Blue Dragon Comments by Rob Fahey

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!

"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 Gay Gamers! 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

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

"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.

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 :)

"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.

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.

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

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 ...

It's not awful, it's brilliant.

Put it this way, if you liked FF VIII-IX, you'll most likely enjoy this.

Also, EDGE suck. Pretentious is the perfect word for them. EG is basically the Internet version of EDGE.

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

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

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.

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 :)

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

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

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.

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)

"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!

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

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.

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.......

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?

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

Thanks!

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.

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

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.

I agree with the above poster about Enchanted Arms too.

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 ;) ).

ouch!!!

I'm another who was really put off this by this review but went ahead and got it anyway.

Both myself and my son have been playing it and huge enjoy it (it is his first JRPG).

Like someone said above, I got FF12 due to reviews and didn't enjoy it at all.

This, however, is hugely enjoyable for me and one of the best gamesi've played in ages.

Shows you can't always trust the reviews and should give them a try yourself sometimes i guess.

(to be fair Euroganers was a very harsh review and certainly not consistent with the general feedback).

This one seems to be a gamers game, as most people who've played it seem to be liking it from what i've read.

This reviewer appears to be absolutly hopless.

The reviewer is right: It is bloody monotonous. But i love it anyway :)

And for the record: I did not like FF12 too...

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

^^ 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.