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Blue Dragon (Xbox360) |OT|
- Thread starter duckroll
- Start date
Synless
Member
If you work at a store like bestbuy/circuit city/EB, or basically a place that has a sony rep come in the store you are eligible to use the Retail insider from either sony or microsoft. These retail sites have a bunch of quiz's (all of which are beyond easy) that you take and earn points that you can use to get games or other little game related things. Microsoft's has prizes from pretty much anything they sell but you have to pay for those at a hugely discounted price and they get shipped to you in a few days. Sony has more games to win and they are free but they take a month or so to get.Quazar said:
FateBreaker
Member
Somnia said:
well said. there are now no excuses.
Psychotext
Member
The UK version has the Japanese voices... unless they've changed it since I bought it!Orodreth said:
Alright, finished the game at about 60 hrs.
Overall, excellent game.
Gameplay was pretty good. Traditional combat system, but charging attacks was a subtle but very appreciated addition. The job system was very well implemented. No random encounters was fabulous, and field abilities made grinding pretty much irrelevant (for those who don't want to). I essentially fought each new monster once, then field barrier'ed the rest (when I could). The hard mode was a great DLC; it really made me enjoy the gameplay so much more, especially the tough boss battles (some of them excessively so, esp at the end of disc 1 and 2 - which is a positive for me).
Story was pretty much fairly standard. No huge twists, and nothing particularly memorable. I found the localization decent, and some of the humor worked. The main cast didn't have much depth, but they were charming in their own way. Overall, it was a lighthearted adventure with fairly likable characters. The NPCs you meet and help on the way were also fairly likable.
Progression through the discs was nice. I found the gameplay didn't become stale, and there was always something to look forward to. I usually don't do sidequests much in JRPGs, but I was compelled enough to spend the last 10ish hrs doing most of them. In the end, maybe that made the final dungeon/boss too easy, but all in good fun.
Pacing overall was good, but I spent a lot of time in dungeons and just pressing A at every object I could find. The 'nothings' led to good items, but ultimately I need to fight off my obsessive-compulsive urges next time.
Music was excellent for the most part. Some of the techno stuff was a bit hit-or-miss. I didn't like the boss music at first, but then I got used to it. My siblings hate it whenever I get to a boss.
Graphics are great. Good artistic direction throughout. Framerate wasn't perfect, but it was more of an annoyance than an actual impediment to gameplay.
Ultimately, the game is also better than the sums of its parts. I wasn't sick of it after 60 hrs of gameplay. I'd highly recommend this to any fan of traditional old-school turn-based JRPGs. Unless you only play JRPGs for the story.
Overall, excellent game.
Gameplay was pretty good. Traditional combat system, but charging attacks was a subtle but very appreciated addition. The job system was very well implemented. No random encounters was fabulous, and field abilities made grinding pretty much irrelevant (for those who don't want to). I essentially fought each new monster once, then field barrier'ed the rest (when I could). The hard mode was a great DLC; it really made me enjoy the gameplay so much more, especially the tough boss battles (some of them excessively so, esp at the end of disc 1 and 2 - which is a positive for me).
Story was pretty much fairly standard. No huge twists, and nothing particularly memorable. I found the localization decent, and some of the humor worked. The main cast didn't have much depth, but they were charming in their own way. Overall, it was a lighthearted adventure with fairly likable characters. The NPCs you meet and help on the way were also fairly likable.
Progression through the discs was nice. I found the gameplay didn't become stale, and there was always something to look forward to. I usually don't do sidequests much in JRPGs, but I was compelled enough to spend the last 10ish hrs doing most of them. In the end, maybe that made the final dungeon/boss too easy, but all in good fun.
Pacing overall was good, but I spent a lot of time in dungeons and just pressing A at every object I could find. The 'nothings' led to good items, but ultimately I need to fight off my obsessive-compulsive urges next time.
Music was excellent for the most part. Some of the techno stuff was a bit hit-or-miss. I didn't like the boss music at first, but then I got used to it. My siblings hate it whenever I get to a boss.
Graphics are great. Good artistic direction throughout. Framerate wasn't perfect, but it was more of an annoyance than an actual impediment to gameplay.
Ultimately, the game is also better than the sums of its parts. I wasn't sick of it after 60 hrs of gameplay. I'd highly recommend this to any fan of traditional old-school turn-based JRPGs. Unless you only play JRPGs for the story.
Eteric Rice
Member
Bought it today.
I'm enjoying it so far.
Though the boss battle music is hilarious. :lol
I'm enjoying it so far.
Though the boss battle music is hilarious. :lol
Eteric Rice
Member
Sorry to bump and double post, but is it me or does this game have a lot of motion blur?
Has be a bit freaked because I thought it was ghosting.
Has be a bit freaked because I thought it was ghosting.
