E3 2006: Blue Dragon Impressions
At the end of 2006, Japanese Xbox 360 gamers will get the chance to play Blue Dragon, the first of Mistwalker's two planned role-playing games. With character designs by Akira Toriyama, of Dragonball fame, this game is generating a sizable degree of buzz. Little has been seen of the actual game, however, but we were lucky enough to get a glimpse following the Microsoft conference at E3 2006 in Los Angeles. During the course of the guided demonstration, we were shown a number of three dimensional models running around the environments, some interesting cityscapes, as well as a few of the enemy models. Little was revealed about the actual storyline, save that it would center on a struggle against evil.
Blue Dragon starts with the main character, Shu, lying in the grass in a quaint mountain town. As credits roll to the side of the screen, you'll be able to move him around the environment and observe the bright, cartoonish surroundings and shimmering nearby pool. Moving down a nearby ramp prompts a story sequence, which involves a dark purple mist rolling into town, forcing most of the population to flee for higher ground. From up above, town NPCs look down. You're given control of Fushira momentarily, a town resident who brought up Shu. He leans over the balcony to find Shu getting pursued by a land shark, and cries out for help. Other NPC townsfolk on the platform notice another down below, namely Jiro, another of Blue Dragon's five playable characters. The land shark near Shu starts to circle more vigorously, and it's clear a fight is coming. That's when the console was shut off and we were shown another area.
While we didn't get any details of Blue Dragon's battle system, we did get a few tidbits about the eventual Western release. It was said that games like this usually take around 12 months to properly localize and prepare for Western markets, but Mistwalker is shooting for a shorter time frame. In the final version, players can expect fully voiced character interactions, including conversations with minor NPCs. It was clear, though, that for now the Japanese version is the focus.
Another character we saw running around was Marumaro, a yellow monster thing with a horned cap. Hailing from a strange town of flowerpot-looking structures suspended over a chasm, he'll join up with your party to help out during the adventure. Like all your controllable characters, he'll have access to a shadow for added power during battles. These shadow forms took the shape of several animals like a pig and a cat, while Shu's was a dragon.
While we weren't initially blown away by the graphics, the animations were smooth and environmental designs were unique. Stages ranged from dusty plains to underwater caverns. We got an extremely quick glimpse at the first dungeon, which didn't show much beyond it being set in a cave. At certain points a debug menu was brought up and the draw distance was pushed way back, adding clarity to all the graphics and causing no hitches in framerate. In one cliff environment that was loaded, this made the game look much better, especially when the camera was zoomed out over the water below, highlighting its excellent shimmer effects.
In terms of enemies, there wasn't much to see. An oversized rat was shown a few times for the purpose of demonstrating unique enemy behaviors, though nothing beyond his ability to bounce around and fall asleep were shown. Overall it was a promising glimpse, however brief. Once we get more details on the battle system and story progression we'll let you know. Stay tuned for updates.
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