Doctor Setebos
04-09-2009, 10:44 PM
Title: Blue Dragon Plushttp://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=7364
Platform: DS
Developer: Mistwalker/Feelplus/Brownie Brown
Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
MSRP: $29.99 (http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Dragon-Plus-Nintendo-DS/dp/B001G9F9JQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1239393546&sr=8-1)
Editor: Nathaniel 'Doctor Setebos' Payne
What's Hot: Gorgeous FMVs; diverse cast of characters and accompanying special attacks/spells; epic battles that feel immense and engaging.
What's Not: Battles are perhaps a bit TOO 'epic' and tend to take too long to complete; awkward gameplay controls; interest in the story gets lost amongst the ongoing action.I went into Blue Dragon Plus as a relative newbie. As a gamer on predominantly Nintendo systems, I never had the opportunity to play the Xbox 360 original. At first, I feared that this unfamiliar territory would make it difficult for me to adapt to this game. I assumed that I would be missing out on a massive amount of backstory that would make navigating the sequel nearly impossible. However, I quickly realized that this would not be the case at all.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3389/3438123853_59a516fe65.jpg
From the very beginning you are handily guided through the experience. It all begins with a beautiful FMV cutscene that shows the world of Blue Dragon torn asunder, literally ripped in half. Spanning the space between the two halves of the world is a myriad collection of cubes, upon which the remaining residents of the world live and thrive. You take control of the hero Shu, his blue dragon Shadow and a collection of his friends as they investigate a dark, mysterious three-headed dragon shadow that appeared on one of the cubes. The investigation is soon blindsided by seemingly random attacks on the cube where King Jibral holds court by sentinel robots armed with massive explosives. Then, the game turns into a race to find out who is behind the attacks and stop them before King Jibral's Neo Jibral Castle cube is destroyed. It's around that point that the story becomes a bit muddled. At times, you forget that you are supposed to be concerned with the dark and mysterious three-headed dragon shadow because you are quite frequently focused on other threats. The main thrust of the game often gets lost amongst seemingly unrelated side-stories and jumbled plot lines that are not very well developed.
Now, once the game lets go of your hand and actually allows you to begin playing, you begin by working your way through the cube from which the attacks are apparently originating. Navigating the cube is done through an overly-complex tree system. You begin at the top, where you forcibly entered the cube, and work your way down into the depths of the cube through levels. But at several points, the paths fork. So very early on, you are forced to split your group into teams. There are also times when you have to break them into even smaller teams. As the game progresses, more members are discovered and added to your overall group, which you can then distribute throughout your various smaller teams. Despite this, team management very quickly becomes as cumbersome as inventory management.
But while the story itself may seem a bit scattered and maneuvering around the cube is unnecessarily confusing, the element that works the hardest at distracting you from the point of the game would have to be the battles. Unlike its Xbox 360 predecessor, Blue Dragon Plus is a strategy RPG. You control a group of characters that each have their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. A couple of frontline warriors, a couple of backfield magic users, healers, lots and lots of support units -- pretty much every standard strategy RPG trope is included here. Every battle is immense - epic, even. You have a gigantic map covered with enemies. Each battle feels like an epic war. Unfortunately, that is probably the kindest thing that can be said about the battles because there is a LOT to complain about.
Every battle has the potential to last fifteen or twenty minutes, easily, as your group is pitted against a vast horde of enemies that oftentimes replenish their numbers during the course of the conflict. In some ways this is a great mechanic, as every confrontation instills you with a palpable sense of adrenaline and urgency as you maneuver your small band of warriors around a massive battle map that is filled to overflowing with enemy units. After just a handful of battles, you begin to take on a feeling of dread before the start of every new battle. Thankfully, the developers thought to include a save feature that is accessible mid-battle. The ability to stop and come back to a battle at a later time is an absolute necessity when the confrontations are so utterly immense.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3372/3438937362_bc2737c949_m.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3577/3438937282_a4b8362902_m.jpg
It isn't just the size of the battles that make them nearly unbearable. The gameplay itself during battle makes every conceivable effort to suck out every ounce of fun available. First of all, your characters move at a mercilessly slow pace. Enemies also move like snails. It can take a couple of minutes of battle time before you are even able to engage in your first skirmish. And once you approach an enemy, there is no guarantee that your team will even decide to engage. You may have several characters that simply stand there while a teammate gets pummeled to within an inch of their life. You have to either issue a command or wait for a character to actually be hit in order to ge them to become involved in the fight. Part of the problem stems from the fact that when you direct a character to a particular spot, they immediately become unselected. This requires you to tap the character again in order to issue a new command. The controls for the battle sequences are an inexcusable collection of atrocious design decisions that essentially break the core of the game and make many battles nearly unmanageable. Parts of the game that should be fast-paced and exciting become nothing more than a horrendous, monotonous chore.
And that brings us to an important point: there is essentially nothing to do in this game EXCEPT engage in these monstrous, plodding battles. The large battles are partly to blame for the game's meandering storyline. You are treated to short, very engaging snippets of plot development -- often with beautiful FMV to help visualize certain elements of the story. And then you are subjected to hours upon hours of nothing but epic battle after epic battle, with nothing in between to remind you of why you are going through all of this effort. When the game does come around to tossing you back into the actual story, you end up feeling lost and disengaged with what is taking place.
In the end, Blue Dragon Plus has few redeeming qualities. The FMVs that are sprinkled sparsely throughout the game are gorgeous and seamlessly integrated into the rest of the action. But the controls during battle are clumsy and poorly designed. The story is somewhat interesting, but you wouldn't really know it since you only see a short flash of plot every couple of hours. For every one thing that this game does well, it feels as though two things are done very poorly. It's this imbalance that keeps it from being a game that can be recommended beyond the most die-hard strategy RPG gamers. But honestly, I don't think I could bring myself to recommend it even to them.
Score: 2 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG2.png
Nathaniel says, "Blue Dragon Plus is an overall flawed game that feels like it must have had a lot of potential at some point. However, poor gameplay decisions and conflict design coupled with a muddy story make it something that should probably be avoided by all but the most earnest Blue Dragon fans."
- Review this title yourself (http://www.playitreviewit.com/reviews/write) over at Play It Review It (http://www.playitreviewit.com/), part of the CoG Network
Platform: DS
Developer: Mistwalker/Feelplus/Brownie Brown
Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
MSRP: $29.99 (http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Dragon-Plus-Nintendo-DS/dp/B001G9F9JQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1239393546&sr=8-1)
Editor: Nathaniel 'Doctor Setebos' Payne
What's Hot: Gorgeous FMVs; diverse cast of characters and accompanying special attacks/spells; epic battles that feel immense and engaging.
What's Not: Battles are perhaps a bit TOO 'epic' and tend to take too long to complete; awkward gameplay controls; interest in the story gets lost amongst the ongoing action.I went into Blue Dragon Plus as a relative newbie. As a gamer on predominantly Nintendo systems, I never had the opportunity to play the Xbox 360 original. At first, I feared that this unfamiliar territory would make it difficult for me to adapt to this game. I assumed that I would be missing out on a massive amount of backstory that would make navigating the sequel nearly impossible. However, I quickly realized that this would not be the case at all.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3389/3438123853_59a516fe65.jpg
From the very beginning you are handily guided through the experience. It all begins with a beautiful FMV cutscene that shows the world of Blue Dragon torn asunder, literally ripped in half. Spanning the space between the two halves of the world is a myriad collection of cubes, upon which the remaining residents of the world live and thrive. You take control of the hero Shu, his blue dragon Shadow and a collection of his friends as they investigate a dark, mysterious three-headed dragon shadow that appeared on one of the cubes. The investigation is soon blindsided by seemingly random attacks on the cube where King Jibral holds court by sentinel robots armed with massive explosives. Then, the game turns into a race to find out who is behind the attacks and stop them before King Jibral's Neo Jibral Castle cube is destroyed. It's around that point that the story becomes a bit muddled. At times, you forget that you are supposed to be concerned with the dark and mysterious three-headed dragon shadow because you are quite frequently focused on other threats. The main thrust of the game often gets lost amongst seemingly unrelated side-stories and jumbled plot lines that are not very well developed.
Now, once the game lets go of your hand and actually allows you to begin playing, you begin by working your way through the cube from which the attacks are apparently originating. Navigating the cube is done through an overly-complex tree system. You begin at the top, where you forcibly entered the cube, and work your way down into the depths of the cube through levels. But at several points, the paths fork. So very early on, you are forced to split your group into teams. There are also times when you have to break them into even smaller teams. As the game progresses, more members are discovered and added to your overall group, which you can then distribute throughout your various smaller teams. Despite this, team management very quickly becomes as cumbersome as inventory management.
But while the story itself may seem a bit scattered and maneuvering around the cube is unnecessarily confusing, the element that works the hardest at distracting you from the point of the game would have to be the battles. Unlike its Xbox 360 predecessor, Blue Dragon Plus is a strategy RPG. You control a group of characters that each have their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. A couple of frontline warriors, a couple of backfield magic users, healers, lots and lots of support units -- pretty much every standard strategy RPG trope is included here. Every battle is immense - epic, even. You have a gigantic map covered with enemies. Each battle feels like an epic war. Unfortunately, that is probably the kindest thing that can be said about the battles because there is a LOT to complain about.
Every battle has the potential to last fifteen or twenty minutes, easily, as your group is pitted against a vast horde of enemies that oftentimes replenish their numbers during the course of the conflict. In some ways this is a great mechanic, as every confrontation instills you with a palpable sense of adrenaline and urgency as you maneuver your small band of warriors around a massive battle map that is filled to overflowing with enemy units. After just a handful of battles, you begin to take on a feeling of dread before the start of every new battle. Thankfully, the developers thought to include a save feature that is accessible mid-battle. The ability to stop and come back to a battle at a later time is an absolute necessity when the confrontations are so utterly immense.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3372/3438937362_bc2737c949_m.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3577/3438937282_a4b8362902_m.jpg
It isn't just the size of the battles that make them nearly unbearable. The gameplay itself during battle makes every conceivable effort to suck out every ounce of fun available. First of all, your characters move at a mercilessly slow pace. Enemies also move like snails. It can take a couple of minutes of battle time before you are even able to engage in your first skirmish. And once you approach an enemy, there is no guarantee that your team will even decide to engage. You may have several characters that simply stand there while a teammate gets pummeled to within an inch of their life. You have to either issue a command or wait for a character to actually be hit in order to ge them to become involved in the fight. Part of the problem stems from the fact that when you direct a character to a particular spot, they immediately become unselected. This requires you to tap the character again in order to issue a new command. The controls for the battle sequences are an inexcusable collection of atrocious design decisions that essentially break the core of the game and make many battles nearly unmanageable. Parts of the game that should be fast-paced and exciting become nothing more than a horrendous, monotonous chore.
And that brings us to an important point: there is essentially nothing to do in this game EXCEPT engage in these monstrous, plodding battles. The large battles are partly to blame for the game's meandering storyline. You are treated to short, very engaging snippets of plot development -- often with beautiful FMV to help visualize certain elements of the story. And then you are subjected to hours upon hours of nothing but epic battle after epic battle, with nothing in between to remind you of why you are going through all of this effort. When the game does come around to tossing you back into the actual story, you end up feeling lost and disengaged with what is taking place.
In the end, Blue Dragon Plus has few redeeming qualities. The FMVs that are sprinkled sparsely throughout the game are gorgeous and seamlessly integrated into the rest of the action. But the controls during battle are clumsy and poorly designed. The story is somewhat interesting, but you wouldn't really know it since you only see a short flash of plot every couple of hours. For every one thing that this game does well, it feels as though two things are done very poorly. It's this imbalance that keeps it from being a game that can be recommended beyond the most die-hard strategy RPG gamers. But honestly, I don't think I could bring myself to recommend it even to them.
Score: 2 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG2.png
Nathaniel says, "Blue Dragon Plus is an overall flawed game that feels like it must have had a lot of potential at some point. However, poor gameplay decisions and conflict design coupled with a muddy story make it something that should probably be avoided by all but the most earnest Blue Dragon fans."
- Review this title yourself (http://www.playitreviewit.com/reviews/write) over at Play It Review It (http://www.playitreviewit.com/), part of the CoG Network