My daughter continues her trek through the game. She's just
and arrived at the town in the mountains. She's going very slow by experienced gamer standards (about 17 hours in now), but the pace has picked up lately now that she's no longer terrified of every encounter ("they're going to hit me!"). It's exciting to see her get sucked into the story - she gets really invested in what's happening next, and it's holding her attention like nothing else does. The game is pretty easy, but that makes is a good first RPG. She's learning new skills and tactics slowly, well after they are introduced, but the difficulty allows her to do so without getting frustrated. She's got time to take it in at her own pace.
She's absolutely loving it so far. I think I'll have her write a review when she's done (which will be a month or so at this pace).
My review would be different, but then, I'm not the one playing it.
cured Maru's village
She's absolutely loving it so far. I think I'll have her write a review when she's done (which will be a month or so at this pace).
My review would be different, but then, I'm not the one playing it.
Eteric Rice
Member
GhaleonEB said:
Nothing greater than experiencing your first RPG.
Mine was Super Mario RPG.
Anyway, was curious. Does this game run at 60FPS, or 30? I'm thinking 30, but I could be wrong.
FrenchMovieTheme
Member
ran into what i think is a weird bug. let me know if this has happened to any of you. so at the beginning of the game when the credits are rolling and you can control the main dude, i was running around and pushed A on a rock and got some herb or something. after that the game starts up as normal and i get to the fight against the sand shark. the game freezes. ok, no big deal freezing happens. restart again, this time it freezes when im the old man. ooook... start it once more. this time i get to the park where the shark drags you into that cave. freezes again.
now i'm thinking "welp here comes the red rings!" cause this is kind of similar to what i experienced w/ my first 360 which died. i popped in DiRT (yeah im a viral marketer so i have the i lowercase!) and played for about 15 mins with no freezes or anything. i put blue dragon back in once more and i forgot to go over to that rock and the game starts. well, i played for about 2 hours straight with no freezing. weird coincedence or does obtaining that item cause the game to spaz out?
anyhow, the game is pretty cool so far. graphics are awesome and it is nice to FINALLY see a traditional RPG on xbox after waiting so long. i will buy lost odyssey thanks to blue dragon!
now i'm thinking "welp here comes the red rings!" cause this is kind of similar to what i experienced w/ my first 360 which died. i popped in DiRT (yeah im a viral marketer so i have the i lowercase!) and played for about 15 mins with no freezes or anything. i put blue dragon back in once more and i forgot to go over to that rock and the game starts. well, i played for about 2 hours straight with no freezing. weird coincedence or does obtaining that item cause the game to spaz out?
anyhow, the game is pretty cool so far. graphics are awesome and it is nice to FINALLY see a traditional RPG on xbox after waiting so long. i will buy lost odyssey thanks to blue dragon!
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Eteric Rice said:Nothing greater than experiencing your first RPG.
Mine was Super Mario RPG.
Anyway, was curious. Does this game run at 60FPS, or 30? I'm thinking 30, but I could be wrong.
It's really all over the place, probably going between 15-30, but usually closer to 30. There is a good amount of screen tearing as well. The graphics are beautiful, but the framerate definitely isn't one of the game's high points.
None of it ever bothered me, though.
Android18a
Member
FrenchMovieTheme said:
Check your disc. Blue Dragon discs have a nack for attracting deep circular cuts after only minutes in a disc drive. So does Mass Effect, I find. I had to invest in a DVD-repair-kit to finish Blue Dragon, my discs would regularly be scratched to hell and throw me out of the game.
Of course, that could just be my Xbox. It makes screeching, lurching noises at the best of times.
IcebergSlim3000
Member
Oh god I just started playing this today and I dont think I've rolled my eye's this much at corny video game dialog before. Just 1 one hour in and I think I might allready be sick of it.
"I will never give up"! Jesus I get the point all ready. It's taking everything I have to continue playing.
"I will never give up"! Jesus I get the point all ready. It's taking everything I have to continue playing.
FateBreaker
Member
IcebergSlim3000 said:
Keep going. The dialogue is indeed quite awful in the beginning, but everything picks up the more you progress.
Yeah. The writing isn't that great. Some of the acting is terrible. One of my major criticisms is that the game doesn't seem to know who it's aimed at. The story and themes are aimed at a pretty young set so far, IMO, and the art style is appealing to my kids. But they throw in random mild cursing (damn, hell) and some of the situations seem to be "written-up" to make it more serious. It's a kids story trying to be more grown-up. I don't know if it's the translation or if it was in the original.IcebergSlim3000 said:
Daughter progress update: she's played three days without my help now, for the first time. She knows the combat systems, skill selections, item purchasing and equipping, field skills and navigation. (It helps that she's only five but reads at the nine-ten year-old level.)Little girl is out there, on her own. I come home each day to stories of what she's doing (most of which are hard to understand - she just got to the village with the land shark again, and fought some boss down below; not sure what happened). She's still loving it more and more. It's really fun watching her graduate from Cloning Clyde to a full-blown RPG with a story and multiple styles of play.
