“I won’t…give up!” lead character Shu vehemently cries, as the opening scene is set for this monumental journey known as Blue Dragon.

Shu’s standing tall in the face of adversity is perhaps a metaphor for Japanese developers forging ahead in the turn-based, role-playing game market when the rest of the world has free-roam fighting on the brain. Blue Dragon is Hironobu Sakaguchi’s brainchild. after all (under the Mistwalker guise), and the turn-based genre has been more than kind to this visionary in such games as…well, pretty much every Final Fantasy title to his credit. Even Mistwalker’s Lost Odyssey, which is due out at a later date, is turn based. Go figure.

Yes, Blue Dragon is turn based. Some of you will surely leave now—though we encourage you to stick around.

Still here? You won’t regret it.

With an “If it ain’t broke, don’t even think about fixing it until it’s your turn” philosophy firmly set in the cerebellum of Sakaguchi, Mistwalker’s RP maven set out to assemble the finest league of game-development talent to work on his pet dragon project. And don’t think for a second that the fame of the development talent doesn’t matter. In this day and age, kids that know games go ga-ga over such surnames as Kojima, Schafer and Sakaguchi, and they’ll surely become as giddy as a schoolgirl to learn what other weapons Artoon had in its cache for the creation of Blue Dragon.

Does the name Akira Toriyama ring a bell? It should if you’re familiar with the Dragon Ball Z franchise. You can see Toriyama’s style in each character of Blue Dragon, which means that never will you mistake this fantasy for a reality. Like playable anime, Shu, Jiro, Kluke and the rest of the gang personify the cartoon-y style that is huge in Japan, while at the same time never letting Blue Dragon take itself too seriously (the adorable Shifa and her curiously-held puppy and all things Marumaro drive this home fairly early). Even the character’s shadows—their monster-like alter-egos—are hardy menacing in Blue Dragon, and the foes, no matter how highly experienced, strike more comedy than they do fear (there’s nothing like a good ol’ Poo Snake). The whimsical style of Blue Dragon may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it does appear that Toriyama and Artoon have consistently carried out Sakaguchi’s vision for the characters inhabiting Blue Dragon.

Nobuo Uematsu may not be a household name in the U.S., but he’s a veritable Gershwin or Williams in Japanese video-game sects. As the man behind the music of a dozen Final Fantasy games, it’s not surprising that Uematsu-san has a longstanding relationship with Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi grabbed Uematsu for the score of Blue Dragon (not to mention Lost Odyssey) for the obvious reason of camaraderie, but the man knows how to make a video game come alive as well. Uematsu’s familiarity with the ivory comes through loud and clear in Blue Dragon, with piano riffs accompanying darn near every arrangement. There’s a strong electronic undertone to Blue Dragon’s soundtrack as well, not to mention a bevy of horned instruments—often played off-key—to create endearing whimsy. Cleverly matched to the ebb and flow of the gameplay, Uematsu’s experience in the JRPG realm clearly pays off here. And while we’re aurally at it, the English dialogue work is excellent (Deathroy is divine), as is the entire catalog of sound effects.

 

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