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[Duo014]

I never had such an easy rpg :S it's so easy, the bosses are in 10 hits dead,...
(i'm in the beginning of the 2d disc)
the overworld map, the monsters there are in 1 hit dead , is this normal?

 

[theultimo]

I never had such an easy rpg :S it's so easy, the bosses are in 10 hits dead,...
(i'm in the beginning of the 2d disc)
the overworld map, the monsters there are in 1 hit dead , is this normal?

Hard mode is DLC, and not available yet. It is very easy compared to a normal FF type.

 

[Hunahan]

Yeah, except for the kitchen. Somehow it seems all the budget for the castle went into the kitchen.

The Meccat room looked really nice as well, actually.

Plus that one road that leads up to the castle that's packed with villagers.

If the whole game looked as good as it does when it's at it's best...this game could have really been pretty incredible.

 

[Danielsan]

I never had such an easy rpg :S it's so easy, the bosses are in 10 hits dead,...
(i'm in the beginning of the 2d disc)
the overworld map, the monsters there are in 1 hit dead , is this normal?

Yeah it's definitely too easy and that does take out some fun out of the game.
It's especially easy when you're used to playing the Shin Megami Tensei games..

 

[pswii60]

I wish I found it as easy as you lot.

I'm not very experienced in JRPGs (apart from the gazillion hours I stuffed in to PSO, which isn't turn based) and as such am still getting to grips with the strategies involved with turn based combat.

I still love this game though, and is probably perfect for me to get to grips with in time for Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata, and Last Remnant and FF XIII next year.

It's true that it's very much up and down, but some of the environments are beautiful, the artwork and music is stunning. The Depth of Field gives it a distinctly Pixar-look IMO, very well done. Just want to know what Artoon are up to now with this engine - Blinx is forgiven.

 

[Nolan.]

Why the fuck when you enter that cube world after defeating that dinosaur thing and wander through it is there no save point after you wade through that retarded maze of a dungeon. You get ambushed by a bunch of theives that are automated to paralyze, Panic and just inflict status ailments on your party even as soon as you remove them. What the hell is up with that honestly. It's not even difficulty more than annoynce seeing as they managed to paralyze the whole group whilst I had to sit and watch as my hp go from 999 to 0. Also to anyone about to fight the dinousaur don't hit the eye it's easier not to. I don't think I can be bothered to do the whole maze again it was boring the first time round and doubt it'll be any more interesting the next time.

 

[Kill Your Masters]

Hard mode is DLC, and not available yet. It is very easy compared to a normal FF type.

I have the PAL Version (from UK) and I downloaded the DLC from the Hong Kong Marketplace, and it runs without problems, and the game just got even better on hard mode.

 

[BboyDubC]

It takes maybe 10 minutes to make a hong kong account. Just google for a hong kong address and phone number (as easy as "google: hong kong address/phone number"), then sign up for a new silver account for hong kong. I did it before even starting the game to avoid the feeling of it being too easy. Hard mode feels JUUUUUST right. I had to grind quite a lot before I got to a level to beat those butterflies even at the start of the game, since at that time, it could kill my character in 1.5 or so hits. Bosses are by NO means easy... for reference, the second boss

Spoiler

(the fire, ice one)

, I happened to have two casters, which was a life saver... one just kept healing shu, while I used him to do the attacking. Shu actually died once, because they deal about 70 damage per attack. Luckily for me, by the time I got to them, Shu had about 126 max health (yes, this does require mad grinding to get to that level by the second boss). But it definitely makes me feel there is nothing easy about this. Personally, I wouldn't even go into battle with the fire/ice foxes unless I had them together to monster fight, since they deal so much unnecessary damage.

 

[pswii60]

Why the fuck when you enter that cube world after defeating that dinosaur thing and wander through it is there no save point after you wade through that retarded maze of a dungeon. You get ambushed by a bunch of theives that are automated to paralyze, Panic and just inflict status ailments on your party even as soon as you remove them. What the hell is up with that honestly. It's not even difficulty more than annoynce seeing as they managed to paralyze the whole group whilst I had to sit and watch as my hp go from 999 to 0. Also to anyone about to fight the dinousaur don't hit the eye it's easier not to. I don't think I can be bothered to do the whole maze again it was boring the first time round and doubt it'll be any more interesting the next time.

That sounds shit. Is there no checkpoint after the maze either?

 

[Danielsan]

It's true that the visuals have their ups and downs. The Mural Valley looked boring and bland but Mural Town on the otherhand was quite gorgeous.

