Blue Dragon Plus is the DS sequel to the Xbox 360's Blue Dragon. In this game, you rejoin Shu and his companions on another journey to fight off evil forces which threaten the peace and safety of the land. Though I have not played the Blue Dragon on the 360, you're sure to recognize many familiar faces if you're a fan of the first game.
Shu and his gang's adventure takes place inside a giant cube, where they meet a few surprises as they descend deeper into its depths. Blue Dragon Plus abandons the turn-based RPG style of its predecessor in favor of a real-time strategy RPG experience. Each battle takes place in an individual section of the cube, and as the adventurers proceed further into it, the path splits off, forcing you to divide your party into different groups. Other than characters that are 'locked-in' as leaders or key members of a group, you can switch characters between any of the groups. The game can be divided into two basic modes, the Route Map and the Missions. You view your progress on the top screen, and physically move the groups through the cube on the Route Map screen, as well as go through menus with the stylus. Here, character exchanges, inventory management/purchases, equipment, Shadow management, etc., take place. In other words, this is where you manage your characters and groups, to customize them to your liking. Missions are where the battles take place, and in order to succeed in these, you must complete the mission's criteria, which are handily detailed at the beginning of each mission. Unfortunately, it's in the missions, where the heaviest action takes place, that the game's weaknesses are made apparent.
Battles take place on the bottom screen with a map of the current room on the top screen. The map on the top screen displays friendly units, enemy units, units that are stationary or moving, as well as the locations of treasure chests. All in all, this map system is really handy and efficient as far as its utility goes. You engage enemies with melee attacks, and can use powerful Shadow skills to dispatch them with style and power. Stylus integration is well done; you can move the camera around the map, as well as choose to control an individual unit, a group, or the entire party. Once you select an individual unit, you can use the stylus to activate its Shadow skills when a target is in range, or use an item. You send your selected units to a specific location, or direct them towards an enemy unit or treasure chest. This is where things begin to unravel as far as gameplay goes.
Each room is divided by an invisible grid, and only one unit, whether friendly or deadly, can occupy a space on the grid. At a glance, this doesn't seem like much of a problem. However, when you try to move a large number of units at a time, which happens quite often, this one space, one unit rule throws a pretty big monkey wrench in the works. Once you send the selected group along their merry way, they get in each others' path. This causes faster characters to be stuck behind slower ones, slow characters to fall way back of the pack, and just a lot of disorderly marching in a group that needs order to function properly. For example, you want a character like Shu in the front lines, his defense and offense make him a great melee fighter. But, if you select a group of characters and Shu falls in back of the pack, your weaker characters end up surrounding the enemy and Shu can't attack or absorb some of the enemy's attacks because he's stuck behind, say, a healer. The only way around this is to tediously select one of the characters next to the enemy and move it away from its current location, move Shu in its place, and hope the enemy doesn't start following the weakling you just moved, messing up your attack plans. Granted, one would think this could also be avoided by giving orders to one unit at a time, thus sending the units you want to the front lines. Wrong. And this point is one of the things that bugged me the most about Blue Dragon Plus.
When you select a unit and then a location, or foe, to go to, one would assume the unit would take the easiest, or shortest path to the goal. This, frustratingly so, is no the case. A lot of times, the unit will take an unintended path to the targeted location. This could mean that a unit with a vital role in your attack plan is on the other side of the map, trying to figure out how to get to its target, even though it already traveled twice as far as the intended target is located. Chances are, it will encounter a group of enemies along the way too, which causes them to follow and attack the stray unit unmercifully. The surest way of avoiding such instances is to basically lead a unit to a new location every few steps, ensuring they don't take a, "wrong turn at Albuquerque," like a famous rabbit once said. Even on the few occasions when all your units end up where you want them to go on their own, you probably need to reorganize their ranks, due to the differences in speed of each individual. Even this small reorganization can be an annoyingly tedious task. Some of the characters will be blocking the place on the grid you touch with the stylus to send a unit. So, instead of sending a unit to a target location, you select another unit. Fortunately, you can rotate the camera, but even with this feature, there's no guarantee the unit will get it right the first time. The icon that indicates a unit's destination doesn't always appear either, and this adds some confusion to the mix, despite it being a relatively simple task you're trying to accomplish.
