Sakaguchi\'s Xbox 360 RPG revealed

The first details of Blue Dragon, the new Xbox 360 RPG from the creator of the Final Fantasy series, have started to emerge.

According to a report in Japanese magazine Shonen Jump, the game features three main characters, all children. Jiro is a bit of a boffin with a talent for gadgetry, while Kruck is a sophisticated young lady who likes to appear mature for her age.

But the lead character is Shu, a rough-and-tumble type who likes to be right in the thick of the action. He also seems to have some kind of connection with the Blue Dragon of the title, judging by the illustration in Shonen Jump - you can take a look at it here.

The game is being developed by Mistwalker, the studio FF legend Hironobu Sakaguchi established together with some fellow ex-SquareSoft designers. The characters are designed by Akira Toriyama, who illustrated Square-Enix\'s Dragon Quest series and created Dragon Ball Z.

This isn\'t the first time Sakaguchi and Toriyama have worked together - retro fans and old people may remember their collaboration on Chrono Trigger, Square\'s [utterly fantastic -Ed] 1995 RPG [featuring the best frog ever] for SNES.

"I\'ve made many RPGs in my past, but I\'m planning to make Blue Dragon the most satisfying in terms of volume," Sakaguchi told Shonen Jump.

"It will have many adventures and tricks that can only be featured in video games. Please look forward to it." And why not. A release date for Blue Dragon has yet to be announced, but we\'ll keep you posted.

Illustration

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=58872

I love the style.  

What they really need to do is get together and work on another Chrono game, but this will do in the mean time.

[Living-In-Clip]

/ Not impressed. \\

[Evi]

Um...I NEED IMAGES!!!!!

[Living-In-Clip]

Are you blind?
There was an illustration. We should judge the game on that. Much like we should be excited about those stupid renders of Madden 2006.

[Evi]

I meant in-game images. The animation doesn\'t tickle my pickle at all...does absolutely nothing for me.

Much like we should be excited about those stupid renders of Madden 2006.

Stupid EA...

Originally posted by EviscerationX
I meant in-game images. The animation doesn\'t tickle my pickle at all...does absolutely nothing for me.

The fact that it\'s from the same people who made Chrono Trigger should give you a chubb.

[clips]

^^^or a woody, or a boner, or a hard on, or a stiffy, or a divin\' board, or a....

[Evi]

The fact that it\'s from the same people who made Chrono Trigger should give you a chubb.

And how did I leave that part of the information out of my brain? You\'re absolutely right. I believe a chub is in order.

Originally posted by EviscerationX
And how did I leave that part of the information out of my brain? You\'re absolutely right. I believe a chub is in order.

Am I right in assuming you didn\'t play Chrono Trigger?

[Evi]

I wasn\'t being sarcastic. This news gives me a woody now that you\'ve informed me it\'s being made by the Chrono Trigger team (this is what happens when you don\'t read the obvious text in bold).

Originally posted by EviscerationX
I wasn\'t being sarcastic. This news gives me a woody now that you\'ve informed me it\'s being made by the Chrono Trigger team (this is what happens when you don\'t read the obvious text in bold).

Should I add a bright yellow color to emphasized text in the future?  Or maybe a nice red...

[Evi]

Yes...that would be nice.

May 13, 2005 - The first Japanese-developed Xbox 360 title to be revealed to the world was Blue Dragon. Last week\'s issue of Shonen Jump (the Japanese version) included artwork and a few details on this first Mistwalker Xbox 360 project, promising characters by Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest creator Akira Toriyama and a youth-friendly setting and gameplay concept.


Blue Dragon was one of the games we were most excited about seeing as Microsoft held its Xbox 360 launch event in Japan on Friday morning. Sadly, we didn\'t get to see too much of the game. Producer Hironobu Sakaguchi shared a few details, introduced the game\'s developers and gave us a look at some pre-rendered character concept footage, but left in-game visuals to our imagination.

The story of Blue Dragon centers on main character Shu and his group of friends. An old timer called Nene is trying to bring destruction to the world by reviving magical abilities that should have long since disappeared. Shu and crew won\'t stand for this and set off on an adventure to stop Nene\'s plans.

In the world of Blue Dragon, people have different types of shadows. Shadows move alongside their owners, giving them added strength and magical power. Shu, in particular, has the ability to control the shadows.

Shadows act like equipment in this game. As you play, you\'ll find over 200 shadows, split into five groups: dragon, minotaur, phoenix, bat and tiger. These can be mixed and customized, providing lots of gameplay for those who like to spend time with their games.

Mistwalker seems to be going after the Dragon Quest crowd with Blue Dragon. Of course, the Toriyama heroes and heroines help to give this image, but perhaps even more important, in terms of gameplay, is the focus on character building and monsters. At the press conference, Mistwalker showed video of the characters and their shadows, followed by a few monster shots. The target of this game seems to be the readers of Jump magazine (which is why it makes sense that Microsoft debuted it in Jump).

There are some differences from Dragon Quest, though, as Toriyama himself pointed out. Toriyama, who works out of the city of Nagoya (Sakaguchi had to meet him down there to discuss the game), wasn\'t at the press conference, but did send a greeting. Joking about how his franchises always seem to have the word "Dragon" in them, he stated that he was originally going to refuse working on the game because he thought it might be similar to Dragon Quest. However, he had a change of heart after seeing the scenario, which apparently paints a world with a strong science-fiction taste.



In addition to the gameplay system and background story, Sakaguchi stressed the importance of the presentation side of Blue Dragon. Sakaguchi first praised the 360 for being so powerful, then pointed out that Mistwalker isn\'t just using the system to draw pretty pictures. The world of Blue Dragon is meant to have a touch of reality to it, with realistic effects for shadows, fire and water. The world is said to be reactive to player interaction. Sadly, specifics were not provided.

The biggest surprises at the press conference were the revelations concerning Blue Dragon\'s developer. While Sakaguchi himself is overseeing the title and providing the scenario, Artoon, the kids behind the Blinx series, are handling development duties, with Takuya Matsumoto serving as director and Manabu Kusonki creating the game\'s world view. Matsumoto, most recently, served as a designer on Blinx 2. While at Sega, he served as a programmer on Nights: Into Dreams and Ristar. Kusonoki is known for his work at Sega, where he was largely responsible for the world of Panzer Dragoon.

Blue Dragon has Sakaguchi representing Final Fantasy, Toriyama representing Dragon Quest and Kusonoki representing Panzer Dragoon (Blinx fits somewhere in there as well, we\'re sure). And we didn\'t even mention Nobuo Uematsu, the former Square Enix musician who\'s creating all the music for the game (he\'s also creating all the music for Lost Odyssey -- busy man)! With this talented group working on the game, we hope to have a deep, quality Japanese-style RPG in the early life of the Xbox 360.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/613/613389p1.html

"Shadows act like equipment in this game. As you play, you\'ll find over 200 shadows, split into five groups: dragon, minotaur, phoenix, bat and tiger. These can be mixed and customized, providing lots of gameplay for those who like to spend time with their games."


I like the sound of it, and I hope and pray the combat system is NOT real-time.

sounds original
Great to hear about new ideas being brought with the next generation