I'm now 13 hours in and just did the escort mission. I got the perfect escort achievement on the first try
I only have 3 achievements so far..
The game may not be hard but getting it's achievements it a whole different story..

 

[Nolan.]

That sounds shit. Is there no checkpoint after the maze either?

You only hit check points right next to bosses like a couple centimetres away. And by the looks of it I wasn't near the boss either. I'll try and do it again later I think it's just the way they cluster up all the enemies in the room when sometimes you just want to aviod it is slightly annoyance to me.

 

[painey]

i must say the checkpoint idea is absolutely fantastic, i just wish it did it on the sly as not to totally give away the fact that you're about to have a boss fight

 

[Nolan.]

i must say the checkpoint idea is absolutely fantastic, i just wish it did it on the sly as not to totally give away the fact that you're about to have a boss fight

Yeah I like the checkpoint thing if they had that in N3 maybe I would have finished that game. Plus it saved me from having to wander all the way back to a boss on disc 2 I think it was.

 

[Blimblim]

Yeah I like the checkpoint thing if they had that in N3 maybe I would have finished that game.

Haha, I thought the exact same thing when I first played the game last year

 

[Android18a]

The checkpoints were cool.

I must admit the easy difficulty (and ease of hitting level 99) was one of the things I liked best about the game! I like my RPGs to be long, but light. This ticked all the right boxes for me.

 

[BboyDubC]

The checkpoints were cool.

I must admit the easy difficulty (and ease of hitting level 99) was one of the things I liked best about the game! I like my RPGs to be long, but light. This ticked all the right boxes for me.

I like my RPGs to actually require me to think about strategy instead of just mindlessly hitting buttons. On hard mode, it gets exciting when you know that one screw up - one failed realization to delay charge a heal until after the next enemy attack so that you can get the full recover - and you could end up dead. I'm so glad that there are hard enemies, because after you go through the motions and grind on easy guys for an hour, you need something to remind you what you were doing it for/why you are even playing the game.

I like the idea of grinding just so I stand the chance of beating a later enemy instead of grinding, knowing I could just as easily have blown him away from the get-go.

 

[Android18a]

If anything, this just proves RPGs need difficulty settings as standard. I'd stop playing if it got too challenging.

 

[Eric WK]

Question for anyone who's finished the second disk.

I just passed Pachess Town and had the elder lead me to the other side. From there, I can't seem to figure out where to go. It's obviously not the Mecha Base, I take it?

 

[Nolan.]

Question for anyone who's finished the second disk.

I just passed Pachess Town and had the elder lead me to the other side. From there, I can't seem to figure out where to go. It's obviously not the Mecha Base, I take it?

You have to wander around until you see I think it's 3 Ice monster bastards that fling kitchen like choppers at you. When you go past them a cutscene is initiated I think and all hail Kluke.

Edit: from the fallen over stump I think you keep to the left.

 

[iapetus]

I like my RPGs to actually require me to think about strategy instead of just mindlessly hitting buttons. On hard mode, it gets exciting when you know that one screw up - one failed realization to delay charge a heal until after the next enemy attack so that you can get the full recover - and you could end up dead. I'm so glad that there are hard enemies, because after you go through the motions and grind on easy guys for an hour, you need something to remind you what you were doing it for/why you are even playing the game.

You were playing the game while grinding on easy guys for an hour? Clearly you haven't yet realised the level of abuse you can get out of Field Barrier level 3.

 

[Eric WK]

You have to wander around until you see I think it's 3 Ice monster bastards that fling kitchen like choppers at you. When you go past them a cutscene is initiated I think and all hail Kluke.

Edit: from the fallen over stump I think you keep to the left.

Alright, thanks. I definitely killed those dudes but didn't get a cutscene. Must not have advanced in the right direction. I'll give it another go.

 

[AdventureRacing]

When will the DLC be able for those of us playing in Australia. I'll probably hold off my purchase until then.

 

[Ponn]

The difficulty is about average for a RPG. I find the difficulty of just about any RPG to be determined by the way a person plays the game. I'm a more methodical player. I like to spend time grinding in each area, never flee from battles to save time and scour maps for treasure and hidden items (which this game is actually quite rewarding to). With that play style i'm always well equipped, have lots of money and at least where I should be level wise but more often much higher.

If you play like my friend on the other hand you can find some level of difficulty in every rpg. Run and gun in a RPG isn't very effective.

MaruMaro is slowly becoming the JarJar Binks of Blue Dragon for me. Other then that pretty great game. It's meeting my expectations, not the greatest but well worth my time.

