Blue Dragon: Finished! I guess I'll do a FULL MEEPLE RANT on this one, cause why not?
I'd say spoilers but...there's really not much to spoil...well, except for one character's thing, but I can avoid speaking about that entirely. In any event...
The game is decent enough. I finally figured out just what it felt like...or I did earlier but never felt like saying it!
The game is a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger. You can see a lot of the similarities once you think about it; it even has the same artist! This suddenly makes sense as to how a game could look like a Dragon Quest in terms of art, but function nothing LIKE one in terms of gameplay and what not. A lot of the things are there; gimmicky bosses, enemies that react specifically to attacks, enemies you can see on the screen, what have you. It doesn't have a Silent Protagonist though!
...which is a good thing, at least cause Shu isn't offensive. But then again, Blue Dragon is more of an ensemble since Shu's more of a default focus when the team is randomly split up (which is rare) rather than "THIS IS HIS STORY!"; its more about the group effort.
...just like Chrono Trigger. Seriously, CT is not really about Crono in anyway, he just happens to be forced for most of the game and being a silent protagonist, HE MUST BE THE MAIN! Except if you deleted Crono, gave his role to Lucca, no one would care other than those obsessed CronoxMarle freaks <_< >_>
Ok, that anti-Crono remarks aside, the cast was generally colorful and what not. I'll get to them MORE IN DEPTH later.
Music...worked in game, but disappointing stand alone. First off, I like Eternity, so shut up; its a fun silly song that makes Boss Fights actually give that false impression of intense (false cause the game is too fucking easy to ever actually BE intense), which is exactly how a boss theme SHOULD be. None of this "Rar, big scary monster!!!!" nonsense like Dragon Quest's love to have, we need fast paced fun themes like that which most FF games give us! That said, this is one of Uematsu's weaker works overall.
Gameplay worked for what it was, but it has one major flaw that holds the game back:
The game is too damned easy. Everything is THERE to make the game engaging and interesting, and keep things afloat, but then the FF7-esque difficulty kicks in, and these interesting quirks become more tedious than fun, cause now you're just "Offensive spell caster goes -> Nukes battle field" for simple group fights, and then a quirk enemy kicks in, and you're just killing them in a boring fight without feeling threatened.
Perfect example is those Laser Bots in the Final Dungeon. They immune all elements, so your spell castings are out, have high defense and counter everything with a weak Laser move, and their HP is Non-negligible. They're not hard AT ALL, but they just take forever to kill, I dreaded fighting them purely cause they felt like such a stall.
And dungeons in this game aren't short, so this tedious factor is really an achilles heel to the game being overall decent. Its a pretty big flaw in what is otherwise a rather solid package. I don't mind games being easy, but the style of the game makes it such that lacking difficulty really stands out. This is contrast to, say, Rhapsody, where while the game is the easiest thing ever, its just straight forward...or would be if it didn't pretend to be an SRPG but shut up about that!
Plot...you're chasing an Ugly Old Purple Namek whose evil cause...he's got this god complex. Yeah, that's the plot. There really isn't much more than that.
Now onto the cast!
Shu: The Hero! HE WON'T GIVE UP! He's got the Blue Dragon Shadow which is...completely non-special outside of how its the titular Shadow of the game. BUT HE WON'T GIVE UP! Seriously, when I saw the title of the game and what not, I expected the game to say something like "You have the Blue Dragon! Your shadow is special!" but...no. I'm guessing just the name "Blue Dragon" sounds more interesting than "Green Minotaur" or whatever. AND HE WON'T GIVE UP! Anyway, he's your typical act first, think later main, which sometimes gets him into trouble, but he's determined to NOT GIVE UP no matter how nonsense the scenario is. He has some feelings for Kluke and a good friendship with Jiro, and is a natural leader cause he's determined, I guess. Did I mention he won't give up? Cause, you know, HE WON'T GIVE UP!
IN game? ...I'm skipping this mostly cause while there are differences in stats and what not, the majority of a character's worth is based around how you build them and what equips you give them, so yeah. I will note that Shu has a slight advantage of having by definition the most SP due to one dungeon where he's the only one who can do anything, but its not enough to actually matter.
In the DL? His class is Swordmaster. I guess he's got good damage, and no real stat flaws cause Swordmaster seemed to be the closest thing to having overall balanced stats? Also has occasional status/stat downs, and a Dispel move that can come in handy. Also some shakey Parasitic Healing to HP and MP due to Absorb HP/MP I guess, but don't think those are largely relevant? Would need to see exactly. Probably enough to push him into Low Heavy I guess.
Jiro: The Smart Guy! Jiro exists to be the voice of reason and intellect, and he generally comes off as intelligent, while not sounding like a know it all. This was nice cause there are times when he's occasionally wrong cause he's still a kid, just they're good at making him seem good at figuring things out. He's also the one whose always analyzing bosses gimmicks which was a nice touch. Personally, I support JiroxKluke more than ShuxKluke...which mind the game has a love triangle which is played rather light heartedly down to the very last line in the game, so this isn't a crack pairing anything. While I'm not big on this thing, I felt Jiro and Kluke had actual chemistry, while Shu being a complication was more like "HE'S THE LEADER! HE MUST HAVE A CHANCE WITH THE GIRL! LETS THROW IN RANDOM HEROICS!" Seriously, guys, can't we avoid that cliche? Basically, Shu just felt like a close friend while Jiro felt like there was something more. Oh yeah, he also wears the same vest as SAIYAMAN which means making him the smart guy...well, ok, Gohan IS a total nerd when he's not fighting so I guess maybe that's where inspiration came from? Or Toriyama's just lacking in original design ideas <.<
In the DL? He's got the White Magic class, so he's a pure healer, and really hard to kill...and practically zilch damage unless he fights FF1 Lich or Genevieve or something. Essentially a SUPER RAJA I guess, cause he's slow and frail, but not to the horrid extent Raja is, and then has Ressurection for a 2nd wind which is just cruel if you allow Auto Life (full HP *AND* MP Healing once per battle.) ...and he has Previve for more Auto Life...and still has a lot of healing...yeah, he's a pain in the ass to kill, but you can't ignore just how BAD that damage is. INTO LIGHT YOU GO!
