I think this is one of those cases where I (we) got what we asked for. We wanted a traditional JRPG this generation, and we wanted to see them on the 360. Blue Dragon certainly has those two bases covered, but I'm not sure "traditional" was exactly the right thing to ask for. The battle system is slightly more interesting than any turn-based system since the mid 90s. Character development is actually quite nice, loosely employing a job system. It's just that the story is pretty weak, the progression is mind-numbingly slow, and in a way, I feel like I've played this game 20 times before.

Blue Dragon is an anime styled and inspired game where a group of youngsters intend on stopping an evil old guy from terrorizing their town. Early on they swallow some magical pill that brings their shadows to life. The shadows do all the fighting the rest of the way and take on abilities according to the jobs that you assign them, starting off with Sword Magic, Black Magic, and White Magic. Abilities that you learn while using a particular shadow class can be attached to empty slots, even after you change jobs. This opens up possibilities for things like Monks with black magic ability. The only problem with the system is there are some useless jobs and abilities. Mainly because abilities like defense, poison, and sleep are just as unneeded as they are in most side versus side turn-based games.

At least the field before the fights are slightly innovative. In similar fashion to Crono Trigger and Grandia, enemies are visible on the field. By pulling the trigger on the the 360 controller, a large circle appears around your party and pauses the game. Any one or more enemies within this circle can be fought. You can select a single monster to fight, or you can take them all on. The latter situation is where it gets interesting. On one hand, when you fight multiple monster parties, you get to play a mini roulette game in between parties that gives you some type of bonus before the next group. On the other hand, you can use the multiple groups to your advantage. If the monsters that you've surrounded are natural enemies, they will fight each other during the battle instead of attacking you.

I absolutely love the art style of the game. Character art comes from the famous manga artist, Akira Toriyama. While not exactly cell shaded, the game does have a distinctive cartoon look to it. The animation is incredible, and the fight sequences, while a little long in the animation department, are a treat to look at. The voice acting is decent, but the music is forgettable for the most part. Only the boss music sticks out in my head, and not for a good reason.

This is the kind of game that difficult to judge. It doesn't necessarily tug at you when you are away, but it's generally enjoyable while you're playing. Its biggest issue is that it just drags on for too long without giving you anything to strive for, 3 DVDs worth of dragging on to be exact. Still, the score may look slightly inflated, and that is likely due to my fondness for the genre and the lack of RPGs available at this time on the new systems.