Blue Dragon is a 2007 JRPG (06 in Japan I guess) developed by Mistwalker and boasting the work of the holy trinity of jrpgs: the gooch, Toriyama and Uematsu. It got released to varied degrees of reception although I believe it was favorable. However the pedigree of the dev team behind it led people to expect a runaway success in the vein of the FF titles of yore, and that sadly didn't happen so the game got quickly forgotten. This thread will receive my (and hopefully aspro's) impressions going through it.

The game is very nice looking even after all these years, it has a clean well defined artstyle. Story is average throwaway jrpg stuff as far as I've understood, music is mostly good, great at times and completely random here and there with stuff like that Ian Gillan boss theme. Gameplay is by-the-numbers JRPG 101, which is only fair I guess considering the people involved. Much like LO after it, this game reeks of nostalgia for a time gone by and thus, it can be hit or miss depending on your experience with the genre. I'm loving it. It has no random encounters, lots of gameplay subtleties to make the most out of battles even before they start, and a robust skill/spell catalogue.

Only thing so far that I haven't liked is the shitty camera. It serves no purpose int he overworld since it's fixed (or at least I cannot find a way to change it) in an almost zenithal view with a measly amount of ground covered, so you don't always get to see clearly your surroundings or where are you going. Indoors or inside dungeons it's quite obnoxious, getting in the way of action frequently.

I'm pushing through the first disc right now, but got stuck in the forest of the farts. Will get back soon.

What does LTTP mean?

lovers taking turns penetrating?

lesbians talking to people?

locomotive train turns .... penis?

o_0

gamingeek said:

Forest of the farts?

Just a forest that had toxic mist everywhere. That's not its name.

sum1 tell me wut lttp is plz ty.

If not I will start mailing you my pubic hair.

GodModeEnabled said:

sum1 tell me wut lttp is plz ty.

If not I will start mailing you my pubic hair.

Oi that wasn't me!

The third disc of this game is something else. Lots of new things introduced.

Very happy with it, though I think I am close to the end.

Ah, early days yet.  I am on the final boss.  Not sure if I am going to bother to beat him, I've spent a couple of hours on his so far.

Some tips; Don't bother balancing multiple jobs per user. Jusy power up one job per user (ala Black Magic, White, Sword Master etc...)

Jiro will have the opportunity at some point to add an ability to use two items per turn.  This is invaluable as it enables you to Phoenix Talon two characters, or Phoenix Talon one and also give them health up.

Also, toward the end of disc two, be very careful.  You should be about level 35 mininum and there is a funnel level at the end of that disc where you can't go back. So either be level 35 or have a good two save slot methodology going throughout.

I was reading some more about Blue Dragon this week. Of note:

• When it was released it was speculated to be the most expensive non-Sqaure-Enix, non-Final Fantasy Japanese RPG ever made.
• Besides Sakaguchi, Uematsu and Toriyama the company that handled the heft of development was Artoon.  At the time of release Artoon included much of the Panzer Dragoon Saga team.
• Not only that, but also at the time of release Artoon had also taken on a large chunk of Team Sonic!

Makes it even sadder this game did not get a sequel.  I started the DS RTS Blue Dragon Plus last night (that doesn't really count as a sequel, though it does take place 12 months after the end of Blue Dragon.

And I always roll 3 slot saves in jrpgs anyway so i think I have that covered. On wrpgs my saving policy is a tad more flexible (one or two hundred slots per playthrough).