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New details for Blue Dragon DS, due out this summer
Last month, publisher AQ Interactive confirmed that Blue Dragon Plus for the Nintendo DS had been delayed, but that it would be coming this summer. Translations from the publisher's official BDP site (via NeoGAF) indicate the game is set to be a "simulation RPG." The description and subsequent new screenshots remind us of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (not a bad comparison, mind you).The site also seems to indicate that BDP takes place just after the events of the first Blue Dragon. So with a bold-faced spoiler alert we caution you against clicking on the main website as, once it loads, it gives away a big part of the Xbox 360 version's storyline. Same warning goes for the gallery below. Gallery: Blue Dragon Plus [Via DS Fanboy]
Blue Dragon DS delayed indefinitely
French gaming site Jeux-France is reporting that the Nintendo DS adaptation of Mistwalker's Blue Dragon has been delayed without a future release window. The title was planned for a March release, although given its original September revelation, we thought the date was a bit suspect.Despite the indefinite loss of a portable Blue Dragon, fans of Hironobu Sakaguchi's work can look forward to other DS releases from the studio, including ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat (already out in Japan) and Away: Shuffle Dungeon. [Via DS Fanboy]
Best of the Rest: Ludwig's picks of 2007
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (Wii) Though its puzzles may occasionally infuriate, the real source of frustration regarding Zack & Wiki stems from the fact that nobody bought it. Every year has its share of titles that deserve an audience yet never find one, and in this regard, Zack & Wiki is easily one of the most tragic games to put an uncontrollable smile on your face. Relentlessly charming and beautifully presented, the debut of Capcom's choc-chomping pirate and his simian sidekick challenges the mind and warms that cynical, meh-spouting lump in your chest. How refreshing it was to overcome obstacles and bosses by choosing the power of the mind over an impossibly large bazooka.
Best of the Rest: Griffin's Picks of 2007
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Wii)For a port of a two-year-old game, RE4: Wii Edition didn't have a whole lot going for it. It had the same extra features as the PS2 port of the game, not-so-updated graphics, and slightly lower reviews than its original iteration -- and yet, somehow, just by changing how the game is controlled, Capcom created an entirely new adventure. When the peculiar controls for the Wii were first announced, this is the type of interactivity that I imagined from the future games for the system -- responsive, accurate, and realistic. The only way they could have made the gunplay feel any more natural would have been to package the game with an actual gun, which you shot at the on-screen zombies. Once.
Mistwalker reminds us they have something besides Blue Dragon
When it was revealed that Blue Dragon would make its way onto the DS, albeit in a different shape and form than it appears on the Xbox 360, there was also another title that developer Mistwalker was to bring to the DS. Titled Away: The Kidnapped People, little was known regarding it, other than Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu were working on it directly. Now, courtesy of a Japanese press release (link goes to pdf file), new details regarding the game have surfaced. It appears that Away: The Kidnapped People is to utilize a unique randomized dungeon system. Described as an action RPG, the fine folks over at Siliconera deduced that since the Japanese press release calls the game Away: Shuffle Dungeon, and with the Blue Dragon random dungeon generator DLC for Xbox 360 being titled "Shuffle Dungeon Maker," that Away must use the same randomized dungeon feature.[Via Joystiq]
New Blue Dragon items now on XBLM
Microsoft sends word that a new piece of downloadable content is now available for Blue Dragon. This is the second bit of DLC for the game, the first -- Hard mode - being released last month. This new DLC is entitled "6 Treasures" gives players access to 6 new items that grant special abilities to their characters. One in particular -- the Shuffled Helmet -- creates the most powerful armor in the game when combined with Shuffled Splint and Shuffled Breastplate. Honestly, we haven't delved into the game, so we don't know how useful all these items are, though they will probably be welcome to those endeavoring to complete hard mode. The DLC is available for 200 MS Points. Check out the all 6 of the items contained in the pack after the break.
New Blue Dragon DLC ups the difficulty for free
For those out there who thought Mistwalker's Blue Dragon was too easy for your tastes, Microsoft has just released new content aimed at upping the ante for the RPG's difficulty. Best of all? It's free. Dubbed the Ultra Hard Mod, the new content has three aspects. The first is Game Plus, which allows you to start a new game using a saved file from near the end. The other two are specifically for the masochistic: Hard Mode, reportedly twice as challenging as normal, and Impossible, which is meant to play with characters starting at level 50 or higher. (If you want to do the Impossible at level 10, however, by all means go for it. Let us know how that works out.)
