So.
It is finally finished. I can put Blue Dragon to bed, and move on to another campaign. For all intents and purposes, this should be considered my definitive thoughts on the game.
The core gameplay is very solid, and you can tell it's got a JRPG pedigree and made with that polish only the veterans of the business can deliver. The Shadow Class system works out quite well, giving both a sense of customization and some of that sense of power you can get when you crack a old-schooler wide open. The combat is fun and fluid, with only two real gripes. The first is that a lot of the enemy mobs have attacks that have too much wind-up and reset animation (robo enemies are really bad for this,) which breaks the flow somewhat. It doesn't get too bad, but it can be annoying in some places, especially the final dungeon, where you can set a few minutes waiting for a pack of mooks to get through their motions. A second, somewhat related one is that Corporeal attacks (this game's combination of Limit Breaks and Summons) are a bit longer to go through than they should be, with no option to speed things up. They're very cinematic and flavorful, and their presence as a late-game 'finale' technique fit fairly well; just a bit too long.
The dungeons are fairly straightforward, with few 'gimmick' ideas and puzzles. Somebody realized that Zelda puzzles need to stay in Zelda games. Using predetermined encounters was a nice touch, especially with all the avoidance options the game will give you as time goes on. The game has a major 'press A and search everywhere' theme, with lots of little rewards everywhere. With apparently one major, bizarre exception: the interior of the final dungeon. I'm hoping that I just missed in it my final push to beat the game.
The minigames...hoo boy, the minigames. Most of them are the tradition innocuous button-masher affairs (with achievements for perfect play), and can be a nice change of pace. However, the game's signature minigame, is really jarring. This is the Mechat stage, an old-style rail shooter. It's not bad, but there's some questionable decisions involved. They decided to use a control scheme reminiscent of 8- and 16-bit games, except on an Xbox controller. Y'know, the kind with trigger buttons made for shooters? The end result is that you can suffer and get really frustrated really quickly if you're unprepared. The first of the stages is really bad for this, both because it's the first one and because you have no upgrades for your vehicle, making it very much an example of early game hell. No, I didn't get three game overs in a row and resorted to easy mode here (and creative combinations of profanity,) why d'you ask? The other two stages (one of them optional and repeatable) work better overall, especially with all the little upgrades scattered everywhere. Those are much more palatable.
And finally the story and world-building. The developers deliberately went for a absurd plot, full of wonderful, traditional RPG cliches. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but I found it overall both nostalgic and refreshing. You are running a pack of plucky teenagers, later joined by a mascot character (that thankfully was not useless and gimmicky) and the standard stoic mercenary type (that happens to be a hot bandit chick.) Your village gets wrecked, the bad guy is really just there to be the bad guy, everybody is living in small towns, huddled against the hordes of freaks tearing about in the wild world. There are some funny touches, like the one organized military force (on your side) are knightly types that wield swords and lances, but also wear modern-style helmets with goggles and toss potato-masher grenades. They're both badass and hilarious. We have critters that are literally living mounds of poop (that can also poop items, a veritable fractal of crap) creepy robots, and the usual gallery of RPG freaks. Akira Toriyama is in charge of the visuals, and it very much shows. It all comes together pretty well. My only real gripe is that the big bad evil guy doesn't really do much besides act all evil. He does have a nasty little plot involving our heroes, and is actually pretty damn clever about it; he just doesn't really show much motivation (in-game, at least.)
In the end, Blue Dragon is a nice homage to old-school JRPG goodness, and gets extra points for not pretending to be anything else. These guys know their business, all right. I give this one a hearty recommendation for anybody looking to capture a bit of the old-school on a newer system. Anybody else: if you don't like JRPG stuff already, then I doubt this will change your mind.
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