Blue Dragon is the first RPG developed by the newly-founded Mistwalker (and Artoon) development studio. It is a classic Japanese-style RPG available on the Xbox 360 and is the first game since the classic Chrono Trigger to be developed by the legendary team of Sakaguchi, Toriyama and Uematsu, making it a somewhat landmark title. It is also pretty much the first true JRPG experience available on the Xbox 360.

Players control a party led by Shu, a young boy who lives in a village that is attacked annually by a gigantic "landshark" that destroys most of the village each year. In the first hours of the game Shu and his friends end up far from their home and find out who is behind these attacks, a man named Nene, and are approached by some unseen entity that tells them to swallow a set of mystical orbs. They end up doing it as a last resort and giant creatures immediately grow out from their shadows. Shu's, naturally, is an enormous blue dragon. This gives them the power that they need to battle Nene and his allies, and they begin to travel back to their home village. This is the opening of the game and introduces many of its key elements.

Players eventually control a party of five characters, each with their own shadow. As players lead Shu and friends around the world they encounter enemies and must defend themselves. Battles are menu- and turn-based affairs. At the end of each battle surviving party members receive experience points which allow characters to level up and grow more powerful, as well as experience points that benefit shadows. Players can select any one of three classes for each party member's shadow at the beginning of the game, including Black Magic, White Magic and Sword Master, and every ten levels a new class of the player's choice is unlocked, with a total of nine classes eventually available. As shadows level up in any class they learn new skills, and players are free to switch between classes anytime they aren't in battle. This level of customization leaves plenty of room for player creativity, one of Blue Dragon's strengths. Designer creativity a strong point, particularly as far as visuals go; Akira Toriyama's character designs have never been rendered so well, and the environments are colorful and inventive.

Blue Dragon is a lengthy, beautiful, challenging RPG experience that any fan of Japanese RPGs will enjoy.

Blue Dragon's setting is strictly fantastic, and as such in contains very few classroom facts. A number of charts are used to display character's statistics and other information, and basic math is used in various battle calculations. The game is also text-heavy and will require a good amount of reading to fully enjoy.

By the Gamer:

Blue Dragon affords its player's plenty of creativity. Players control a total of five party members, and can choose from any of nine classes for each character. Not only that, but whenever a shadow learns a new skill it can be equipped regardless of whatever class is currently selected, resulting in thousands of different party combinations. Characters can also equip seven accessories, and the numerous types of accessories available assure that there is something available for any situation. The game also features an open, exploratory world, and the thorough player will be rewarded throughout the game.

By the Developer:

Mistwalker's first game is definitely a creative success. While its roots in classic Japanese RPG mechanics are definitely apparent, it covers it up with enough material that it doesn't seem to stand out. A class-based battle and leveling system has certainly been done before, but never in such a way that the player was given so many choices for each character. Graphically the game is extremely impressive. Akira Toriyama is probably the world's most renowned "anime" artist, and his character designs have never seemed so vibrant as in Blue Dragon. There are mechanics in the battle system as well - namely the charge bar - that set it well apart from it peers. The game also features an impressive, lengthy (three discs!) story that, though it starts slow, really starts to pick up and drive the game. All of these things come together to create a top-notch RPG that stands above its recent competition.

Business skills are an important, if simple, element of the game. Players can buy and sell items and accessories at the shops located in many areas of the game. Players can also find medals throughout the game, which they can use to buy much rarer items.

Blue Dragon does not feature multiplayer, and social interaction is not an important part of the main game. The game's characters interact in frequent cutscenes throughout the game and players can voluntarily speak with a great number of non-player characters, but these dialogues are all preset and that player has no real chance to impact any of them.

Problems in Blue Dragon stem from battle. In battle all decisions are made in suspended time, but the setup of man of the battles is delicate and a bad decision can ruin a lot of work. The turn order is displayed on the top of the screen, and when a character's turn comes up an attack is chosen. Many attacks have a charge meter, and the player holds "A" to begin charging it. A bar moves from left to right and the player must let go of "A" when the bar is where he wants it to be on the turn order, and the further it goes the more powerful the attack is and the longer it takes it to charge. This makes everything very interesting. Players are often in situations where exactly how long a charge goes will affect the whole battle, and decisions between saving a character's life and letting it go and hoping he can be revived later pop up all the time. It is a consistently challenging and rewarding system.

Players also will need to navigate complex dungeons and other parts of the world, and while they are given a minimap in the corner of the screen many of the areas are still challenging. Character development is another challenge, as players have a number of choices to choose from, and it will sometimes be beneficial to a player to customize his characters based on the area they are in.

Blue Dragon's fantasy-themed storyline and setting leave little room for simulation of anything found in the real world.

Blue Dragon has been critically acclaimed since its release, scoring on average around 80%.

The game features one difficulty, and two more can be downloaded for free via Xbox Live.

Blue Dragon received a T from the ESRB with descriptors for Alcohol Reference, Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence, Mild Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes.