In August 2007, Blue Dragon was released for the Xbox 360 to little fanfare, and although generally well received, was not a major title for the console. A sequel has been released, but instead of being on the Xbox 360, it has arrived on the Nintendo DS. Obviously a severe change in hardware, can the story survive the transition, and how similar is this new entry in the franchise? Find out in our review, and enter to win our review copy by commenting at the end of the article!

[Update: The contest is over, thanks to everyone who entered, and congrats to our winner, gbaker386! Also don't forget to enter our Docomodake contest! ]

Story

The story of Shu, Jiro, Kluke, Zola and various other friends and robots continues shortly after the death of Nene, who returns in Blue Dragon Plus. A recap of the whole story from the first game can be found in the Wikipedia article, but it's not necessary to understand it completely, as Blue Dragon Plus introduces you to all the characters and explains a bit of their backstories.

With a fairly generic and cliché characters, I was never very interested in the story. There are twists and love triangles, the search for true love and battles within, but nothing that seemed much different from any other simple story, with one exception. Almost all of the characters have a "Shadow," a large animal-based being that is part of them. These Shadows are used for battling other enemies, and help define what makes Blue Dragon different.

Gameplay

The simplest way to explain the gameplay mechanics would be call them a cross between an role-playing game (RPG) and a real-time strategy game (RTS). Your characters level up as they compete in battle, finding new equipment to supplement their stats, but the battles themselves are all in real-time. Movement around the world is turn based, with shops and a robot factory that can be used to increase the size of your party.

The most unique part of the gameplay is the use of Shadows during battles. Used only for special attacks, the Shadows can either hurt enemies or heal allies, and overtime they learn more abilities. Specific attacks work better on certain enemies, so you have to experiment to do the most damage. A tutorial available from the main menu helps introduce the concept, so players new to the concepts won't be lost once the battles start.

Unfortunately, the game's execution of its intended goals falls a little short. One of the most frustrating parts of the game came when I had a large party, and would tell them to move across the map. Sometimes the characters in the back of the group would be able to walk faster than those in the front, and when they would bump into someone, they would turn to the side and walk a ways before trying to move towards the goal again. Sometimes they would even turn around and walk away from the destination to try to find an open path, when the only thing blocking them has already moved! With a turn-based system of combat, this wouldn't be as critical, but when every second counts, it's frustrating.

Graphics & Sound

There are obviously going to be concessions when creating a game on a portable system as compared to a console, and Blue Dragon Plus had to make a lot of them.

Most of the environments are fairly similar to each other, but with the location of the story, that's not unexpected. The characters in your party are sprites that walk around the 3D world, which works well most of the time. The Shadows for each character are fluidly rendered in 3D, and look great. There are cut scenes in the game, but they were most prevalent at the beginning and end of the story, leaving the middle 10-15 hours a repetitive series of similar battles.

The sound works well, but, like the environments, is quite repetitive. There are audio cues for when a party member is low on health, and the music changes when only a few party members are left to do battle. Overall it doesn't have much effect on the game, but if you were expecting music you could remember for years like the Final Fantasy themes, you may want to look elsewhere.

Conclusion

The box for Blue Dragon Plus claims the Single Player Campaign has over 30 hours of Game Play, but I found that the most interesting parts come in the first few hours and the last few hours. That doesn't make it a bad game, but it definitely didn't hold my interest through the entire 18+ hours I played. The story didn't mean much to me, but I'm sure fans of the series would find it a bit more interesting. I'm sure the events found in Blue Dragon Plus will be referenced in later games, so it's critical for anyone wanting to stay on top of the story to get this game. For the rest of us, this is probably game you should pass on.

Contest

If you'd like to win our copy Blue Dragon Plus, simply leave a comment with what your Shadow power would be before Noon (CST) on Monday March 23, 2009. At that time we'll select announce a random commenter and ship them the game within a day or two. If you have not already registered, you'll need to do that too, but it's easy and should only take a few minutes.

Limit one entry per person, multiple entries will cause immediate disqualification. All entries must be submitted by Monday, March 23, 2009, at 12PM (Noon) Central Standard Time.