Blue Dragon Comments by Rob Fahey

@Captain Future - demo's are often created before the game's properly optimised and it would appear to be the case here. Not just that, it doesn't actually have any proper hook to it - it just throws you in. I doubt people would be judging the retail purely on the poor demo if the demo played out the beginning of the game and showcased a smoother framerate, better responsiveness and less tearing.

I'd played it months ago on an HK display pod and was very pissed off by the demo as it didn't seem to represent what I'd tried before.

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.

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

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.

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

?!

Everything from Japan IS cool.

/goes back to listening to HiHi Puffy Ami Yumi

/irony

"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..........

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

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

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.

"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.

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?

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!!

alimokrane: Lost With Translation.

pwnd

@ miiiguel

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

Why has it reviewed so poorly this time around?

What changed or is down to reviewer taste?

Also, don't agree with comments about why we bought the system above. In my case it certainly was not just for Shooters. Oblivion, Dead Rising and Viva Pinata are three of the best for me.

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.

alimokrane: nevermind, lame reference to well known movie.

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

"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.

Kinda saw that one coming after playing the demo.

@speedtrax

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

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...

"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.

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 Pińata (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?

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

@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.

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...

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

Who to believe?

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

@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. :)

Nah, I don't buy that, LeD. Shinji loves JRPG's as does ilmęstro, 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.

led: format?

there has been a chap with this name on the Sony blog but, if the same person, he'd never let that colour his views surely?

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... ;)

4.5/10

mossychops001: you played it for a while ?

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.

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.

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!

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

[/fly in the ointment]

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

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

On metacritic at the mo this averages 79

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platform...

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..

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

Better than mafia then?

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.

The demo was utter wank.

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

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