 

[siamesedreamer]

Job classes all go up to level 99. They don't learn any skills after the ones in the manual, which is kind of lame. I was hoping for lots of secret skills.

So, do you only get the achievement for leveling up a class after taking it to level 99?

 

[iapetus]

So, do you only get the achievement for leveling up a class after taking it to level 99?

Yes. Likewise the achievement for taking all classes to level 99.

Oh, and very important point: apparently you don't get the achievement if you use an item to reach level 99. You can use Toripo's items to get you all the way to 98, but that last level must be earned the hard way (or by hideous abuse of Field Barrier level 3).

 

[siamesedreamer]

Thanks...that's gonna take FOREVER.

 

[typhonsentra]

I'm at the end of disc 1 now (Jibral), just got threw the caravan defense mission. I gotta say, what were they thinking with those tigers!? Way overpowered compared to previous enemy encounters.

 

[iapetus]

Thanks...that's gonna take FOREVER.

Not as long as you might think. There are SP-doubling accessories around that you can pick up. If you then level barrier magic to level 50 you can get a field ability that allows you to destroy enemies on the field for SP just by walking into them (or having them walk into you) at a cost of 1MP per kill. Stink up all your characters, find a spot where 3SP enemies respawn and attack you, and you can just leave it on its own to level up, only needing to press a button when you run out of MP or get a new skill. Cheap, but no cheaper than requiring you to level all classes to 99 by hand just to get an achievement.

 

[Spruchy]

If I were to download this hard difficulty setting would I be able to switch a game already in progress?

?

 

[Nolan.]

I'm at the end of disc 1 now (Jibral), just got threw the caravan defense mission. I gotta say, what were they thinking with those tigers!? Way overpowered compared to previous enemy encounters.

I remember leveling up a lot prior to that encounter and thinking ''I wonder what would have happen had I not'' afterwards. I have no idea why they did that. It's especially ridiculous when you meet the same tiger species and a variant that take a lot less off you in their attacks. Maybe they just wanted to show off Zola who knows.

 

[siamesedreamer]

Not as long as you might think. There are SP-doubling accessories around that you can pick up. If you then level barrier magic to level 50 you can get a field ability that allows you to destroy enemies on the field for SP just by walking into them (or having them walk into you) at a cost of 1MP per kill. Stink up all your characters, find a spot where 3SP enemies respawn and attack you, and you can just leave it on its own to level up, only needing to press a button when you run out of MP or get a new skill. Cheap, but no cheaper than requiring you to level all classes to 99 by hand just to get an achievement.

Damn. I've gotta change on of my dudes to barrier magic now.

 

[NMC2006]

I really need to put the first disc in my 360, but I am playing XBLA games and Timeshift demos instead, also I am trying to get my last 3 or 4 Bioshock achievements, I may just put BD in and get started, but I want to pick up Stranglehold today.
decisions decisions

 

[Dire]

I'm at the end of disc 1 now (Jibral), just got threw the caravan defense mission. I gotta say, what were they thinking with those tigers!? Way overpowered compared to previous enemy encounters.

Perfect spot to use the create compendium. They're easy.

 

[Proc]

Best custom soundtrack for this game =

(final fantasy - he poos clouds)

 

[u_neek]

Didn't Sakaguchi already announce that Mistwalker is working on a sequel?

I really hope it does well on the sales charts. 200k in Japan and it seems to be doing rather good in the UK as well.

 

[hgplayer1]

I picked up the game yesterday and played up to 8 hours of game clock time. Great game!

I didnt realize there was a difficulty setting so I may have to restart but if Hard is too hard and Im constantly dying then yeah Ill go back to Normal or whatever. I like a challenge but Id rather move through the game and story at a good pace.

The difficulty feels to me about the same as Grandia II which is probably the last RPG I played that was similar to BD.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Didn't Sakaguchi already announce that Mistwalker is working on a sequel?

I fucking hope so.

 

[BboyDubC]

You were playing the game while grinding on easy guys for an hour? Clearly you haven't yet realised the level of abuse you can get out of Field Barrier level 3.

For reference, this was right from the get-go, right outside of the sheep guys village. Far ways from field barrier level 3.

 

[BboyDubC]

Not as long as you might think. There are SP-doubling accessories around that you can pick up. If you then level barrier magic to level 50 you can get a field ability that allows you to destroy enemies on the field for SP just by walking into them (or having them walk into you) at a cost of 1MP per kill. Stink up all your characters, find a spot where 3SP enemies respawn and attack you, and you can just leave it on its own to level up, only needing to press a button when you run out of MP or get a new skill. Cheap, but no cheaper than requiring you to level all classes to 99 by hand just to get an achievement.