The battles aren't fluid either. Enemies are generally spread out in small groups on the map, which means you assemble your crew and attack one enemy group at a time. This breaks up the game's pacing, because the enemy groups are usually spread out pretty far from one another on the maps, and your units are far from being Olympic sprinters. Even the faster units proceed with a bit too much lackadaisical shuffle for my tastes. The most rewarding battles come from bosses, since it means you'll be caught up in some decent action for some time, without having to chase down a new group of baddies to beat up.
With that being said, when things are actually working out as planned, the fighting system isn't too bad. Units can attack from close or long range, and Shadow skills are a must to defeat enemies quickly and efficiently. Once you use a Shadow skill you have to wait until a gauge fills up before you can use another one with the same character. This is actually really cool, because you don't have to micro-manage and be stingy with magic points. The item system could use a bit of improvement though. Like Shadow skills, you have to assign item commands to each character in the menu screen, which can only be accessed on the Route Map. This means if you find a new item during a fight, you can't use it. You have to wait until you complete the mission in order to access the Route Map and menu screen. Even worse, if you have an abundance of an item that you're sure to use, such as a healing item, and you want every character to be able to use it, you need to methodically equip each character with the item in the skill menu. More needless tedium, when a shared party inventory would simplify things to no end.
In terms of graphics, this game shines. The character sprites are well detailed and brightly colored, which pleases the eye. Even the rooms inside the giant cube have different themes, and this really helps to vary the environments. The rooms are also well designed; as you progress through the cube, you don't feel like you're just going through some recycled environments. In the early going of the game, you get to see a lot of cutscreen animations, and to put it bluntly, they look great. The animation is smooth, and it looks as though the developers really tried to push the DS' graphical capabilities in these little movies. Some of the best animations come from the Shadow skills though, and these you get to use a lot. The shadows themselves look great and the spells and abilities they cast look just as good. There's definitely no reason to complain about the game's aesthetics.
I'd have to say my favorite aspect of this game was the music. To be fair, it's not something I'd put in an iPod or anything like that, but the music fits the game perfectly. Some tunes are a bit repetitive, but at the very least, they're not annoying little ditties that can sometimes get stuck in your head. The sound effects aren't bad either, the sounds of weaponry are a bit generic, but the Shadow skill sounds are spot on.
The game offers up a tutorial, which you can access without beginning a quest. This helps to quickly learn the ins and outs of the game quickly. So you quickly learn how to move on the map engage in battle, etc. Another thing the game does very well to introduce you to its intricacies is give a brief description of each new member to join your party. You get a small bio, followed by a brief description of the character's abilities and his/her/its function in battle. This helps out a lot when trying to assemble a balanced party. It even recommends which characters work well together, in a strategic sense.
Now, if you're like me, chances are you won't be picking up Blue Dragon Plus once you're done playing through. But, if you're a completionist, the game does have a lot of side quests to be completed. There's also incentive to go back in previous levels to open treasure chests that were not available the first time you passed through the room, once you've collected the color-coded keys. There's also some robot assembly, so you can have some fun building your minions too.
Quite frankly, if this had been the first RPG game I ever played, I don't know if it would have led me to play more games in the genre, or give up on RPGs completely. The line between a good RPG and a bad one can sometimes be pretty thin. You can't help but feel that under all its faults, there lies a good game in Blue Dragon Plus, but the gameplay can get really frustrating over some simple things that happen over and over. If you loved the original Blue Dragon, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of this game. Despite the gameplay's imperfections, there are some merits to the game itself. It's just that, when you look at some of the more quality titles out there, Blue Dragon Plus does not find itself on top of the mountain.