Kluke: The game's chick! She's a walking stereotype more or less. Her entire resolve I guess was "I don't want people to share the same pain I have felt!" and uh...I guess she's suppose to be strong willed? That's fine and all, but did the game HAVE to force a Damsel in Distress scenario on her? It was out of nowhere and just a random way to add an arbitrary crisis leading to some bullshit Xanatos Gambit. Whatever, she existed cause hey, YOU NEED A FEMALE LEAD!
IN the DL? She's got the Black Magic class, thus she NUKES THINGS DEAD. Damage...so much damage...if she can get it off. If she can't get it off...she still has Extractus which hey, now she's got Parasitic Healing to HP *AND* MP and it nukes MP pretty effectively! Yeah, she's a Glass Cannon, simply put, whose is just frustrating to deal with if she gets one turn. Stopping her from getting that turn isn't TOO hard cause she's frail and slow, especially if she goes for FULL NUKAGE with Shadowus. Middle/Heavy I guess? Oh, she HATES elemental resistance like nothing else, of course.
Marumaro: DEVEE DANCE OF ANNOYANCE!!! Marumaro basically existed to be this annoying little freak who you wanted to see suffer, but never really does
He's also the Team Lancer by default. He does have some amusing silly moments, but mrf, couldn't they have at least made him...ok, no, they couldn't, screw it.
IN the DL? I can't see Marumaro being particularly great. Monk just isn't much BY ITSELF. Its fine in game where it can mix and match its stats with skills from other classes, as well as allowing stuff like Critical Hit Lift stacking with Magic Sword or Absolut Counter Attack + Total Guard or whatever; its a class that ruins off Synergy in game. DL wise...it kind of lacks all that. He's got speed and counters, but if you have something non-physical he's screwed. I guess a Light.
Zola: The team's Strong Guy. She's the largest person on the team, not cause she's this Amazoness bitch, but cause she's AN ADULT while the others are all kids, so uh, yeah. She's one of those "Speaks only when necessary" type characters, while not being a total bitch at the same time, and even has an amusing moment here and there. Yeah, she was decent enough at her role. She also has a sword she practically never uses cause this game is basically "MAGIC IS GOD" just like FF6, only they REALLY wanted to drive the point home, so everything your characters do is related to magic in some way!
IN the DL? Assassin is damn lucky it gets Double Attack as its final skill, as it saves her damage, and means her great speed is not gone to waste! Apparently Control is really good...but you have to allow it first. Pity most of Assassin's skills are worthless in the DL; its mostly a utility class in game, like you'd expect from the "Thief" class.
Others:
Nene: Baby Eating Ugly Old Purple Namek with a god complex who...ok, he's a walking cliche, lets move on!
Deathroy: Little annoying henchman who does nothing but parrot Nene's every word. I wanted to strangle him so much...and I sort of had the chance to end game, yay!
Szabo: The game's Dragon, this one of the incompetent type. He's whipped by Nene, yet still loyal, and you keep kicking his ass and he keeps coming back for me! He has his own posse of 4 Robots that also don't give up, and when they're all finally defeated...him and his 4 cronies go all MEGA ZORD LIKE and fuse for one last fight. That was one of the most awesome moments in the game its so fucking ridiculous. I'm being vaguely serious here too <_<
King Jibral: Maybe it was his design, but I got the feeling that he's basically Edgar all over again, if they totally overlooked the perverted aspect. The kind hearted, strong minded, long haired blonde king. Felt like he needed a little more screen time though,c ause what little he had was actually pretty good. This is after how when you first see him, you vaguely assume he's going to be this dick what with looking all bad ass and I think he's even wearing EVIL SUNGLASSES or something...but then he ends up being like the complete opposite of what you expect 20 seconds after meeting him.
Other arbitrary NPCs: They're forgettable and that's why I'm not going over them! Well, there's the emo red haired girl that lets Shu find his INNER STRENGTH by trying to pretend she's almost as intriguing a character as Celes, but in the end, she's just another NPC!
Overall, the game was solid enough. It just has that really major flaw of being too damned easy which makes the game tedious at points combined with its long dungeons. Not sure how much I'll dock the game for that. Thinking its a 7/10 or 8/10 depending how much I decide to hold that "Game's too easy, it becomes tedious!" factor against it. It otherwise was overall pleasantly surprising, as given the way the game looks, you really expect Dragon Quest like experience, but I got something far more pleasant.
EDIT:
Oh, yeah, OK, if you want a FULL BARKLEY RANT, you'll need to send me the entire cast of characters cause I don't want to screw things up for accuracy purposes! This is SERIOUS BUSINESS after all.