Thank GOD! I was just thinking that it would be impossible to do that on hard due to the amount of grinding necessary over the normal mode. Still... getting up to level 50 on barrier on hard will even take a long time (only level 13, but then again, I've only just gotten to Marumaro's village... yes, I have spent 14 hrs with the game and only just got there - Kluke is level 18 on black magic and a beast ).

 

[iapetus]

Still... getting up to level 50 on barrier on hard will even take a long time

I'd imagine the best option might be to set someone to barrier magic early on if possible and to only spend medals on barrier magic upgrades until you've reached 50.

 

[Android18a]

Where's the best place to get spawning enemies to run into my field barrier? At the moment I'm using the poo snake island...

 

[Nolan.]

Where's the best place to get spawning enemies to run into my field barrier? At the moment I'm using the poo snake island...

Is that where you meet king poo.? I went there and didn't see him does anyone know where he is if he isn't there.

 

[cilonen]

Ok, despite misgivings with the demo; I just bought this today, saw it in the store and my brain just went in to 'remember how much you liked DQ8....remember how much you liked DQ8...' loops.

Any of the typical JRPG pitfalls I should be wary of? - i.e. - get this innocent looking chest in the first area and never get the best weapon in the game (i'm looking at you FFXII); or 'don't grind for hours as the monsters level with you and you'll never have a hope of beating Edea' type pitfalls.

 

[Brandon F]

Ok, what is the deal witht he difficulty settings in this game?? I didn't see any option and supposedly there is DLC coming with Hard mode??

Can someone clear up this nagging issue please? I am 2 hours in and would really like to play on Hard somehow, do I have to wait for the DLC? Is there some super secret option to activate it? All the talk of this being a cakewalk on normal is killing my buzz.

 

[clashfan]

Any of the typical JRPG pitfalls I should be wary of? - i.e. - get this innocent looking chest in the first area and never get the best weapon in the game (i'm looking at you FFXII);

What is that about? I just bought FFXII but havent' started playing yet. Is there something I need to be aware of?

 

[Bebpo]

Didn't Sakaguchi already announce that Mistwalker is working on a sequel?

He did! But that was when we thought the US sales would make up for the good, but not great, Japanese sales.

Hopefully it sells well in the US and Europe. There are a so few quality next-gen rpg experiences out there, it'd be a shame if they didn't follow this up an even better sequel. LO looks nice, but the BD style is really something.

 

[Takuhi]

Any of the typical JRPG pitfalls I should be wary of? - i.e. - get this innocent looking chest in the first area and never get the best weapon in the game (i'm looking at you FFXII); or 'don't grind for hours as the monsters level with you and you'll never have a hope of beating Edea' type pitfalls.

I would say "don't grind at all if you want a challenge later in the game". If you're obsessive about achievements, know that there are rare enemies you could easily miss and can never go back for, and rare items that only appear in areas you cannot return to or can only steal from bosses. These really impact nothing except for the complete-record achievements, though.

As for the Hard-mode DLC, we had heard conflicting information about it becoming available after the release, simultaneous with the release, and on the disc—apparently the latter two weren't true, so I guess we'll have to wait a few weeks. Apparently you can download it from Japanese XBLA (it's free) and it will work on the US version, though I haven't personally confirmed this.

As for a sequel, in an interview he did with us (Play), Sakaguchi announced that he would be making an announcement about the future of Blue Dragon soon. And that his plans for the series have no connection to his previously stated interest in episodic RPGs and MMORPGs.

 

[theultimo]

What is that about? I just bought FFXII but havent' started playing yet. Is there something I need to be aware of?

In the first dungeon, a few of the chests you can open screw you over later, by not getting the best weapon.

 

[FateBreaker]

As for a sequel, in an interview he did with us (Play), Sakaguchi announced that he would be making an announcement about the future of Blue Dragon soon. And that his plans for the series have no connection to his previously stated interest in episodic RPGs and MMORPGs.

so, a direct sequel, or a sequel like FF7 to FF8? My comprehension sucks.

 

[Xevren]

Where's the best place to get spawning enemies to run into my field barrier? At the moment I'm using the poo snake island...

I use Laser Field for all my barrier farming. When you warp there just go straight and look to your left a little, you should see 3 mole type flying uh things? I don't know what to call them. But they respawn pretty fast. I just left the game on over night and left them there.