Blue Dragon (video game)
| Blue Dragon | |
|---|---|
Box art of Blue Dragon
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| Developer(s) |
Mistwalker Artoon |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Director(s) | Takuya Matsumoto |
| Programmer(s) | Shinji Iseki |
| Artist(s) | Akira Toriyama |
| Writer(s) | Hironobu Sakaguchi |
| Composer(s) | Nobuo Uematsu |
| Platform(s) | Xbox 360 |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 77% |
| Metacritic | 79/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | C+ |
| Eurogamer | 5 out of 10 |
| Famitsu | 37 out of 40 |
| Game Informer | 9 out of 10 |
| GamePro | 4.5 out of 5 |
| GameSpot | 6 out of 10 |
| GameSpy | 4 out of 5 |
| IGN | 7.9 out of 10 |
| X-Play |   |
Blue Dragon (Japanese: ブルードラゴン Hepburn: Burū Doragon) is a role-playing video game developed by Mistwalker and Artoon and published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. Blue Dragon is based on a design by Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, who also supervised development and wrote the plot. It is both Mistwalker's debut title and the first title to be helmed by Sakaguchi outside of Square Enix. The game was released in Japan in December 2006, where it was sold both as a standalone title and as part of a bundle with the Xbox 360. Other regions received only the game itself, with a release in August 2007.
Taking place in a fictional open-world environment, the story of Blue Dragon focuses on five friends (Shu, Jiro, Kluke, Zola, and Marumaro) as they travel across the world to confront Nene, the evil ruler of the Grand Kingdom. The setting inspired separate anime and manga adaptations, although these follow the story to different degrees and feature a different cast of characters. The game follows a traditional role-playing design, based around exploration and turn-based combat.
Blue Dragon was the first Xbox 360 title to make use of multiple discs, spanning three discs in total. Overall, the game received a generally positive reception, being both applauded and criticized for its adaptation of the traditional elements of role-playing games.
The gameplay of Blue Dragon uses turn-based gameplay elements seen in older Japanese role-playing video games. The game world contains two major types of areas: towns, in which the player can rest and purchase items, and dungeon-like areas, with numerous foes to be defeated.
Players are initially able to walk between locations on the overworld, and later gain the ability to teleport to previously visited locations. The player controls a party of characters, but only one is shown when exploring the overworld. The player is able to cast magic outside of combat situations based on each character's respective abilities. When combat begins, the entire party appears for battle. Enemies are visible to the player while exploring the game world, and can be avoided. At the same time, players can choose to engage enemies by luring them close and them activating a circle which will allow players to fight multiple monsters at a time. In some cases, specific foes will block a path or desired treasure chest and must be defeated to proceed. Other foes will pursue the player's character once the player is spotted, but players can elude them if they flee far enough. Frequently, a single enemy or monster displayed on the screen actually represents a number of different foes of potentially different types.
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Wikipedia