I had a feeling this would be too deep for the Western market, looks like its true.

3 DVDs?! 15 before the fun starts? Man, what with all the amazing fun games coming along who has time to invest 15 hours before the fun starts?!

http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1365/Blue-Dra...

TXB= 8.5

To be honest I think the exact oppisite, i found the game well paced and it kept me entertained up to the last minute.

I found the exploration and side quests extremely boring and tiresome (which obviously you don't need to do)

The 3rd disc is obviously the best disc because its the end of the game, the 2nd disc is basically full of FMV.

The dungeons on the 3rd disc are huge and this bored me a little also.How dare you!

maybe sakaguchi is too old school for 2007

i can't wait! this will be the game to hold me over till the greatest game of all time ships, Halo 3!

i have made it my goal to finish this game by then or else the same thing will happen that happened to Fable, left in the dust.

I can't wait to explore the world!

I love you Halo...

Geez, I was afraid of this. Especially after playing the demo. But I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, and just assume that it was a mediocre demo, and that the game would be way better. Well it is certainly appearing like my first instinct about Blue Dragon, from playing the demo, was spot on. There is nothing new here to jRPGs to warrant a purchase. I mean, in the demo, they even through in what we now know to be some of the advanced features from the third disc, like the corporeal, and still the game did not seem to live up to what I was hoping it would. And on top of the fact that there is nothing new for the genre in this game, the pacing is all BS. Here is a 50+ hour game, and for the entire first disc, the pacing is as slow as molasses? C'mon, give me a break. And then there isn't even any character development until disc three? That's over 30 hours into the game. It sounds to me, after reading both IGN's and Team Xbox's reviews, that the first two discs of Blue Dragon are more like a prelude to the story, and the real story does not even begin until you get to disc three. The problem is, to get to disc three you have to play through the 30 hours of gameplay that is disc one and disc two. People, I don't know about the rest of you, but that is just way too much of an investment. Made even worse by the fact that there are virtually a ton of AAA titles being released starting with BioShock, due out the week before Blue Dragon. Two Worlds, another promising RPG, is also due out the week before Blue Dragon. Stranglehold, who's demo absolutely kicks insane amounts of ass, comes out on the same day as Blue Dragon. And then three weeks after Blue Dragon will see the release of Eternal Sonata, which if the demos is anything to judge by, is looking to be a far better jRPG experience than Blue Dragon. I figure by the time I complete beating BioShock and Stranglehold, Eternal Sonata will be coming out and I will pick that one up instead. Tri-Crescendo seems to have their thinking caps on with this one, and Eternal Sonata seems to have everything under the hood that is missing from Blue Dragon: well-paced story, well-paced character development, dynamic battle system, pays offs scattered throughout the adventure and not just reserved for the last few hours of the game, etc.

Yeah. So I think that I am just going to cancel my Blue Dragon pre-order, and move the money over to Eternal Sonata. And in the meantime while I am waiting for Eternal Sonata, get some AAA quasi-RPG/FPS action on with BioShock. And then if I beat that before Eternal Sonata, pick up Stranglehold as well.

Well, BD, is really cute looking game, im sure theres alot of young people that will love it, and im pretty sure, by western standards its intended for a younger audience, with Lost Odysey for an older audience.

But the IGN review is unnecessarily harsh.
I felt they reviewed with the intent on trashing than the intent on playing the game and enjoying it.

I think for anyone who finds the art design nice, they will get from this game. IGN just got up on the wrong side of the bed when they reviewed this.

TXB, review is very diff, on the important notes, they say this game is worth it, while IGN basically feels it was a waste of time. I feel like cheking their reviews of FF 8, 9 and 12to compare.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/...

I was just over at Metacritic checking out the reviews thus far on Blue Dragon, and it is shaping up to be one of those games where either you like it or you pass on it - I think it's mostly due to the fact the game is far too old school for long time players of jRPGs. Pacing issues seem to be raised in quite a few of these reviews as well; even in some of the favorable reviews.

Overall scorage is pointing at Blue Dragon just being an average game, which considering that it has long been billed as God's gift to jRPG fans, will come as a let down to everyone, I feel.

