I need some feedback.
I finished Blue Dragon using the hard mode mod. I know that before I started I looked for information on how the mod changed the game and could find almsot none and no reviews, so I think this review can be useful. When I think it is acceptable, I will network to get it put up at some websites.
Anyway, I would REALLY like some feedback. For those who played the game on hard mode, is there anyting i missed that should be mentioned?
For those even who have not played hard mode, if you pretend that you are thinking about hard mode and are considering whether or not to try it based on this review, is there anything that you would like to know that isn't in the review?
I want this to be as useful as possible. Yes there are lots of words.
It only takes a minute or two to read and I would really appreciate it, as I went through this trouble to help others and want it to be useful.
Thanks for any feedback that can be given!
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BLUE DRAGON HARD MODE REVIEW
By Rodney Desjarlais
There were certainly lofty expectations for Blue Dragon prior to its release. Hironobu Sakaguchi of Mistwalker, famed for his work on the Final Fantasy series, wrote, designed, and supervised the project. The artistic design of the world and its characters were the work of Akira Toriyama, who is known for his work on the Dragonball Z show and the Dragon Quest series. Nobuo Uematsu, also famous for his work on the Final Fantasy series, provided the musical score. With three legends in the RPG development scene behind it, Blue Dragon was highly anticipated.
I was among the many who had such high expectations and I felt let down when I read the initial reviews. The reviews were favorable for the game overall, but I kept reading in multiple reviews that it was too easy. These statements caused me to hold off on buying the game when it first came out, but my brother went ahead and bought his copy. As I watched my brother play the game my fears were confirmed. The game was not just easy, it was a cakewalk. To me this is a fatal flaw for an RPG. If an RPG is too easy, you are not encouraged to fully utilize the games systems and do not have incentive to be creative in using it to your advantage. With a game this epic with 60 plus hours of gameplay, you need to be engaged with the games systems simply in order to not get bored.
So I passed on playing the game and it did not regain my attention until a new series of difficulty levels were released as free downloadable content, one of which was a hard mode. This release rekindled my interest in the game as it potentially addressed what I considered to be the games biggest flaw. I took the plunge and started the game on hard mode. 80 plus hours later I look back with warmth at my time with Blue Dragon and wholeheartedly thank the powers that be at Mistwalker for releasing these settings for free. There are many reviews for Blue Dragon out there already, but none to my knowledge have addressed the hard mode. If you were on the fence about Blue Dragon and the default lack of difficulty was the deal-breaker, like it was for me, you should reconsider taking that plunge.
STORY
The game opens with the villiage of Talta being tormented by a mysterious beast heralded by mysterious purple clouds. Shu, Jiro, and Kluke valiantly attempt to stop the beast and end up being litterally dragged into an adventure of epic proportions. They discover that a mysterious being called Nene is behind the torment and vow to stop him. Along the way they are joined by a royal mercenary named Zora and a Devee tribesman called Marumaru. Of course they discover that Nene is pure evil and must be stopped at all costs.
Hironobu Sakaguchi's story is pretty standard fair for a Japanese RPG. It is epic in scope but RPG fans will have seen its conventions in other games over the years. I will not contest that argument, but I think that its execution works exceptionally well for this game. The story is structured in such a way that it almost feels as though you are playing through a series of connected episodes in a Japanese Anime or Saturday-morning cartoon. Most stories build toward a climax at the end of this game, while Blue Dragon has a climax at the end of each of its three disks. It's almost like you are playing through three seasons of a TV show with each disk having a season finale at the end. The game's other design elements, such as the art style, the world design, the sound and music, fit perfectly with a serialized cartoon story structure. At the end of each disk I felt like I accomplished something, and looked forward to the next episode. I must also give a mention to the ending, which is usually not a good payoff for all the hours you put in. This one is. It wraps things up completely and playfully in a way completely fitting with the games cartoon stylizations.
Story Rating: 92%Summary for story rating: The character development and story innovation are in line with a Saturday-morning cartoon series, which fits perfectly with this game. I love how the game seems to fit neatly into episodes and each disk has its own great finale. I loved the ending.
GAMEPLAY
Blue Dragons combat system, and aspects of the storys plot, is centered on the shadows system. Each of the games playable characters has a different shadow which resembles a creature. The games title is derived from Shus shadow, which is a blue dragon. All of the characters offensive attacks and spellcasting are done by the characters shadow during combat. The combat system is an old-school turn-based system, but it isnt as boring as it sounds. I like that there is an indicator to display the turn order for everybody in the combat which is useful for planning future attack move strategy. Some of the characters attacks and spells utilize a charge meter which must be used strategically. Charging it up more makes it more effective but makes it take longer to execute. The charge meter even displays where the enemys turns are expected to fall so that you can strategically plan how long you wish to charge. Charge for too long and enemies can attack before you do. The combat is further spiced up by the plethora of skills that become available to the characters as they level up their shadows.
A character shadow can be one of eight classes. There are several fighter classes, three spellcaster classes, an assassin class which specializes in trickiness, and a generalist class which basically just gives you access to more skill and accessory slots. At the start of the game each character only has access to one class but as you gain levels you unlock the ability to switch to a different class. You can freely switch a shadow between available classes and each class has a level independent of the characters level. Leveling up your shadows in different classes allows the player to access skills which are unique to each class. This system allows you to basically custom create your characters abilities to suit your play style.
Unlike Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon does away with random encounters. When in the overworld or in a dungeon, monsters are visible to the player. Sometimes these monsters appear out of the ground suddenly close to the player, but you usually have time to still avoid them if you are quick enough. The player has a dash move which allows you to charge into an enemy and gain an advantage in battle. The monsters all have a field of vision as well and as such they can be stealthily approached and attacked from behind for advantage as well. Be careful, however, as many monsters have their own charge attacks and can suddenly dash toward you. You can be put into a disadvantage in combat this way if caught and, like your enemies, you can be caught from behind as well.
There are other options for dealing with these encounters as well. There are field skills which can be unlocked as you level up your shadow classes which affect these encounters in various ways. Some field skills make you invisible to enemies, some attract them if you want to fight, some drive them away, and some even destroy them outright to save you time.
A semi-innovative feature of this game is the encounter circle. Pulling the left trigger in the field will pause the onscreen action and put a circle on the screen. If you wish you can try to position this encounter circle to enclose several random enemies and can opt to attack them all at once. The combats still mostly happen one at a time but there is an incentive for doing so. Between each group of monsters you will get a boost to your party via a lottery machine-style counter.
Sometimes two creature types don't like one another. If you call up an encounter circle around two enemies who hate one another their names will be yellow instead of white. Attacking both at the same time will cause a monster fight. Both sets of monsters will appear in the same battle and will fight each other and your party. Luring enemies into monster fights is a great way to get rid of really tough enemies that block your way sometimes as seemingly tough enemies are ripped to shreds or weakened by seemingly weak monsters.
All of these elements bring a great deal of strategy to the way random encounters are played out in dungeons and in the overworld. The player has to really keep on his toes in order to manage these roaming enemy groups, which adds a lot of variety to the gameplay. None of these systems are innovative individually but their combination and excellent execution make for a solid foundation for the game.
This is a massive game and the developers did a lot to add variety along the way. Some story elements lead to a mini-game where you take control of the onscreen action. Sometimes you are flying in your airship and trying to shoot down another airship. Sometimes you have quick-time events to do special story sequences such as hurriedly closing a door before a wave of enemies can come in, attacking a massive mecha base bristling with weapons, and so forth. These sequences are always prefaced by a tutorial and are never difficult to pass but some take repeated tries in order to perfect to earn achievements. These sequences are almost universally linked to an achievement.
The world of Blue Dragon is enormous and backtracking is required sometimes, especially for side-quests. Thankfully each location has a warp station which, once activated, can allow the player to instantly transport to any previously activated warp station regardless of where the player is at the time. This allows you to travel to locations in an instant and also allows you to instantly escape from completed exploration areas back to a town and vice-versa when necessary. I love how executed this all is. This game already lasts long enough but the warp system, along with later access to an airship for overworld travel, makes back-tracking a breeze when you want to.
Gameplay Rating: 89%
Summary for gameplay rating: Not innovative but the combination of systems and their execution are great.
MUSIC AND SOUND
Nobuo Uematsu isn't famous for nothing. He is one of he true masters in videogame music composition. While movie composers must make a soundtrack to fit a two hour playtime, Nobuo is tasked with filling dozens of hours. He has done this again and again with critical acclaim with the Final Fantasy series and has done it again with Blue Dragon. The musical score is perfectly suited to the game's overall light-hearted, saturday-morning cartoon nature.
A special mention needs to go out to the boss music, which is possibly the best boss music composition I have heard in an RPG. A boss encounter launches into a 80's-style rock and roll song complete with souring guitars and vocals. Some love this music and some dispise it, but I can't help but feel uplifted when it starts and after the encounter is over I frequently have the song stuck in my head for hours afterwards.
Music and Sound: 90%
Summary for Music and Sound: Nobuo Uematsu does it again. For a game this long the music is key and it hits all the rights notes. The boss theme gets stuck in my head for hours afterward.
GRAPHICS AND PRESENTATION
I've always been a fan of Akira Toriyama's work in Dragonball and the Dragon Quest games and I fell in love with his work here in Blue Dragon. The character designs are elegant and minimalist in a good way. You should like the characters for their personalities and interactions and not how intricate their costumes look. The characters, creatures, and world's artistic aesthetic are colorful and contribute to an overall "fun" vibe which runs through the game. The shadows and their attacks are all spectacular and loading times are mercifully short, especially for battles. The only fault I have with the graphics is the presence of slowdown from time to time. It does not hamper the game but it is noticeable. Sometimes, however, it adds dramatic effect to really powerful attacks from your characters so it can be a good thing sometimes in my opinion.
Graphics Rating: 85%
Summary for graphics rating: Im a fan of Toriyamas work and I fell in love with it in Blue Dragon. The graphics nowhere near push the system but they are colorful and create an overall fun vibe similar to a Saturday-morning cartoon. Loading times are very short.
CHANGES FOR HARD MODE
The title 'Hard Mode' is misleading in my opinion. It is far more difficult than the sleep-inducing, zero-challenge normal mode which is the default in the game but it is not hard for the most part. In my opinion, this mode should have been included on the release copy as the normal mode with an immediately available "easy mode", which is the current retail copy's normal mode.
The hard mode does more than just double the enemies hit points. It tweaks their other statistics as well so that they generally do more damage and are more powerful. Except for a few bosses the game is not difficult on hard mode. It is just hard enough so that you have to utilize the game's systems more fully, which is a good thing.
Many of the bosses are still not too difficult but some of them are, especially during the disk-ending finales. These bosses require you to actually plan, learn the boss' attacks and try to counter them with your own skills. None of the bosses, except for the optional super-bosses, require more than a few retries to figure out and beat and there is always a checkpoint just before you enter a boss encounter for a speedy retry. The finale encounters and some of the harder bosses, while somewhat challenging, always filled me with a great sense of accomplishment when I defeated them which makes it worthwhile.
CONCLUSION
Many reviews knock Blue Dragon for its traditional foundation and its lack of innovation and those points are valid, but that does not detract from Blue Dragons charm and solid execution. I can only wonder how the games reception among the media and among gamers would have been changed if this hard mode was the default mode on the disk. Im certain that sales of the game were negatively affected by the games default lack of challenge, as I am proof of this. I did not purchase the game originally for this reason alone. With this downloadable content and with the game now an exceptional bargain in price even new, you should definitely take a new look at Blue Dragon if you want a good RPG with old-school roots but lots to offer.
Overall Rating: 89%
Summary of overall: The hard mode setting made available through free downloadable content is the way the game should be played. If only this were the default mode on the disk. Blue Dragon is an extremely traditional turn-based RPG does not seek to innovate and is charming, colorful, and rock solid.
