Blue Dragon

Here's why it hasn't helped 360 in Japan.

	Version Xbox 360	Developer Mistwalker	Publisher Microsoft	Genre RPG

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By Ian Dransfield

The 360 is not doing very well in Japan, let's put it like that. The system needs something that will sell. So Microsoft turned to the creator of some rather famous RPGs to make some more RPGs for them, and this is his first.

He roped in the fella who did the music for those famous RPGs and he got the dude who draws the dudes in some other famous Manga things. I'm trying not to name drop and you've all been told all of this at least a thousand times - it normally wouldn't be that important, but the impetus MS is putting on the game to help the flagging console in Japan puts a hell of a lot of pressure on these chaps' collective shoulders.

Blue Dragon has been out in Japan-o-land for a while, and frankly, it hasn't saved the 360 in that particular sales region type marketing thing. I'd hazard a guess as to why with two specific reasons: one, a single game save a console will not, and two, it's just not very good. Not 'I want to vomit on myself then die' bad by any means, just painfully old fashioned and not in keeping with the giant strides the wonderful FFXII has taken in the genre.

Players take control of the young chappie Shu, pronounced 'shoe' (I can't help but feel that an actual shoe would have a less irritating and more vibrant personality than the main protagonist) as he goes on some kind of quest with his friends, pursuing a bad guy and stopping him from making things bad for all the great people in the world. Pretty early on in their adventure, the wily youngsters swallow some large blue pearls - after being instructed to by an ethereal, unseen voice. The amount of resistance to shady unseen voice in hostile lands is minor, to say the least: "We can't trust it!" "We have to!" "Okay!" *gulp*. Hmm.

Anyway, said pearls give the kids powers - their shadows become cute/vicious creatures that power the young'uns up a great deal and turn them into double-hard bastards. Young Shoe becomes the proud parent of the eponymous Blue Dragon. And then it really kicks off! Right?

Well, actually, no it doesn't. It kind of meanders around for however many hours you can be bothered to put into it until you either finish it or play something less dull.

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