voice is just a steady monotone...

    Switched to French...ahh thats better. Better acting, yet can still understand what they're saying for the most part. Shu is saying d'accord a lot though.

  • BillyBrush #204 5 years ago

    Finished the 1st disc at the weekend...loving it so far, the quality of the graphics is so far through the roof (cg quality)...it's been really harshly scored here, i am actually finding it much more compelling than DQ8 and FF12 myself...probably because the graphics are insanely good but also the japanese voice acting seems good to me (not tried on US)

  • menage #205 5 years ago

    "but also the japanese voice acting seems good to me (not tried on US)"

    You have the US version then? I thought EU didn't get the jap version. Is it region free, that would help me alot!

  • BillyBrush #206 5 years ago

    Sorry menage - tis not region free...i am playing the UK version which has English (what i was calling US), french, and Japanese audio..i have the Japanese voiceovers on

    FYI all microsoft games studio's games are region locked...most of the others aren't

  • RexRunti #207 5 years ago

    You get the choice of English, French or Japanese voices. I went straight to Japanese.

    If you like traditional JRPGs you will like this game.
    If you don't you will hate it.

    Personally I expect to play this game twice, once normally and once with a walkthrough sitting next to me.

    Oh I personally think it's graphically better then Gears of War as well.

  • souljacker2000 #208 5 years ago

    Im loving this game.. i bought this instead of Bioshock and im so glad. 3 discs meaning more for your money and having encountered my first lot of sheep trib people... is making me even more glad to have bought it... OOOOo bodyform... body form for youu.......

  • SIDEARM #209 5 years ago

    I started with english voices and now want to switch to japanese but cant find an option to do so. Once you have started are ou stuck?

  • RexRunti #210 5 years ago

    when you load a saved game you can switch by pressing the x button.

  • SIDEARM #211 5 years ago

    Thanks!

  • MAX99 #212 5 years ago

    RexRunti: "Oh I personally think it's graphically better then Gears of War as well."

    I agree...the graphics are absolutrely jaw-dropping in places. Everything is rendered with a lovely creamy consistency. I sometimes have to blink to distinguish from the fmv and in-game sequences such is the quality.

    How about the music though? Not since Skies of Arcadia have I heard a Jap RPG with this quality of music. Haunting, dreamy and cheesy all at the same time.

  • NickyJo #213 5 years ago

    I wouldn't mind playing this game, demo wasn't bad at all. After the poor reviews I expected a lot worse.

  • themardygit #214 5 years ago

    Well, well I bought this game due to the fact that I had just finished bioshock and I needed something to fill the gap before HALO 3. Originally I was very excited about this game until I saw the reviews on the net especially this one! I came very close to not buying this game and I have come to realize to put more faith in my one of my favorite game designers, musical composers and character artists than the few opinions of various critics who may have grown weary after a few too many random battle encounters. I LOVE THIS GAME.
    On the other hand I read the reviews of FFXII and DQ and they inspired me to go out and buy them, I traded in DQ after a day and FFXII was a MASSIVE disappointment (because it lacked depth to the narrative, and had a battle system that rendered the player useless, but thats a story for another day)
    I also believe that a game does not have to be groundbreaking from a graphical, mechanical, or playable standing point, a game merely has to be fun and that is exactly what BD is, FUN!!! Also these forum debates go to show that the public reaction to BD has been much more positive than the critics'.
    Why are critics so concerned with innovation and progress (is it because you are subjected to crap games all day and have become jaded by this). Yes steps need to be made forward but theres a reason for why these kinds of formulaic types of games are popular and thats because over the years they have been refined.
    I'm not going to say that the review is wrong but EG will have been responsible for a few people missing out on a game they would have really enjoyed.

    BTW-EA was the worst RPG i have played in a long time for the record. Crap art direction, crap music, crap story and crap battle system also homosexuality is fair enough in a game but Makoto just seemed like one big piss take to me. anyway scoring this pile of arse higher than BD just seems criminal. Rant over

  • JPickford #215 5 years ago

    Really surprised by this review. This is one of the most entertaining games I've played in ages. The story is less convoluted than most JRPGS and consequently more enjoyable. I usually lose track of the daft twists and turns.

    The combat is superb, the graphics lush, the cut-scenes are often brilliant. There's practically no grinding required and no random battles either.

    It's pretty much everything I want in a JRPG style game. Certainly it harks back to the SNES era but that's no bad thing.

    To be honest I can't fault it. I've had 30hours of entertainment so far.

  • JPickford #216 5 years ago

    I agree with the above poster about Enchanted Arms too.

  • sneetch #217 5 years ago

    I bought this and Bioshock with my Elite, so far I've put about 5 hours into Bioshock and 30+ into this. Don't get me wrong: Bioshock is *fantastic*. This just calls me back more, even the God-awful battle music. Can you say J-rawk! :)

    I'm just really enjoying this, the last JRPG I enjoyed this much was FFVII (please note that I deliberately did not compare this to FFVII to hopefully cut down on rampant fanboyism ;) ).
    Edited by 1 at 04/09/07 @ 15:52

  • holy_bazooka #218 5 years ago

    ouch!!!

  • super_monty #219 4 years ago

    This reviewer appears to be absolutly hopless.

  • BornFreeTaxedToDeath #220 4 years ago

    Blue Dragon. Total kak. And I do like Japanese RPG generally.

  • Kryon #221 4 years ago

    ^^ Total moron.

    I've just completed BD for the second time. The game is a Solid 8/10 for me personally, my only issue was the camera angles where slightly annoying at times but it wasn't a big deal at all. If you loved the golden SNES RPG era (like me) then you'll love this game. Sadly I put off playing BD because of Shinji's sarcastic and poorly written review. Don't make the same mistake as me.