DS Daily: What franchise needs to be on the DS?
With yesterday's DS Daily, we thought about all of the franchises that generally aren't represented or have recently made their way onto the DS. We thought about how a game (take Blue Dragon, for example) could make its way onto the DS, totally disregarding its initial genre, utilizing the unique functions of the handheld.So, if you could take a franchise and adapt it for play on the DS, what franchise would it be and how would you augment its initial genre and style for the handheld? Would you take a game in the FPS genre and turn it into a side-scroller on the platform? Would you adapt a card game into a shoot-em-up?Take those two cents out of your pocket and toss them in.
DS Daily: We're soooo pumped for Blue Dragon
Having several friends who're all kinds of knee-deep in the Xbox 360 game Blue Dragon, we found that we too wanted to get our role-play on and started it up. We didn't get far, but the 2 hours or so of the game got us pumped. We genuinely felt that this game could be excellent beyond all comprehension.And now it's coming to the DS?! Holy hand grenade, we can't wait for it, even if it's a card-based game. How about you, folks? Are you as excited as we are? Or, could you care less?
Blue Dragon demo out on Xbox Live
One secret that Microsoft left out of the press conference: a demo for Mistwalker's Blue Dragon is now available on Xbox Live. The enthusiastic description for the 1.1GB download reads as follows: "The Blue Dragon Demo is available! Play the grand adventure in two dungeons filled with Mecha Robos and Ancient Monsters!" Enjoy.
Rumor: Sakaguchi working on Xbox 360 MMO
Mistwalker founder Hironobu Sakaguchi has revealed that he is working on a new Xbox 360 title that is "50% MMO and 50% RPG," according to Total Video Games. Speaking at an anime event in Paris, France, Sakaguchi reportedly said that the project is not previously-announced titles Blue Dragon sequel or Cry On. (Though there has been talk about Blue Dragon 2 going online.)The announcement has not been confirmed and we have no other details, so consider this a rumor for now. Should the news end up being true, we just hope the 50% MMO and 50% RPG comment doesn't equate to twice the level grinding and only half the story of most genre-oriented games.
Blue Dragon demo scheduled for July 20th
Can't wait until August 28th to play the Xbox 360-exclusive JPRG Blue Dragon? You could always import the Japanese release and stumble your way through three discs of inscrutable Japanese text or, if you can settle for a slightly smaller experience, just download the demo on Xbox Live Marketplace July 20th. The Japanese language Dengeki Online claims a 1.1GB demo will be released overseas (that's over here, folks) on July 20th, containing roughly 120 minutes of playtime. But you'd best make sure you download it in that 2-week window, since the demo will fly away on August 3rd. Now let's see, if we only play for about three and a quarter minutes a day, this demo should just last us until the retail release. Just ...[Via X3F]%Gallery-1935%
Blue Dragon demo set for July 20
If you've been on the fence about Blue Dragon, then we have some good news for you. According to Dengeki Online (helpfully translated by Siliconera), an international Blue Dragon demo is slated for July 20. Weighing an impressive 1.1GB, the demo will apparently contain a whopping 2 hours of available gameplay. We hope you've grown accustomed to the English voice-overs though, as Japanese will not be an option in the demo. There may be a few different subtitle options, depending on the language settings of your Xbox. Finally, be sure to grab the demo as soon as you can, as it will fly away from Marketplace on August 3rd, giving just over three weeks to save up for the real thing.[Via Siliconera]
Red, White & Blue Dragon: Celebrating Japanese games
The United States of America's birthday is just around the corner and Xbox.com thought of no better way to celebrate July 4th than by playing ... Japanese games? Well, we don't quite see the correlation here other than a Blue Dragon name tie-in, but we'll go with it. And even though we prefer to celebrate the Fourth of July with explosive fireworks, grilled food and family we just might pop in some Dead Rising, Tenchu Z, Street Fighter or Castlevania come Wednesday.See Japan, the Xbox 360 loves you so much it's willing to incorporate your gaming culture in a marketing campaign aimed at Americans on their country's birthday. Don't you think you owe the 360 some love now?
