Gamertell Review: Blue Dragon Plus for DS
by at February 24, 2009 9:35 am
Sections: Developers, DS & DSi & DSi XL, Exclusives, Game-Companies, Genres, Handhelds, Originals, Publishers, Reviews, Role-Playing, Strategy
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There’s been a recent trend, where successful RPGs tend to spawn sequels. In an attempt to freshen things up, these sequels end up belonging to a different genre than the original game. Blue Dragon Plus is following in the footsteps of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings – it’s a portable, real-time strategic rpg sequel to a console RPG.
Thankfully, like Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, Blue Dragon Plus is successful in it’s endeavor. It manages to continue the story in an engaging fashion and may give players a greater appreciation for the original game. I know that after playing Blue Dragon Plus for the past four days, I find myself wanting to pick up the original game.
Think outside the box to beat a familiar villain and save the world.
If you haven’t played the original Blue Dragon, you still should be okay to jump into Blue Dragon Plus. All you need to remember is that a boy named Shu and his friends saved the world after gaining the power of sentient shadows. Now, the main villain of the original game, Nene, is back, and the heroes have to save the world again.
Blue Dragon Plus begins with King Jibral and Zola seeing a mysterious, three headed shadow dragon in one of the cubes that appeared in the space between the two halfs of the Blue Dragon world. Sensing trouble, Shu, Zola, Szabo and Marumaro are sent to the cube in question to investigate. There, the four discover mysterious robots and learn Nene is alive. Once again, Nene must be stopped in order to save the world and all the cubes.
Best for advanced players, but beginners can call the shots too.
It seems like Blue Dragon Plus is a RTS RPG that was designed for intermediate or advanced RTS players, but has elements to attempt to assist beginners as well. For example, only advanced players will be able to get through later levels, acquiring all the various chests and mastering the game.
Beginners can also use this game as a stepping stone to get into the genre. Whenever a character joins, a brief description appears on the top screen telling what the character is capable of, what kind of unit he or she is and some sample tactics you can use to succeed. Also, special character attacks are very easy to pull off, and the responsive and clear touch screen controls make it easy for any player to progress.
There’s one surprising element of Blue Dragon Plus, and that’s the quantity of FMV videos sprinkled throughout the game. At some points, you’ll be seeing high quality videos of the characters and situations before and after major battles. It’s a nice touch, but at the same time it can sometimes be jarring to see sprites interacting, then a 15 second video, then more sprites again.
A delightful opportunity for Blue Dragon and strategy fans to save the world again.
There are two kinds of people who should be picking up Blue Dragon Plus. The first are fans of the original RPG Blue Dragon. These players will be delighted to see what happens after the story, and have the opportunity to use characters that were previously NPCs in battle.
The second are strategy fans. Blue Dragon Plus is well executed, with gorgeous character sprites, tons of FMV quality video segments and an interesting storyline. Its easy to navigate and a joy to play. It’s been a while since Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings came out, and now there’s finally another equally great game in the genre for DS owners.
Site [Blue Dragon Plus]
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