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Well, it’s finally here. The long awaited, much hyped, jRPG for the Xbox 360. As soon as you start up the game, you can tell its going to be quite the cinematic experience. In fact, at first I didn’t realize that I was able to control my character as the opening credits flew, I thought it was a cut-scene. Sweeping views stretching into the hazy distance, large vistas of entire villages, detailed monsters, all in glorious 1080P - if your display supports it. Hopefully this small review will give you a decent idea of the first part of the game. A word of caution, there will be spoilers for about the first two hours.

The opening scene of Blue Dragon pans out like any big budget Hollywood production, only this time you control the main character, Shu. The game presents him sitting peacefully on a rock in his home town. As you move the character down the path towards the center of town, the camera pans out to bring the entire village into view with the Blue Dragon logo displayed in the middle of the screen, leaving me with a very good first impression.

After my mind came to grips with the scene in front of me I was able to move around the protagonist, Shu. The first thing that you will notice is the style of art, namely the fact that it has a heavy anime lean thanks to the lead character designer, Akira Toriyama. You may remember him from such shows as Dragon Ball, video games such as Dragon Quest, or Chrono Trigger. And you can definitely recognize his work. If I didn’t know better, i would have thought I was playing Dragon Ball: RPG. The influence from his past works is pretty in-your-face, for better or worse.

Shortly after I was able to absorb the opening graphics, I ran into my only gripe so far; the camera controls. It isn’t terrible, but it feels slippery and sloppy. Occasionally it will position itself say, behind a rock, or a member of your party. Thankfully, it is only a mere annoyance and does not detract from the overall experience.

And not too long after that, the main plot is set in motion. The skies turn purple, earthquakes everywhere, people running, babies crying, the whole lot. Apparently every year a land shark comes and terrorizes Shu’s hometown. Quite literally, a giant shark that swims through the sands of his hometown destroying buildings and the like. Nasty stuff. And like any male shounen lead would, Shu decides to attack the giant land shark with a dagger. Good stuff. To make a long story short, you and your friends Kluke and Jiro are literally dragged up to a flying fortress where you meet the main antagonist, get your super awesome shadows (more on that later when I go over combat), and find out what asshole is responsible for that damn land shark!

Combat, for the most part, is standard turned based RPG flair. You attack, monster attacks, you attack, and so on. But there are some nice new features. No more random encounters, instead you walk around in real time and choose who you fight. Any contact with monsters will initiate a battle, and you can attack them from behind to gain the initiative in the fight. The most notable addition to the standard combat scheme is the ability to start fights with multiple enemy parties. You may think that this is a bad thing, but its really not. As we know from real life, not all people or animals get along, and this show up well in the game. Often when you are up against more than one type of enemy, they will start fighting each other, making them weaker. And after each wave of defeated baddies, you gain a random power up, such as a free heal, or vastly improved attack power. Makes for much more interesting combat, and increased rewards.

The main method of attacking, and also the main point of the game are your shadows. What’s a shadow? Well, imagine if your own shadow decided it would take physical manifestation in the form of a giant animal. Each character has one. Shu has (obviously) a giant blue dragon. Your friend Kluke has a phoenix, and Jiro has a bull. They act as an extension of yourself, gaining new skills, spells, and powers as you get experience. For the most part, standard rules apply. There are classes in which you can gain skills in the standard healing, magic, and attacks. its a little more in depth than I make it seem, but for the most part its all stuff we have already seen.

Soon after the game introduces you to the basics of combat with your shadow, the use of magic, and navigation, you manage to escape via a small flying machine which you promptly crash straight into the ground, nowhere near home. Pretty good for the first two hours, and things only get more interesting past that. Look forward to the possibility of a full review later, but right now its 2AM and I’ve got at least another hour or two of Blue Dragon ahead of me before I turn in for the night.

Nasty stuff:

I am going to be honest here, I am not very impressed with the characters or story so far. While not annoying, they all seem to fit into very specific stereotypes like our main shounen lead, Shu. “I won’t give up!” is said more times than I would care to remember. Again, I have only experienced the first short bit of the game, so I’m willing to bet they will flesh out our trio of heroes as things go on.

Good stuff:

The graphics are incredible, as is the feeling of being in a big screen flick. The combat system, while fairly standard, is as solid as they come. The replacement of random encounters with its current system is definitely a breath of fresh air. Definitely a well made game all the way around, and well worth the price of admission.