IcebergSlim3000
Member
FateBreaker said:
God its so hard though. Is anyone gonna start dieing soon. I really need for someone's village to burn down real fast or Im going to fall asleep.
Started playing again and I'm on disc three. All of a sudden I'm noticing performance changes from the prior two discs. The good one is that I can run through the whole main street of Jibral Town (from the entrance past the cafe and up to the castle) with virtually no slowdown. On disc 1 & 2 this same action would lead the framerate to stutter or drop to what felt like 12fps at times. Pretty smooth and fairly strange that it now runs better.
Unfortunately, loading times have gone down. It's hard to say for certain, but entering and exiting houses seems to take longer. Perhaps a second or two though I could just be imaging that. What isn't imagined is that trying to save normally during play or starting up fresh from a saved game file is now taking about 15-25 seconds or so and now features full screen art of each character cycling back and forth until the loading is complete. This never happened until I had to carry my save over to disc 3. Normally, I'd see a single small white character art box over a black bg only while loading up a saved game file from start up. I never saw the fullscreen art until now. Granted, there is more data to deal with at this point in the game. Just wanted to verify that this isn't a technical issue since I haven't noticed increased loading in other games. I take it the larger art is a bonus for journeying on.
Unfortunately, loading times have gone down. It's hard to say for certain, but entering and exiting houses seems to take longer. Perhaps a second or two though I could just be imaging that. What isn't imagined is that trying to save normally during play or starting up fresh from a saved game file is now taking about 15-25 seconds or so and now features full screen art of each character cycling back and forth until the loading is complete. This never happened until I had to carry my save over to disc 3. Normally, I'd see a single small white character art box over a black bg only while loading up a saved game file from start up. I never saw the fullscreen art until now. Granted, there is more data to deal with at this point in the game. Just wanted to verify that this isn't a technical issue since I haven't noticed increased loading in other games. I take it the larger art is a bonus for journeying on.
The more saves you have, the longer it will take to access the saved files listing. It's pretty bad programming. LO has it too, the more saves I have the longer it takes. They reduced the total save files limit from 30 (Blue Dragon) to 20 (Lost Odyssey) probably because they didn't want people waiting over 3 minutes for the listing to load. :lol
Thanks guys.
Even after the PS360's big guns have come out this is still one of the most beautiful and enjoyable games I've played, HD or otherwise. All I want for the sequel is a further optimized engine, improved story, better implementation of AA + AF across the board (some things look almost flawless while others are jaggy and/or messy), a good deal less dithering (I barely notice tearing in most games - just about twice so far here - but dithering drives me nutty) and a few other things that I can't recall at the moment.
Graphically, if BD2 has this same exact level of visuals (light, geometry, etc.) without an increase and only improved upon the AA and AF I'd be more than happy. Imagine 4xAA + 2xAF with this art. Blue Dragon 1.5 jokes aside, it would look stunning.
Agreed.McDragon said:
Even after the PS360's big guns have come out this is still one of the most beautiful and enjoyable games I've played, HD or otherwise. All I want for the sequel is a further optimized engine, improved story, better implementation of AA + AF across the board (some things look almost flawless while others are jaggy and/or messy), a good deal less dithering (I barely notice tearing in most games - just about twice so far here - but dithering drives me nutty) and a few other things that I can't recall at the moment.
Graphically, if BD2 has this same exact level of visuals (light, geometry, etc.) without an increase and only improved upon the AA and AF I'd be more than happy. Imagine 4xAA + 2xAF with this art. Blue Dragon 1.5 jokes aside, it would look stunning.
In that case LO should probably have just 3 save files and an option to turn textures off during gameplay and cutscenes.duckroll said:
FrenchMovieTheme
Member
:lol @ the boss theme music. shitty song gets stuck in your head!
shoplifter
Member
I just started playing after picking it up in the TRU sale a few months back. So far, its actually quite a bit more enjoyable than I had expected. They really shouldn't have given you so many techs/etc in the demo.
This game has the best boss music ever. EVER.
This game has the best boss music ever. EVER.
FrenchMovieTheme
Member
is there anyway to apply the new difficulty setting AFTER you've already started a game? i'm 5 hours in and don't feel like replaying those 5 hours just to have higher difficulty, but man it's pretty easy.... and i suck at rpg's! i've only died twice, and both times were basically because i got caught in a boss battle when i had low HP heading in. after restarting from the checkpoint i just healed my peeps and took care of business.
CowboyAstronaut
Banned
reriel said:
Kinda ironic that the fat rats are faster than the tigers that look like they should have six packs :lol
FrenchMovieTheme
Member
the scene in the village where the village elder starts dancing is perhaps the lamest cutscene of this generation. i almost had to turn that shit off :lol