Ultimately, I feel that Phaethon360 nailed it on the head when he said the game is going to be a victim of bad scheduling. What we have in our hands is an average game at best. But it is besieged on all sides by truly excellent game titles of all ilk from too many competitors for the same $60 purchase. And that is just on the 360, Wii is bringing the love with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on the same day Blue Dragon lands, and PS3 has well . . . nothing really coming out in the same timeframe, unless you count the finally released GRAW 2 (which is a AAA title any day of the week). Multi-platform owners are covered with on all fronts with truly excellent software to purchase with the same money they would be expected to pay for Blue Dragon. Had Blue Dragon turned out to be a AAA title, say a true, next-generation ChronoTrigger, things would be very different indeed. But unfortunately as can be seen by the review scores, on the level of ChronoTrigger it is not. For every reviewer who walks away impressed with the title, another one walks away unimpressed. Neither ChronoTrigger, nor the lesser, ChronoCross, had to deal with this hot & cold issue. So for Blue Dragon, it comes back to timing. Had been released in June or July when there was simply nothing of worth to play at all on any game console, it may have scored higher and when all is said and done, it certainly would sell a helluva lot more copies.

Heh doesn't change my opinion of the game any to be honest :)

From what I played I didn't find the earlier parts of the game boring at all really. Teamxbox's review was badly written. Seems to me IGN played the game a lot more.

Unfettered Blue Dragon isn't average at all. Maybe its average to people that aren't into such a game or it probably isn't violent enough for the people that would probably enjoy things such as Ninja Gaiden, Bioshock or gears, but its a great game.

I guess I sorta expected this type of reaction to Blue Dragon by the general public, but people that love these things like myself will be viewing this as a great game and not by any means an average one. You call it an average game at best because you don't like this type of game unfettered.

But you're a Gooch fanboy. ;)

Thats very very true, but I've played this game more than enough times to know a great game when I see one. I mean I absolutely loved Kingdom Hearts 2 and IGN gave it a 7.6. IGN was a bit harsh in areas and I can't believe they called maru annoying.... he's such a cool character. That there to me makes me think they approached bd the wrong way. Its all opinion though. Still I'll respect their opinion because their review seemed very thorough. I'll disagree, but I'll respect it.

Meh, I'm not going to say anything any more about RPGs. I thought there was something fishy about the EGM review, but I guess I just don't know how to judge these kind of games. Oh well, another one bites the dust I guess.

Yea it isn't for everyone that much is fairly obvious by now. I was hoping all the charm in the game people saw as Blim was displaying it would overcome even the most resistant of persons to this type of jrpg, but I guess not :)

I'm just as confident about this game as I've always been though. Just as proud to say this is why I bought a 360 as I was when I first got it.

Forgive me, but thats such a ridiculous statement... how can you even remotely compare Blue Dragon to Mass Effect? Blue Dragon is catching a lot of crap because it doesn't appeal to western tastes.

They can't stand how traditional it is. They can't stand the turnbased combat. They can't stand the anime humor (they find marumaro annoying) they final all the characters annoying. They don't appreciate the visual style, they are annoyed by anime cliches in the story. They find playing through it boring and tedious I find it enjoyable. People found playing through final fantasy 7 boring and tedious too, but back then turn based was totally acceptable :)

Its sorta accurate, but maybe he could've used a better word. I personally think its too much of a traditional jrpg for the western market. Its a new IP it doesn't have the recognition of a final fantasy or dragon quest title so I guess I should've expected this.

Lost Odyssey is really traditional too, but it atleast appeals to what western gamers like. A more mature, serious looking type of game and Blue Dragon isn't that.

The point is, as gorgeous as Blue Dragon is, is it a better experience than Persona 3?

I'm still wondering how it's even "sorta accurate."

The claim that BD is too deep for Western audiences seems like a poor attempt at damage control. Whereas.......is definitely a much better guess at why it wasn't reviewed so well.

Well I say sorta accurate in the sense that I knew what he was trying to say even if it didn't come out right.

endaround I'll judge that when i play both Persona 3 and Blue Dragon :)