Blue Dragon officially lands on August 28
It was confirmed during GDC this year that Blue Dragon would be hitting the U.S. sometime this August. We've received official word from Microsoft this morning that the game will ship on August 28. Yes, in just 61 days, U.S. games will finally be able to play Mistwalker's first opus. In celebration of Blue Dragon, Microsoft plans to make a fan site kit available from the official Blue Dragon page on Xbox.com (it's not available right now, despite the press release's protestations to the contrary). Xbox.com will also be hosting a feature article about the game, though it still hasn't gone live as of this posting. For those of you still unfamiliar with the game, we suggest you check out the recent preview from Eurogamer.
Blue Dragon gets dated: August 28th, 24th in Europe
We knew Microsoft's Blue Dragon -- the Japanese RPG by famed Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi -- would be barreling into American shores in August, but we didn't know the specific date. Good news for fans of the month of August then, the much anticipated RPG will get in just under the cutoff making an August 28th touchdown for $59.99.More interesting for European gamers is the August 24th European release date. Originally scheduled for September in that part of the globe, the title has managed to leapfrog the North American release date by four days; however, at £44.99, they're paying nearly $90 for the privilege. We don't think Americans mind waiting. Now, if we only knew when Mass Effect was coming out ...%Gallery-1935%Read - Japanese RPG "Blue Dragon" Lifts Its Wings and Flies To Europe
Eurogamer takes Blue Dragon for a spin
Eurogamer got its hands on the English version of Blue Dragon and took the time to write up some impressions. Overall, the gist of the preview is that Blue Dragon tries to recreate classic Japanese role playing game design without reinventing it. As noted by the preview, everything seems as though it was pulled from classic RPGs and made to mesh with modern console aesthetics. The graphics look like old school 2D characters and worlds come to life, the characters are broadly drawn, and the combat is solidly turn-based. About the only concession the game makes to modern game design (or "progress" as Eurogamer calls it) is that battles are not random. In the end, it seems that Blue Dragon was meant as a nostalgic trip down memory lane with a new coat of paint. The only problem, according to Eurogamer, is that such nostalgia may be in limited supply outside of Japan. We'll find out when Blue Dragon hits North America this August.
Blue Dragon's BIG SHADOW wins award
Microsoft's 360 sales in Japan may be borderline sad and depressing, but at least their ad campaigns are winning awards. Blue Dragon's marketing campaign BIG SHADOW won a coveted Canneslion award for best outdoor advertisement. The BIG SHADOW campaign can be seen here and took place in Japan where they projected people's shadows on a nearby building that morph into Blue Dragon creatures. The campaign also went online featuring a live feed of the fun and interaction with the shadows. It's quite the creative experience and well worth an award. Now only if Microsoft could translate an advertising award into Xbox 360 hardware sales then we think things would be good in Japan.[Thanks Jonah Falcon, Via Joystiq]
Blue Dragon ad campaign wins Cannes award
The marketing team behind Blue Dragon, the Xbox 360 RPG out in Japan and coming to North America later this summer, struck gold with their recent "Big Shadow" interactive installation in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Shadows of participants' movements were projected upon a wall in the middle of town. When they perform certain actions, such as raising their arms over their heads, a giant dragon appears above their shadow. Enemy dragons would swoop or attack the shadow humans, and sometimes a giant Monty Python-esque foot would crash down on their heads. Web surfers could even participate in real-time using a webcam!Creative director Koshi Uchiyama, joined by art director Naoki Ito, and producer Yasuhisa Kudo, received the Gold Lion award for outdoor advertising at the Cannes Advertising Awards, one of the most prestigious award shows in advertising. Check out a video presentation of the installation as well as the awards page for more images.
Blue Dragon now available in English, sort of
If you've been waiting for a version of Blue Dragon with English subtitles and you happen to live in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, or Singapore, then you are in luck! Siliconera reports that Microsoft has officially released Blue Dragon to Asian territories outside of Japan. This version of Blue Dragon features Japanese or Korean voice acting and both Chinese and English subtitles. Before you start getting your importing hopes up though, we must inform you that the game is region locked, unlike many Asian Xbox 360 games. However, if you just so happen to have a Japanese Xbox 360, more power to you.The rest of us, unfortunately, will be waiting until the English version's official August release.[Via Joystiq]%Gallery-3400%
